Controversial painkillers to stay on the market

It looks like the controversial pain killers such as Celebrex and Vioxx may stay on the market after all. An FDA advisory group just voted that they should remain on the market, with stronger warning labels so people understand the risk. It looks like those in the drug industry, and some doctors as well, who claimed the problem wasn't so much the drug but the way it was prescribed. That does make sense, at least the drugs are available for those that it would make the most sense to prescribe it to.

Here is a link to the article:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=541&ncid=716&e=4&u=/ap/20050219/ap_on_he_me/arthritis_drugs

Drones over Iran

Not that this is much of a surprise, but apparently the military is flying unmanned recon drones, such as the Predator over Iran. So far Iran actually played it smart and didn't try to shoot them down, but apparently now they are threatening to do so.

I would not say an attack on Iran is imminent, but if we find evidence that they are trying to get a nuclear weapon (instead of just using their nuclear program for energy like they claim) we certainly could attack them. I wouldn't even totally rule out Isreal doing it, if you recall they attacked Iraq back in the 80's when Iraq was trying to develop one.

You can read an article about it here:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=5&u=/ap/20050216/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_nuclear_12

Congratulations moron, you win the PFD award of the week!

This guy is a genius. Lets review, you are driving across the Golden Gate (remembering that when you drive over a long, high bridge, there are often crosswinds on the bridge and its over water, so yeah - might be windy), you throw your lit cigarette out the window instead of using the ash tray. The cigarette is caught by the wind and blown into your backseat which then, you guessed it, the whole vehicle catches on fire. The guy may get a ticket for littering, what about one for just being a moron?

Read about this genius here:
http://www.thekansascitychannel.com/news/4211011/detail.html

Only the best for our brave troops???

According to this story in USA Today (click the link below to read the whole story), US National Guard and Reserve soldiers who are injured on active duty have to navigate a veritable mine field to get medical care and other benefits that are due to them. You would think that a military with a budget of around $400 billion a year to get that right. But in this case, they did not.

Check it out here from USA Today via Yahoo:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=676&ncid=716&e=22&u=/usatoday/20050218/ts_usatoday/troopssayitshardtogetmedicalcare

Sounds a little fishy?

Let's see, we have a Department of Homeland Security official who is critical of the administration and his dept. who is suddently out of a job and the official explanation is that his contract was up with the last congress. Not sure that I buy that one. Yeah, his contract may have been up, but is he gone becuase he told what he thought was the truth? I would take that as a bad sign, another whistleblower gone perhaps? Okay, maybe not that dramatic but you would have to admit that it looks pretty bad.

Read the article from ABC news here:

Stamps to go up?

It sounds like the price of stamps will probably go up next year, somewhere in the range of 2 to 4 cents. Considering how much fuel costs have increased the past couple of years, and given that the last postal rate increase was some time ago, we are probably about due for another increase. Even at 39 or 41 cents, I think mailing a letter at that price is still a bargain.

You can read the article from AP via the Des Moines Register here:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/POSTAL_RATES?SITE=IADES&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Will this move by Microsoft help or hurt security?

Apparently Microsoft is changing its mind and will now make it harder for patches to be downloaded from the Windows update site. It will appently require the copy of windows to be authenticated before the updates can be downloaded. Now you may wonder why this matters, and certainly Microsoft has the right to protect their business. But if there are thousands (more likely hundreds of thousands or even millions) of illegal copies of Windows out there that can't be patched, won't that mean more security problems? Considering an infected zombie pc can spread viruses to thousands of computers, you would think it would be in their best interests to allow anyone to patch their system. Now this system hasn't started yet, but according to Microsoft and this article, that will change before year end.

Here is the article:
http://www.securitypipeline.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=58800006

If someone resigns in the upcoming weeks, this might be why

If you recall, last summer I believe it was, someone leaked the name of an undercover CIA operative (I believe in Africa) to a reporter who then published the name. Of course the undercover person, who was married to a key political figure, had to give up his UC assignment since his cover was blown. Well now a federal appeals court has ruled that the two reporters either have to give up the names or go to jail. So if you see a key figure resign for no apparent reason in the next few weeks, this might be why. There was speculation it was someone in the White House although no one knows for sure.

Here is the story:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=615&ncid=716&e=14&u=/nm/20050215/pl_nm/bush_leak_dc

Renewing the Patriot Act

In what probably will be one of the ugliest political battles this side of social security, President Bush wants to extend the provisions of the Patriot Act, which as you recall, was passed in a panic following 9-11 without virtually anyone who voted for it actually even reading the bill. Now it did have some good points, and I am not like the ACLU saying all is lost, but I think most people now realize that perhaps it went a little too far. Last time no one dared voted against it or they would be made out to be against the war or for the terrorists, but I doubt that kind of rhetoric will work this time around. Much of it probably should stay but it needs some work that is a little more thought out this time around.

