[Central Sleep Apnea] Key to Dying While Asleep

DNC: Health News - Scientists Find Key to Dying While Asleep: "People who die in their sleep may stop breathing due to a cumulative loss of brain cells in their breathing-command post, according to a new study published in the online edition of Nature Neuroscience.

'We wanted to reveal the mechanism behind central sleep apnea, which most commonly affects people after age 65,' said Jack Feldman, the study's principal investigator and distinguished professor of neurobiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

'Unlike obstructive sleep apnea -- in which a person stops breathing when their airway collapses -- central sleep apnea is triggered by something going awry in the brain's breathing center,' he explained.

Role of PreBotC Neurons

In earlier research, Feldman's team pinpointed a brainstem region as the command post for generating breathing in mammals. They dubbed it 'the preBötzinger complex,' identifying a small group of preBötC neurons responsible for issuing the commands.

In the latest study, they examined the role of the preBötC neurons in generating breathing during sleep. Their goal was to determine what would happen if these brain cells were destroyed.

The researchers injected adult rats with a cell-specific compound to target and kill more than half of their specialized preBötC neurons and then monitored the animals' breathing patterns. After four or five days, they saw dramatic results.
a d v e r t i s e m e n t

'We were surprised to see that breathing completely stopped when the rat entered REM sleep, forcing the rat to wake up in order to start breathing again,' said Leanne McKay, postdoctoral fellow in neurobiology.

'Over time, the breathing lapses increased in severity, spreading into non-REM sleep and eventually occurring when the rats were awake, as well,' she noted.

Cumulative Cell Deficit

The rat findings are relevant to the human brain because mammals' brains are organized in a similar fashion, say the scientists. Rats possess 600 specialized preBötC cells, and humans have a few thousand, Feldman theorizes, which slowly deteriorate over a lifetime.

"Our research suggests that the preBötzinger complex contains a fixed number of neurons that we lose as we age," he said. "Essentially, we sped up these cells' aging process in the rats over several days instead of a lifetime."

Long before the rats had difficulty breathing when awake, they developed a breathing problem during sleep. The same thing happens as people grow older, the researchers believe.

"We speculate that our brains can compensate for up to a 60 percent loss of preBötC cells, but the cumulative deficit of these brain cells eventually disrupts our breathing during sleep," Feldman said.

"There's no biological reason for the body to maintain these cells beyond the average lifespan, and so they do not replenish as we age," he observed. "As we lose them, we grow more prone to central sleep apnea."
a d v e r t i s e m e n t

True Cause of Death Undetected

When elderly, but otherwise healthy, people die during sleep, physicians commonly record the cause of death as heart failure. But the loss of preBötC neurons sparks central sleep apnea in many cases, according to the UCLA researchers, and the true cause of death goes undetected.

Central sleep apnea also may strike people suffering the late stages of neurodegenerative disorders, such as Parkinson's disease, Lou Gehrig's disease and multiple system atrophy -- all serious conditions that lead to movement problems.

"People with these diseases breathe normally when they are awake, but many of them have breathing difficulties during sleep," said Wiktor Janczewski, assistant researcher in neurobiology.

"When central sleep apnea strikes, they are already very ill and their sleep‑disordered breathing may go unnoticed," he pointed out.

"As the patients grow sicker, their nighttime threshold for wakefulness rises. Eventually, their bodies reach a point when they are unable to rouse themselves from sleep when they stop breathing, and they die from lack of oxygen," Janczewski suggested.

The UCLA team will repeat their research with elderly rats in order to learn why central sleep apnea first strikes during REM sleep. They also plan to analyze the brains of people who die from neurodegenerative diseases to determine whether these patients show damage in their preBötzinger complexes.

The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute funded the research.

-------------------
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1880200,00.asp

Fleury said that while he does not wish to make a comparison with the productivity-focused Ruby on Rails dynamic scripting, language-based open-source Web development framework, he acknowledges that RoR "was what crystallized this. Seeing Ruby-on-Rails-style productivity was definitely a catalyst."

eWEEK.com Special Report: Open Source in the Enterprise

Meanwhile, as Seam stands on its own as a lightweight open-source Java framework, a crop of RoR clone languages have emerged, including Biscuit, also known as PHP on Rails; Grails, a Java-based Rails-alike; Monorail, also a Rails-based framework; Turbo Gears, also known as Python on Rails; Cake PHP, another PHP on Rails-like offering; Subway, another Python-based Rails language; and the Catalyst Web framework, Hansson said.

