JFK Died 42 Years Ago Today

No one seems to notice that today is a date of importance to some. I was 11 when JFK was elected President. The nuns told us we had to campaign for him so we did. We went to the campaign office and got all kinds of buttons, stickers etc and platered them everywhere. Beside, the nuns also told us if Nixon were elected, ice cream would be outlawed. Seem reasonable to us.

It's Ok to Leave Iraq Now

Anyone remember Bush administration official saying we would leave Iraq if the Iraqis asked us too? Anyone? Anyone? Well they have asked us to leave. Anyone think we will keep our word?

Cheap Malaria Control

Sara is raising money for malaria control through the World Swim for Malaria. Go there and donate. You can save a life for $5.

It's sad that all the tools for malaria control are and have been available for decades, yet millions of people die each year from malaria (mostly children). Millions could be saved from death due to malaria using three means: (1) pyrethrin impregnated bednets, (2) spraying low concentrations of DDT on the inside walls of homes in malaria infested areas, (3) drug treatment, especially of infected, pregnant mothers (to protect the baby). None of this is overly expensive.

What burns me is the fact that common use of DDT, to control insect vectors, has been discontinued in many parts of the world. We have Rachel Carson and her book Silent Spring to thank for that. Use of DDT has pretty much been banned since 1972 by the stroke of the pen of William Ruckelshaus, head of the EPA at that time. He did this even in the face of much scientific evidence that DDT was not harmful to humans or the environment as used in malaria control. DDT, as used in agriculture, did have effects on the environment. But it was used in vast quantities probably because farmers thought 'more was better'. For malaria control, DDT is sprayed onto the inside walls of homes in malaria endemic regions. The major vector of malaria, Anopheles gambiense bites primarily indoors. After taking a blood meal the mosquito rests on an inside wall. Walls coated with a low concentration of DDT result in the death of the mosquito. Many developing countries governments have been pressured by environmentalist to stop the use of DDT. This has resulted in the re-emergence of malaria. For example, South Africa stopped the use of DDT in 1996 with a resulting 1000% increase in cases of malaria.

For much more in depth info go here.

Mike Scanlon Pleads Guilty

This is going to be bigger than Treasongate. I've read that it may become the biggest government scandel in over 100 yrs. Micheal Scanlon, ex-aide to Tom Delay has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to bribe government officials. Scanlon worked for Jack Abramoff, the guy who among other thing scammed indians over casinos. This involves Republican and Democrat congressmen but mostly Republicans because they are the ones that hold all the power right now. Scanlon is now going to cooperate with the investigation. Tom Delay is in even more trouble now. Couldnt happen to a nicer bug exterminator.

Stephen Hadley - Treasongate

I pointed out on Oct 26 that we should keep our eye on Stephen Hadley and the outing of Plame. It's now looking almost certain that he was Woodwards source. Now I'm going to predict that Condi Rice is going to be pulled into this dispicable affair.

White Phosphorus Revisited

I posted about the use of white phosphorus on November 11th asking when a story would appear in the MSM. An article appeared yesterday in the NYT. Looks like white phosphorus was used as an anti-personnel weapon. The army even admits it. I guess if torture is ok, white phosphorus should be ok too.

Wal-mart in Saranac Lake - Again?

Rumors are rampant about Wal-mart looking to locate in Saranac Lake. They were thwarted a few years ago when someone bought a parcel of property out from under the company. Although we only have rumors, I'm sure someone in the Village government could shed some light on the situation, but they are keeping mum. I guess they are following the G. W. Bush school of governing.

What are some of the effects of Wal-mart locating in a small rural community? That question was addressed over 15 years ago by Dr. Kenneth Stone, a Professor of Economics and Extension Economist at Iowa State University. Some conclusions about the economic effects:

Positive Effects
General mechandising stores
Eating and drinking establishments
Home furnishing stores
Total sales

Negative Effects
Grocery stores
Building materials
Specialty stores (hardware, toy, books, music, etc.)
Apparel stores
Services (not understood why)

Effect on outlying towns
"On average, small towns surrounding Wal-Mart towns (20 mile radius) suffered greater losses of retail sales than similar size towns elsewhere in the state. The average first year per capita loss of sales for the nearby towns was 6.3% when compared with 2.0% for all other towns of a similar size population".