Here is the article, stay tuned for more stuff on this one, should be a hot topic for a while:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/15/politics/15gonzales.html?ei=5040&en=593faf81653335cc&ex=1109134800&adxnnl=1&partner=MOREOVERNEWS&adxnnlx=1108444345-CjmDb6dXJIz1hR9AIogWtw

Another story that makes me say "what the hell are we thinking?"

This story is mind boggling, the story of several former American POW's in Iraq during the Gulf War that were tortured and are now allowed (under newer laws) to sue the country that tortured them in court. However, not that we are in control of Iraq, the Bush administration is telling them that they can't sue Iraq now becuase they need all of their resources to rebuild the country. Now they do perhaps have a point about resources (although they could probably pay their damages just with what Halliburton overcharged the army), especially since we are talking a billion dollars. But when Rumseld himself says that the Iraqis tortured by our soldiers at Abu Graib deserve compensation and then they turn around and say our own soldiers don't, it just makes you wonder if anyone really thought this through?

You can read the article here from the LA Times:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-na-pow15feb15,0,3155150.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Should cities be building WI-FI networks?

Found an interesting story on Slashdot about a fairly hot topic these days, muncipalities building their own wi-fi networks to give everyone wireless hi speed internet that competes with private companies. Competition can be a good thing, but should cities or counties really be competing with private companies that specialize in such networks? Its hard to say if its really a good deal for the people since bonds are usually issued to pay for the project, and its often years before anyone will know for sure if the project will pay for itself.

But it brings up an important question, should government be competing with private industry? I would be okay with it perhaps if there was no service available or the company there had some serious service problems but other than that, not sure its fair since governments have tax revenue to support them.

Here is the article, but a warning that if you clink on the link to the report, its about 40 pages long (from the New Millenium Research Council or NMRC): Its worth noting that the NMRC has ties to lobbying for telco's so take that for what its worth- also according to Slashdot)

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/04/1522223&tid=193

One of my issues with the war is this crap

While I still support the war, one thing that has really hurt us (in the eyes of the rest of the world for sure) are the allegiations of abuse that have been made against both troops and contractors. Click the link below about one such example of abuse. It seems to show yet another case, just like the Abu Graib scandal, where there is no real accountability beyond the lower ranking people, if at all. You would think we would want to crush such activity and punish all those responsible, which would probably go a long ways convincing the rest of the world that we are better than Saddam was to them, but we just don't seem to get it. From what I read, sure sounds like its true, but sounds like we aren't doing a ton about it. And did we screen these companies first or just let "Thugs with a Truck" get security contracts over there?

Read the story here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6947745/

Another good investigation from KCTV5

You have to check this story out from KCTV5's website about a sting of sorts they ran having someone pose as an underage person that wanted to have sex. Believe it or not, people actually show up there, and low and behold there is Channel 5 with their camera. This one is not as good as the one they did last year, that one was awesome, you heard some of the dumbest excused from people why they were there. There are several parts to it, it is a really good story. The one they did last year was nationally acclaimed.

Check it out at the link below:
http://www.kctv5.com/Global/category.asp?C=9271&nav=1Puc

Moron of the week

Check out this link from some news of the stupid or something like that, especially the one about the guy that leaves his wallet behind when robbing someplace. Pretty smart dude! With that kind of intellingence you could probably get elected to Congress!

http://abcnews.go.com/US/LegalCenter/story?id=89932&page=1

Quake coming on the New Madrid fault?

I found an interesting article at the link below, and its from a local source that I had not read before. There was a quake last week (4.1 on the Richter scale) along the New Madrid fault, worth noting because at some point, sooner or later, there will almost certainly be a major quake. Hopefully it won't be in my lifetime, but you never know. If, or more likely when, the quake occurs, Memphis and Cape Girdeau will be very hard hit, and St. Louis and Little Rock will bear some of it too, it will likely be felt all over the midwest. I remember reading a long time ago about the last major quake along the fault made the Mississippi River flow backwards for a brief time, that had to be scary to see. When it does hit, to quote from Memphis' favorite Elvis, "there will be a whole lotta shakin goin on". Pretty clever eh?

One interesting thing I learned from the article is that the strongest earthquake ever in the Continental US was not in California, but along the New Madrid fault in the 1800's.

The link to the article is here:
http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesView/sid/5820/

Here is also a link to the USGS website about the New Madrid fault that you may want to check out:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsUS/Quakes/nm722.htm