"Ruby on Rails is compelling because it represents a carefully thought-out 'best practices' approach to database-backed Web sites," Ascher said. "Hansson, Rails' creator, deliberately took a lot of the wisdom accumulated by the last few years of Web development technologies and implemented it in Ruby, taking full advantage of Ruby's dynamic capabilities."

PointerCheck out eWEEK.com's Application Development Center for the latest news, reviews and analysis in programming environments and developer tools.

%5 Pseudo Operations in Iraq

Blobs: Pseudo Operations in Iraq
Monday 3rd October 2005, by Christian Mohn



THE two undercover British soldiers, disguised as Iraqis wearing mustaches and wigs and involved in a dramatic rescue by British soldiers where several Iraqi police were killed are part of the pseudo operations of the counter-insurgency being conducted by American British and Israeli special operations.

Pseudo operations, in which government forces and guerilla defectors portray themselves as insurgent units is a technique used in many odious counterinsurgency campaigns throughout the years dating back to the U.S.’s imperialistic conquest of the Philippines to name one example.

Where the basic idea is to win the counter-insurgency against the opposing insurgency, or, at least, that is what is portrayed in various military websites, many aspects of the insurgency and the counter-insurgency being waged in Iraq are suspicious. It appears as if the "coalition forces" or the special ops of those forces are deliberately waging a campaign of terror in order to provoke the insurgency itself- a deliberate effort to prolong the conflict and destabilize the region.

This is not to say there is no true insurgency being waged in Iraq against the invading force. However following the course of the counter-insurgency itself we see the use of psychological warfare being used upon the people of the United States in the form of the scarlet pimpernel Al Zaraqawi who is everywhere and nowhere and the avid internet geeks Al Qaeda of Mesopotamia who claim responsibility for every recent attack but no one can download their site. We are told of endless suicide bombers blowing themselves up in the crowded streets of Baghdad and killing innocent bystanders where there are never any American troops. The American public is told these things and it sees the pictures of the "deadly bombings." The managed public is allowed to draw two conclusions equally safe for the Master-State, the troops are causing the "insurgency" and should come home, or, if the troops pull out, Iraq will descend into civil war.

The appeals for the troops to come home may be getting louder but the special operation units, with or without the troops, will remain there and engage in insurgency and counter-insurgency warfare that becomes something that is only about itself, the goal becoming obscured in a deepening guerilla war that is likely to continue for thirty years.

Al Qaeda is a con game with real players who "turned" into guerillas where sums of money are doled out to the guerillas and cash rewards given to civilians to turn in insurgents who are themselves playing a double game. It becomes a matter of sleazy deals and profits, like the drug operations in Latin and South America where everybody gets a piece of a profitable pie and where civilians are crushed without hope of ever living again in a viable state.

The ever-evolving Al Qaeda Con is designed to exploit and control the American public, an amorphous, threatening spreading blob described by a former insurance salesman turned "cyber-warrior" as "mercury being hit by a hammer." This sort of fantastical garbage gobbled up by publishing companies and NPR programs is what we will be facing for what appears to be an infinite amount of time since it is endlessly conducive to generating more fantasy and more profits.

If the troops did "come home" what will they do here anyway? Just hang around until they are sent off to another country where they pave the way for the next "insurgency."

One could say, well maybe fewer Iraqis will die if the troops got out of Iraq. Perhaps.

