Monthly Archives: April 2004

Wasting Millions, Earning Billions

This entry was posted in Capitalism Constitution Culture Domestic Terrorism Economics Law Law Enforcement Libertarianism Regulation Taxation on by

First, via Hit & Run I learn that the american taliban bushies are not only running a ridiculous deficit but that they are also wasting millions of the dollars that they don’t have chasing down willing folks selling product to willing buyers. Come on feds, if there are assaults, rapes, fraud, extortion, etc., go after’m otherwise leave the people you are supposed to serve alone.
And, then I learn via Boing Boing that the guy who may or may not be the world’s richest man makes a portion of his billions selling furniture to the folks willingly buying product from the folks the feds are harrassing.
Ahhhh, the webs of commerce.

Maggots, Leeches and….

This entry was posted in Economics Health Care on by

Whipworms.
Yes, whipworms are joining the arsonal of modern medical technology following the recent discovery of the benefits of maggots and the periodic reappearance of leeches as a treatment for various conditions.
In a recent clinical trial 50% of ulcerative colitis patients and 70% of Chron’s disease patients entered remission when treated with regular doses of pig whipworms.
The theory is that the human immune system evolved to deal with worm parasites and may become overactive in their absence. An interesting unintended consequence of the large reduction in human parasite infections in advanced western economies.

Nope, No Transparency Here

This entry was posted in bush Constitution Democracy Domestic Terrorism Election 2004 Federal Government Libertarianism War on Terrorism on by

The bushies will not release to the 9/11 Commission the complete text of rice’s preempted 9/11 speech. Josh Marshall tries to understand why not:

Unless the argument is that we can’t let our enemies know the depth of the poor judgment displayed by the president’s national security team it is searchingly hard to fathom what possible national security issue could be implicated by handing over the speech since it was — do we have to say it? — a speech! A speech for public consumption.

And just to be clear:

Trent Duffy, a spokesman for the White House, said only: �The White House is working with the commission to ensure that it has access to what it needs to do its job.�

These folks must have a different understanding of the commission’s job then the rest of us.