Morality of Wal-mart as a company
Wal-mart knows its customers though. That's why they need to have prices cut to the bone in order to keep sales high. Wal-mart caters to the poor. Primarily women struggling to make ends meet. An economist at the U. of Conn., Andrew Franklin, has shown that Wal-mart operates primarily in poor and working class communities. To keep sales high, Wal-mart has got to keep labor costs low period. Some Wal-marts provide employees with instructions and forms on how to apply for food stamps and healthcare because they know their employees cannot live on what they are being paid. At any one time Wal-mart has 8000+ ongoing lawsuits (mostly from their employees) and currently is involved in 33 class action suits. Maybe someone can explain why a company that employs 1 out of every 100 Americans, has sales of over 285 billion dollars and a gross profit margin of almost 24% cannot provide for its employees.

Hidden costs of doing business with Wal-mart in California
Reliance by Wal-mart workers on public assistance costs $86 million annually.
Families of Wal-mart workers utilize ~40% more in taxpayer-funded health care than the average for families of all large retail employees. If other large retailers adopted Wal-mart's wage and benefits standards it would cost CA taxpayers $410 million in public assistance annually. (From Dr. A. Dube and Ken Jacobs, UC Berkeley, 2004).

Mt. Pisgah Community Ski Area

This is our little 'in town' skiing area. Mt. Pisgah . I grew up skiing here. I spent most every evening and weekend skiing here. It was open every night til 10 PM except Sunday. Thursday was reserved for adult night skiing. When I was a kid, a season pass was $5. Eventually went up to $15. Notice the beautiful new ski lodge built a few years ago with labor and money donated by the community.

Saranac Lake High School

Julia's High School with pond and mountains

Friday Scientific Equipment Blogging

Not an instrument, but probably the most used tool in basic medical research.

News From Julia - Back in Nairobi

"I am working with Don Bosco's street boy program which is really great. The boys are right off the street and go into a three month transition period. Then if they have behaved and done well and everything they get to be admitted to the actual school. Everything is really scheduled out for the boys. There are about 30 of them in the transition period, that we are working with and then 280 at the boys school. The facilities are really nice and the boys are great! The only downer is we have to walk about 1 hour to get to work. Because it is an independent study, we have to do our own transportation and no matutus run in that direction, but exercise is good!"

NOTE: Don Bosco programs are evidently run by the Salesian Order of the Catholic Church. In Africa they specialize in taking care of 'boy soldier' refugees, among other programs.

Constitution Vote - Violence in Kenya?

Just heard from Julia who is working at an orphanage in Kisumu. She and two other students will be flown back to Nairobi today due to expected violence over the Constitution vote next Tuesday Nov 21. So what is this all about?

Well, Kenya received it's independence from Great Britain in 1963. And, for the first time since then they are voting on a referendum on a new constitution. The current constitution has been revised several times resulting in a state in which the President has sweeping powers. The new constitution supposedly cuts the powers of the President partly by creating a Prime Minister position.

One of the problems in Kenya is that one third of the adults can't read. So referendum campaigns are organized around symbols, bananas for 'yes' and oranges for 'no'. As usual for Africa, the political situation has resulted in polarization around tribal loyalties. The government is leading a 'yes' campaign while the opposition party wants 'no'. Currently the 'no's' seem to be ahead by about 10%.

There has already been violence in Kenya with fires set and about 8 people killed. However, now there is a rumor that 'yes' party people are being trained by ex-servicemen 'to cause chaos' at the vote.

St. Lawrence is taking no chances and is flying the students in Kisumu back to the compound in Karen.

Where Does Bush Stand?

From latest Gallop Poll:

Handling Terrorism: 48% approve - 49% disapprove. What? Now you don't feel safer?

Foreign Affairs: 37% approve - 59% disapprove. Damn you France lovers!

Economy: 37% approve (especially oil companies) - 61% disapprove. You got your tax cuts didn't you?

Iraq War: 35% approve - 63% disapprove. But what about 9/11?

Federal Spending: 26% approve - 71% disapprove. So you don't like borrow and spend?

Immigration: 26% approve - 65% disapprove. No one likes immigrants.

This Week's Rants

REPUBLICAN BUDGET PLAN OF THE WEEK
We need 70 billion dollars worth of 'temporary' cuts in capital gains and dividends. So to fund those cuts we need to cut 12 billion in medicaid, 14 billion in student aid, and 848 million in food stamp aid. Let them eat cake.

RELIGION NOT SCIENCE
We need to reject over-the-counter sale of 'Plan B' (morning after) contraceptive medication because our conservative base doesn't like it. How do we influence the scientists at the Food and Drug Administation to prevent over-the-counter sales? Convince the agency that younger adolescents might engage in unsafe sexual behavior with Plan B available even though this is an age-based criterion never before raised for an over-the-counter contraceptive.

