Don't Flush Your Pharmaceuticals... Male Fish are Being Feminized, among other effects.

Cholesteral-lowering cocktails... Synthetic Female Hormones...
...Anabolic Steer Steroids?!...

What's in YOUR Tap Water?

And you thought your only choices were between "Fizzy" and "Still"...
"Bottom's Up?"

I'll call this story: "H2_WHOA!"

Peace.
L.




From: news.yahoo.com

AP PROBE FINDS PHARMACEUTICAL DRUGS IN DRINKING WATER

By JEFF DONN, MARTHA MENDOZA and JUSTIN PRITCHARD, Associated Press Writers Sun Mar 9, 5:03 PM ET

A vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows.

To be sure, the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe.

But the presence of so many prescription drugs — and over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen — in so much of our drinking water is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences to human health.

In the course of a five-month inquiry, the AP discovered that drugs have been detected in the drinking water supplies of 24 major metropolitan areas — from Southern California to Northern New Jersey, from Detroit to Louisville, Ky.

Water providers rarely disclose results of pharmaceutical screenings, unless pressed, the AP found. For example, the head of a group representing major California suppliers said the public "doesn't know how to interpret the information" and might be unduly alarmed.

How do the drugs get into the water?

People take pills. Their bodies absorb some of the medication, but the rest of it passes through and is flushed down the toilet. The wastewater is treated before it is discharged into reservoirs, rivers or lakes. Then, some of the water is cleansed again at drinking water treatment plants and piped to consumers. But most treatments do not remove all drug residue.

And while researchers do not yet understand the exact risks from decades of persistent exposure to random combinations of low levels of pharmaceuticals, recent studies — which have gone virtually unnoticed by the general public — have found alarming effects on human cells and wildlife.

"We recognize it is a growing concern and we're taking it very seriously," said Benjamin H. Grumbles, assistant administrator for water at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Members of the AP National Investigative Team reviewed hundreds of scientific reports, analyzed federal drinking water databases, visited environmental study sites and treatment plants and interviewed more than 230 officials, academics and scientists. They also surveyed the nation's 50 largest cities and a dozen other major water providers, as well as smaller community water providers in all 50 states.

Here are some of the key test results obtained by the AP:

_Officials in Philadelphia said testing there discovered 56 pharmaceuticals or byproducts in treated drinking water, including medicines for pain, infection, high cholesterol, asthma, epilepsy, mental illness and heart problems. Sixty-three pharmaceuticals or byproducts were found in the city's watersheds.

_Anti-epileptic and anti-anxiety medications were detected in a portion of the treated drinking water for 18.5 million people in Southern California.

_Researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey analyzed a Passaic Valley Water Commission drinking water treatment plant, which serves 850,000 people in Northern New Jersey, and found a metabolized angina medicine and the mood-stabilizing carbamazepine in drinking water.

_A sex hormone was detected in San Francisco's drinking water.

_The drinking water for Washington, D.C., and surrounding areas tested positive for six pharmaceuticals.

_Three medications, including an antibiotic, were found in drinking water supplied to Tucson, Ariz.

The situation is undoubtedly worse than suggested by the positive test results in the major population centers documented by the AP.

The federal government doesn't require any testing and hasn't set safety limits for drugs in water. Of the 62 major water providers contacted, the drinking water for only 28 was tested. Among the 34 that haven't: Houston, Chicago, Miami, Baltimore, Phoenix, Boston and New York City's Department of Environmental Protection, which delivers water to 9 million people.

Some providers screen only for one or two pharmaceuticals, leaving open the possibility that others are present.

The AP's investigation also indicates that watersheds, the natural sources of most of the nation's water supply, also are contaminated. Tests were conducted in the watersheds of 35 of the 62 major providers surveyed by the AP, and pharmaceuticals were detected in 28.

Yet officials in six of those 28 metropolitan areas said they did not go on to test their drinking water — Fairfax, Va.; Montgomery County in Maryland; Omaha, Neb.; Oklahoma City; Santa Clara, Calif., and New York City.

The New York state health department and the USGS tested the source of the city's water, upstate. They found trace concentrations of heart medicine, infection fighters, estrogen, anti-convulsants, a mood stabilizer and a tranquilizer.

City water officials declined repeated requests for an interview. In a statement, they insisted that "New York City's drinking water continues to meet all federal and state regulations regarding drinking water quality in the watershed and the distribution system" — regulations that do not address trace pharmaceuticals.

In several cases, officials at municipal or regional water providers told the AP that pharmaceuticals had not been detected, but the AP obtained the results of tests conducted by independent researchers that showed otherwise. For example, water department officials in New Orleans said their water had not been tested for pharmaceuticals, but a Tulane University researcher and his students have published a study that found the pain reliever naproxen, the sex hormone estrone and the anti-cholesterol drug byproduct clofibric acid in treated drinking water.

Of the 28 major metropolitan areas where tests were performed on drinking water supplies, only Albuquerque; Austin, Texas; and Virginia Beach, Va.; said tests were negative. The drinking water in Dallas has been tested, but officials are awaiting results. Arlington, Texas, acknowledged that traces of a pharmaceutical were detected in its drinking water but cited post-9/11 security concerns in refusing to identify the drug.

The AP also contacted 52 small water providers — one in each state, and two each in Missouri and Texas — that serve communities with populations around 25,000. All but one said their drinking water had not been screened for pharmaceuticals; officials in Emporia, Kan., refused to answer AP's questions, also citing post-9/11 issues.

Rural consumers who draw water from their own wells aren't in the clear either, experts say.

The Stroud Water Research Center, in Avondale, Pa., has measured water samples from New York City's upstate watershed for caffeine, a common contaminant that scientists often look for as a possible signal for the presence of other pharmaceuticals. Though more caffeine was detected at suburban sites, researcher Anthony Aufdenkampe was struck by the relatively high levels even in less populated areas.

He suspects it escapes from failed septic tanks, maybe with other drugs. "Septic systems are essentially small treatment plants that are essentially unmanaged and therefore tend to fail," Aufdenkampe said.

Even users of bottled water and home filtration systems don't necessarily avoid exposure. Bottlers, some of which simply repackage tap water (Aquafina), do not typically treat or test for pharmaceuticals, according to the industry's main trade group. The same goes for the makers of home filtration systems.

Contamination is not confined to the United States. More than 100 different pharmaceuticals have been detected in lakes, rivers, reservoirs and streams throughout the world. Studies have detected pharmaceuticals in waters throughout Asia, Australia, Canada and Europe — even in Swiss lakes and the North Sea.

For example, in Canada, a study of 20 Ontario drinking water treatment plants by a national research institute found nine different drugs in water samples. Japanese health officials in December called for human health impact studies after detecting prescription drugs in drinking water at seven different sites.

In the United States, the problem isn't confined to surface waters. Pharmaceuticals also permeate aquifers deep underground, source of 40 percent of the nation's water supply. Federal scientists who drew water in 24 states from aquifers near contaminant sources such as landfills and animal feed lots found minuscule levels of hormones, antibiotics and other drugs.

Perhaps it's because Americans have been taking drugs — and flushing them unmetabolized or unused — in growing amounts. Over the past five years, the number of U.S. prescriptions rose 12 percent to a record 3.7 billion, while nonprescription drug purchases held steady around 3.3 billion, according to IMS Health and The Nielsen Co.

"People think that if they take a medication, their body absorbs it and it disappears, but of course that's not the case," said EPA scientist Christian Daughton, one of the first to draw attention to the issue of pharmaceuticals in water in the United States.

Some drugs, including widely used cholesterol fighters, tranquilizers and anti-epileptic medications, resist modern drinking water and wastewater treatment processes. Plus, the EPA says there are no sewage treatment systems specifically engineered to remove pharmaceuticals.

One technology, reverse osmosis, removes virtually all pharmaceutical contaminants but is very expensive for large-scale use and leaves several gallons of polluted water for every one that is made drinkable.

Another issue: There's evidence that adding chlorine, a common process in conventional drinking water treatment plants, makes some pharmaceuticals more toxic.

Human waste isn't the only source of contamination. Cattle, for example, are given ear implants that provide a slow release of trenbolone, an anabolic steroid used by some bodybuilders, which causes cattle to bulk up. But not all the trenbolone circulating in a steer is metabolized. A German study showed 10 percent of the steroid passed right through the animals.

Water sampled downstream of a Nebraska feedlot had steroid levels four times as high as the water taken upstream. Male fathead minnows living in that downstream area had low testosterone levels and small heads.

Other veterinary drugs also play a role. Pets are now treated for arthritis, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, allergies, dementia, and even obesity — sometimes with the same drugs as humans. The inflation-adjusted value of veterinary drugs rose by 8 percent, to $5.2 billion, over the past five years, according to an analysis of data from the Animal Health Institute.

Ask the pharmaceutical industry whether the contamination of water supplies is a problem, and officials will tell you no. "Based on what we now know, I would say we find there's little or no risk from pharmaceuticals in the environment to human health," said microbiologist Thomas White, a consultant for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

But at a conference last summer, Mary Buzby — director of environmental technology for drug maker Merck & Co. Inc. — said: "There's no doubt about it, pharmaceuticals are being detected in the environment and there is genuine concern that these compounds, in the small concentrations that they're at, could be causing impacts to human health or to aquatic organisms."

Recent laboratory research has found that small amounts of medication have affected human embryonic kidney cells, human blood cells and human breast cancer cells. The cancer cells proliferated too quickly; the kidney cells grew too slowly; and the blood cells showed biological activity associated with inflammation.

