Apr 15, 2006

Pentagon planned for Iranian invasion in 2004 

The emphasis of this Guardian report is that Britain took part in the Pentagon's mock Iran invasion "...despite repeated claims by the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, that a military strike against Iran is inconceivable." Regardless of what one might feel about more British toadyism, the more basic issue is the evidence this constitutes of Pentagon planning for the Iranian invasion beginning as soon as the 'mission" was "accomplished" in neighboring Iraq. Or did they set their sights on both and plan the two wars in parallel, even earlier?

6:45 PM   •  

Taking Bets on Rummy's Survival? 

"Bush has expressed his undying support for embattled Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Can Rummy's resignation be far behind? With six retired generals, four Army and two Marines, calling for his ouster, Salon's revelation that Rummy was closely involved in the harsh treatment of a Guantánamo detainee reaching the traditional media, can Bush and Rummy hold out?

...And as long as we're taking bets on how long Rummy might be along, why don't we throw into the mix the possibility that Lieberman will take this opportunity to vacate a potentially embarrassing and definitely difficult primary race to take the job. Just some things to ruminate on on a Friday night." — McJoan (Daily Kos)

12:47 AM   •  

Goth subculture may protect vulnerable children 

"About half of teenage goths have deliberately harmed themselves or attempted suicide, a new study suggests. But joining the modern subculture – which grew out of the 1980s gothic rock scene – may actually protect vulnerable children, researchers say." (New Scientist)

12:40 AM   •  

Serotonin and Depression: 

A Disconnect between the Advertisements and the Scientific Literature: "In 1998, at the dawn of consumer advertising of SSRIs, Professor Emeritus of Neuroscience Elliot Valenstein summarized the scientific data by concluding, “What physicians and the public are reading about mental illness is by no means a neutral reflection of all the information that is available” [50]. The current state of affairs has only confirmed the veracity of this conclusion. The incongruence between the scientific literature and the claims made in FDA-regulated SSRI advertisements is remarkable, and possibly unparalleled." (PLoS Medicine)

12:35 AM   •  

The Latest Mania: Selling Bipolar Disorder 

Disease Mongering: "This advert markets bipolar disorder. The advert can be read as a genuine attempt to alert people who may be suffering from one of the most debilitating and serious psychiatric diseases—manic-depressive illness. Alternatively, the advert can be read as an example of what has been termed disease mongering [1]. Whichever it is, it will reach beyond those suffering from a mood disorder to others who will as a consequence be more likely to see aspects of their personal experiences in a new way that will lead to medical consultations and in a way that will shape the outcome of those consultations. Adverts that encourage “mood watching” risk transforming variations from an emotional even keel into potential indicators of latent or actual bipolar disorder. This advert appeared in 2002 shortly after Lilly's antipsychotic olanzapine had received a license for treating mania. The company was also running trials aimed at establishing olanzapine as a “mood stabilizer,” one of which was recently published" (PLoS Medicine)

12:32 AM   •  

Oh the Stigma of It All 

"OK, now we know the 'neural correlates' of stigma, what shall we do with that information? What does it mean??" (The Neurocritic)

12:28 AM   •  

Apr 14, 2006

Beverage Creates a Buzz 

"Indians in this remote mountain village in southern Colombia are marketing a particularly refreshing soft drink that harks back to Coca-Cola's original formula, when 'coca' was in the name for a reason. " (LA Times)

By the way, has anyone developed a taste for the guarana soft drink, Bawls?

11:17 AM   •  

Repentance Update: Ending the War vs. Defending Our Anti-War Purity 

Arianna Huffington says we face a challenge in embracing former rightwing ideologues as they change their positions on issues like Iraq. She mentions Newt Gingrich and Francis Fukuyama to start. This was a lesson learned by those of us in the antiwar movement during the Vietnam War which should not have to be learned all over again. Do we want to stop the war? I agree we should embrace penitant reformed jingoists.