LIES ABOUT IRAQ
Everyone had access to the same intelligence that Bush used to justify invading Iraq. Does anyone actually believe this? Even President Clinton was convinced that the intelligence indicated Iraq wanted to pursue a nuclear weapons program. Bush was actually working with the same intelligence that Clinton used. Old intelligence! And, Clinton was convinced that pressure and inspections were working to prevent Iraq from proceeding with their nuclear ambitions. Bush thought there was soon going to be a mushroom cloud. Same intelligence, different conclusions. What is really bothersome to me is that Bush convinced a majority of people in this country that Iraq was involved with the 9/11 attacks. He didn't come right out and say so, but he was always sure to talk about Sadam Hussain, the war on terror and 9/11 at the same time, over and over and over. I think a sizable minority of people still think Iraq was involved in the 9/11 attacks.

HABEAS CORPUS
Republicans denied the right of Habeas Corpus in the reconstruction period after the Civil War and they are trying to do the same thing now to persons being held by the USA in our base in Cuba. It was wrong in the 1860's and it is wrong now.

TORTURE
Not much to say here, but I never thought our country would be debating whether torture is legal or not.

I agree with Jimmy Carter. Something is fundamentally wrong with our country right now and we are sitting around like sheep to the slaughter letting it happen.

Presidential Medal of Freedom

Unlike retired CIA director George Tenet, two people I respect recently received the presidential Medal of Freedom.

Paul Rusesabagina, the hotel manager of 'Hotel Rwanda' fame

and

Muhammad Ali, a guy who knew the Vietnam War was wrong

Guess Who is Saying This...

...in March, 2003, Bush, in perhaps the greatest strategic blunder in U.S. history, invaded an Arab nation that had not attacked us, did not want war with us, and did not threaten us—to strip it of weapons we now know it did not have.

Result: Shia and Kurds have been liberated from Saddam, but Iran has a new ally in southern Iraq, Osama has a new base camp in the Sunni Triangle, the Arab and Islamic world have been radicalized against the United States, and copy-cat killers of Al Qaida have been targeting our remaining allies in Europe and the Middle East: Spain, Britain, Egypt and Jordan. And, lest we forget, 2055 Americans are dead and Walter Reed is filling up.

Pat Buchanan

WARNING! - Tinfoil Hats Proved Not to Work!

Engineering students at MIT recently did a study showing that tinfoil hats do not protect you from invasive radio signals. To see the results click here.

White Phosphorus in Fallujah

I've been following this story since Monday. International press reported that white phosphorus was used as an anti-personnel weapon during the fighting in Fallujah last year. It first sounded too much like a conspiracy theory so I thought let's see what develops. Evidently there are pictures and video of people severely burned. White phosphorus is normally used either as a white smoke marker or as a means of lighting an area at night. We'll see if this makes the mainstream media or not.

A Trip to Vermont

Yesterday Maureen and I went to the Burlington International Airport to pick up my mother (who was returning from FL). We decided to take the Crown Point bridge over to Burlington and then take the Cumberland head ferry on our return. I wanted to go through Crown Point because it was a nice bright but cool day. I wanted to stop at the Crown Point ruins of the forts built and used prior to and during the French and Indian War. There are alot more pictures and history if you click the link. Notice I said forts. The ruins of another fort, Ft. St. Frederic are also there. Click on link for picts and history. I don't want to use up all my free flickr space.



This is a picture taken from the 'walls' of the fort. In the foreground is the Officers barracks and further back is the Enlisted barracks. The inside of the fort is about 4 acres. Just below where I'm standing is the well that supplied the fort with water.



This picture is taken at the entrance to the fort. Officers barracks on the left, enlisted further back. There are the ruins of a third building that was the armory. A third barracks was to have been built, to the right, but never was finished.

This is an awesome place to be alone on a nice Spring or Fall day. You can wander around freely with no one to bother you. Sorta reminds me of when I visited Stonehenge back in 1975. You could park your car on the side of the road. Walk to the stones, climb on them, touch them etc. Those days are long gone. I'm sure the same will eventually happen at Crown Point.

OOPS!

Rep. John Hostettler (Ind.) was one of 11 Republicans to oppose funds for rebuilding Katrina huricane damage. Yesterday, Rep. Hostettler asked President Bush for money to help victims of another natural disaster... the tornado that ripped through many areas in his 8th District in Indiana. The congressman did vote to help tsunami victims halfway around the world and rebuild Iraq but I guess aiding poor Americans drenched by hurricanes is different...unless of course a disaster hits your congressional district and you want to be re-elected.