While the left deals in "baby steps," others see the notions of the left as no longer competent in offering any viable solutions to the reality of what is before us.
=================


OLD NEWS:This has been in active use since the 50s
(Score:5, Interesting)
by goombah99 (560566) Alter Relationship on Wednesday October 26, @09:57AM (#13880538)
The first sign the Fed's are listening to you is when they give you a nice small bust of lenin for your mantle peice. That's exactly what the British did to the russian ambassador back in the post world-war two era. They gave him a a gift of a small statue and inside it they had mounted a corner cube which is a passive device that enhances the retro-reflection of microwaves beamed at it. (read about it is Peter Wright's (banned in UK) book Spycatcher--wright [amazon.com] was the science officer for MI5 and inventor of the technique [bbc.co.uk])

The second sign is when you feel toasty warm and the chair feels cold. In the 70's and 80's the carter and reagan administrations were perpetually complaining that the level of microwave energy measured inside the US embassy exceeded the OSHA limits for exposure. Eventually the US built a new embassy with enhanced shielding. UNfortunately the Soviet's put listening devices into the bricks. The embassy had to be knocked down and rebuilt. Of course, peter wright [bbc.co.uk] did exactly the same thing to the Soviet embassy in canada. Each night he snuck into the construction site and pulled wires up the inside of the walls to his microphones in specially made window sills. The soviet's learned about it from a mole in MI5 and had to build a second interior wall so that no rooms were near the windows.

Doppler microwave spying is quite old. As is laser vibrometry on windows.
--
TigerDirect [apple.com] is
========


Invest in AA
(Score:5, Funny)
by TripMaster Monkey (862126) * Alter Relationship on Wednesday October 26, @05:29AM (#13879242)

I think I'm going to buy stock in Alcoa Operations [alcoa.com]...with shenanigans like this going on, they can only increase in value.

In the meantime, here's some telltale signs you might be under microwave surveillance:

* You feel slightly warmer than is normal.
* Your food seems to be cooking itself.
* Metal objects in your house give off sparks for no good reason.
* Your coffee remins hot for a very long time.
* Your beer remains cold for a very short time.
* All your CDs are covered with tiny cracks and will no longer play.
* Your house pets smell delicious.


Watch for these signs and protect your privacy...cause the government certainly isn't going to.
===========

Re:Makes little difference
(Score:5, Funny)
by Talas213 (881991) Alter Relationship on Wednesday October 26, @07:06AM (#13879529)
A microwave device can be defeated by the good old tinfoil hat - by which I mean wallpapering in foil or otherwise turning the room into a faraday cage.

I'd suggest lining the walls with bags of popcorn. That way you'll know when you're under survellance and have a nice snack readily available.
==============

Re:Fluff piece
(Score:5, Interesting)
by Ancient_Hacker (751168) Alter Relationship on Wednesday October 26, @06:50AM (#13879462)
>"You cant modulate a 3mm wave to record 0.001 mm changes." You're partially correct. It would be difficult to detect the modulations, EXCEPT that if you're also the sender of the original signal, you can mix the incoming and outgoing signals and extract the phase difference. Subtraction is a VERY powerful signal-extraction method!

There's an anecdote in the engineering field: where some poor sods at Racal-Dana had a phase detector at 50MHz that was so sensitive to vibration they had to stop their experiments whenever a plane took off from Orange County Airport (quite a few miles away). They eventually had to get special thick aluminum wall castings to enclose the phase detector to block the vibrations. And this was at just 50MHz. Phase detectors get more sensitive proportional to operating frequency, so a 5,000 MHz phase detector is *mighty* sensitive!
=============

I say fascist, you say "conservative" / Political Asylum

TMF: I say fascist, you say "conservative" / Political Asylum

Author: sacca
Subject: I say fascist, you say "conservative" Date: 10/5/05 12:50 AM

Recommendations: 163

Just read this and you will see that I am not using hyperbole when I compare American conservatives with fascists -- they really deserve the "American Taliban" label.

UFB. Simply UFB. WTF happened to these people? How did they infest America and why do they hate freedom?

This is from an upcoming article in the Indianapolis magazine NUVO:

"Republican lawmakers are drafting new legislation that will make
marriage a requirement for motherhood in the state of Indiana,
including specific criminal penalties for unmarried women who do
become pregnant "by means other than sexual intercourse."

According to a draft of the recommended change in state law, every
woman in Indiana seeking to become a mother through assisted
reproduction therapy such as in vitro fertilization, sperm donation,
and egg donation, must first file for a "petition for parentage" in their local county probate court.

Only women who are married will be considered for the "gestational
certificate" that must be presented to any doctor who facilitates the pregnancy. Further, the "gestational certificate" will only be given to married couples that successfully complete the same screening
process currently required by law of adoptive parents.

