<:> i n t e r a l i a <:>

<:> i n t e r a l i a <:> 2004

This is an archive of all issues of <:>i n t e r a l i a<:> for 2004.
Immediately below are links to successive 2004 issues.
URLs are not active and must by copied and pasted into a new browser window/tab.

9January2004
27January2004
13February2004
27February2004
13March2004
20March2004
6April2004
3May2004
12May2004
18May2004
26May2004
2June2004
9June2004
15June2004
24June2004
1July2004
8July2004
13July2004
27July2004
4August2004
17August2004
27August2004
3Sept2004
10Sept2004
21Sept2004
27Sept2004
27Sept2004bonus
1Nov2004
10Nov2004
18Nov2004
24Nov2004
15Dec2004
30Dec2004

= = = = =
9January2004

TOP

             <:> i n t e r a l i a <:>
                  9 January 2004
              HAPPY BIRTHDAY DENISE!
  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
An archive of past issues of <:>inter alia<:> is
online, with issues dating back to April 1998:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_archive.htm
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

In Today's Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
1. A Word A Day -- oleaginous
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
3. Quote of the Day -- David Romtvedt
4. HotSites - Miscellany
5. Reading List - White House 'distorted' Iraq threat
6. Weird News - Divers Probed for Giving Fish Champagne
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````
1. A Word A Day
`````````````````
oleaginous (o-lee-AJ-uh-nuhs) adjective

1. Containing or producing oil; relating to oil.

2. Marked by excessive and false earnestness;
ingratiating.

[From Middle English, from French oleagineux, from
Latin oleaginus (of the olive tree), from olea (the
olive tree).]

"The memory of the food has long faded, happily, but
the creepy, oleaginous waiter with the thick French
accent will always endure." Jacob Richler; Dumb Name,
Fine Food: La Brasserie.ca; National Post (Canada); Apr
19, 2003.

"But it could have been Max Bialystock, oleaginous
impresario wheedling cash from besotted widows and
trying to bilk investors in the hit New York musical
'The Producers'." Warren Hoge; A Bialystock Made to
Order; The New York Times; Feb 8, 2002.
--
>From A Word A Day:
http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
THIS ISSUE:

BAYOU SAUVAGE MARSH GRASS SERIES:
I. <http://www.lhostelaw.com/0401/040103_sauvage_5045.htm>
II.<http://www.lhostelaw.com/0401/040103_sauvage_5042.htm>
III.<http://www.lhostelaw.com/0401/040103_sauvage_5002.htm>
IV. <http://www.lhostelaw.com/0401/040103_sauvage_4995.htm>
V. <http://www.lhostelaw.com/0401/040103_sauvage_5000.htm>
VI. <http://www.lhostelaw.com/0401/040103_sauvage_5001.htm>

LAST ISSUE:
Still Life 031227
<http://www.lhostelaw.com/0312/031227_fanflow_4944.htm>

Constancia, Portugal 2003
<http://www.lhostelaw.com/03europe/031007_constancia.htm>
--
GOTD Archives:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_graphics.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
3. Quote of the Day --
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Who Owes Us
by David Romtvedt

No one owes us anything.
We claim it’s mother and father.

How can you live in this place?
The floors are so dirty and it stinks.

I sit waiting for the mailman. There’s a package
he’s bringing. Why isn’t he here yet?

The worm is alive. The apple tree, the coyote, the walnut,
the beggar, the oilman, the stone and the dust and the sky.

If a man or woman finds nothing in work, it is time to retire.
Or find something new. Surely God is not tired of his job.

It is so pleasant to look into the empty bucket, the velvety
dark space. If you have to, cut a hole in the metal bottom.

I am a lecturer in the university. My students sleep
through my talks but wake up in time for the tests.

Copyright © David Romtvedt
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
4. HotSites - Miscellany
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Google Search Trends for 2003:
<http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html> COOL!

Top Ten Science Stories of 2003:
<http://scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=0001F041-96D1-1FE8-96D183414B7F0000>

NASA Mars Rover Mission
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
5. Reading List - White House 'distorted' Iraq threat
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
From the Financial Times: <http://news.ft.com/home/us>

White House 'distorted' Iraq threat
By Stephen Fidler in London
Published: January 7 2004
Bush administration officials "systematically
misrepresented" the threat from Iraq's weapons of mass
destruction in the run-up to war, according to a new
report to be published on Thursday by a respected
Washington think-tank.

These distortions, combined with intelligence failures,
exaggerated the risks posed by a country that presented
no immediate threat to the US, Middle East or global
security, the report says.

The study from the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace concludes that, though the long-term threat from
Iraq could not be ignored, it was being effectively
contained by a combination of UN weapons inspections,
international sanctions and limited US-led military
action.

It says the evidence shows that although Iraq retained
ambitions to develop weapons of mass destruction,
almost all of what had been built had been destroyed
long before the war.

Inspectors from the US-led coalition are still seeking
evidence of the programmes in Iraq. But Joseph
Cirincione, director of Carnegie's non-proliferation
project, said: "We think it's highly unlikely that
there will be any significant finds from now on."

Carnegie is regarded as a moderately left-of-centre
think-tank. It opposed the war, saying Iraq's
disarmament could be achieved via inspectors, if
necessary backed up by force. Mr Cirincione said the
report, which took more than six months to compile, was
based on hundreds of documents and dozens of interviews
with specialists, former weapons inspectors and current
and former US officials.

It concludes that before 2002 the US intelligence
community appears to have accurately perceived Iraq's
nuclear and missile programmes, but overestimated the
threat from chemical and biological weapons. But it
also says that during 2002, published intelligence
became excessively politicised. A "dramatic shift" in
intelligence assessments during the year was one sign
that "the intelligence community began to be unduly
influenced by policymakers' views sometime in 2002".

The report says administration officials misrepresented
the threat in three ways.

They presented nuclear, biological and chemical weapons
as a single WMD threat, lumping together the high
likelihood that Iraq had chemical weapons with the
possibility that it had nuclear weapons, a claim for
which there was no serious evidence. The administration
also insisted without evidence that Saddam Hussein, the
former Iraqi leader, would give WMD to terrorists.

Finally, officials misused intelligence in many ways.
"These include the wholesale dropping of caveats,
probabilities and expressions of uncertainty present in
intelligence assessments from public statements," it
says.

The Carnegie assessment concluded: "There is no
evidence of any Iraqi nuclear programme", contrary to
assertions by Dick Cheney, vice-president, and others
in 2002. It notes that since the war the US-led
coalition has found no chemical weapons or programmes
and no biological weapons or agents.

The report says the White House approach to the war was
based on what it called "worse case reasoning",
assuming that what intelligence agencies did not know
was worse than what they did know. "Worst-case planning
is valid . . . [But] acting on worst-case assumptions
is an entirely different matter."

The picture of an Iraqi arsenal existing only on paper
is reinforced by an article in Wednesday's Washington
Post, based partly on interviews with Iraqi scientists.
It said that none of Iraq's weapons programmes had got
past the planning stage since the 1991 Gulf war.

From the Financial Times: <http://news.ft.com/home/us>
Link to Financial Times Story
<http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1073280860558&p=1012571727088>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
6. Weird News
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Divers Probed for Giving Fish Champagne
Thu Jan 8,12:39 PM ET

WARSAW (Reuters) - Three Polish divers faced a police
investigation Thursday for possible illegal fishing and
animal abuse after a news photo showed them plying a
freshly caught pike with champagne at an outdoor New
Year's party.

"They may have committed offences of poaching and
maltreating a fish," said Maria Niedziolka of the
National Fishing Authority, which notified police of
the incident.

The picture in Nowa Trybuna daily showed three frogmen
neck-deep in a lake, with one of them tipping a bottle
of cheap Russian bubbly into the fish's open mouth.

One of the divers told news agency PAP that they had
found the pike half-dead and wanted to "restore it to
consciousness by treating it with champagne."

It was not clear whether the fish survived. Police said
it would not be needed as evidence in the
investigation.

From Yahoo! Oddly Enough News:
<http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=573&ncid=573&e=1&u=/nm/20040108/od_nm/odd_poland_pike_dc>

Submitted by subscriber Rob Gallagher
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
To subscribe to <:>i n t e r a l i a<:> send an email with the message
"subscribe" to <mailto:subscribe@lhostelaw.com?subject=subscribe&body=subscribe>

To unsubscribe to <:>i n t e r a l i a<:> send an email with the message
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= = = = =
27January2004

TOP

             <:> i n t e r a l i a <:>
                  27 January 2004

  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
An archive of past issues of <:>inter alia<:> is
online, with issues dating back to April 1998:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_archive.htm
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

In Today's Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
1. A Word A Day -- crapulent
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
3. Quote of the Day -- Anne MacKay
4. HotSites - Miscellany
5. Reading List - A. Gates Solves Spam B. Icy England
   C. U.S. Finances
6. Weird News - Cocaine Found in Tropical Fish Cargo
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````
1. A Word A Day
`````````````````
crapulent (KRAP-yuh-luhnt) adjective

Sick from excessive drinking or eating.