Huffington (who is no stranger herself to the derision provoked by changing one's stripes; one might argue that there is no zeal like that of the converted) parses the quandary about doing so as being one between pragmatism and "anti-war purity," which I think gives perhaps abit too much credit to those who do not accept the 'converts', making them sound a little tooo high-minded. What she describes as "launching a full-scale, dig-up-all-the-old-dirt attack on those who publicly change their position on the war" is often based not on ideological purity but more primal feelings such as contemtp, ragefulness, spite, and narcissism.

I know I have often been guilty of that holier-than-thou attitude, and I continue to stand by my public position about the impossibility of meaningful dialogue with most of the wingnuts on the right (which I think is a reasonable position to take in the face of their unreasonableness). But Huffington's post reminded me that our work in the Vietnam-era antiwar movement was inherently wedded to work on ourselves, on empathy and compassion and overcoming our own hatreds. It was much more organically embedded in a counterculture and a social justice, as well as peace, movement. It makes me second-guess even my own calls, as we ramp up to an attack on Iran, for the growth of a massive peace movement, makes me wonder if it would fail if not rooted in a broader social change movement.

11:15 AM   •  

Telescope bid to spot alien beams 

"A new optical telescope designed solely to detect light signals from alien civilisations has opened for work at the Harvard Smithsonian." (BBC)

10:16 AM   •  

If You Liked the Iraq War, You'll Love the Iran War 

The man who lost New Orleans and accidentally started a civil war in Iraq is going to have a sound strategy for Iran? "If you liked gas at three dollars a gallon, you'll love it at five dollars or more. If you liked fighting 26 million people in Iraq, you'll love fighting 68 million in Iran. If you liked turning Sunni Muslims against us, you'll love turning Sunni and Shiite Muslims against us. If you liked war in the Persian Gulf, you'll love war all over the Middle East.

If you thought things were bad now, wait till Iran retaliates against our air strikes by bombing Israel. When Israel strikes back, the whole Middle East will have to get sucked into the war. And then the fun really starts.

Do any of you have any confidence that George W. Bush knows what he's doing when he contemplates starting a war with Iran? Do any of you believe he has carefully thought out all the possibilities and has a plan for every contingency?

I don't care how Republican you are, that is an inconceivable thought. No one could believe that's true. The man who lost New Orleans and accidentally started a civil war in Iraq is going to have a sound strategy for Iran?" — Cenk Uygur (Huffington Post)

10:06 AM   •  

Apr 13, 2006

Dog or Monkey? 

"This Video Of President Bush, Speaking This Morning, Presented Entirely Without Comment, Except That You Should Watch For The Part Where He Pants Like A Dog Toward The End." (Philadelphia Weekly via Just Between Strangers)

2:25 PM   •  

Read It? Watched It? Swap It 

"...[I]f consumers were asked to place all of their CD's and DVD's, for example, in three piles — those they love, those they like well enough to keep and those they would be happy to have taken away — the piles would most likely be equal. Any system that helps people easily trade away what they do not want for what they do want is 'a beautiful synchronicity,' Mr. Silverstein said in an interview." (New York Times )

2:11 PM   •  

Google Gulp 

Quench Your Thirst for Knowledge: "Think a DNA scanner embedded in the lip of your bottle reading all 3 gigabytes of your base pair genetic data in a fraction of a second, fine-tuning your individual hormonal cocktail in real time using our patented Auto-Drink™ technology, and slamming a truckload of electrolytic neurotransmitter smart-drug stimulants past the blood-brain barrier to achieve maximum optimization of your soon-to-be-grateful cerebral cortex. Plus, it's low in carbs! And with flavors ranging from Beta Carroty to Glutamate Grape, you'll never run out of ways to quench your thirst for knowledge."

12:46 PM   •  

Freebie Finder 

"...an automated free stuff aggregator. I've designed it to collect free stuff offers from top freebie sites, while filtering out scams and referral pyramids. This site is in beta, and so your suggestions are always welcome. Listed below are the most recent offers found, with their sources to the right. Remember to bookmark the site, it updates every few hours! (A lot of people have been asking: yes, I have plans to add an RSS feed shortly! Check back soon.)"

Caveat emptor: you get what you pay for. IMHO, most free offers are not worth the effort.