As it the draft of the new law reads now, an intended parent "who
knowingly or willingly participates in an artificial reproduction
procedure" without court approval, "commits unauthorized
reproduction, a Class B misdemeanor." The criminal charges will be
the same for physicians who commit "unauthorized practice of
artificial reproduction."

"Petition for parenthood"?

"Gestational certificate"?

"Unauthorized reproduction"?

Yes, Amerika, this is your Republican Party, now issuing "gestational certificates". What is this, The Handmaid's Tale coming to you live in Indiana?

Sick, sick, sick. I weep for America under the Republo-fascist rule.
------------------------------------------

Author: khalou	Number: of 839915
Subject: The BIGGEST reason I turned against Bush	Date: 8/10/05 10:17 PM

Recommendations: 162

I remember clearly supporting our efforts towards Iraq. Ossama was in the bag, the world was on our side, and everyone was just another American practically globally. 911 had been a catalyst against terrorism- one that finally brought even those who'd been formerly pretty much safe against that sort of thing. "If they'll do that to America, they'll do it to us in a second."

I remember the troops massing on the border of Iraq, waiting for the timetable of invasion to count down to Armageddon.

Then, Hans Blix said what I thought was no surprise to anyone. He said that Saddam was cooperating and that the inspectors were allowed to go wherever they wanted.

Good, I thought. Now we'll find stuff and destroy it. Saddam has already been reminded of who got him to where he was and who can keep him there (and who could take him out).

There was more from Blix. He wasn't finding anything. He was saying that there wasn't anything to be found and that he was certain that he was right according to his, and his expert's experience in these things. Saddam had been playing a game.

Bush stated that he would invade soon and suggested that the inspectors leave immediately. I supposed that this was a good idea- just to show Saddam that he couldn't just allow these inspections for a time, but needed to continue to allow them as free as they'd been.

I was wrong.

Bush wanted the inspectors out before they made their report. It wouldn't have taken long to conclude there were no WMDs or WND programs in Iraq.

But what then? Bush wouldn't have gotten his invasion. At the time, the only reason for doing so was the UN sanctions. Saddam was cooperating with the inspections (horror of horrors). Saddam probably thought that the jig was up and he had to allow the world to know that he didn't really have what he'd formerly wanted them to believe he had.

But he'd dealt with us for so many years, he didn't understand that our new president wasn't interested in "global cooperation" or "the truth". Bush wanted his invasion for reasons that are obvious in the pages of the PNAC website. Too bad Saddam wasn't aware of the Defense Policy Document that had been written in 1992 by a group headed by Chaney and many of those currently holding positions in the administration. They wanted to invade Iraq then, in order to base America's global military control. They knew back then that it would take a "Pearl Harbor" like incident to make it all happen at once, but had contingency plans. 911 provided that incident, just barely, but enough.

I found this document almost as soon as I'd realized that Bush's publicized intentions didn't match his actions.

Wow, I thought. These people wrote this script over a decade before they acted it out.

I didn't worry though. I knew this stuff was readily available and if an avowed conservative like me could see what was happening, it couldn't really amount to much. These people couldn't possibly fool people for as long as they would need to.

So here we are. I've learned a lot about people and what a fleeting notion the truth could be.

Small hint along the way- When Halliburton was heralded as the company that a dishonest Bush would give a non-competitive contract to regarding the rebuilding of Iraq and the oil infrastructure, the immediate response was that it was another company that would do these things. The heat died down and some people realized that the company that was awarded the contract was a subsidiary of- you guessed it- Halliburton! By that time, though, it was old news and new lies were coming out.

Nowadays, no one remembers that controversy. No one remembers the controversy about the aluminum tubes, or the Nigerian yellow cake, or the IAEA reports or any of the other lies because other things have become more important.

My opinion has suddenly become a non-support of the troops, an America hating, a terrorist-loving, communistic stance.

Meanwhile, Blix was right. I was right. Our nuclear experts were right. Our intelligence agencies were right. The IAEA was right. The world was right.

Being right, however, buys you only personal satisfaction these days.