[From Late Latin crapulentus (very drunk), from Latin crapula (drunkenness),
from Greek kraipal (hangover, drunkenness).]

  "A doctor examining one of his more crapulent patients said to him,
   'Your body is a temple and your congregation is too large.'"
   Dale Turner; Guarding Our Health Lets Us Better Serve in Role God
   Intended; The Seattle Times; Apr 26, 2003.

  "1975: Ever in search of new dining experiences, Vancouverites get
   crapulent on goblets of beer and fat drumsticks at the Mediaeval Inn."
   Liz Hodgson; The Curve Theme Restaurants; Vancouver Sun (Canada);
   Feb 26, 2000.
--
>From A Word A Day:
http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
THIS ISSUE:

From 1976:

Boy in Dijon
<http://www.lhostelaw.com/1976/76dijonboy.htm>

Venice
http://www.lhostelaw.com/1976/76venice.htm

Florence Rooftops
http://www.lhostelaw.com/1976/76florence_roofs.htm

LAST ISSUE:
BAYOU SAUVAGE MARSH GRASS SERIES:
I. <http://www.lhostelaw.com/0401/040103_sauvage_5045.htm>
II.<http://www.lhostelaw.com/0401/040103_sauvage_5042.htm>
III.<http://www.lhostelaw.com/0401/040103_sauvage_5002.htm>
IV. http://www.lhostelaw.com/0401/040103_sauvage_4995.htm
V. <http://www.lhostelaw.com/0401/040103_sauvage_5000.htm>
VI. <http://www.lhostelaw.com/0401/040103_sauvage_5001.htm>
--
GOTD Archives:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_graphics.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
3. Quote of the Day -- Anne MacKay
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
On First Looking into Heaney's Beowulf

A bunch of high class thugs
returns in a golden cloud of
exhaust fumes and dust, helmets
polished bright as maseratis,
spears and chain mail clashing,
enters to a riot of cheers.

The king's daughter and
groupies serve wine,
dripping meat and beer
while they boast and yell,
unable to shut up, telling
how the blood spurted
like a chain-saw massacre,
how sword thrusts blasted
guts all over the heath.

Then the big guy shouts how,
at great cost, he hacked the
slavering homo-monster and its
disgusting mother to pieces,
brought back the slimy head and
taloned arm. Roars of laughter.

Meanwhile, the bard, who's
no dope and knows on which
side his meat is seasoned,
commits to memory every heroic,
bloody word; great deeds to
inspire a millennium of brutal
bullet-pocked worlds to come.

Anne MacKay
Prairie Schooner
Volume 77, Number 3
Fall 2003
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
4. HotSites - Miscellany
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
MyWay.com (new portal)
http://www.myway.com/index1.html

WorldWideLearn
http://www.worldwidelearn.com/

Map Collections 1500-2003
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/gmdhome.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
5. Reading List
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
A.

Make Spammers Pay, Bill Gates Says

Jan 25, 11:27 AM (ET)

By PAUL GEITNER

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) - A spam-free world by 2006?
That's what Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates
is promising.

"Two years from now, spam will be solved," he told a
select group of World Economic Forum participants at
this Alpine ski resort. "And a lot of progress this
year," he added at the event late Friday, hosted by
U.S. talk show host Charlie Rose.

Gates said Microsoft, where he has the title of chief
software designer, is working on a solution based on
the concept of "proof," or identifying the sender of
the e-mail.

Full story:
<http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040125/D809USLO0.html>

== == == ==

Global warming will plunge Britain into new ice age
'within decades'
By Geoffrey Lean
Environment Editor
25 January 2004

Britain is likely to be plunged into an ice age within
our lifetime by global warming, new research suggests.

A study, which is being taken seriously by top
government scientists, has uncovered a change "of
remarkable amplitude" in the circulation of the waters
of the North Atlantic.
Full story:
<http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=484490>

== == ==
C.

Posted on Thu, Jan. 22, 2004
Our finances are in a state
By Molly Ivins

My fellow Americans, the state of the union's finances
is enough to make an Enron accountant gag.

When George W. Bush took office, he was handed a going
concern. Projected annual surpluses from 2002 to 2011
were $5.6 trillion. In its most recent projection, the
Congressional Budget Office says it expects $1.4
trillion in total deficits from 2004 to 2013.

Bush's new future spending proposals -- including
everything from the goofy manned-flight-to-Mars to the
promotion of marriage -- already total an additional $2
trillion.

When Bush took office, the national debt was $5.7
trillion, and his first budget proposed to reduce it by
$2 trillion over the next decade. Today, the debt is $7
trillion.

Last year, Bush predicted a deficit of $262 billion.
According to the CBO, the deficit is currently $480
billion. Bush plans to cut biomedical research, health
care, job training and veterans funding, and that still
leaves a projected deficit of $450 billion.

It is unclear to me why anyone would believe anything
the president says about our fiscal situation. Keep in
mind that this is a man who took three Texas oil
companies into bankruptcy.

Full story:
<http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/news/columnists/molly_ivins/7769407.htm>

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
6. Weird News
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Cocaine Found in Tropical Fish Cargo
Mon Jan 26, 9:42 AM ET

MIAMI (Reuters) - U.S. customs officials seized
$300,000 worth of liquid cocaine disguised as water in
a shipment of live tropical fish from Colombia.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection service said on
Friday that 41.7 pounds of cocaine was packaged in
plastic bags used to ship the fresh water decorative
fish to Miami.

"This appears to be a new trend in smuggling, using an
old method which officers have not seen in many years,"
said the agency, part of the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security.

The fish were packed in bags with three linings. The
inner lining, containing the fish, was filled with
water but the middle lining held a yellowish liquid
that triggered the interest of a drug dog called
"Rocky."

In all, six bags in a shipment of the fish sent by
cargo plane from Bogota tested positive for cocaine.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
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= = = = =
13February2004

TOP

             <:> i n t e r a l i a <:>
             Friday, 13 February 2004

  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
An archive of past issues of <:>inter alia<:> is
online, with issues dating back to April 1998:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_archive.htm
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