Also, pharmaceuticals in waterways are damaging wildlife across the nation and around the globe, research shows. Notably, male fish are being feminized, creating egg yolk proteins, a process usually restricted to females. Pharmaceuticals also are affecting sentinel species at the foundation of the pyramid of life — such as earth worms in the wild and zooplankton in the laboratory, studies show.

Some scientists stress that the research is extremely limited, and there are too many unknowns. They say, though, that the documented health problems in wildlife are disconcerting.

"It brings a question to people's minds that if the fish were affected ... might there be a potential problem for humans?" EPA research biologist Vickie Wilson told the AP. "It could be that the fish are just exquisitely sensitive because of their physiology or something. We haven't gotten far enough along."

With limited research funds, said Shane Snyder, research and development project manager at the Southern Nevada Water Authority, a greater emphasis should be put on studying the effects of drugs in water.

"I think it's a shame that so much money is going into monitoring to figure out if these things are out there, and so little is being spent on human health," said Snyder. "They need to just accept that these things are everywhere — every chemical and pharmaceutical could be there. It's time for the EPA to step up to the plate and make a statement about the need to study effects, both human and environmental."

To the degree that the EPA is focused on the issue, it appears to be looking at detection. Grumbles acknowledged that just late last year the agency developed three new methods to "detect and quantify pharmaceuticals" in wastewater. "We realize that we have a limited amount of data on the concentrations," he said. "We're going to be able to learn a lot more."

While Grumbles said the EPA had analyzed 287 pharmaceuticals for possible inclusion on a draft list of candidates for regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act, he said only one, nitroglycerin, was on the list. Nitroglycerin can be used as a drug for heart problems, but the key reason it's being considered is its widespread use in making explosives.

So much is unknown. Many independent scientists are skeptical that trace concentrations will ultimately prove to be harmful to humans. Confidence about human safety is based largely on studies that poison lab animals with much higher amounts.

There's growing concern in the scientific community, meanwhile, that certain drugs — or combinations of drugs — may harm humans over decades because water, unlike most specific foods, is consumed in sizable amounts every day.

Our bodies may shrug off a relatively big one-time dose, yet suffer from a smaller amount delivered continuously over a half century, perhaps subtly stirring allergies or nerve damage. Pregnant women, the elderly and the very ill might be more sensitive.

Many concerns about chronic low-level exposure focus on certain drug classes: chemotherapy that can act as a powerful poison; hormones that can hamper reproduction or development; medicines for depression and epilepsy that can damage the brain or change behavior; antibiotics that can allow human germs to mutate into more dangerous forms; pain relievers and blood-pressure diuretics.

For several decades, federal environmental officials and nonprofit watchdog environmental groups have focused on regulated contaminants — pesticides, lead, PCBs — which are present in higher concentrations and clearly pose a health risk.

However, some experts say medications may pose a unique danger because, unlike most pollutants, they were crafted to act on the human body.

"These are chemicals that are designed to have very specific effects at very low concentrations. That's what pharmaceuticals do. So when they get out to the environment, it should not be a shock to people that they have effects," says zoologist John Sumpter at Brunel University in London, who has studied trace hormones, heart medicine and other drugs.

And while drugs are tested to be safe for humans, the timeframe is usually over a matter of months, not a lifetime. Pharmaceuticals also can produce side effects and interact with other drugs at normal medical doses. That's why — aside from therapeutic doses of fluoride injected into potable water supplies — pharmaceuticals are prescribed to people who need them, not delivered to everyone in their drinking water.

"We know we are being exposed to other people's drugs through our drinking water, and that can't be good," says Dr. David Carpenter, who directs the Institute for Health and the Environment of the State University of New York at Albany.


*You may find a related story/report (well-documented) at: The Environmental Working Group (ewg.org)*

Executive Summary

Tap water in 42 states is contaminated with more than 140 unregulated chemicals that lack safety standards, according to the Environmental Working Group's (EWG's) two-and-a-half year investigation of water suppliers' tests of the treated tap water served to communities across the country.

In an analysis of more than 22 million tap water quality tests, most of which were required under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, EWG found that water suppliers across the U.S. detected 260 contaminants in water served to the public. One hundred forty-one (141) of these detected chemicals — more than half — are unregulated; public health officials have not set safety standards for these chemicals, even though millions drink them every day.

Governor Elliot Spitzer: The Emperor of Denial.

Well...

New York Governor Elliot Spitzer has been caught with his 20+years Married Hand in the Classy Call Girl Cookie Jar (a biz called "The Emperor's Club"... hence the title of this Blog.)...

Tsk... tsk... tsk...

I mean... Call me "Crazy"...

(although, the proper term is 'Schizophrenic', according to my psychiatrist.)

But, I don't get how New York Governor and former Wall Street-Steamrolling, "Mr. Clean" NY State Prosecutor, Elliot Spitzer Ever thought it was a good idea to order a high-priced call girl from a telephone or via email.

I mean...
Didn't he know that Everything anyone of us says on our phones or in an email might be (and in the case of Mr. Spitzer, who had made many powerful enemies over the course of his career, Likely Is) being listened in on and/or read.

That whole AT&T, Bush and Friends' Domestic Spying Program, although being sold to the Public as being used only to catch and thwart those faceless Evildoer's, Secret, Evildoing, Terror Plots...

(...By the by...
I must say: Any Terrorist worthy of the Label of "Terrorist" would NEVER discuss their Evildoing Plan on an unsecured telephone line or openly in an unencrypted email....
Duh!)

... potentially is also filtering through (and Filing and Storing) All of Our conversations and emails.

Having been a NY Prosecutor, I'm sure Mr. Spitzer, on numerous occasions, listened in on the recorded conversations and/or read the emails of people he was actively prosecuting or building a case against.

Even Lil' Nobody Me is a bit more careful about what I say in my emails or on the phone...
...But, not too much... like I said... I got a psychiatrist who can vouch for me.

But a High-Profile NY Prosecutor-turned-Governor?

One with a lot of High-Profile Enemies with Deep Pockets and Really Good Connections?

All I can say is:
Duuuude... What were you thinking?!

(Even if Mr. Spitzer got caught as a result of a vast web cast for a sting operation targeting The Emperor's Club... Neither he nor Any Of Us should assume our conversations/emails are "Private"... Just in case you didn't know...)

Peace.
(Disclaimer: The Federal Government, in collusion with AT&T and other Telecoms, might be keeping track of what Blogs you visit... although, considering who's at the helm, they might not care about any porn or other site that has nothing to do with using your Brain.)

L.

From: The Guardian U.K.


Wow! Doesn't his beautiful wife look like Jennifer Anniston?

Sting exposes New York's Mr Clean as Client 9 of the Emperor's call-girl club

· New York state governor apologizes on television
· Alleged prostitution ring link revealed by wire-taps


He was billed as a possible future president, a rising star in the Democratic party who made his name on the back of high-profile prosecutions against organised crime and corruption. But last night Eliot Spitzer, the governor of the state of New York and self-styled Mr Clean, was facing calls to resign after he apologised on camera in the wake of an alleged link to a prostitution ring.

Spitzer delivered a short statement in Albany, the state capital, with his wife of 21 years, Silda Wall Spitzer, by his side. The governor did not refer to the allegations that he had employed the services of a high-class prostitute in Washington last month, but he did admit that in what he called a "private matter" he had acted in a way that "violated my obligations to my family and violates my, or any, sense of right or wrong".

The news that the hard-man of New York politics - once known as the sheriff of Wall Street - had become embroiled in precisely the kind of ring for which he is famous for cracking caused astonishment across the state and beyond. Minutes after the New York Times broke the news on its website, local TV stations were clearing their schedules to focus on the story.

Law enforcement officials told Associated Press that Spitzer had been recorded through wire taps as he communicated with a high-end call-girl service, the Emperor's Club VIP, which also operates in several European cities, including Paris and London. Detectives planted an undercover agent in the prostitution ring, and Spitzer, allegedly identified in court papers filed in a Manhattan court as Client 9, was tracked as he arranged a meeting with at least one woman in a Washington hotel.

The prostitution ring ran a website through which clients could see 50 prostitutes' bodies, with their heads hidden, and check against their hourly rates. The women were ranked using a diamond system: three diamonds cost $1,000 (£496) an hour, seven diamonds $5,500 or more.

Client 9 appeared to pay $2,600 for an appointment on the night of February 13 at the Washington Mayflower hotel. It may not have been a one-off: the court documents refer to him saying to the organisers of the Emperor's Club: "Yup, same as in the past," and paying a deposit against future liaisons.

Spitzer, 48, made his name during eight years as the state's attorney general, challenging the titans of Wall Street. He took on the former chief executive of the New York stock exchange, Dick Grasso, forcing him to resign in 2003 after Grasso accepted a pay package of $140m.

Spitzer also confronted the mob and organised crime, breaking up at least two prostitution rings. After one such case in 2004, he said: "This was a sophisticated and lucrative operation. It was, however, nothing more than a prostitution ring."

By the time he won the election to state governor in 2006 with a landslide 69% of the vote he was being talked about as future president. But within months, his administration started to stumble. He displayed a stubbornness that strayed into excess. He once told a Republican opponent: "Listen, I'm a fucking steamroller and I'll roll over you and anybody else."

His troubles deepened last summer when his aides admitted asking state police to spy on the top Republican in the state senate, Joe Bruno. New York tabloids dubbed the affair "Troopergate".

The attorney general launched an investigation, ultimately chastising the governor for tracking Bruno in an attempt to generate unsavoury media coverage of his rival.

Spitzer has backed Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, but that endorsement was looking less valuable last night. Four people have already been charged in relation to the Emperor's Club ring. Under federal law, it is illegal to move people across states for the purpose of prostitution, a misdemeanour punishable by up to five years in prison.