Bush supporters are right even when they're wrong.
--------------------

Author: Goofyhoofy	Number: of 839916
Subject: Re: 9/11 Widow's letter to NY Times re: Newsweek	Date: 5/18/05 12:08 PM

Recommendations: 161

The left didn't like it when Bush went ahead with Iraq and is now doing everything in its power to screw things up.

This sound very much like the Vietnam non-apologia I hear about from time to time. So I wonder...

What is it that's in my power?

Am I the one setting off car bombs on Baghdad streets? Am I fomenting violence somehow in the hills of Afghanistan? Do I have something to do with the treatment of prisoners at Gitmo? Was I the one holding the leash at Abu Girab?

What is it that's in my power?

Are the insurgents reading my posts on the Motley Fool board and pointing them out to the Sunni's at the 3:00 prayer? Am I the one putting our soldiers in unarmored humvees and telling them to "run some supplies a few miles down the road"? Do I have something to do with the fall-off of enlistments for the military?

What the hell is it that's "in my power"?

Did I have anything to do with manufacturing evidence to take the country to war on false premises? Is it my writings that have influenced nearly the entire world to oppose us in this war? Did I show up time and again on Fox News exhorting our politicians to call the UN a bunch of wimps, and to ignore the inspectors for the weapons of mass destruction?

Just what do you think it is that's "in my power"?

If I don't express my opinion, do you really think the insurgency will calm down? If the New York Times stopped publishing tomorrow, would the Sunni's stop attacking oil pipelines and water supplies? If Hochizen stopped writing "George Bush is the worst President in the history of the universe" ever again, would the rest of the world suddenly start respecting us?

I am beside myself with wonder, agape at what you think is "in my power".

I can do nothing. I didn't vote for this dope and his band of dopes. I don't want to see a complete jerkwad as our Ambassador to the United Nations. I can't imagine that Donald Rumsfeld has learned exactly nothing from his "fast race" to Baghdad but failure to secure the countryside on the way. I am shocked that no one will hold this administration responsible for the implosion of American prestige throughout the world, and for demonstrating so clearly what our military can not do.

I'm afraid the only thing that's in my power is to try to demonstrate these idiots for what they are: people who have turned the greatest country in the world into the Mr. Magoo of foreign affairs, and who show no signs of cleaning their lenses and trying to improve things any time soon.

Curiously, it would be in YOUR power, if you would recognize that by your blind support you enable these cretins, but you are happy to believe the lies you are told, that "we've turned a corner", and that somehow I have some way to make this all "get good" if only I would stop expressing my opinion.

 --------------

Author: luv2earn	Number: of 839917
Subject: Bye sky & click & Mish &	Date: 11/3/04 1:52 AM

Recommendations: 160

others who really made it enjoyable to come here the last few months (or whatever it's been). I actually like Abba for some reason. $;)
This is a really friendly and fun board overall.

I said after tonight I was done here and I am. Maybe back to say hi now and then, but it's time to walk away and say it was a good fight but we apparently lost.

Four years ago I cast a hopeful vote for George W. Bush. I was and am a conservative as defined by some of my stands: anti-abortion being the main one. George said he was a uniter, he said he was for small government, against nation building; all things I wanted to hear because I was really tired of the bickering and mudslinging from both sides over Clinton, all the partisanship, and thought he was someone who would work with both sides in a moderate agenda.

Boy, what a surprise. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. So, when the rumblings started about Iraq after 9/11, I began to get nervous. The rest is history. The last two years have been an intense time of doing everything possible, on and offline, to get the message across that this war was nothing more than the start of the PNAC's agenda.

Fast forward. No regrets. Sorry he won. Think the country will continue to deteriorate morally and in the eyes of the world and that he will now let loose with the full NeoCon agenda.

As for me, I'm moving out of the political turmoil. My Norwegian grandma always said "Do your best and don't worry about it." That's what I've done and I won't worry about it. I'll sleep real well. Everytime I hear about another 30 or 40 Iraqis dying per day/week (thousands and thousands per year) because we invaded their country, I'll feel just bleep awful, but at least not guilty. When I hear of the next 1000 US servicepeople dying, I'll feel so sad, but at least not guilty. When another million people become jobless, I'll feel bad for them, but not guilty. When we invade the next country, I'll feel good that it wasn't because I voted for a warmongering, imperialistic administration. When the terror alerts go up and down (I almost wonder if they'll keep those silly things up now that they don't have to scare us anymore), I'll know it's no big deal and go on with my day as I always have anyway, knowing it was all a big snow job. Like colored alerts change anything or anyone knows what the heck to do about them.