In Today's Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
1. A Word A Day -- insuperable
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
3. Quote of the Day -- Kathleen Peirce
4. HotSites - Miscellany
5. Reading List - Before things go down the memory hole
6. Weird News - Silent Protest?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````
1. A Word A Day
`````````````````
insuperable \in-SOO-pur-uh-bul\, adjective:
Incapable of being passed over, surmounted, or overcome;
insurmountable; as, "insuperable difficulties."

They have overcome almost insuperable odds that the
poor facilities and elements have brought about. --
Raimund E. Goerler (Editor), To the Pole: The Diary and
Notebook of Richard E. Byrd, 1925-1927

Once the Soviet Union acquired the bomb, in 1949,
proposals for nuclear disarmament were rejected on
grounds that the character of the Soviet regime posed
an insuperable obstacle. --Jonathan Schell, The Gift of
Time

--
>From A Word A Day:
http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
THIS ISSUE:

Canal Vegetation 2003
<http://www.lhostelaw.com/0401/040103_sauvage_5058.htm>

Maxent Canal 2003
<http://www.lhostelaw.com/0401/040103_sauvage_5059.htm>

Senhoras - Obidos, Portugal 2003
<http://www.lhostelaw.com/03europe/031006_senhoras_4078.htm>

LAST ISSUE:
From 1976:

Boy in Dijon
<http://www.lhostelaw.com/1976/76dijonboy.htm>

Venice
<http://www.lhostelaw.com/1976/76venice.htm>

Florence Rooftops
<http://www.lhostelaw.com/1976/76florence_roofs.htm>
--
GOTD Archives:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_graphics.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
3. Quote of the Day -- Peirce
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
From Inside

Some weather made the windows pearled,
and our rooms occurred around us with more gentleness
than on the other days, far more than nights we woke
without meaning to. We'd seen
blunt-ended feathers from the blue-black tails of crows
land, quill down, among the angular and secretive
pinecones in a neighbor's yard,
or, sleeping on a mountainside,
we felt aware of hidden birds aware of us
as we woke and looked at something, anything;
or coming down the stairs, we heard, in olden clock-notes,
in the four strikes of a quarter hour, the promise of
a cumulative truth, each event
building more events. But when our rooms were quieted
we also heard the slight, interior, wooden, pre-chime knock
and thought the world had signaled us
from where the other worlds were hid.

KATHLEEN PEIRCE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
4. HotSites - Miscellany
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Newseum
Today's Front Pages and More
<http://www.newseum.org/>

Cool Tool
<http://www.cooltool.com/>

Online Field Guides
<http://www.enature.com/guides/select_group.asp>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
5. Reading List
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Thu, Feb. 12, 2004
Before things go down the memory hole

By Molly Ivins

Just for the record, since the record is in
considerable peril. These are Orwellian days, my
friends, as the Bush administration attempts to either
shove the history of the second gulf war down the
memory hole or to rewrite it entirely.

Keeping a firm grip on actual historical fact, all of
it easily within our imperfect memories, is not that
easy amid the swirling storms of misinformation,
misremembering and misstatement. But because the war
itself stands as a monument to what happens when we let
ourselves get stampeded by a chorus of disinformation,
let's draw the line right now.

According to the large American team that spent
hundreds of millions of dollars looking for Iraqi
weapons of mass destruction, there aren't any and have
not been any since 1991.

Both President Bush and Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan.,
chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, now
claim that Saddam Hussein provoked this war by refusing
to allow United Nations weapons inspectors into his
country. That is not true.

Bush said Sunday: "I had no choice when I looked at the
intelligence. … The evidence we have discovered this
far says we had no choice."

No, it doesn't.

Last week, CIA director George Tenet said intelligence
analysts never told the White House "that Iraq posed an
imminent threat."

Let's start with the absurd quibble over the word
imminent.

The word was, in fact, used by three administration
spokesmen to describe the Iraqi threat, while Bush,
Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld variously described it as "immediate,"
"urgent," "serious and growing," "terrible," "real and
dangerous," "significant," "grave," "serious and
mounting," "the unique and urgent threat," "no question
of the threat," "most dangerous threat of our time," "a
threat of unique urgency," "much graver than anybody
could possibly have imagined," and so forth and so on.

So could we can that issue?

A second emerging thesis of defense by the
administration in light of no weapons is, as chief U.S.
weapons inspector David Kay said, "We were all wrong."

No, in fact, we weren't all wrong.

Bush said Sunday, "The international community thought
he had weapons." Actually, the United Nations and the
International Atomic Energy Agency both repeatedly told
the administration there was no evidence that Iraq had
WMDs.

Before the war, Rumsfeld claimed not only that Iraq had
WMD but that "we know where they are." U.N. inspectors
began openly complaining that U.S. tips on WMD were
"garbage upon garbage."

Hans Blix, head of the U.N. inspections team, had a
crew of 250 people from 60 nations -- including about
100 U.N. inspectors -- on the ground in Iraq, and the
United States thwarted efforts to double the size of
his team. You may recall that during this period, the
administration repeatedly dismissed the United Nations
as incompetent and irrelevant.

But containment had worked.

Nor does the "everybody thought they had WMD" argument
wash on the domestic front. Perhaps the administration
thought peaceniks could be ignored, but you will recall
that this was a war opposed by an extraordinary number
of generals.

Among them was retired Gen. Anthony Zinni, who has
extensive experience in the Middle East and who said,
"We are about to do something that will ignite a fuse
in this region that we will rue the day we ever
started." After listening to Deputy Defense Secretary
Paul Wolfowitz at a conference, Zinni said, "In other
words, we are going to go to war over another
intelligence failure."

Give that man the Cassandra Award for being right in
depressing circumstances.

Marine Gen. John J. Sheehan was equally blunt. Any
serving general who got out of line, like Army Chief of
Staff Eric Shinseki, was openly dissed by the
administration.

Suddenly the administration is left with the only good
reason there ever was for getting rid of Saddam in the
first place: He's a miserable SOB.

You will recall that this is precisely the argument
that the administration rejected. Wolfowitz said that
human rights violations by Saddam against his own
people were not sufficient to justify our participation
in his ouster.

Now, according to the president, Saddam is a "madman."

Oh, come on. An SOB, yes, but crazy like a fox --
always has been. It wasn't even crazy of him to have
invaded Kuwait, given that April Glaspie, the American
ambassador to Iraq at the time, told him, "We have no
opinion on your Arab-Arab conflicts, like your border
disagreement with Kuwait."

For everyone who ever cared about human rights and
longed for years to get rid of Saddam, this late-
breaking humanitarianism on Bush's part is actually
nauseating. All the Amnesty International types who
risked their lives to report just how terrible Saddam's
rule was always had one question about getting rid of
him: What comes next?

I don't think there is any great mystery here about how
this "mistake" -- such an inadequate word -- was made.

For those seriously addicted to tragic irony, consider
that the most likely Democratic nominee is now Sen.
John Kerry, who first became known 33 years ago for
asking, "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die
for a mistake?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
6. Weird News
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Inmates Crucified to Demand Faster Justice
Thu Feb 12, Oddly Enough - Reuters

LA PAZ, Bolivia (Reuters) - Two prisoners had
themselves crucified by fellow inmates at a jail in
southeast Bolivia on Wednesday while others sewed their
lips together in protests to demand swifter justice and
benefits for prisoners.

Television footage showed the two prisoners -- who
survived -- fastened to rudimentary wooden crosses,
nails driven through the bloody palms of their hands.

Five others had been buried up to their heads in the
yard of Palmasola prison, in the southern city of Santa
Cruz.

"This is totally out of our control," said Prison
System Director Tomas Molina, appealing to prisoners
not to endanger their own lives.

Several prisoners were on hunger strike at a jail in
capital La Paz, while others were tied to crosses in
mock crucifixions -- opting against the realism of
nails.

Protests have escalated throughout Bolivia's prison
system over the past 10 days to demand Congress pass
laws granting prisoner benefits including reducing jail
sentences for good behavior.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
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27February2004

TOP

             <:> i n t e r a l i a <:>
                  27 February 2004

  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
An archive of past issues of <:>inter alia<:> is
online, with issues dating back to April 1998:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_archive.htm
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

In Today's Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
1. A Word A Day -- potvaliant
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
3. Quotes of the Day -- Rev. Al Sharpton and George W. Bush
4. HotSites - Hotsites
5. Reading List - Gouging the Poor
6. Weird News - Harper Index
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````
1. A Word A Day
`````````````````
potvaliant (POT-val-iant) adjective, also pot-valiant
Showing courage under the influence of drink. Such courage
is also known as Dutch courage.

[From pot (a drinking vessel) + valiant (courageous).]

"Russian generals and Russia's unstable, potvaliant
president are turning Chechen children into bleeding
carcasses, food for stray dogs." Jeff Jacoby; Chechnya:
the Fruits of US Silence; Boston Globe; Jan 19, 1995.

"One night when I was potvaliant, I wagered everything
on the turn." Newport Daily News (Rhode Island); Aug 27, 1957.
--
>From A Word A Day:
http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
THIS ISSUE:

Mrs. Peanut and Friend at Mardi Gras - 2004
<http://www.lhostelaw.com/0402/mrspeanut.htm>

Ann - 1975
<http://www.lhostelaw.com/0401/75ann.htm>

Bayou Sauvage
<http://www.lhostelaw.com/0401/040103_sauvage_4964.htm>

Impoundment Sunrise
<http://www.lhostelaw.com/0401/040103_sauvage_4975.htm>

LAST ISSUE:

Canal Vegetation 2003
<http://www.lhostelaw.com/0401/040103_sauvage_5058.htm>

Maxent Canal 2003
<http://www.lhostelaw.com/0401/040103_sauvage_5059.htm>

Senhoras - Obidos, Portugal 2003
<http://www.lhostelaw.com/03europe/031006_senhoras_4078.htm>

"We are making steadfast progress."
— George W. Bush, June 9, 2003

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
4. HotSites - Hotsites
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
HotSheet
http://www.hotsheet.com/

Internet Public Library
http://www.ipl.org/

Librarians Index to the Internet
http://lii.org/

From The Progressive
<http://www.progressive.org/feb04/ehr0204.html>

February 2004 Issue

There's been a lot of whining about health care
recently: the shocking cost of insurance, the mounting
reluctance of employers to share that cost, the
challenge--should you be so lucky as to have insurance-
-of finding a doctor your insurance company will deign
to reimburse, and so forth. But let's look at the glass
half full for a change. Despite the growing misfit
between health care costs and personal incomes, it is
not yet illegal to be sick.