12:42 PM   •  

Hit-and-Miss List 

If you're in this directory, forget shopping: "You know this is happening at the airports, where security pulls some guy out of the boarding line. You've heard about the feds being on the lookout for money launderers in high-stakes financial transactions. But a car dealership? Hey, how about the 7-Eleven? You might be surprised!" — Don Oldenburg (Washington Post op-ed via Book of Joe)

12:09 PM   •  

DEA Agent Who Shot Self In Foot Sues Uncle Sam 

“A Drug Enforcement Administration agent who stars in a popular online video that shows him shooting himself in the foot during a weapons demonstration for Florida children is suing over the tape's release, claiming that his career has been crippled and he's become a laughingstock due to the embarrassing clip's distribution.” (Smoking Gun)

Technorati tags: DEA laughingstock humiliation video

11:51 AM   •  

Hell Is Other People's Music 

"'Hell,' said Jean-Paul Sartre, 'is other people.' I'd qualify that slightly. People are fine; it's their music that's hell." — Momus (Wired)

11:48 AM   •  

Why the Ground is Brown 

"From space, Earth looks blue and green. But put your nose to the ground, and you'll probably see just brown. Where does the brown ground come from?" (LiveScience)

As profound a question as why the sky is blue, although it didn't occur to us to ask until the '70's when we could see the whole earth from space.

11:47 AM   •  

R.I.P. Rev. William Sloane Coffin 

Civil Rights and Antiwar Inspiration Dies at 81: "The Rev. William Sloane Coffin Jr., a civil rights and antiwar campaigner who sought to inspire and encourage an idealistic and rebellious generation of college students in the 1960's from his position as chaplain of Yale University, then reveled in the role of lightning rod thrust upon him by officials and conservatives who thought him and his style of dissent dangerous, died yesterday at his home in Strafford, Vt. He was 81." (New York Times )

11:34 AM   •  

Judges Set Hurdles for Lethal Injection 

“Judges in several states have started to put up potentially insurmountable roadblocks to the use of lethal injections to execute condemned inmates.

Their decisions are based on new evidence suggesting that prisoners have endured agonizing executions. In response, judges are insisting that doctors take an active role in supervising executions, even though the American Medical Association's code of ethics prohibits that.” (New York Times)

Related:

Spinning Hope on Incarceration Station: "Death row, home to 83 men, is where KLSP-FM (91.7), which prison officials say is the nation's only licensed prison radio station, finds its most dedicated audience and inspiration for its core mission: spreading the word of Jesus (and an occasional message from the warden) to men doomed to die behind bars." (New York Times )

Technorati tags: capital_punishment lethal_injection execution death_penalty death_row

11:22 AM   •  

Apr 11, 2006

Firefox 3.0 leaked? 

Not exactly: "There's a story on Digg about how Firefox 3 is now available for download. While this is absolutely true, it should be noted that the major difference between a firefox-3.0a1 build and a firefox-1.6a1 build from a few days ago is the version number. This change does not reflect an official release of Firefox 3.0 Alpha 1, it reflects the fact that the version number was changed. These are still what we call 'trunk' builds, and we offer no guarantees about the stability of the code therein." (NewsForge)

2:54 PM   •  

The Long-Distance Journey of a Fast-Food Order 

Outsourcing the drive-through. (New York Times )

2:41 PM   •  

Bush Calls Reports of Plan to Strike Iran 'Speculation' 

Bush makes this clumsy denial just like he told us all how reprehensible leaks are. Furthermore, 'speculative' predictions do not necessarily prove false.

2:39 PM   •  

Are We Really Going To Nuke Iran? 

Fred Kaplan decodes our options as follows (highly telescopic; read the article):

"The Madman Theory. In his first few years as president, Richard Nixon tried to force North Vietnam's leaders to the peace table by persuading them that he was a madman who would do anything to win the war... A Foreign Ministry spokesman in Tehran today returned the volley by dismissing the report as part of a "psychological war" campaign. The danger of this rhetorical escalation (if that's all it is) is that it can spin out of control. If Washington and Tehran are playing a game of global chicken (as I speculated last week), upping the stakes with nukes is like loading the front bumper with a barrel of dynamite and a crying baby.