I'm relieved it's over. In my heart of hearts I hoped Kerry would win and thought he had a chance and he did.

There is a big world out here and no more late nights searching for more information to share on the PNAC, the Bush family's ties to the Saudi royal family and the oil business, no more digging for details that most Americans apparently didn't give a care about anyway (like Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo and the fact that no one has been charged) and that the administration prays they never know...that's all over for me. I'm walking away knowing I did my best, even nights when I could hardly stay awake.

On with life. Life is bigger than George W. Bush. The world is bigger than what is becoming of America. But I really do hate what the NeoCons are doing to our beautiful country we all have so much love and passion for.

To all of you who support Bush. I feel sorry for you because I really believe that, some day, you will wonder what made you vote for this man. And, when that happens, it may be too late to undo the damage. I'm not angry with you or bitter. I'm just disappointed.

Please, though, do some of us a huge favor. Don't use God or Jesus to validate pre-emptive strikes and other things that have nothing to do with God or Jesus. Just call it like it is: America's leader and a small majority of America's citizens are putting themselves above everything and everyone else on the face of the earth. I can still see Bush at the fund-raiser, looking at the crowd and saying that the rich and the super rich were his people. They pulled it off; amazing but they did, the whole thing.

Maybe see you now and then.
----------------

Author: anniesdad	Number: of 839922
Subject: Re: Kerry: "F*** the Army"	Date: 10/30/04 7:40 PM

Recommendations: 164

a kind of reverse USO tour designed to undermine the morale of U.S. soldiers fighting in the jungles of Southeast Asia.

Lets get something straight right here and now. By 1970 there wasn't any morale to undermine. Every grunt who humped a ruck knew that they were just calling forth the abyss. This was madness, it was 400 body bags a week. You could have called a mass formation of every man there and asked who wanted to leave right now and there would have been the greatest mass exodus since the Irish potato famine. Even the West Point ring knockers would have had sense to leave.

Let me tell you something buddy, that place was a first rate meat grinder, fought for the most part by blacks ,hispanics and poor whites who didn't know how to get out of the way of a geopolitical train wreck.
Bring the troops home, damn straight.
FTA

Scott McAleer (SSG)
Bco, 1st Bn, 16Inf
Lai Khe, RVN
---------------

100%, dead wrong about Iraq. / Political Asylum

TMF: I was 100%, dead wrong about Iraq. / Political Asylum: "Politics & Current Events / Political Asylum
Author: ramsfanray

Subject: I was 100%, dead wrong about Iraq. Date: 12/2/04 10:38 AM

Recommendations: 246

Go easy on me, I am about to get very personal.


As long-timers know, when we first went to Iraq, I was totally in favor of it. For a number of reasons:

1 - I hate dictators like Saddam and think they should be gotten rid of whenever possible.

2- I believed that he was developing or already had developed WMD's.

3- I believed that he would have no problems providing terrorists groups with these WMD's to use against us. He would not care if those terrorists groups, like Al Queda, didn't like him much, it is quite reasonsable to assume their hatred for us is greater than their hatred for him. The enemy of my enemy may not be my friend, but we can certainly work together on a temporary basis.

So we invaded, in the worst kept secret invasion in the history of warfare. The tv show Survivor has fewer leaks. And following the invasion and unseating of Saddam, we found no WMD's. This bothered me greatly. I believed that Saddam used the time that we were farting around with the UN, to smuggle them out of the country an into Syria.

Then, several weeks ago, Bush's own man put out a report that claimed that our intelligence was faulty and Saddam hasn't had WMD's since the end of the Gulf War. He was running a bluff.

To me this was a slap in the face. We are the greatest nation in the world. The lone super-power. There is no excuse to have bad intelligence. Oh sure, there will be a mole that slips through, and some things will be missed, but when it comes to deciding to go to war, every bit of intelligence needs to be triple-checked and then double-checked again. There should have been a lot of people working on this, and there should have been fail-safes in place. To have something bad happen in a war because of bad intelligence is understandable. To go to war because of it, is unforgivable.