As details of the scandal reverberated around the country, questions were being asked about Spitzer's political future. The Republican leader in the New York state assembly, James Tedisco, called for his immediate resignation. "He has disgraced his office and the entire state of New York," he said. Spitzer refused to say whether he would stay in post, adding: "I don't believe politics in the long run is about individuals ... But I have disappointed and failed to live up to the standard I expected of myself."

The New UFO (Unidentified FALLING Object) Threat... Space Debris.

"The Sky Is Falling!... The Sky Is Falling!"

Guess What? The Children's Tale of The Histrionic and Hysterical Barnyard Bird Might Need a Re-Write...

Chicken Little Wasn't Exaggerating...

I've Blogged about the potential threat of Space Debris before, but with the recent Big News Story of the US Navy's targeted missile strike of a clunker of a US Spy Satellite that did a "George W." -it was sent to do a job... cost a lot of money... got into position... "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED"... went rogue and became a deadly threat to people everywhere - I decided that it was worth re-visiting.

From the "Way to Go, China... Way to Go!" File:

In April 2006, China was scheduled to host an international conference on minimizing debris in space.

The Not-So-Funny thing is... only three months earlier, China had destroyed an old weather satellite in an anti-satellite weapon test that NASA called "the single worst contamination of low Earth orbit during the past 50 years."
(...Considering all of the space junk NASA is responsible for... Well, "people who live in glass Space Centers...")

Not surprisingly, the Chinese canceled the meeting.

The problem with what they did is this: when the Chinese satellite exploded, tens of thousands of shards shot off in every direction, creating a debris field which extends from 125 miles above the surface of Earth to 2,500 miles.

US Air Force engineers have figured that it will take 100 years for all the pieces to fall out of orbit.

O.K., we can all agree, that sounds pretty bad... But, let's be fair... I'm still waiting for the Air Force engineers to calculate the size of the debris field created by the Navy's destruction of our toxic satellite... and how long it's many thousands of pieces and chunks will take to fall out of orbit...

(Of course, I'm not holding my breath.)

Needless to say, there's a lot of debris out there... um, up there. From nuts and bolts to Rocket Boosters, that big tank of Ammonia from the ISS, an astronaut glove, "pieces of exploded spacecraft", etc.

According to NASA, "...these objects number in the millions and orbit the earth at hyper-velocities averaging 10 km/s (22,000 mi/h)."

What NASA considers 'larger particles' (objects greater than 10-cm in diameter) are being tracked and catalogued by USSPACECOM radar.

The real threat comes from so-called 'medium size particles' (objects with a diameter between 1 mm to 10 cm). These aren't easily tracked, yet they are big enough to result in catastrophic damage to spacecraft and satellites.

Now that around 20 other countries have the technology to blast satellites and whatnot into orbit and with the private sector racing to stick a flag in space... all with potentially varying degrees of success/failure at keeping their stuff up there... and considering that there are no widely-accepted international space safety protocols...

THIS is a situation that calls for a 'preemptive strike', as it were. The international community needs to get together and agree on and maintain sensible safety standards regarding whats up there and protocols to follow when an object becomes a potential threat...

What we should NOT do is wait until there is a catastrophic collision between a chunk of debris and, say, the Space Shuttle or have an important communications satellite get clobbered and rendered useless to get all nations motivated to do something.

Peace.
L.
From: www.guardian.co.uk/.

Warning of Catastrophe From Mass of 'Space Junk'

'Failure to act would be folly,' says report to UN

Robin McKie and Michael Day
The Observer,
Sunday February 24 2008


The amount of debris orbiting the Earth has reached a critical level. Old satellite parts, solar panels and the odd astronaut's lost glove now pose serious risks to space missions. A report from the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety is calling for stringent international laws to be brought in urgently to avert a tragedy.

The threat posed by orbiting debris can only be allayed by extending civil aviation standards into space, says the report, which is to be presented to the United Nations in April. 'Failure to act now to regulate space to protect property and human life would be pure folly,' says the association's director, Tommaso Sgobba. Professor Richard Crowther, who is representing the UK at a UN space safety meeting in Vienna, agrees: 'Eventually binding international civil aviation style laws will have to come.'

Last week, the United States courted an international row after shooting down a disabled spy satellite, saying its fuel could cause serious damage if it crashed to Earth. Russia, however, claimed that the operation was a US cover-up to test its anti-satellite weapons.

According to the space agency NASA, there are now 9,000 pieces of orbiting junk, weighing a total of more than 5,500 tonnes: old rocket launchers, tools and instruments dropped by astronauts, and pieces of exploded spacecraft. Examples include a glove lost by astronaut Ed White during a 1965 space walk, a camera that Michael Collins let slip in space in 1966 and a pair of pliers that an International Space Station astronaut recently let slip through their fingers.

Space junk varies in size from tiny bolts and screws to huge lumps of fuselage and are to be found in two main regions: low Earth orbit, a few hundred miles above Earth, and geostationary orbit, 22,300 miles up, where communication satellites are programmed to hover above the planet.

In low Earth orbit, pieces of debris pose particular problems. They could strike manned spacecraft and lead to fatal de-pressurization, space experts warn. In 1991, a space shuttle had to carry out an emergency seven-second burn of its engines to avoid being struck by part of a Russian Cosmos satellite.

Low-orbiting debris also poses a risk to Earth itself. In 2006, pieces of a Russian spy satellite burnt up in the atmosphere, passing perilously close to a Latin American Airbus carrying 270 passengers over the Pacific.

To date, only one person has been injured by space debris, however: an Oklahoma woman who was hit in the shoulder by a piece of a Delta rocket's fuel tank, but was uninjured by this extraterrestrial attack.

The problem, according to the Association for the Advancement of Space Safety report, is that up to 20 countries are now able to launch objects into space - but very few of these have rigid safety protocols. Nor is the problem of space debris confined to near Earth, it adds. Satellites in geostationary orbit are supposed to be moved farther into space after they become defunct - but often that obligation is not met.

More than 200 dead satellites now litter this vital part of space. Within 10 years that number could increase fivefold, warns the report. The resulting chaos could lead to serious damage or loss of a spacecraft.

'Unfortunately we may have to wait for something to happen, perhaps a big near miss, before people realise we can't go on as we are,' Crowther said.

Under the USDA, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad Cow World.

Recent News Reports have been filled with the news of the biggest recall of beef in history. The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Sunday ordered the recall of 143 million pounds of frozen beef from Chino-based Westland/Hallmark Meat Co.

The recall will affect beef products dating to Feb. 1, 2006.

In other words, this being February 2008, most of the beef being recalled has likely already been consumed by unwitting, carnivorous, American consumers.

The recall and federally-ordered suspension of operations at Westland/Hallmark comes only after an undercover video from the Humane Society of the United States surfaced showing crippled and sick animals being shoved with forklifts.

Authorities said the video showed workers kicking, using electric shock and otherwise abusing "downer" animals that were apparently too sick or injured to walk into the slaughterhouse. Some animals had water forced down their throats from a high pressure hose.

(In spite of the video (only the most recently caught-on-tape case of animal abuse), the USDA, after much hoof-dragging, finally declared in 2003 that so-called 'downer' animals should be kept out of the human food supply. This was because of the possibility that they might be suffering from/their meat products contaminated with Mad Cow Disease. People who eat the contaminated meat can develop the human version of spongiform encephalopathy.)

I don't know how many slaughterhouses there are in the U.S., but I'm quite sure that this is not an isolated incident.

History is filled with evidence that (and research studies have shown) when some human beings are given absolute power over anyone, be they inmates in a U.S. prison, detainees in Abu Ghraib/Gitmo... or helpless and frightened animals in a factory farm or slaughterhouse...
Terrible Abuse... up to and including Torture... is bound to occur.

Unfortunately, it's a 'no-brainer.'

What I want to know is... who are the people who the news is saying are "...up in arms over video of animal abuse"? (Other than vegan people, of course, like myself, who find the whole process barbaric whether there's over-the-top torture of the animals or just the run-of-the-mill, normal torture.)

Are they the same people who, at lunch, gave in to a Big Mac Attack?
Are they the same people who think nothing of grabbing a couple of Happy Meals for their kids? ("Happy Meal" is one of the greatest and most horribly ironic misnomers in modern history... Trust me, the cattle who passed through the McMillions Murdered processing plant didn't die happy.)

I saw the video... and it is gut-wrenching to see these gentle and harmless animals -who are obviously suffering horribly (enough to render them incapable of taking the march to captive-bolt stunning and carotid artery slicing death under their own power) being Tortured in their last Torturous Moments.

As for this headline-grabbing, breaking news/lead-in story-worthy and (honestly)relatively pointless recall goes...

"It's really closing the barn door after the cows left.", as Jean Halloran, director of food policy initiatives at Consumers Union noted.



From www.goveg.com/.

Mad Cow Disease: It’s Mad to Eat Meat

Mad cow disease is one of the most frightening diseases of our generation. Also known as “bovine spongiform encephalopathy,” it is a member of a group of diseases called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. These diseases, which cause the brain to degenerate until it becomes “spongy” and lead to eventual death, are caused by misshapen proteins called “prions.”1 Researchers have traced massive outbreaks of the disease on factory farms to the meat industry’s cost-cutting practice of mixing the brain tissue of dead farmed animals into the feed of other farmed animals.

Any animal with a brain has the potential to become infected with a prion disease and could pass the disease on to humans who eat the animal’s flesh.