The Madman Theory, Variation B. If Iran is immune to such pressures, our European allies might not be. Many of them already regard Bush as a religious zealot and Cheney as a warmonger. If they believe that the White House might really resolve the dispute with Iran by dropping nuclear bombs, they might suddenly start pushing for sanctions—a move they've stopped short of, mainly to protect their own trade relations with Tehran—as a comparatively moderate way of pressuring Iran to stop enriching uranium...

Bureaucratic Politics... The Madman Theory presupposes that at least some of Hersh's sources are using him to disperse disinformation. The Bureaucratic Politics Theory posits that they're using him to promote one faction within the government. The two theories are not mutually exclusive; a mix of both might be operative.

The Three-Options Theory. Another possibility is that Bush is going to launch some sort of raid on Iran, and if people think he might drop nuclear bombs, they'll be relieved—they'll consider it a relatively moderate gesture—if he confines the attack to conventional bombs...

Or … Or maybe there's no gamesmanship going on here, maybe Hersh is simply reporting on a nuclear war plan that President Bush is really, seriously considering, a "juggernaut" that might not be stopped. If it's as straightforward as that, we're in deeper trouble than most of us have imagined." (Slate)

1:39 PM   •  

Apr 10, 2006

Sleep Aberration May Play Role in Near-Death Experience 

"So-called near-death experiences -- the widely reported sensations, in times of peril, of floating above the body, seeing a white light, and having a sensation of peace -- may be related to poorly regulated arousal systems in the brain, according to researchers here." (MedPage Today) Yes, I think it would be fair to call near-death a state of poorly-regulated arousal...

11:39 PM   •  

The Dirty Word in 43 Down (expanded) 

A New York Times Crossword Puzzle Gaffe: "If you finished Monday's crossword puzzle in the New York Times, your answer for 43 Down, clued as 'Scoundrel,' was SCUMBAG. Most puzzlers, penciling in these letters, felt nothing more than mild satisfaction. But a small number knew enough to be outraged." (Slate)

The article makes much of the fact that most people today know the word is derogatory but few feel it is vulgar, being largely ignorant of its origin as a term for a condom. I was amazed to find that the Oxford English Dictionary dates the term back only to 1967, with the first noted use to mean 'despicable' in 1971. I was a child in the late '50's and early '60's experimenting, as we all did unless we were brought up in the finest homes, with vulgarity and scatology, and already back then calling someone a 'scumbag' brought that frisson of using a forbidden word otherwise reserved for c-words, s-words, b-words and f-words. Maybe it took awhile to diffuse across the Atlantic, although it has always been my impression that British vulgarity is far more colorful and evocative than the somewhat sad, pitiful hackneyed version in the U.S.

In any case, there is ongoing debate about whether dictionaries should reflect common usage or define normative usage; whichever it is, most dictionary entries on 'scumbag' these days have the disparaging but not the vulgar connotation (good thing, because otherwise would we find the word in the dictionary at all?). And so it goes with most vulgarity? It feels as if something is lost when saying 'fuck' does not bring on a little shiver blending daring, delight and alarm.

On the other hand, I have wondered if this is not a benefit of the sexual revolution, in a sense. If sex is less shameful, do sexual connotations (and references to other bodily functions) become less disparaging? Since people need expletives, in a sense, could it be that the pejorative connotations of f-words, c-words etc. are more highly conserved than the sexualized flavor? In being wistful about the thrill of uttering a forbidden word, and in conveying the same attitude to my children, am I showing my stripes as a 'prude'??

More: People interested in this issue would do well to browse through the contents of Maledicta, 'the international journal of verbal aggression', available here.