Not quite yet, anyway, though the trend is clear:
Hospitals are increasingly resorting to brass knuckle
tactics to collect overdue bills from indigent
patients. Take the case of Martin Bushman, an
intermittently insured mechanic with diabetes who, as
reported in The Wall Street Journal, had run up a $579
debt to Carle Hospital in Champaign-Urbana. When he
failed to appear for a court hearing on his debt rather
than miss a day of work, he was arrested and hit with
$2,500 bail. Arrests for missed court dates, which the
hospitals whimsically refer to as "body attachments,"
are on the rise throughout the country. Again, on the
half full side, we should be thankful that the bodies
attached by hospitals cannot yet be used as sources of
organs for transplants.

Mindful of their status as nonprofit charitable
institutions, hospitals used to be relatively congenial
creditors. My uninsured companion of several years
would simply work out a payment arrangement--on the
scale of about $25 a month for life--and go on
consuming medical care without the least concern for
his freedom. No longer, and it's not just the dodgier,
second-rate hospitals that are relying on the police as
collection agents. Yale-New Haven Hospital, for
example, has obtained sixty-five arrest warrants for
delinquent debtors in the last three years.

Of course, if you work for Yale-New Haven, it's not
your body that gets "attached." On a recent visit to
Yale hospital workers, I met Tawana Marks, a registrar
at the hospital, who had the misfortune to also be
admitted as a patient. Unsurprisingly, her hospital-
supplied health insurance failed to cover her hospital-
incurred bill, so Marks now has her paycheck garnished
by her own employer--a condition of debt servitude
reminiscent of early twentieth century company towns.

To compound the sufferings of the sick and sub-
affluent, hospitals now routinely charge uninsured
people several times more than the insured. The Fort
Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reports that one local hospital
charged an uninsured patient $29,000 for an
appendectomy that would have cost an insured patient
$6,783. According to the Los Angeles Times, in one,
albeit for-profit, California hospital chain, the
uninsured account for only 2 percent of its patients,
but 35 percent of its profits. The explanation for such
shameless gouging of the poor? Big insurance companies
and HMOs are able to negotiate "discounts" for their
members, leaving the uninsured to pay whatever fanciful
amounts the hospital cares to charge, such as, in one
reported case, $50 for the use of a hospital gown.

Back in 1961, psychiatrist Thomas Szasz noted the
"medicalization" of behavior formerly classified as
crime or sin, such as drug addiction or what was
defined as sexual deviance. Rather than seeing this as
a benign and potentially merciful trend, the crotchety
Szasz complained about the growing concentration of
power in the hands of a "therapeutic state." How quaint
his concern sounds today, when instead of the
medicalization of crime, we are faced with the
criminalization of illness.

Because almost everyone, no matter how initially
healthy and prosperous, is now in danger of falling
into the clutches of the medical/penitentiary system.
It could start with a condition--say, high blood
pressure or diabetes--serious enough to be entered into
your medical record. Next you lose your job, and with
it your health insurance--or, as in the case of 1,000
or so freelance writers (including myself) once insured
through the National Writers Union, the insurance
company simply decides it no longer wants your
business. You go to get new insurance, but no one wants
you because you now have a "pre-existing condition." So
when that condition flairs up or is joined by a new
one, you enter the hospital as a "self-pay" patient,
incur bills four times higher than an insured patient
would, fall behind in paying them, and, given the
hospitals' predatory collection tactics, wind up in
jail.

Sociologists have long seen a connection between
sickness and criminality, classifying both as forms of
deviance. Certainly, the relevant vocabularies have
been converging: Note the similarity between the
phrases "pre-existing condition" and "prior
conviction," as well as the use of the terms "record"
and "case." A doctor once told me that, although he had
detected a new and potentially life-threatening
condition, he would refrain from prescribing anything
to correct it, lest my record be marred by yet another
pre-existing condition.

The day will come when we look back on such small acts
of kindness with nostalgia. Even as I write this, some
bright young MBA at Aetna or Prudential is no doubt
coming to the conclusion that a great deal of money and
valuable medical resources could be saved through the
simple expedient of arresting people at the first sign
of illness. Skip the intermediate stages of diagnostic
testing, hospitalization, and attempted debt
collection, and proceed directly to incarceration. The
end result will be the same, unless you succeed in
concealing that cough or unsightly swelling from the
cop on his or her beat.

I'm prepared for this eventuality, having been raised
by a mother who was in turn raised by her Christian
Scientist grandparents, and had thus been trained to
greet her children's symptoms with contempt and
derision. I was conditioned, in other words, to
conflate physical illness with moral failure. Should a
rash or sore throat arrive, I stand ready, at some deep
psychic level, to serve my time.

But for those of you who still imagine that illness and
pain should elicit kindly responses from one's fellow
humans, I have one last half full observation: Our
prisons do offer health care--grossly inadequate care
to be sure--but at least it's free, even for child
molesters, ax murderers, and those miscreants who have
the gall to be both sick and uninsured.

From The Progressive
<http://www.progressive.org/feb04/ehr0204.html>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
6. Weird News
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
From Harper's Index for January 2004
http://harpers.org/HarpersIndex2004-01.html

Ratio of the number of words in the last State of the
Union address to those in George Washington's first :
5:1 [Senate Historical Office (Washington)]

Number of press conferences at which President Bush has
referred to a question as a "trick" : 11 [Harper's
research]

Reward offered by the U.S. military to any Iraqi who
turns in a hand-held launcher and missile : $500
[Coalition Press Information Center (Baghdad) ]

Amount such a weapon can reportedly fetch on the
international black market : $5,000 [Independent
(London) ]

Number of states enrolled in the Justice Department's
Multistate Anti-Terrorism Exchange, or MATRIX, in 2002
: 13 [Institute for Intergovernmental Research
(Tallahassee, Fla.)]

Number that have since dropped out or refused to
provide DMV records : 5 [Institute for
Intergovernmental Research (Tallahassee, Fla.)]

Months after a data firm was hired to run MATRIX that
its CEO resigned, admitting to past drug smuggling : 18
[Seisint, Inc. (Boca Raton, Fla.)/Qorvis Communications
(McLean, Va.)]

Estimated percentage of Afghanistan's GDP last year
accounted for by opium exports : 39 [International
Monetary Fund (Washington)]

Ratio of the U.S. spending on Iraq approved last
November to total AIDS spending in developing countries
last year : 18:1 [U.S. House of Representatives
Committee on Appropriations (Washington)/UNAIDS
(Geneva)]

Percentage of new HIV infections worldwide accounted
for by people under the age of 25 : 58 [Gay Men's
Health Crisis (N.Y.C.)]

Percentage of Americans who say they would prefer a
universal health-care system to the current one : 62
[ABC News/Washington Post poll]

Percentage change in the thickness of the Arctic ice
pack since the 1960s : -40 [Center for Global Change
and Arctic System Research (Fairbanks, Alaska)]

Days in 1970 that northern Alaska was cold enough to
operate oil-drilling machinery without damaging the
tundra : 213 [Alaska Department of Natural Resources
(Anchorage)]

Days in 2002 that it was cold enough : 106 [Alaska
Department of Natural Resources (Anchorage)]

Rank of oil exports and money sent home by U.S.
immigrants, respectively, among Mexico's largest
sources of income : 1, 2 [Bendixen & Associates
(Miami)]

Number of political candidates murdered during
Colombia's regional election campaigns last year : 26
[Colombian Embassy (Washington)]

Minimum amount boxer Mike Tyson earned in the nine
years before filing for bankruptcy last August :
$300,000,000 [Cyberboxingzone.com (Woodbury, N.Y.)]

Price of a dozen action figures of one's self,
prototype included : $889.45 [Vicale Corporation
(Danbury, Conn.)]