To make matters worse, prions are nearly indestructible. They're impervious to radiation, washing, boiling and the intense heat of autoclaves used to sterilize surgical instruments. Unlike many harmful bacteria, prions aren't destroyed by cooking or by the strong juices produced in your stomach.

Scientists have already identified mad cow disease variants in humans, fish, sheep, minks, cows, deer, and cats. Although illegal in Japan and Europe, in the U.S. and Canada it remains common to include the blood, bone, and unwanted flesh of all types of farmed animals in the feed of chickens, turkeys, and pigs. Of all the animal flesh and bone meal that is processed into food for farmed animals, almost half is fed to chickens and turkeys, 13 percent is fed to pigs, and 10 percent is fed to cows.

How Do People Get Mad Cow Disease?


When people eat infected animals, they can develop the human version of spongiform encephalopathy called “new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease” (nvCJD). This disease eats holes in the brain (which results in a spongy appearance), initially causing memory loss and erratic behavior. Over a period of months, victims gradually lose the ability to care for themselves or communicate, and they eventually die. There is evidence that a large number of Americans diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia may in fact be victims of CJD.

Eating contaminated meat has caused more than 150 deaths worldwide. Thousands more are likely infected but do not know it yet, according to a study published in The Journal of Pathology, and it can take years for symptoms to develop.6,7 Millions of cows developed the disease in Europe in the 1990s and were killed and their bodies burned—although burning does not destroy prions. Hunters in the U.S. and their families may have contracted the disease by eating infected deer they killed.8


What Is the U.S. Government Doing to Protect Americans From Mad Cow Disease?

The USDA, which is supposed to ensure the safety of the American food supply, has a long, disturbing history of protecting the profits of the wealthy meat, dairy, and egg industries instead of protecting consumers and animals. But the agency’s actions on the mad cow issue may be the most appalling dereliction of duty to date:

“Downed cows” (those too sick or injured to walk) are considered the most likely to have mad cow disease. After years of stalling, the USDA finally announced in late 2003 that it would stop allowing these animals into the human food supply. However, a damning internal report released three years later found that USDA inspectors were still allowing many downed cows to be slaughtered for human consumption.9

While Japan and England test every slaughtered cow for mad cow disease, the U.S. tests fewer than 1 percent of cows.10,11 The USDA even refused to allow a slaughterhouse to do its own testing—perhaps fearful of what the slaughterhouse might find.12

A 2006 audit found that top USDA officials tried to stop additional testing on a cow who was suspected of having mad cow disease because the agency feared that a positive test would cause economic harm to the beef industry. When the inspector general finally insisted that the cow be tested, the results showed that the cow was indeed infected with the disease.13

How to Protect Yourself

The American government is not following the World Health Organization recommendations for protecting Americans from mad cow disease.

There is no cure for vCJD (the form of Mad Cow which humans can develop).

There is also no treatment that will slow the progress of the disease. Drug therapy can be used to help some of the psychiatric symptoms of the condition.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is always fatal. The typical survival time is eight months after symptoms first appear. About 5 percent of patients live longer than two years. The usual survival time for patients with nvCJD is twelve months after onset.

Simply put, the only way to ensure that you won’t eat something that will cause you to develop a horrific, brain-rotting illness is to go vegetarian.

Human Body Exhibits Reveal More Than Expected

Is it Art?... Science?... Entertainment?... Or Something Much More Sinister?

You may have seen the commercials...
"The Universe Within", "Body Worlds", "Bodies Revealed"...
The ads all look alike... (if you have a weak stomach, stop reading Here.)
Real Human Remains/Bodies... that have been embalmed, skinned, cured, trimmed, soaked in chemical baths... so that they are preserved... no decomposition, no smell...
They are then posed, in various activities, for all to see... for a price.
(Personally, I wouldn't want to see the exhibit, even if it were Free.)

I first heard of this modern Carnival of the Macabre a couple of years ago. "Body Worlds" had come and gone and a copycat competitor was currently spending ridiculous amounts of money in local TV advertising. I glanced up at the TV screen only once... my gut winced and so did I... and I made a point to avoid the images thereafter. I thought it grotesque... and not in a good way.
And I had a Question:
"WHERE DID THEY GET THE BODIES?"
I had an interest in the show... but not in a way that they can make money from.

Apparently, I wasn't the only one. California State Assemblywoman Fiona Ma had some serious concerns about these exhibits, too.

Ma first encountered one of the Body Exhibits in San Francisco in 2005... When she realized that all of the bodies came from China, she immediately became concerned: "Chinese people are very superstitious about death. If someone dies in a house, they won't buy the house," she said. "They believe in full-body burials. They don't believe in organ donations, and some people don't even believe in giving blood. So, automatically, I thought that something was wrong with the show," said Ma.

Before too long, I heard that this second-rate exhibit was involuntarily closed down... after patrons complained of (and a local news crew filmed) some of the bodies leaking an unidentified substance.

Oops! Seems they skipped a few of the important steps in the Plastination Process. Tsk... Tsk... Tsk...

About a month ago, one of these Human Remains Reviews passed through town again. Same skinned bodies, same barrage of creepy commercials... and the same Question, still unanswered...
On the bright side, at least these poor folks weren't dripping.
Well... it was unanswered until Brian Ross investigated the hugely profitable practice of peeling and posing people for ABC's 20/20...
All I can say is... Add them to the growing list of questionable Chinese exports...
That... and... "Ewww!"

(From Our Body: The Universe Within's Website:) Where do these specimens come from?
"All of the anatomical specimens contained in Our Body: The Universe Within originate from China and have been provided for the exhibit consistent with the laws of China. The anatomical specimens are not owned by the exhibitors, but are provided by a Chinese foundation to promote educational and medical research of the human body. While we do not have the specific identity of each anatomical specimen, they have been donated through medical schools and other research facilities in China to promote education, science and medical research of the human body."

"...consistent with the laws of China..."
REALLY?
That's interesting, cause it's been illegal in China to export human bodies or body parts since 2006.

Then again...
China executes more prisoners than any other country...
That said, perhaps they've just embraced Capitalism...
Why bother disposing of all of those remains...
When you can SELL THEM?!...

Eww.
Peace.
L.

From: //abcnews.go.com

Human Bodies on Display: Where Do They Come From?

Body Exhibit Inventor Says He's Stopped Using Bodies From China Because Some of Them May Be Those of Executed Prisoners

The German doctor who invented the process that led to hundreds of human bodies being put on display around the world, says he has stopped using bodies from China because some of them may be those of executed Chinese prisoners.

The body shows, which have drawn millions of paying customers in more than 30 cities, show human bodies that have been preserved with a liquid plastic process. The bodies are shown skinned and trimmed, in a variety of poses, including throwing a football, playing poker or at a chess board.

In an interview to be aired Friday on the ABC News program "20/20," Dr. Gunther von Hagens also says an underground black market is providing bodies to Chinese companies that export them to the U.S. and Europe, despite a 2006 Chinese law prohibiting the export of human bodies for commercial purposes.

A spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said it was investigating the allegations.

Von Hagens says he had to cremate several bodies he received in China after detecting injuries that led him to suspect they had been executed prisoners. He says those bodies were given to him by a medical school in China to plastinate for teaching models. He said he only used Chinese bodies, all of which he received from the Chinese university, for teaching models, but has never put Chinese bodies on public display.

"There is now no way for me any more to work with specimens in China," said von Hagens, who says his company in China now only deals with animal specimens.

The German doctor, labeled Dr. Death by some European newspapers, said, "I am concerned that public exhibitions are being hijacked by corporate interests."

Von Hagens says the bodies he uses in shows currently running in Baltimore, Milwaukee and elsewhere are from European donors who voluntarily consented prior to their deaths to have their bodies put on display.

Von Hagens provided "20/20" with documents of donors to back up his claim.

"The donors know exactly what is the scope of what we are doing," he said in the interview, conducted at his body factory in the German town of Guben, on the Polish border.

Von Hagens says he invented the "plastination" process initially, in 1975, to prepare body specimens for medical schools.

In 1995, he opened the first public display in Tokyo and has since made millions of dollars with shows around the world that have provoked considerable controversy.

"You're going to be entertained by looking at dead bodies, by looking at cadavers that have been put in the most atrocious poses for our entertainment," said Rabbi Louis Feldstein of Atlanta.

Feldstein says it violates a standard of "respect for the life that was lived."

Earlier this month, the California Assembly passed and sent to the Senate, legislation that would require body shows to have proof that each body had been donated with "informed consent."

"As a person of Chinese descent, I just don't believe any family would consent to have their kin shown this way," said the bill's author, Assemblywoman Fiona Ma.

"The skin is ripped off; body parts are exposed so that someone else could be making millions of dollars looking at them," she said.

Dr. von Hagens says he strongly supports the California legislation and says it should be the standard worldwide.

"Especially as a German, with [our country's] Nazi past, I have to refrain to avoid the tiniest, little strand of any doubt that I am guilty of unethical conduct," he said.

Universal Karma: If The Falling US Spy Satellite Hits George W. or Dick Cheney.

LOOK OUT BELOW!!!

Apparently A US Spy Satellite... A Large One is Coming Soon... February or March... and by that I don't mean it's on its way up into space... This one, Brothers and Sisters, is Coming Down...

From Space.

From: http://news.bbc.co.uk



A space satellite (image: Nasa)
No details of the satellite were given


Satellite could plummet to Earth


A "large" US spy satellite has gone out of control and is expected to crash to Earth some time in late February or March, government sources say.

Officials speaking on condition of anonymity said the satellite had lost power and propulsion, and could contain hazardous materials.

The White House said it was monitoring the situation.

