STUFF

• AVIAN BIRD FLU -- It appears greed and incompetence are helping make us vulnerable to this bird flu. Tamiflu, the drug that so far best works against this flu, is patented by the drug company that makes it. Flu drugs tend not to be profitable. They are a one time use item and if the flu doesn't hit or doesn't hit as hard as anticipated the profits are lower. The drug company with the patent won't release it to another company that is willing to make the drug. The Spanish flu of 1918 has been recreated using tissue samples of from the lungs of soldiers who died in 1918 and the disinterment of an Alaskan Eskimo who died of the flu and whose remains had been preserved by the permafrost. Not only has the virus been physically re-created, but its entire genome has been published for the whole world to see. The logic here is that you want to put out the knowledge of the structure of the 1918 bird flu, which made the full jump from birds to humans, so that every researcher in the world can immediately start looking for ways to anticipate, monitor, prevent and counteract similar changes in today's bird flu. Unfortunately this is a double-edged sword. The good news is that word is out so that every person capable of contributing to a solution has the information they need. The bad news is that so does someone like Osama bin Laden.
• Recruiting Troops -- If you recall a few months back when troop re-enlistment and recruitment deficits were shrinking our armed forces, they were offered A $15,000 incentive to re-enlist. Well, the ones who re-enlisted recently found out that they won't be getting the money. Support our troops? Inferior body armour, inferior equipment, unending tours of duty, shrinking benefits, etc. I want a ribbon that says: STOP SCREWING OUR TROOPS!
• CRIMINAL GOVERNMENT -- Next week should be a politically charged week. Patrick Fitzgerald closes his two year investigation into the Valerie Plame ordeal. He's said he will not be releasing a report, which generally seems to make it likely he will be bringing down indictments which may include Dick Cheney, not to mention Karl Rove and "Scooter" Libby. If you remember these investigations take the prosecutor wherever the trail leads him. If you remember Monica Lewinsky originally started out as the Whitewater investigation. I can only hope that one of the indictments lead to treason charges for getting us into this Iraq War false pretenses and outright lies.
• CREAVOLUTION -- Astrology would be considered a scientific theory if judged by the same criteria used by Intelligen Design advocates to justify their demand that Intelligent Design be taught alongside evolution theory in schools, a federal court heard Tuesday.
• TOM DELAY -- If Tom Delay is found guilty of all the charges that resulted in the redistricting in Texas to favor the Republican Party, everything he accomplished for them stays the way it is. Who says 'crime doesn't pay'?