Inches by which the Eiffel Tower shrinks in winter : 6
[French Embassy (Washington)]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
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13March2004

TOP

             <:> i n t e r a l i a <:>
                  13 March 2004

  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
An archive of past issues of <:>inter alia<:> is
online, with issues dating back to April 1998:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_archive.htm
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

In Today's Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
1. A Word A Day -- avatar
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
3. Quote of the Day -- Katha Pollitt
4. HotSites - Miscellany
5. Reading List - Lie Factory
6. Weird News - Rare meal
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````
1. A Word A Day
`````````````````
avatar \AV-uh-tar\, noun: 1. The incarnation of a deity
-- chiefly associated in Hinduism with the incarnations
of Vishnu. 2. An embodiment, as of a quality, concept,
philosophy, or tradition; an archetype. 3. A temporary
manifestation or aspect of a continuing entity.

In 1517, the year of their first contact, the Aztecs
took the Spaniards to be avatars of Quetzalcoatl, the
plumed serpent, god of learning and of wind. --Paul
Theroux, Fresh Air Fiend

People . . . believe he was some sort of avatar of
peace and love, the ultimate hippie. --Edna Gundersen,
"For $60, a ticket to read," USA Today, October 5, 2000

It would seem that no definitive identification can be
made (Rimbaud the symbolist, the surrealist, the
Bolshevik, Rimbaud the bourgeois, the crook, the
pervert, Rimbaud the prophet, the superman, the mystic,
Rimbaud the Catholic, the cabalist, the atheist, etc.);
the latest "proved" avatar is forever recycled as
evidence -- faulty or secure -- on which to base the
next. --Richard Howard, "There Was Only One Rimbaud,"
New York Times, November 19, 2000

--
>From Dictionary.com:
http://dictionary.reference.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
THIS ISSUE:

Camellia - 2004
<http://www.lhostelaw.com/0403\040307_camellia5469.htm>

Camellia Detail - 2004
<http://www.lhostelaw.com/0403\040307_camellia5473.htm>

Split Personality - 2004
http://www.lhostelaw.com/0402/040217_5156.htm

Kismet
<http://www.lhostelaw.com/kismet/kismet_040131_5104.htm>

Kismet Yawn
<http://www.lhostelaw.com/kismet/kismet_040210_5123.htm>

LAST ISSUE:
Mrs. Peanut and Friend at Mardi Gras - 2004
<http://www.lhostelaw.com/0402/mrspeanut.htm>

Ann - 1975
<http://www.lhostelaw.com/0401/75ann.htm>

Bayou Sauvage
<http://www.lhostelaw.com/0401/040103_sauvage_4964.htm>

Impoundment Sunrise
<http://www.lhostelaw.com/0401/040103_sauvage_4975.htm>
--
GOTD Archives:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_graphics.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
3. Quote of the Day -- Katha Pollitt
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Integer Vitae

The beautiful gray dog
loping across the lawn
all afternoon for the sheer
joy of summertime,

bees at their balm, the dragonfly
asleep on a raspberry leaf—
that's how we'd live
if living were enough

innocent, single-hearted
like the mourning dove who's called
his mate in the cool dawn
from one pine for a thousand years.

These do not wake in tears
nor does deception drive them
down to the blue pond
where the beaver, prince

of chaos, who appeared
alone as if from nowhere
is tirelessly constructing
his dark palace of many rooms.

Katha Pollitt
The Paris Review
Number 167, Fall 2003
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
4. HotSites - Miscellany
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Educator's Reference Desk
http://www.eduref.org/

Dr. Universe
<http://www.wsu.edu/DrUniverse/>

NARA
http://www.archives.gov/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
5. Reading List - The Lie Factory
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
The Lie Factory Only weeks after 9/11, the Bush
administration set up a secret Pentagon unit to create
the case for invading Iraq. Here is the inside story of
how they pushed disinformation and bogus intelligence
and led the nation to war.

Robert Dreyfuss and Jason Vest
January/February 2004 Issue

Excerpt:

Six months after the end of major combat in Iraq, the
United States had spent $300 million trying to find
banned weapons in Iraq, and President Bush was seeking
$600 million more to extend the search. Not found were
Iraq's Scuds and other long-range missiles, thousands
of barrels and tons of anthrax and botulism stock,
sarin and VX nerve agents, mustard gas, biological and
chemical munitions, mobile labs for producing
biological weapons, and any and all evidence of a
reconstituted nuclear-arms program, all of which had
been repeatedly cited as justification for the war.
Also missing was evidence of Iraqi collaboration with
Al Qaeda.

The reports, virtually all false, of Iraqi weapons and
terrorism ties emanated from an apparatus that began to
gestate almost as soon as the Bush administration took
power. In the very first meeting of the Bush national-
security team, one day after President Bush took the
oath of office in January 2001, the issue of invading
Iraq was raised, according to one of the participants
in the meeting‚ -- and officials all the way down the
line started to get the message, long before 9/11.
Indeed, the Bush team at the Pentagon hadn't even been
formally installed before Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy
secretary of Defense, and Douglas J. Feith,
undersecretary of Defense for policy, began putting
together what would become the vanguard for regime
change in Iraq.

The whole story:
<http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2004/01/12_405.html>

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
6. Weird News - Rare Meal
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Twitchers horrified as hawk eats rare robin

Birdwatchers waited for two months to catch a glimpse
of a rare American robin, then watched as a sparrowhawk
swooped down and ate it.

The Daily Mail reports the robin went thousands of
miles off course from its American migratory path, and
ended up nesting on an industrial site in Grimsby.

The rare songbird was one of only a dozen ever spotted
in Britain.

As thousands of twitchers focused their cameras to
capture the sight on film a sparrowhawk swooped down
and snapped up the robin for its dinner.

Graham Appleton, of the British Trust for Ornithology,
said: "It was a terrible moment. The bird did not live
to enjoy its moment of fame."

From Annanova:<http://www.ananova.com/>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
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20March2004

TOP

             <:> i n t e r a l i a <:>
                  20 March 2004

  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
An archive of past issues of <:>inter alia<:> is
online, with issues dating back to April 1998:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_archive.htm
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

In Today's Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
1. A Word A Day -- pleonasm
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
3. Quote of the Day -- Thomas Lux
4. HotSites - Miscellany
5. Reading List - Taken for a Ride
6. Weird News - Man arrested after calling police over drug rip-off
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````
1. A Word A Day
`````````````````
pleonasm \PLEE-uh-naz-uhm\, noun: 1. The use of more
words than are necessary to express an idea; as, "I saw
it with my own eyes." 2. An instance or example of
pleonasm. 3. A superfluous word or expression.

Dougan uses many words where few would do, as if
pleonasm were a way of wringing every possibility out
of the material he has, and stretching sentences a form
of spreading the word. --Paula Cocozza, "Book review:
How Dynamo Kiev beat the Luftwaffe," Independent, March
2, 2001

Such a phrase from President Nixon's era, much favored
by politicians, is "at this moment in time." Presumably
these five words mean "now." That pleonasm probably
does little harm except, perhaps, to the reputation of
the speaker. --Eoin McKiernan, "Last Word: Special
Relationships," Irish America, August 31, 1994

--
>From Dictionary.com:
<http://dictionary.reference.com/>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
THIS ISSUE:

Seen in the Yard (Mostly Blue) - series of seven
<http://www.lhostelaw.com/0403/040315pool_5528.htm>

LAST ISSUE:

Camellia - 2004
<http://www.lhostelaw.com/0403\040307_camellia5469.htm>

Camellia Detail - 2004
<http://www.lhostelaw.com/0403\040307_camellia5473.htm>

Split Personality - 2004
http://www.lhostelaw.com/0402/040217_5156.htm

Kismet
<http://www.lhostelaw.com/kismet/kismet_040131_5104.htm>

Kismet Yawn
<http://www.lhostelaw.com/kismet/kismet_040210_5123.htm>

which he must
cross, by swimming, for fruits and nuts,
to help him
I sit with my rifle on a platform
high in a tree, same side of the river
as the hungry monkey. How does this assist
him? When he swims for it
I look first upriver: predators move faster with
the current than against it.
If a crocodile is aimed from upriver to eat the monkey
and an anaconda from downriver burns
with the same ambition, I do
the math, algebra, angles, rate-of-monkey,
croc- and snake-speed, and if, if
it looks as though the anaconda or the croc
will reach the monkey
before he attains the river's far bank,
I raise my rifle and fire
one, two, three, even four times into the river
just behind the monkey
to hurry him up a little.
Shoot the snake, the crocodile?
They're just doing their jobs,
but the monkey, the monkey
has little hands like a child's,
and the smart ones, in a cage, can be taught to smile.

Thomas Lux
The Cradle Place
Houghton Mifflin Company
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
4. HotSites - Miscellany
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Archive.org
<http://www.archive.org/>

Infospace.com
<http://www.infospace.com/>

Alexa.com
<http://www.alexa.com/>

Taken for a Ride
By PAUL KRUGMAN

"Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists."
So George Bush declared on Sept. 20, 2001. But what was
he saying? Surely he didn't mean that everyone was
obliged to support all of his policies, that if you
opposed him on anything you were aiding terrorists.