(Ooh! "The White House is monitoring the sitch..." Like they were monitoring Iraq? Like they were monitoring North Korea? Like they were monitoring the 9/11 hijackers who were listed in the phone book?... Well, I feel Safer... Don't You? - L.)

A spokesman said "numerous" satellites had come out of orbit and fallen back to Earth harmlessly over the years.

(So... someone's about due for a whack, huh?
Can we vote for a Candidate? I vote for George W. - in this instance ONLY. - L.)

"We are looking at potential options to mitigate any possible damage this satellite may cause," said Gordon Johndroe, who speaks for the US National Security Council.

Questioned by The Associated Press, he would not be drawn on whether the US would try to destroy the satellite, perhaps with a missile.

An unnamed official quoted by AP said the US government was keeping lawmakers and other countries abreast of the situation.

(Since When? How long have they known about it? It's expected to splash or crash down within 2 months... That's not a lot of notice. - L.)

Fuel hazard

The satellite contains the rocket fuel hydrazine, a government official told AP on condition of anonymity.

A colourless liquid with an ammonia-like odour, the fuel is a toxic chemical and can cause harm to anyone who comes in contact with it.

John Pike, director of the defense research group GlobalSecurity.org, said an uncontrolled re-entry could risk exposure of US secrets.

(Yippee! More Transparency! - L.)

Spy satellites typically are disposed of through a controlled re-entry into the ocean so that no one else can access the spacecraft, he was quoted by AP as saying.

The military expert believes that shooting the satellite down would create debris that would then re-enter the atmosphere and burn up or hit the ground.

In his estimate, the satellite weighs about 20,000 pounds (9,072kg) and is the size of a small bus.

It is possible, he adds, that this one died as long as a year ago and is just now getting ready to re-enter the atmosphere.

Another expert, Jeffrey Richelson of the National Security Archive, said the satellite is probably a photo reconnaissance satellite.

Into the ocean

AP notes that the largest uncontrolled re-entry by a US space agency (Nasa) craft was Skylab.

The 78-tonne abandoned space station fell from orbit in 1979.

Its debris dropped harmlessly into the Indian Ocean and across a remote section of western Australia, the US news agency says.

In 2002, officials believe debris from a 7,000-pound (3,175-kg) science satellite hit the Earth's atmosphere.

It rained down over the Persian Gulf, a few thousand miles from where they first predicted it would crash.

False Pretenses, Misinformation and The Mushroom Cloud...Or, Lies My President Told Me

Winter Greetings!
I hope you all are keeping warm and staying healthy.


Upon hearing about the Center for Public Integrity's Project "War Card" - which thoroughly examined the actual words spoken by all of the major players in the 'orchestrated deception on the path to war' in Iraq...
My immediate thoughts were two little words that I can still hear reverberating in my brain... as spoken by George W., himself: "Mushroom Cloud",
Well, perhaps they aren't so little, when you take into account what enormous horrors they are referring to.
So, I took the time to look up when these words were spoken, so that I may give criminal credit where criminal credit is due. Much to my surprise, I discovered that it was actually Condi Rice who Spewed the phrase out first, only a couple of months prior to George...
Perhaps to gauge public response to the use of such an incendiary and visual phrase?
Needless to say...
If the We The People were too busy, lazy or apathetic to fill the streets across this Nation... in Protest over (Obscene)Supreme Court's Florida Decision and the summary Unlawful Occupation of the White House...
Well, then they probably weren't too worried about it.

If you Love to research the Whacked and Wacky Words of the W. Regime and have the actual quotes to present to any remaining Bush-Backers...
Check out the massive and fully-searchable database at CPI's website.
It includes the public statements, drawn from both primary sources and secondary sources, over the two years beginning on September 11, 2001. It also WISELY interlaces relevant records/information from more than 25 government reports, books, articles, speeches, and interviews.

On September 8, 2002, in an interview with Wolf Blitzer,
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice boiled the administration's case down to a single line that evoked both the uncertainty and the risk associated with Iraq: "We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud."

From: The Nation's Calvin Trillin:
On the Confirmation of Condoleezza

The mushroom-shaped cloud Condi spun
As being the next smoking gun
Was hooey invented to show
Attacking Iraq's apropos.

Then, two months later...

President Bush Outlines Iraqi Threat
Remarks by the President on Iraq
Cincinnati Museum Center
October 7, 2002
"...America must not ignore the threat gathering against us. Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof -- the smoking gun -- that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud."
(The Truly Funny and Ironic Thing I Noted About the Above Statement, in light of the release of the results of the Misinformation Study...
Is The Title of the Press Release For the Speech...
It is Titled: "Iraq... Denial and Deception")
*Hmm... Maybe they didn't specify who was doing the denying and deceiving for a reason?

Also from The Nation's Calvin Trillin:
Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld And, Alas, Powell Talk To the American People

They pushed the CIA to say
That nukes could quickly come our way--
Saddam might, with a finger snap,
Remove Chicago from the map.
They took a lack of proof in stride.
They simply lied.

Intelligence? The Pentagon's
Came straight from dorkish neocons
Employed to find Iraq in back
Of every terrorist attack.
With facts that failed to serve their side,
They simply lied.

By the By...

American Military Deaths in Iraq Confirmed By The DoD To Date: 3929.
Total Wounded in Iraq Confirmed By The DoD To Date: 28938
(*There are unofficial estimates that would increase this number by three.)

Let There Soon Be Peace... In Spite of W. & Co. and their B.S.
L.


From: The Center for Public Integrity

False Pretenses
Following 9/11, President Bush and seven top officials of his administration waged a carefully orchestrated campaign of misinformation about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

By Charles Lewis and Mark Reading-Smith

President George W. Bush and seven of his administration's top officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, made at least 935 false statements in the two years following September 11, 2001, about the national security threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Nearly five years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, an exhaustive examination of the record shows that the statements were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses.

On at least 532 separate occasions (in speeches, briefings, interviews, testimony, and the like), Bush and these three key officials, along with Secretary of State Colin Powell, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, and White House press secretaries Ari Fleischer and Scott McClellan, stated unequivocally that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (or was trying to produce or obtain them), links to Al Qaeda, or both. This concerted effort was the underpinning of the Bush administration's case for war.

It is now beyond dispute that Iraq did not possess any weapons of mass destruction or have meaningful ties to Al Qaeda. This was the conclusion of numerous bipartisan government investigations, including those by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (2004 and 2006), the 9/11 Commission, and the multinational Iraq Survey Group, whose "Duelfer Report" established that Saddam Hussein had terminated Iraq's nuclear program in 1991 and made little effort to restart it.

In short, the Bush administration led the nation to war on the basis of erroneous information that it methodically propagated and that culminated in military action against Iraq on March 19, 2003. Not surprisingly, the officials with the most opportunities to make speeches, grant media interviews, and otherwise frame the public debate also made the most false statements, according to this first-ever analysis of the entire body of prewar rhetoric.

President Bush, for example, made 232 false statements about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and another 28 false statements about Iraq's links to Al Qaeda. Secretary of State Powell had the second-highest total in the two-year period, with 244 false statements about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 10 about Iraq's links to Al Qaeda. Rumsfeld and Fleischer each made 109 false statements, followed by Wolfowitz (with 85), Rice (with 56), Cheney (with 48), and McClellan (with 14).

The massive database at the heart of this project juxtaposes what President Bush and these seven top officials were saying for public consumption against what was known, or should have been known, on a day-to-day basis. This fully searchable database includes the public statements, drawn from both primary sources (such as official transcripts) and secondary sources (chiefly major news organizations) over the two years beginning on September 11, 2001. It also interlaces relevant information from more than 25 government reports, books, articles, speeches, and interviews.

Consider, for example, these false public statements made in the run-up to war:

* On August 26, 2002, in an address to the national convention of the Veteran of Foreign Wars, Cheney flatly declared: "Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us." In fact, former CIA Director George Tenet later recalled, Cheney's assertions went well beyond his agency's assessments at the time. Another CIA official, referring to the same speech, told journalist Ron Suskind, "Our reaction was, 'Where is he getting this stuff from?' "
* In the closing days of September 2002, with a congressional vote fast approaching on authorizing the use of military force in Iraq, Bush told the nation in his weekly radio address: "The Iraqi regime possesses biological and chemical weapons, is rebuilding the facilities to make more and, according to the British government, could launch a biological or chemical attack in as little as 45 minutes after the order is given. . . . This regime is seeking a nuclear bomb, and with fissile material could build one within a year." A few days later, similar findings were also included in a much-hurried National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction — an analysis that hadn't been done in years, as the intelligence community had deemed it unnecessary and the White House hadn't requested it.
* In July 2002, Rumsfeld had a one-word answer for reporters who asked whether Iraq had relationships with Al Qaeda terrorists: "Sure." In fact, an assessment issued that same month by the Defense Intelligence Agency (and confirmed weeks later by CIA Director Tenet) found an absence of "compelling evidence demonstrating direct cooperation between the government of Iraq and Al Qaeda." What's more, an earlier DIA assessment said that "the nature of the regime's relationship with Al Qaeda is unclear."
* On May 29, 2003, in an interview with Polish TV, President Bush declared: "We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories." But as journalist Bob Woodward reported in State of Denial, days earlier a team of civilian experts dispatched to examine the two mobile labs found in Iraq had concluded in a field report that the labs were not for biological weapons. The team's final report, completed the following month, concluded that the labs had probably been used to manufacture hydrogen for weather balloons.
* On January 28, 2003, in his annual State of the Union address, Bush asserted: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production." Two weeks earlier, an analyst with the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research sent an email to colleagues in the intelligence community laying out why he believed the uranium-purchase agreement "probably is a hoax."
* On February 5, 2003, in an address to the United Nations Security Council, Powell said: "What we're giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence. I will cite some examples, and these are from human sources." As it turned out, however, two of the main human sources to which Powell referred had provided false information. One was an Iraqi con artist, code-named "Curveball," whom American intelligence officials were dubious about and in fact had never even spoken to. The other was an Al Qaeda detainee, Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi, who had reportedly been sent to Eqypt by the CIA and tortured and who later recanted the information he had provided. Libi told the CIA in January 2004 that he had "decided he would fabricate any information interrogators wanted in order to gain better treatment and avoid being handed over to [a foreign government]."