8:11 AM   •  

Apr 9, 2006

The Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (PDM) 

Readers of FmH know that, as a psychiatrist, I am deeply concerned about the travesty we have made of diagnosis, largely driven by the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM). There are many reasons it is flawed, but one of the most important is how far away the basis of classification it shapes is from person-centered knowledge. Now the disenfranchised wing of the profession of psychiatry, the psychoanalytically-driven proponents of the talking cure, fire back, with The Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (PDM), a personality-based system of diagnosis and classification. Given their relative lack of power in Western psychiatry in the 21st century, I doubt it will go far, but it is a welcome effort, and I have placed my pre-order.

3:03 PM   •  

“If we go, the southern half of Iraq will light up like a candle.” 

Seymour Hersh, one of our most important intelligence assets, writes in the New Yorker on Bush administration plans for the coming war with Iran. A series of quiet meetings have begun and the Iraq situation is being replicated in that only the converted are being preached to and Bush comes out of it taking the lack of dissent as encouragement. Ahmadinejad is routinely demonized as a 'Hitler' by this administration which does not know the meaning of the word diplomacy. Prejudice, hysteria, xenophobia and bellicosity have taken the place of any coherent threat assessment about how soon Iran could attain nuclear weapons capacity and what kind of danger that would represent. Just as in the buildup to the Iraq invasion, analysis of intelligence is being bypassed and raw data cherrypicked to fit preconceived agendas. For example, much is being made of supposed Teherani contacts of A.Q.Khan, the proliferation-mongering so-called 'father of the Pakistani atomic bomb' now under house arrest in Islamabad. It is unlikely the U.S. will allow the I.A.E.A., U.N. regulatory processes, and European diplomatic efforts to move forward any more than we did before moving on Iraq.

Covert teams of US forces are on the ground in Iran, Hersh reports, and the Air Force is drawing up target lists for a massive air campaign, the aim of which is regime change. The air force has begun flying simulated bombing missions which have all the earmarks of nuclear weapons delivery. Hersh argues that the dispersal and burial of Iranian nuclear facilities combined with the lack of intelligence about which surface manifestations hide strategic resources makes the use of the 'bunker-busting' nuclear weapons all but inevitably necessary. Since a prolonged bombing campaign based on a principle of attrition would likely provoke Muslim anger and retaliatory strikes against U.S., Israeli and other European interests around the world, a decisive strike that decapitates Iranian assets in one fell swoop becomes more likely in this messianic vision. Furthermore, we certainly do not have the resources for a prolonged ground war, making a definitive first strike the only feasible option. But there are apparently serious misgivings even among the Joint Chiefs of Staff about planning for the nuclear option. Opponents are shouted down and some are thinking of resigning, which will of course solidify the hardline stance in the administration.

Again, I can't speak with enough urgency about the necessity for everyone to read the Hersh article and related coverage of what we are planning in Iran. Reach your own conclusions about whether this seems the urgent threat I feel it is. If you believe so, it is time to come together in a massive new movement focused on stopping the administration madmen from a course of action that will result in a nuclear strike on Iran. If we think the world as we knew it ended on Sept. 11, 2001, just wait; could the confrontation be coming as soon as this summer, to help the Republicans out in the November midterm elections? Or certainly before the fall of 2008.

Throughout my life, I have been much more or an activist (literal meaning: "one who is active", right?) than during the mounting outrages of the Bush years, despite my growing conviction this administration's insanity presents the greatest threat to life as we know it that I have seen in my lifetime. Somehow I justified my complacency by saying that my weblogging activities are a sufficiently potent form of activism, spreading the word (yeah, right to my all of 300 or so daily visitors??). But none of the righteous weblogging indignation of a community of writers far more articulate and passionate than I am stopped the tragic debacle of the destruction of Iraq. Part of the problem is how inured we have become to the outrages of the Bush era as they have accumulated unceasingly. But the outrages to which we are ramping up now are transcendent, and now is the time for far more. What can you, we, do to make sure the administration does not pursue this mad course of action?