Now we know that he meant just that.

A year ago, President Bush, who had a global mandate to
pursue the terrorists responsible for 9/11, went after
someone else instead. Most Americans, I suspect, still
don't realize how badly this apparent exploitation of
the world's good will — and the subsequent failure to
find weapons of mass destruction — damaged our
credibility. They imagine that only the dastardly
French, and now maybe the cowardly Spaniards, doubt our
word. But yesterday, according to Agence France-Presse,
the president of Poland — which has roughly 2,500
soldiers in Iraq — had this to say: "That they deceived
us about the weapons of mass destruction, that's true.
We were taken for a ride."

This is the context for last weekend's election upset
in Spain, where the Aznar government had taken the
country into Iraq against the wishes of 90 percent of
the public. Spanish voters weren't intimidated by the
terrorist bombings — they turned on a ruling party they
didn't trust. When the government rushed to blame the
wrong people for the attack, tried to suppress growing
evidence to the contrary and used its control over
state television and radio both to push its false
accusation and to play down antigovernment protests, it
reminded people of the broader lies about the war.

By voting for a new government, in other words, the
Spaniards were enforcing the accountability that is the
essence of democracy. But in the world according to Mr.
Bush's supporters, anyone who demands accountability is
on the side of the evildoers. According to Dennis
Hastert, the speaker of the House, the Spanish people
"had a huge terrorist attack within their country and
they chose to change their government and to, in a
sense, appease terrorists."

So there you have it. A country's ruling party leads
the nation into a war fought on false pretenses, fails
to protect the nation from terrorists and engages in a
cover-up when a terrorist attack does occur. But its
electoral defeat isn't democracy at work; it's a
victory for the terrorists.

Notice, by the way, that Spain's prime minister-elect
insists that he intends to fight terrorism. He has even
said that his country's forces could remain in Iraq if
they were placed under U.N. control. So if the Bush
administration were really concerned about maintaining
a united front against terrorism, all it would have to
do is drop its my-way-or-the-highway approach. But it
won't.

For these denunciations of Spain, while
counterproductive when viewed as foreign policy, serve
a crucial domestic purpose: they help re-establish the
political climate the Bush administration prefers, in
which anyone who opposes any administration policy can
be accused of undermining the fight against terrorism.

This week the Bush campaign unveiled an ad accusing
John Kerry of, among other things, opposing increases
in combat pay because he voted against an $87 billion
appropriation for Iraq. Those who have followed this
issue were astonished at the ad's sheer up-is-down-ism.

In fact, the Bush administration has done the very
thing it falsely accuses Mr. Kerry of doing: it has
tried repeatedly to slash combat pay and military
benefits, provoking angry articles in The Army Times
with headlines like "An Act of `Betrayal.' " Oh, and
Mr. Kerry wasn't trying to block funds for Iraq — he
was trying to force the administration, which had
concealed the cost of the occupation until its tax cut
was passed, to roll back part of the tax cut to cover
the expense.

But the bigger point is this: in the Bush vision, it
was never legitimate to challenge any piece of the
administration's policy on Iraq. Before the war, it was
your patriotic duty to trust the president's assertions
about the case for war. Once we went in and those
assertions proved utterly false, it became your
patriotic duty to support the troops — a phrase that,
to the administration, always means supporting the
president. At no point has it been legitimate to hold
Mr. Bush accountable. And that's the way he wants it.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
6. Weird News
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Man arrested after calling police over drug rip-off

A New Orleans man has been arrested after calling
police to complain he'd been ripped off trying to trade
a microwave oven for crack cocaine.

Joseph Bulot, of Chalmette, was arrested on a charge of
possession of drug paraphernalia.

The 32-year-old had showed a sheriff's deputy a crack
pipe he said he'd used to smoke what turned out to be
fake cocaine.

A sheriff's deputy tested the off-white rock. It showed
no traces of cocaine.

Maj. Marcel David, chief of the sheriff's special
investigations division, which conducts drugs
investigations, said he can't recall anyone ever asking
a deputy to look at their drug paraphernalia,
initiating their own arrest.

Bulot was released on bond, says The Times-Picayune.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
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= = = = =
6April2004

TOP

             <:> i n t e r a l i a <:>
                  6 April 2004

  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
An archive of past issues of <:>inter alia<:> is
online, with issues dating back to April 1998:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_archive.htm
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