The false statements dramatically increased in August 2002, with congressional consideration of a war resolution, then escalated through the mid-term elections and spiked even higher from January 2003 to the eve of the invasion.



It was during those critical weeks in early 2003 that the president delivered his State of the Union address and Powell delivered his memorable U.N. presentation. For all 935 false statements, including when and where they occurred, go to the search page for this project; the methodology used for this analysis is explained here.

In addition to their patently false pronouncements, Bush and these seven top officials also made hundreds of other statements in the two years after 9/11 in which they implied that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or links to Al Qaeda. Other administration higher-ups, joined by Pentagon officials and Republican leaders in Congress, also routinely sounded false war alarms in the Washington echo chamber.

The cumulative effect of these false statements — amplified by thousands of news stories and broadcasts — was massive, with the media coverage creating an almost impenetrable din for several critical months in the run-up to war. Some journalists — indeed, even some entire news organizations — have since acknowledged that their coverage during those prewar months was far too deferential and uncritical. These mea culpas notwithstanding, much of the wall-to-wall media coverage provided additional, "independent" validation of the Bush administration's false statements about Iraq.

The "ground truth" of the Iraq war itself eventually forced the president to backpedal, albeit grudgingly. In a 2004 appearance on NBC's Meet the Press, for example, Bush acknowledged that no weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq. And on December 18, 2005, with his approval ratings on the decline, Bush told the nation in a Sunday-night address from the Oval Office: "It is true that Saddam Hussein had a history of pursuing and using weapons of mass destruction. It is true that he systematically concealed those programs, and blocked the work of U.N. weapons inspectors. It is true that many nations believed that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. But much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong. As your president, I am responsible for the decision to go into Iraq. Yet it was right to remove Saddam Hussein from power."

Bush stopped short, however, of admitting error or poor judgment; instead, his administration repeatedly attributed the stark disparity between its prewar public statements and the actual "ground truth" regarding the threat posed by Iraq to poor intelligence from a Who's Who of domestic agencies.

On the other hand, a growing number of critics, including a parade of former government officials, have publicly — and in some cases vociferously — accused the president and his inner circle of ignoring or distorting the available intelligence. In the end, these critics say, it was the calculated drumbeat of false information and public pronouncements that ultimately misled the American people and this nation's allies on their way to war.

Bush and the top officials of his administration have so far largely avoided the harsh, sustained glare of formal scrutiny about their personal responsibility for the litany of repeated, false statements in the run-up to the war in Iraq. There has been no congressional investigation, for example, into what exactly was going on inside the Bush White House in that period. Congressional oversight has focused almost entirely on the quality of the U.S. government's pre-war intelligence — not the judgment, public statements, or public accountability of its highest officials. And, of course, only four of the officials — Powell, Rice, Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz — have testified before Congress about Iraq.

Short of such review, this project provides a heretofore unavailable framework for examining how the U.S. war in Iraq came to pass. Clearly, it calls into question the repeated assertions of Bush administration officials that they were the unwitting victims of bad intelligence.

Above all, the 935 false statements painstakingly presented here finally help to answer two all-too-familiar questions as they apply to Bush and his top advisers: What did they know, and when did they know it?

Mobile Phone Radiation Wrecks Your Sleep

Feeling Like You're In A Fog? (and you don't live in S.F. or London?)...
Not Sleeping Well?...
Headaches Harassing You?...
It Might Not Be Your Mate, Job or Schedule...
It Might Just Be Caused By Your Cell Phone...

Mobile Phone Radiation Wrecks Your Sleep

Phone makers' own scientists discover that bedtime use can lead to headaches, confusion and depression

From: The Independent (Apparently, the U.S. Media hasn't bothered to report this YET.)
By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor
Published: 20 January 2008

Radiation from mobile phones delays and reduces sleep, and causes headaches and confusion, according to a new study.

The research, sponsored by the mobile phone companies themselves, shows that using the handsets before bed causes people to take longer to reach the deeper stages of sleep and to spend less time in them, interfering with the body's ability to repair damage suffered during the day.

The findings are especially alarming for children and teenagers, most of whom – surveys suggest – use their phones late at night and who especially need sleep. Their failure to get enough can lead to mood and personality changes, ADHD-like symptoms, depression, lack of concentration and poor academic performance.

The study – carried out by scientists from the blue-chip Karolinska Institute and Uppsala University in Sweden and from Wayne State University in Michigan, USA – is thought to be the most comprehensive of its kind.

Published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Progress in Electromagnetics Research Symposium and funded by the Mobile Manufacturers Forum, representing the main handset companies, it has caused serious concern among top sleep experts, one of whom said that there was now "more than sufficient evidence" to show that the radiation "affects deep sleep".

The scientists studied 35 men and 36 women aged between 18 and 45. Some were exposed to radiation that exactly mimicked what is received when using mobile phones; others were placed in precisely the same conditions, but given only "sham" exposure, receiving no radiation at all.

The people who had received the radiation took longer to enter the first of the deeper stages of sleep, and spent less time in the deepest one. The scientists concluded: "The study indicates that during laboratory exposure to 884 MHz wireless signals components of sleep believed to be important for recovery from daily wear and tear are adversely affected."

The embarrassed Mobile Manufacturers Forum played down the results, insisting – at apparent variance with this published conclusion – that its "results were inconclusive" and that "the researchers did not claim that exposure caused sleep disturbance".

But Professor Bengt Arnetz, who led the study, says: "We did find an effect from mobile phones from exposure scenarios that were realistic. This suggests that they have measurable effects on the brain."

He believes that the radiation may activate the brain's stress system, "making people more alert and more focused, and decreasing their ability to wind down and fall asleep".

About half of the people studied believed themselves to be "electrosensitive", reporting symptoms such as headaches and impaired cognitive function from mobile phone use. But they proved to be unable to tell if they had been exposed to the radiation in the test.

This strengthens the conclusion of the study, as it disposes of any suggestion that knowledge of exposure influenced sleeping patterns. Even more significantly, it throws into doubt the relevance of studies the industry relies on to maintain that the radiation has no measurable effects.

A series of them – most notably a recent highly publicised study at Essex University – have similarly found that people claiming to be electrosensitive could not distinguish when the radiation was turned on in laboratory conditions, suggesting that they were not affected.

Critics have attacked the studies' methodology, but the new findings deal them a serious blow. For they show that the radiation did have an effect, even though people could not tell when they were exposed.

It also complements other recent research. A massive study, following 1,656 Belgian teenagers for a year, found most of them used their phones after going to bed. It concluded that those who did this once a week were more than three times – and those who used them more often more than five times – as likely to be "very tired".

Dr Chris Idzikowski, the director of the Edinburgh Sleep Centre, says: "There is now more than sufficient evidence, from a large number of reputable investigators who are finding that mobile phone exposure an hour before sleep adversely affects deep sleep."

Dr William Kohler of the Florida Sleep Institute added: "Anything that disrupts the integrity of your sleep will potentially have adverse consequences in functioning during the day, such as grouchiness, difficulty concentrating, and in children hyperactivity and behaviour problems."

David Schick, the chief executive of Exradia, which manufactures protective devices against the radiation, called on ministers to conduct "a formal public inquiry" into the effects of mobile phones.

This Particular "W" Doesn't Stand For WHALES

As if the world needed any more evidence of GWB's Utter Contempt for The Law and Disrespect for anyone but himself, his Skull & Bones butthead buddies... and, maybe Bandar Bush...
Apparently, lil' Georgie is channeling Cheney and is making up the whole Executive Powers and Privilege thing as he ambles along... Damn the Law! Damn the Marine Mammals! After all... its a National Security Issue (isn't EVERYTHING?)

George, May Your Karma Run You Over and then Throw Itself into Reverse and Do It Again.

Peace, Brothers and Sisters.
L.

Source: Natural Resources Defense Council

Bush Attempts Illegal Override of Court Order Protecting Whales from Sonar

Unprecedented Waiver Imperils Marine Mammals; White House Snubs California, Federal Courts and Congress

LOS ANGELES (January 16, 2008) – The Bush administration yesterday attempted to override a federal court order requiring the U.S. Navy to minimize harm to whales and dolphins during upcoming sonar exercises off Southern California. In an effort to nullify measures established to protect marine mammals from potentially lethal sound blasts, President Bush gave the Navy an unprecedented waiver under the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA), and allowed the Navy a second “emergency” waiver under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

Those statutes are the basis of a January 3 injunction issued by U.S. District Court Judge Florence-Marie Cooper, requiring the Navy to monitor for and avoid marine mammals while operating high-intensity, mid-frequency sonar during the “SOCAL” naval exercises, now underway.

“There is absolutely no justification for this,” said California Coastal Commissioner Sara Wan. “Both the court and the Coastal Commission have said that the Navy can carry out its mission as well as protect the whales. This is a slap in the face to Californians who care about the oceans.”