1:32 PM   •  

Throw Scooter From the Train 

The White House needs a new strategy to deal with the Libby revelations: "Now White House aides have to figure out if they are going to embrace Libby or ditch him. Up to this point, officials could skirt the Libby case by maintaining the position that Scooter was a dedicated, loyal, super-competent guy who was innocent until proven guilty. Conservatives whose testimonials fill Libby's Web page have repeated this line, too. Supporters could frame the trial as Libby v. the press or Libby v. an overzealous prosecutor. In both tales, the vice president's former top aide was the selfless hero and the enemy was up to no good. This was a safe thing to do because the allegations all concerned Libby's behavior with investigators and the grand jury. The White House could support him without getting into the question of whether or not he was a liar.

Now the dynamic has changed. Libby's claims are hurting the White House, which means his former colleagues probably want to discredit him. This is often the response to aides who go off the reservation. There was a hint of this yesterday from Bush allies. Why would anyone believe what Scooter Libby says about what the president did? After all, he's up on perjury and obstruction charges and from what we know, his defense is implausible. The problem with character assassination is that it does little to address Libby's underlying claim. It is also disturbingly reminiscent of the tarring of Joe Wilson that caused the Plame affair to begin with." — John Dickerson (Slate)

11:07 AM   •  

The Great Weapons Debate 

"The Pentagon wants to deploy a host of exotic new weapons systems. Critics say too much of this costly hardware is designed to fight the wrong war." (Popular Mechanics)

11:03 AM   •  

Interview with Rebecca Blood 

~C4Chaos: ~B-SCAN tidbit: "Once a blogger posted a little bio of me on his site. As you know, I rarely post about myself on my blog, and this was before I had a bio up, or even an about page. He assembled quite a picture based purely on the little tidbits I'd posted over the years, but that meant he had to comb through years of archives to do it. That really brought home the thing I tell people over and over: posting is publishing. Once it's online, it's out there. Think before you post.

And once I got an email from a German guy who wondered if I could send him pictures of having my head shaved. It was a little creepy."

10:55 AM   •  

Top 100 April Fool's Day Hoaxes Of All Time 

"(as judged by notoriety, absurdity, and number of people duped)" (The Museum of Hoaxes) The article also has a link to this page, about speculation about the origins of April Fool's Day. An interesting theory connects it to the calendar reform in 16th century Europe. Those who declined to switch from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, and thus continued to celebrate the new year at the end of March instead of the newly decreed day of January 1st, were supposedly subject to ridicule and practical jokes at that time.

10:27 AM   •  

In Ancient Document, Judas, Minus the Betrayal 

The surfacing of the 'Gospel of Judas' may or may not rock Christianity:

"Though some theologians have hypothesized the 'good Judas' before, scholars who have translated and studied the text said this was the first time an ancient document lent specific support to a revised image of the man whose name in history has been synonymous with treachery.

Scholars say the release of the document will set off years of study and debate. The debate is not over whether the manuscript is genuine — on this the scholars agree. Instead, the controversy is over its relevance." (New York Times )

Critics dismiss the new document as a Gnostic text written so long after the fact that it can have no claim to accuracy. This will only ring true for those who try to sort Biblical text into the manmade and the revelatory, excluding the former and attempting to base their faith on the promise of the latter. I have always found that a tragic flaw in true believers. A central fact about Christianity is the lack of contemporaneous documentation; everything known about Jesus is retrospective, and all historical texts have a viewpoint and an agenda. It also seems to me that this has some relationship to the core tension between the concepts of Jesus as a man and as God made flesh.

The notion of the 'good Judas' is not at all unfamiliar. I first encountered it for example in Kazantzakis' stunning Last Temptation of Christ (the novel, not necessarily the film...), which may be why in my mind the notion of Jesus asking Judas to take on the role of the betrayer is indelibly wedded to the notion of Christ's humanity. I think it is likely that this concept, indeed this document, is not so much being freshly discovered as it is emerging from centuries of suppression by the orthodoxy. And what agendas underlie its reemergence? The National Geographic Society is rumored to have paid $1 million for the publication rights...

[And, no, I have no idea how this ties in with Dan Brown's ideas, which I have not read...]

10:17 AM   •  

How to Write a Thank-You Note 

A number of webloggers have already linked to this sensible primer by Leslie Harpold. I imagine it is because we recognize our having lost this gracious art ourselves and feeling moved to reclaim it?

9:58 AM   •