In Today's Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
1. A Word A Day -- petrichor
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
3. Quote of the Day -- Gardner McFall
4. HotSites - Miscellany
5. Reading List - A Toxic Cover-Up?
6. Weird News - Healthy diet?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````
1. A Word A Day
`````````````````
petrichor (PET-ri-kuhr) noun

The pleasant smell that accompanies the first rain
after a dry spell.

[From petro- (rock), from Greek petros (stone) + ichor
(the fluid that is supposed to flow in the veins of the
gods in Greek mythology). Coined by researchers I.J.
Bear and R.G. Thomas.]

"Petrichor, the name for the smell of rain on dry
ground, is from oils given off by vegetation, absorbed
onto neighboring surfaces, and released into the air
after a first rain." Matthew Bettelheim; Nature's
Laboratory; Shasta Parent (Mt Shasta, California); Jan
2002.

"But, even in the other pieces, her prose breaks into
passages of lyrical beauty that come as a sorely needed
revivifying petrichor amid the pitiless glare of
callousness and cruelty." Pradip Bhattacharya; Forest
Interludes; Indianest.com; Jul 29, 2001.

Louisiana Wildflowers (series of ten)
<http://www.lhostelaw.com/04wildflower/040401_12yellows.htm>

Alta, Utah 2004 (series of five)
<http://www.lhostelaw.com/04alta/19a.htm>

LAST ISSUE:
Seen in the Yard (Mostly Blue) - series of seven
<http://www.lhostelaw.com/0403/040315pool_5528.htm>

She was going about an ordinary day,
pondering dinner, washing a dish,
or sweeping the floor. Maybe
she was standing in the garden
or had come in from the garden
to sit by the window and rest.
Perhaps she had taken up a book
or remembered the unfinished sewing
when she encountered an angel
in the middle of the room.

Of course, she was shocked,
though the angel offered a host
of assurances. Whatever she thought,
she didn't hang her head in chagrin,
collapse in a rattled heap,
or race from the house. Neither
did she act like she'd won the lottery
and could lord it over everyone,

but, no doubt, picked up the sewing,
the book, the broom, or the dish
in which she glimpsed her reflection,
a woman without any special features
except for the yellow nimbus now
hovering around her head, someone
who didn't even try to strike
a deal with the messenger,
though she was certainly going to
give up a lot being part of this plan.

Gardner McFall
Southwest Review
Volume 88, Number 4
2003
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
4. HotSites - Miscellany
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Science Timelines
<http://www.psigate.ac.uk/newsite/timelines.html>

Guide to Grammar and Writing
<http://ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/index.htm>

Atlas of the Body
<http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/7140.html>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
5. Reading List - A Toxic Cover-Up
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
A Toxic Cover-Up?
April 4, 2004

Who is Jack Spadaro? He's a man who's devoted his life
to the safety of miners and the safety of people who
live near mines. He's an engineer, who until recently
was head of the National Mine Health and Safety Academy
(MSHA), a branch of the Department of Labor, which
trains mining inspectors.

But he lost that job last year, after he blew the
whistle on what he called a whitewash by the Bush
administration of an investigation into a major
environmental disaster.

Correspondent Bob Simon
reports.

”I had never seen anything so corrupt and
lawless in my entire career,what I saw
regarding interference with a federal investigation
of the most serious environmental disaster in the
history of the Eastern United States,” says Spadaro.

“I've been in government since Richard Nixon. I've been
through the Reagan administration, Carter and Clinton.
I've never seen anything like this.”

What he's talking about is what he calls a government
cover-up of an investigation into a disaster 25 times
the size of the Exxon Valdez spill. It happened in
October of 2000, when 300 million gallons of coal
slurry - thick pudding-like waste from mining
operations - flooded land, polluted rivers and
destroyed property in Eastern Kentucky and West
Virginia. The slurry contained hazardous chemicals,
including arsenic and mercury.

“It polluted 100 miles of stream, killed everything in
the streams, all the way to the Ohio River,” says
Spadaro, who was second in command of the team
investigating the accident.

The slurry had been contained in an enormous reservoir,
called an impoundment, which is owned by the Massey
Energy Company. One night, the heavy liquid broke
through the bottom of the reservoir, flooded the
abandoned coalmines below it and roared out into the
streams.

Spadaro says the investigators discovered the spill was
more than an accident -- it was an accident waiting to
happen.

During the investigation carried out by Spadaro and his
colleagues, it came out that there had been a previous
spill in 1994 at the same impoundment. The mining
company claimed it had taken measures to make sure it
wouldn't happen again, but an engineer working for the
company said the problem had not been fixed, and that
both he and the company knew another spill was
virtually inevitable.

“He said, ‘We knew there would be another
breakthrough,’” says Spadaro. “We knew. And I asked him
how many people in the company knew and he said, ‘Well,
at least five people.’"

So why didn’t they fix it? “It would have been
expensive to find another site. And I think they were
willing to take the risk … It was a certainty,” says
Spadaro.

He says it was a certainty because there was only a
very thin layer of rock at the bottom of the reservoir.
But that's not what the mining company had told the
government.

“They told the government that there was a solid coal
barrier, at least 70 to 80 feet wide between the mine
workings and the bottom of the reservoir,” says Spadaro
of the barrier, which is less than 20 feet. “They were
misrepresenting the facts … and they knew that. The
company knew that and I'm sorry to say I believe some
people within the government knew that.”

Davitt McAteer was Spadaro's boss when the
disaster happened, and head of the MSHA. He says
Spadaro is right, that his own regulators hadn't done
their job: “I know they didn't do enough in terms of
enforcement because the thing failed. That's the
proof.”

“This was a catastrophic failure. By the grace of God
only did we avoid fatalities,” says McAteer, who
expected the report to be harsh. The investigators were
going to cite the coal company for serious violations
that would probably have led to large fines and even
criminal charges.

But all that changed when the Bush administration took
over and decided that the country needed more energy --
and less regulation of energy companies. The
investigation into Massey Energy, a generous
contributor to the Republican Party, was cut short.

“The Bush administration came in and the scope of our
investigation was considerably shortened, and we were
told to wrap it up in a few weeks,” says Spadaro.

“They cut it off. They did,” says Ellen Smith, who
publishes the country’s only newsletter devoted
entirely to mine safety and health. She's been writing
about the mining industry for 16 years.

“People I spoke with, who were on the investigation
team, told me that they believed it was absolutely cut
short, that they had more work to do and they were told
to wrap it up,” says Smith.

“It appeared to me they thought we were getting too
close to issuing serious violations to the mining
company,” says Spadaro.

The new head of MSHA, a Bush appointee named Dave Lauriski,
was a former mining industry mining executive, and so
were his top deputies.

Spadaro says Lauriski came into his office one day, and
insisted he sign a watered down version of the report -
- a version that virtually let the coal company and
MSHA off the hook.

“He said , ‘I'm in a hard spot here and I need you to
sign this report,” recalls Spadaro. “I said, ‘You'd
best take my name off that report because I'm never
going to sign that report.’”

Originally, Spadaro says his investigating team wanted
to cite the company for eight violations. But in the
end, Massey Energy was only cited for two violations,
and had to pay approximately $110,000 in fines – not a
lot for the fifth largest mining company in America.

Massey Energy, declined to talk to 60 Minutes. And
Lauriski declined to be interviewed. So did his boss,
Elaine Chao, the secretary of labor. The Department of
Labor has consistently stood behind the report.

But Linc Chapman, who lives in the path of that black
slurry which flooded his property and terrified his 13-
year-old daughter, insists the investigation was a
whitewash: “I have absolutely no confidence anymore in
any of our regulatory agencies.”

He’s added a second floor to his home, so his family
wouldn't worry about being buried alive if there were
another spill. It’s a possibility that he believes may
happen as long as there are hundreds of slurry
impoundments in the mountains of Appalachia.

“It’s a terrible thing as a father when your kids lay
down at night and you tuck 'em in, and they ask you,
‘Dad, the slurry's not gonna come out tonight is it,’”
says Chapman. “And you have to tell them, ‘I don't know
that the slurry's not gonna come out tonight.’"

Three years after the spill, there's still slurry on
the Chapman's property, and you don't have to dig deep
to find it. Now, the Chapmans want to sell their house,
but because of the slurry on the property, there aren't
any buyers.

“No one wants it. Basically it’s cost me everything
that I have invested here, everything I've ever worked
for all my life,” says Chapman.

All Spadaro has worked for in his life has been mine
safety. So when he felt his new bosses were trying to
sabotage the investigation by trying to get him to go
along with a cover-up, he complained to the Labor
Department's inspector general.

The inspector general looked into the matter and
released a report, saying: “None of the allegations
brought forward by Mr. Spadaro were substantiated."

“That statement is a lie, is a flat out lie,” says
Spadaro.

“I do not trust the IG report. So much information was
withheld from the public,” adds Smith, who was shocked
to see that about half of the report had been blanked
out by the government. “If you look through this
report, you will see huge black marks. …They were
withholding information that may or may not have proved
Spadaro's allegations. And we will never know what that
report says.”

Spadaro also says that when the new administration came
in, they doled out lucrative contracts for work at the
academy to their friends. One contract, for a training
program, was worth nearly $200,000. “It wasn’t put out
for bid at all,” says Spadaro. “They violated the law
and they knew it.”

MSHA denies violating the law, but Spadaro says they
pulled it off with some clever bookkeeping, by dividing
it into smaller contracts. “They thought no one would
notice,” says Spadaro.

They were wrong. Smith looked into this and says she
found no-bid contracts: “I found that contracts went
out to the two deputy assistant secretaries for MSHA to
former business associates and friends. They did not go
out for bid.”

So what will happen to Spadaro? “He is absolutely
getting his life ruined,” says Smith.

Last year, government agents entered Spadaro's
office, went through his files, and locked him out.
“They changed the locks on my door and still have not
allowed me to return to my work place,” says Spadaro,
who spends his days at home.

The government says he was removed from his job
primarily for abusing his authority, failing to follow
procedures, and also for using his government credit
card without authorization. Spadaro denies all the
charges.

“There are cases upon cases of people who have had far
more egregious charges than Jack Spadaro,” says Smith.

“You have a guy in one of the regulatory agencies that
actually wants to stand up for what's right,” adds
Chapman. “And because he rocks their boat, he gets
thrown overboard.”

Residents of Appalachia gathered in Charleston, W.Va.,
to demand that Spadaro get his job back. Without
Spadaro, they say they're afraid there's no one left in
government who will stand up for the residents instead
of for the coal companies.

Spadaro is now back -- sort of. MSHA officials recently
told Spadaro that he's not being fired. Instead, he's
being demoted and taking about a $35,000 pay cut. He's
also being transferred to the agency's Pittsburgh
office, far from his family in West Virginia. But
Spadaro says he has no plans to go anywhere, except
perhaps to court -- to sue the government.

“I think that they thought they could simply roll over
me, and I would be gone and out of their way,” says
Spadaro. “But I'm gonna fight them forever if it takes
it.”

Spadaro has asked the Office of Special Counsel for
Whistleblower Protection for help, and they've agreed
to investigate whether he was a victim of retaliation
by MSHA officials. The Labor Department's inspector
general is also looking into whether or not MSHA
officials broke the law in awarding government
contracts.

©MMIV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
<http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/04/01/60minutes/main609889.shtml>

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
6. Weird News - Healthy diet?
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Top doc backs picking your nose and eating it

Picking your nose and eating it is one of the best ways
to stay healthy, according to a top Austrian doctor.

Innsbruck-based lung specialist Prof Dr Friedrich
Bischinger said people who pick their noses with their
fingers were healthy, happier and probably better in
tune with their bodies.

He says society should adopt a new approach to nose-
picking and encourage children to take it up.

Dr Bischinger said: "With the finger you can get to
places you just can't reach with a handkerchief,
keeping your nose far cleaner.

"And eating the dry remains of what you pull out is a
great way of strengthening the body's immune system.

"Medically it makes great sense and is a perfectly
natural thing to do. In terms of the immune system the
nose is a filter in which a great deal of bacteria are
collected, and when this mixture arrives in the
intestines it works just like a medicine.

"Modern medicine is constantly trying to do the same
thing through far more complicated methods, people who
pick their nose and eat it get a natural boost to their
immune system for free."

He pointed out that children happily pick their noses,
yet by the time they have become adults they have
stopped under pressure from a society that has branded
it disgusting and anti social.

He said: "I would recommend a new approach where
children are encouraged to pick their nose. It is a
completely natural response and medically a good idea
as well."

And he pointed out that if anyone was really worried
about what their neighbour was thinking, they could
still enjoy picking their nose in private if they still
wanted to get the benefits it offered.

From Ananova.com
<http://www.ananova.com/>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
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= = = = =
3May2004

TOP

             <:> i n t e r a l i a <:>
                  3 May 2004

  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
An archive of past issues of <:>inter alia<:> is
online, with issues dating back to April 1998:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_archive.htm
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

In Today's Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
1. A Word A Day -- schadenfreude
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
3. Quote of the Day -- Melissa Montimurro
4. HotSites - Miscellany
5. Reading List - The Gall Of The Chickenhawks
6. Weird News - Airline Pilot Caught Dozing in Flight
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````
1. A Word A Day
`````````````````
schadenfreude \SHOD-n-froy-duh\, noun: A malicious
satisfaction obtained from the misfortunes of others.