Judge Cooper ruled that the Navy’s scheme to mitigate harm had been “grossly inadequate to protect marine mammals from debilitating levels of sonar exposure” in Southern California’s rich biological waters. Her injunction required the Navy to maintain a 12 nautical mile no-sonar buffer zone along the California coastline; to shut down sonar when marine mammals were spotted within 2,000 meters; and to monitor for marine mammals using various methods, among other measures.

The waivers would eliminate all of the court-ordered mitigations under the pretext of “emergency.” In fact, no emergency conditions exist: The SOCAL exercises are routine training drills planned long in advance, but without meeting legal standards. Indeed the exercises were challenged by the California Coastal Commission and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) a year ago.

Moreover, the court did not issue a blanket injunction, but instead produced a carefully tailored order that enables the Navy to conduct sonar training using the common-sense mitigations, many of which the Navy had already employed in previous exercises.

“The President’s action is an attack on the rule of law,” said Joel Reynolds, director of the Marine Mammal Protection Project at NRDC, which obtained the injunction against the Navy. “By exempting the Navy from basic safeguards under both federal and state law, the President is flouting the will of Congress, the decision of the California Coastal Commission, and a ruling by the federal court.”

Both waivers must survive court review for the Navy to legally ignore the injunction. However, the waiver under NEPA is illegal, according to NRDC, because that statute does not include an escape clause for the executive branch, as some statutes do.

“This is not a national security issue. The Navy doesn’t need to harm whales to train effectively with sonar. It simply chooses to for the sake of convenience,” said Mr. Reynolds. “By following the carefully crafted measures ordered by the court, the Navy could conduct its exercises without imperiling marine mammals. Instead, it is attempting to circumvent the court and our environmental laws through presidential fiat. These waivers are unnecessary and we doubt they will both survive judicial review.”

For more information about the effect of sonar on marine mammals, see “Sounding the Depths II: The Rising Toll of Sonar, Shipping and Industrial Ocean Noise on Marine Life".

Hello Luvlies!

In Case You Haven't Heard...
The Latest Scare... No, Not a Terror Threat...
A Serious Public Health Threat is...
That old standby... MRSA... But, Now... It's a New and Pissed Off MRSA.
If You Thought Using All of Those Antibacterial Products Was a GOOD IDEA...
Well... You Were Wrong!
From NPR *(A Trustworthy Source of Information.)
Q&A: Drug-Resistant Staph Infections

by Joe Neel and Richard Knox

NPR.org
January 14, 2008

MSRA infections have garnered much news coverage recently because of the release of the first nationwide study of the bacterium published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The study, conducted in 2005, showed a surprisingly high number of MRSA infections, which are a type of staph infection. This type of infection was found to be three times more prevalent than previously believed.

Recent studies are also showing that the germ is continuing to evolve into strains that are resistant to even more antibiotics.

Here are some answers about MRSA:

What is MRSA?

MRSA stands for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.
Staph is a common bacterium, present on the skin or in the noses of about 20 percent to 30 percent of the population. It's usually nothing to worry about. MRSA is a strain of staph that has become resistant to treatment with antibiotics, including penicillin, amoxicillin, oxacillin, methicillin and others. That makes MRSA harder to treat than regular staph infections.

What do staph and MRSA look like?

Both often start out as mild infections on the skin, showing up as pimples or boils. Infections with garden-variety staph are easily treated in most cases. Both staph and MRSA can cause more serious skin infections or they can lead to pneumonia or infections of the bloodstream, urinary tract or the lining of the brain. Surgical wounds are often prime targets for these germs.

How do you catch MRSA?

MRSA is nearly always connected to health care facilities. Most people who have MRSA have been hospitalized within the past year, or they've gotten treatment in an outpatient facility or nursing home. People can acquire MRSA in health care facilities but not show any signs of infection for weeks or months.

But in recent years, MRSA has spread beyond these facilities into places where people are in close contact, such as athletic facilities. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that about 15 percent of MRSA cases in the United States occur outside health care settings.

Skin-to-skin contact with a person who carries MRSA is believed to be the most common way people get MRSA in the community. In this situation, people who are otherwise healthy may get a skin infection with MRSA. It's also possible to get MRSA from surfaces that are contaminated with the germ, but this is less likely than person-to-person contact.

Who is at risk for MRSA

The CDC says it has investigated clusters of MRSA skin infections among athletes, military recruits, children, men who have sex with men, and prisoners. Risk factors include close skin-to-skin contact, openings in the skin such as cuts or abrasions, crowded living conditions and poor hygiene.

What about schools?

Recommendations for preventing infections in schools focus on good hygiene. Cleaning regimens vary from district to district. The CDC says that in most cases, it is not necessary to close schools because a student has an MRSA infection. Covering infections will greatly reduce the risks of surfaces becoming contaminated. The CDC says the only surfaces that need to be cleaned are those that have been recently touched by someone with MRSA. "In general," the CDC says, "it is not necessary to close schools to 'disinfect' them."

What about health clubs?

The CDC says that the environment has not played a significant role in MRSA outbreaks, but it advises that you always practice good hygiene. At health clubs, this would include showering after working out and using a barrier such as clothing or a towel between your skin and shared equipment. The CDC also recommends wiping surfaces of equipment before and after use.

Why the sudden outbreak of MRSA?

There hasn't been a sudden increase. Drug-resistant staph germs have been spreading across the country for years now, causing deaths from time to time. In the JAMA study published last fall, the CDC estimated that 94,000 Americans get potentially life-threatening MRSA infections every year. That's three times the previous estimates and came as a surprise to many people.

How is MRSA treated if it is resistant to antibiotics?

So far, MRSA is not resistant to all antibiotics. Vancomycin is one treatment. If your doctor prescribes an antibiotic, take the whole prescription — stopping too soon can cause bacteria to become resistant to that antibiotic.

What is the new resistant staph being reported in gay communities?

It's a variant of the MRSA that's spreading nationally. It's resistant to more antibiotics than regular MRSA — not just penicillin-type drugs like methicillin but also clindamycin, erythromycin and mupirocin. The new strain is called multiply drug-resistant MRSA (MDR-MRSA).

The strain has caused serious infections in hundreds of people so far, mostly in the gay communities of San Francisco, Boston, Los Angeles and New York. Doctors say these infections are more fast-moving, so any delay in recognizing them and treating them with the right antibiotic can cause life-threatening infections.

Researchers think many of the infections so far have been transmitted during sexual activity. But MDR-MRSA is spread through skin-to-skin contact and sometimes by contaminated surfaces or shared towels. So anyone can get infected. The precautions are the same — frequent and thorough washing, and immediate attention to any boils or painful rashes.

EXPERT ADVICE ON PREVENTING STAPH INFECTION:
* Experts recommend washing with soap and water or using an alcohol-based hand-sanitizer.
* Cleaning and Covering cuts and abrasions until they are healed.
* Avoiding contact with other peoples's wounds and bandages.
* Avoiding sharing personal items such as toothbrushes, razors and towels.

So This Is Christmas...

Hello Luvlies:

So this is Christmas...

And... What have you bought?

Was it made of plastic or toxic materials?

Was it "Made in China"?

Does it have 'Upgrade' capabilities or Will it be Landfill in six months?

Was it REALLY Necessary?

Did it put you in debt?

Is this a Silly Tradition or What?

It seems to be more about keeping the shopping mall stores afloat than about honoring anyone's birth.

Then there's the whole CHRISTMAS TREE COMPETITION.

I'm sure that you've heard about this on a few occasions.

It's not a Real Competition with Judges.... Like a Largest Pumpkin Contest.

But, it's out there... rearing its Evergreen head here and there.

In my little microcosm, it came to my attention when a local amusement park made a big deal - at the end of their TV commercial - about them having "The Biggest Christmas Tree... It's Even Bigger Than the One at Rockefeller Center!"... or some such Nonsense... They even declared its height... I was so unimpressed that I don't recall what it was... some 200+ ft tall tree that, apparently, won't be getting any taller... seeing as how the amusement park took it upon themselves TO CUT IT DOWN... thereby ending its Life.

David Letterman said something funny about the whole Xmas Tree practice...
He basically said, "What better way to celebrate and honor the birth of a religion's savior... than to cut down and kill a 200-300+ year old tree?"

I would add... Not only cut it down... but cover it in gaudy lights and decorations... "Ooh" and "Aah" over it for a few weeks... and then Toss It Out With The Trash...

Yuck.

I think this whole "Our Tree is Bigger than Your Tree" thing is just an outgrowth of another Age-Old
Competition:

The "My (You Fill In The Blank: House, Car, Swimming Pool, Bank Account, Gun, Airplane, Bomb, Penis...) is Bigger Than Yours!" silliness from the sandbox.

What Would Jesus Do?? You might Ask.

I know One Thing that He Would NOT DO:

Jesus would NOT Cut Down MILLIONS of EVERGREEN TREES...
Especially with the whole Global Warming Thing Going on...
I mean, HELLO PEOPLE OF EARTH: News Flash: Trees absorb Carbon Dioxide (CO2)!

Anyway....

THANK GOD IT'S OVER!

(Although, in the interest of Full Disclosure, I must admit this: I Don't Believe in God...
But, Hey... He doesn't believe in Me either soooo... We're Even.)

Why not?...
Well, I look at it this way:
Since we are (allegedly) existing/perceiving ourselves living in a Reality of DUALITY...
You know... Black/White, Up/Down, Right/Wrong, Off/On, Hot/Cold, Light/Dark, Sun/Moon, Feminine/Masculine...

Father God/........
.......

See where I'm going with this?

Somebody left someone/something out or tried to erase her contribution.

And that SUCKS...

Hmmm...

Perhaps she got witch-washed Because SHE had the Biggest Penis in the Sandbox?

Just a Thought...