That the report of Sebastian Imhof's grave illness
might also have been tinged with Schadenfreude appears
not to have crossed Lucas's mind. --Steven Ozment,
Flesh and Spirit

He died three years after me -- cancer too -- and at
that time I was still naive enough to imagine that what
the afterlife chiefly provided were unrivalled
opportunities for unbeatable gloating, unbelievable
schadenfreude. --Will Self, How The Dead Live

Cameron Parish Nature Photos 23-25 April 2004 (series of 29)
<http://www.lhostelaw.com/04wildflower/040401_12yellows.htm>

LAST ISSUE:

Louisiana Wildflowers
<http://www.lhostelaw.com/04wildflower/040401_12yellows.htm>

Some days
I could become birdsong.
Whistle and trill.
I mean the thing that unwinds
the morning from the night
and sings the tilt
toward evening back again.
I could be desire
that takes shape inside the breast--
pitched out in hope,
attenuated on the myriad leaves.
I mean the thing itself,
not plumage, nor heaven-filled bones.
Not the quivered throat,
but the note itself:
curved from syrinx and lung,
tensed, flexed in the veil of membranes.
The song flung out to the world.
The hum and breath.
The whole sweet story.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
4. HotSites - Miscellany
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
The Essentials of Music
http://www.essentialsofmusic.com/

Famous Paintings
http://www.ibiblio.org/louvre/paint/

American Memory
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ammemhome.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
5. Reading List
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
The Gall Of The Chickenhawks
WASHINGTON, April 30, 2004

This Against the Grain commentary is written by
CBSNews.com's Dick Meyer.

What kind of absurd political twilight zone is it where
George Bush and Dick Cheney can make John Kerry look
like an unpatriotic chicken by focusing attention on
his combat duty in Vietnam?

It's a doublethink world of issues-ephemera, spin, and
manipulated perceptions that Bush's technicians have
mastered and that we the media and we the people aid
and abet: Campaign 2004, a truth odyssey.

What is the word that has more gall than gall? Nerve?
Cheek, chutzpah conceit, arrogance, condescension? You
name it -- the squadron of chickenhawks that steers
both the campaign and government of President Bush's
have pots of it. Where do these people come off
impugning John Kerry's Vietnam era guts and patriotism?
John McCain, Colin Powell, Tom Ridge or Chuck Hagel
might have some moral standing, but not these
chickenhawks.

This whole chickenhawk issue has become sort of
politically incorrect, in a Republican sort of way.
It's considered a rude charge. I don't buy that.

John Kerry's "national security identity" (I use this
phrase because that is how campaign operators think,
they are trying to forge perceptions of his character,
record and patriotism) has been sliced bloody by the
orchestrated switchblades of Bush's surrogates this
past week. So it is hardly irrelevant that John Kerry
fought in Vietnam and George Bush didn't.

The list of Bush supporter's in government, in the
campaign and in the ideas industry who also had no
military service at all, not just no combat, is also
relevant: Karen Hughes, Karl Rove, Condoleezza Rice,
Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Lewis Libby, William
Kristol, Paul Wolfowitz, and Tom Delay. Oh yeah, and
Dick Cheney.

Make no mistake: the hubbub about Kerry's national
security identity was a precision strike.

First, Republican House members go to the floor
attacking both Kerry's voting record and his anti-war
activities after he returned from his tour in Vietnam.
One Republican called him "Hanoi John" on the House
floor.

Then, according to The Washington Post, Republican
operatives gave a newspaper and a network tape they had
dug up of Kerry talking to a local D.C. television
station in 1971 where he gave an account of what he did
with his medals that is different than his current
account.

Then the Bush-Cheney campaign released an attack ad
about Kerry's national security record in the Senate
using the tried and true technique of taking old votes
completely out of context.

Next Karen Hughes went on CNN and says that Kerry is a
phony for "pretending" to throw away his medals. She
also manages to sleazily imply both that Kerry may have
committed atrocities in Vietnam AND that he accused
good, honest, innocent American boys of committing
atrocities.

And then the Stealth Warrior, Mr. Vice President, goes
to Iron Curtain University in Missouri to make a high
profile attack speech.

For the record, I don't think the biographical
questions about Kerry -- or Bush -- are irrelevant
sideshows that obscure the great debates of the day. I
think they're important to voters. They're important to
me. I want to know if Kerry lied a little about
throwing away his medals, or why he wouldn't 'fess up
to a youthful exaggeration if he did. I want know if
Bush really did blow off months of his National Guard
stint.

I don't think John Kerry should be exempted from
scrutiny or explanation because he got shot in war. I
don't think Kerry did a particularly good job of
meeting the attack, but his tactics and even his
character are not my current concern.

I am just -- forgive me -- galled at the gall of the
chickenhawks. President Bush should not have sanctioned
it.

Allow me to add a stray point: these chickenhawks had a
great influence in the decision to wage war on Iraq.
After the civil war, William Tecumseh Sherman noted,
"It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor
heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry for
blood, more vengeance. More desolation."

The most forceful advocates for war in the
administration had seen the least of it. The rationales
for war were cerebral, and I bought some of them,
probably to my discredit.

Most wars, like the first Iraq war, have pretty clear
causes, an invasion, for example. The case for this war
was intellectual.

There was the Hobbesian case: the world needed a super-
power policeman in the chaos and America-hating Muslim
lands. There was the Americanism case: peace will only
come if America exports our democracy and prosperity to
the chaos and America-hating Muslim lands. There was
the Evil Man case: history is made by men not invisible
forces and Saddam, who used horrible weapons on his
people and his neighbors, was an evil man who had to be
stopped. There was the Intelligence case; Saddam had
weapons of mass destruction and ties to al Qaeda and
had to be stopped.

Conservatives are usually wary of ideas and
intellectualism in statecraft and politics. Not these
conservatives. And for most of them, unlike for many
generations of government leaders charged with national
defense, their experience didn't include military
experience.

But these people are, to my bewilderment, skilled at
tearing down people who have made that sacrifice. They
did it to Max Cleland, an ousted senator from Georgia
who suffered awful wounds in Vietnam. They did it to
John McCain in 2000. They're trying to do it to Kerry.

What gall.

(Dick Meyer, the Editorial Director of CBSNews.com, has
covered politics and government in Washington for 20
years and has won the Investigative Reporters and
Editors, Alfred I. Dupont, and Society of Professional
Journalists awards for investigative journalism. )

TOKYO (Reuters) - A pilot for Japan's All Nippon
Airways fell asleep at the controls for several minutes
while on a domestic flight and had to be awakened by a
government inspector who was traveling in the cockpit.

A spokesman for the airline said on Friday that the 50-
year-old pilot, whose name was not released, dozed off
while flying on March 23 from Tokyo's Haneda airport to
the western prefecture of Yamaguchi, a trip that takes
about an hour.

An official from the Transport Ministry, who was in the
cockpit for a routine inspection, woke the pilot after
he fell asleep as the plane was cruising at 12,000
meters (36,000 feet), but he dozed off again and had to
be awakened a second time.

"He was asleep for two or three minutes," the spokesman
said.

The spokesman said there was no danger to passengers
since the plane was on auto-pilot and the co-pilot was
also present. The pilot, who has been suspended, is
undergoing medical tests.

Last year, a Japanese bullet train driver fell asleep
at the controls while his train was traveling at 270 km
(168 miles) an hour. He was found to suffer from sleep
apnea, in which a person repeatedly stops breathing
during sleep, causing daytime drowsiness.

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That the report of Sebastian Imhof's grave illness
might also have been tinged with Schadenfreude appears
not to have crossed Lucas's mind. --Steven Ozment,
Flesh and Spirit

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Louisiana Wildflowers
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Some Days
by Melissa Montimurro