Peace.
L.

HAPPY FRIDAY!



I just sent this letter to San Francisco's KRON 4 News Department.
I am going to send it to all of San Francisco's TV News Departments.

My motivation was one of those 'teasers' that was broadcast during a commericial break for a program I was watching recently.

This 'teaser' announced, to my great horror, that several women had been recently been attacked... and to "... stay tuned to KRON 4 News to find out what Bay Area Neighborhood" it was where Police were warning women about it.

...What the %@&!???

Um... Hello... KRON 4 News (and ALL News Departments!)!

When you recieve Official Police Reports of women or anyone in the community being attacked or assaulted... and the perv... perpetrator is still on the loose...

I want to know what you know... RIGHT NOW!!!

I Do Not want to have to wait for the next News broadcast. I do not want to have to wait for whatever reporter is assigned to the story to get around to telling me the details. (You know... you learned it in Journalism 101 class: Who? What? Where?, etc.) I want to hear what you could have and should have told me about it during the News 'Teaser'!

I know it's likely that the head of the News Department is a man...
But, still, he must have female relatives/friends...

Local TV stations are always doing things to promote themselves in the community.
Most recently, programming/commercial breaks have been interrupted by Live Reports from around the Bay Area that lasted for Several Minutes... For The Food Bank!

But, hey, receive a Police Report about multiple attacks on women... and use it as a 15-Second Teaser??

DON'T use a Serious and Immediate Public Safety Issue as a TEASER!

Use the damn resources available to the TV station to INFORM the Public and CONTRIBUTE to PUBLIC SAFETY in an Immediate and Worthwhile way.

This happened a week ago... and I'm still Angry.

But, I feel better now, Thank You.

Peace.
L.

An Open Letter/email:

Dear KRON 4/KRON 4 News Department:

Hello!

I am a frequent KRON 4 viewer. I've appreciated many of the locally-produced programs you have broadcast and I rely on KRON 4 regularly for national and local news information.

I am emailing you in regards to an issue of great concern to me (and, hopefully, to you as well): Public Safety.

In particular, the safety of women and girls in the beautiful Bay Area.

About a week ago, during a commercial break for a program that I was watching on KRON 4, there was a brief "teaser" for the local news show that was to follow...

In this "teaser", the speaker announced that the Police were warning women in "... part of the Bay Area..." to be alert because there had been several attacks. This frightening statement was followed by the instruction to watch KRON 4 News for further details "...next."

I completely understand the need to encourage/entice viewers to 'Stay Tuned' for upcoming programs. I understand that there are ratings and numbers that need to be reached.

But, I am afraid that - in using the unidentified Bay Area city's Police Department's warning about attacks on women as a 'teaser' - perhaps you don't fully understand how such an announcement affects the women who might hear it. (Actually, I hope that is the case, instead of the situation being that you do know and you intended to use the Bush Method of inciting fear to induce viewers to watch the News.)

Women and girls everywhere, to my great sadness, must be constantly vigilant and pay attention to their surroundings and who is around them to stay safe. (Ipods and MP3 players are a major technological impediment to women's safety... but that's another email.)

When your News Department or any News Department receives official reports from local authorities or Police Departments of attacks on women/girls/children/anyone... especially in instances where the suspect or suspects have not been caught/detained/arrested...

...This is a High Priority Public Safety Issue.

And, as such, I feel very strongly that the public needs to be immediately informed/warned.

Every television station has a responsibility (and, hopefully, a desire) to contribute positively to their community. And, with the resources available to them, they have the ability to help great numbers of people.

In an instance such as this - where women's safety and possibly their lives are known to be in serious danger - I feel that our community deserves more than a 'teaser' to "Stay Tuned for the local news."

In an instance such as this, at least in the future - for, tragically, we can be sure it will come up again - I implore you to take the socially responsible High Road and follow such an announcement with whatever pertinent details the authorities have provided to you. Not in half an hour, not in fifteen minutes, not in five minutes... Right at That Moment.

If it involves the Safety of Any Women... it affects Every Woman.

Please don't spend your resources to inform us enough to frighten all of us, leave us frightened and uniformed and, thereby, leave some women - in some unidentified Bay Area city - in immediate danger.

Please consider this when you receive official reports in the future.

Thank You.
L.
San Francisco

Craig "Flibberddygibbetts" Ferguson



I LOOOOVE Craig Ferguson!
(He's the uniquely humorous host of CBS's The Late Late Show.)

Previously, (or, possibly currently... if it's in syndication) you could see him in the role of Drew Carey's boss, Mr.(Nigel Algernon) Wick, in The Drew Carey Show.
(A memorable performance in an oddball role... he could often be found finding new ways to fire his employees - those poor sacked-to-bes, more often than not, were all named "Johnson" - or he was losing a testicle, nipple, etc, in some comical incident. Like I said, "oddball".)

Anyway, I Love him... Usually... Well, often...
Hmmmm...
I'm only fudging because, while, Yes, I think I could Really Love Him....
It's just that... Sometimes... Craig... He... Well, sometimes he just....
...Creeps Me Out!

I don't know why, exactly.
The funny thing is that... he and I have some kind of oddball connection.
No, really.
I do not mean in the 'Lady stalking David Letterman and breaking into his home and - when police arrived to arrest her - claiming she was "Mrs. David Letterman"' sort of we have a Connection! way.

I mean that... even though Craig and I have never actually met - in person...
We have some sort of unconscious communication going on.
(No, do not cue the Psycho shower scene music... Yet!)

Before you decide that I'm teetering towards being delusional...
Just give me a moment...
Let me present my evidence before you wave me off:

(The experiences I am going to describe to you are all True and Really Happened.)

(A Little Background:
Since early childhood, I quickly recognized that what I experienced in my version of Reality was not quite the same as what most of the people I observed around me seemed to experience in their version of Reality.

* On several different occasions, I dreamt about plane crashes... and would open the morning paper to find Headlines screaming about... a plane crash that had occurred overnight.

* For a while, I often would finish people's sentences... I was a kid and I thought I was being helpful... saving them time and all... It wasn't too long before I figured out that most people didn't want that kind of help.
(This particular skill - of picking up on what others were going to say before they said it - returned years later... after it had evolved into something Really Interesting.)
(These are rather tame items... I'm saving the Really JUICY (and Bizarro) Ones for another blog... or, perhaps for my first NY Times Best Seller.)

Anyway, back to Craig and I...

So, Like I said, I'm a loyal viewer of The Late Late Show... at least since Craig Ferguson took over the position of Host.

(Before my beloved Craig, there was another host, also named 'Craig'... a big dork by the name of 'Craig Kilborn'.
I used to refer to him as 'Craig Killjoy'...
Needless to say, I wasn't a fan, not then, anyway.

But I am Now.
Yes, I'll admit that I find this Craig's Scottish accent... well, Charming.
But, much more than that...
He's Really Funny!

During the course of any given day, I don't laugh anywhere near as loud and as often as I do when I'm watching/listening to Craig's monologues, skits or interviews.
I often find myself trying to stifle my laughter, so that I don't disturb my roommates... But, Craig makes it hard to stop laughing.

Back to our 'communication'... what I said about Craig sometimes 'Creeping Me Out'...
I can't explain it. I don't know exactly what it is about him, but when it's there... it's there... and it's strong.
I'd mentioned to a few friends of mine that I Love Him/He Creeps Me Out.
What's funny/strange about this is that, after I had made this declaration...
Craig, himself, declared on different several occasions that he 'creeps' himself out, too!

Coincidence?
Hmmm... Perhaps...

But, there's more...

My finishing people's sentences thing continues...
It not only accomodates live-and-in-person situations...
It also works with live or pre-recorded (yet previously unseen by me) events.

Today, for instance...
The event that motivated me to write this particular blog on this particular subject was this:
I had heard something described on TV that mildly annoyed me...
What it was exactly, I couldn't say... there's sooo much on TV that has the potential to be annoying...
Wait a minute... I just remembered what it was...
A commercial for the (un)reality shoe goo called 'survivor' (I refuse to capitalize it, I think so little of the show.)

Anyway...
"Blah... Blah... Blah... "survivor"... 'Postcard to the Planet'... Blah", goes the commercial... (need I mention the unmemorable barbie twins - one of the participating dippy duos... presented in the same commercial. One of the twins is heard saying, "We are going to use our body to win this!... Maybe someone should point out to them that there are Two of Them?")

So, without looking up at the screen... I was busy on my computer. Although I ignore TV commercials for the most part... that specific stupidity got to me...
I remember thinking something critical of it that included referring to them as "Flibberddygibbetts"... or however it is spelled.

Why do I bring this whole thing up?... you might ask?
Well, it has to do with that non-verbal communication Craig and I seem to share...
On The Late Late Show tonight... a couple of hours after I thought about "Flibberddygibbetts"...
Craig Ferguson was in the midst of an interview with the remarkably humble and always fascinating: Sir Anthony Hopkins.

And just Guess what word leaped forth from Craig's lips??

If you guessed "Flibberddygibbetts"... you'd be correct, Sir!

Now, I consider this an unlikely and remarkable, albeit unspectacular, event.

"Flibberddygibbetts" is definitely NOT a word I normally use... daily, weekly, monthly... nor pretty much ever.

And, I've not heard Craig speak it before tonight, either.

Yet, both he and I said... a decidedly rare, odd and not oft-spoken word...
Within two hours of each other... hundreds of miles away from each other...

Although, as I said, I am able to pull up things people are going to say before they say them... When they are as odd words as this... it garners my attention...

Until the next time it happens...

Just a thought.

Peace... and Weird and Wonderful Stuff.
L.