And so I didn't vote for Bush. But, still, I thought, the war hasn't been a total loss. We did get rid of a dictator. That's always a good thing.

But doubts remained, wasn't there another way to get rid of him? A lot of good people, (and a lot of bad ones) have died in this war. Was there a better way? And if not, was that accomplishment alone enough to justify this war?

Yesterday, I got my answer. NO. Getting rid of Saddam, tyrant that he was, is not justification for this war. It was not worth one American life.

Yesterday, my little brother, a newly commissioned officer in the United States Army, got orders to deploy to Iraq in January. He will be there for 16 months. I am not surprised by this, he graduated from college last spring where he went through ROTC. So, I have always known that him going to Iraq was a strong possibility. When it was just a possibility, people would ask me how I would feel if he were killed in this war, and I always said, that I would be proud that he died defending this nation. Now that it is real, I find that I was full of crap. I don't want him to go, and I don't want him to die. I can't convince myself that, if the worst happens, it will be worth it. And if it isn' worth it for my brother to die, then it hasn't been worth it for anyone else's brother to have already died.

I was wrong to have ever supported this war, and I am ashamed of myself that I couldn't see it before it impacted me personally. I don't know if Bush lied because he wanted be macho and had a personal vendetta against Sadda. I don't know if this was all about oil and Haliburton is behind the war. I don't if the administration truely believed that this was a good thing and would really protect out country. And frankly, I don't care. Whatever the reason, good or bad, this has been a mistake. One that I hope and pray, my family will not have to pay for. I know that some will feel that it would only be just if that were to happen, but I hope you can find some compassion in your heart, not for me, beat me up on the board as much as you want, but for my brother and his family. He and his wife just had their first baby back in September. My father died just three years ago at a fairly young age (55) and I think losing a son too would destroy my mother. I ask for your prayers, not for me, but for my brother, and for all the soldiers, and their familys, who are in harms way because of an intelligence mistake.
---------------

Author: JBtheJunkist	Number: of 172060
Subject: My Feelings of Disconnect	Date: 1/25/05 7:42 PM

Recommendations: 242

Hey, everyone.

Well, I made it home on December 24th, 2004. All is well in JBville. The new house on the lake is gorgeous , my truck was painted about a week before I arrived home, my kids are doing well in school, my wife's job is better than ever and my new job is locked in. We'll be making over $90K per year in Mississippi. Go figure.

I've been asked by several groups to come and speak of my experiences in Iraq. I was asked by a church to make a public pronouncement of my faith and of how my faith kept me alive and brought me home. I went to each engagement and spoke at the appropriate level each time. I was warming applauded and thanked for my service and welcomed home by people from all over. Then came the invitation for the pronouncement of faith.

I went. I spoke briefly of having no fear and of not worrying about my wife and children being taken care of should I have met my demise. I spoke of consoling others who were frightened and of how my wonderful relationships helped to keep my going. I spoke of how my daily conversations kept my heart full and a smile on my face. I spoke of how low I felt on the days I didn't take the time to have my daily devotional. I spoke of a complete and unalterable faith in my personal relationships. I spoke of how proud and honored I was to serve others. I spoke of how great it felt to "know" all is well in your life.

Then, I said, "Most of you may think I am a Christian. All of the attributes I have spoken of can easily be linked to a Christian lifestyle. I stand before you today to say my public pronouncement of faith. Of all these things I have spoken of, I have no fear, for I have lived my life to the fullest each day. I don't worry about my family being taken care of, because I am well insured and we have plenty of money saved. Also, my wife is an uncommonly strong woman, who will raise my children properly and proudly should I ever die. I could console others, because of the strength of my relationships with my wife and family. My daily conversations were with the people who matter most to me -- my wife and family. The lows I felt were from not hearing their voices. My complete faith is in my wife and I's relationship with one another and my relationships with my family. I am proud and honored to serve my country, my state, my town, my family and anyone who needs help, regardless of their race, religion, creed, color or political ideologies. I feel great, because I "know" I have done all I can do to make everything I my life right with others. Now, I must stand before you and tell you a truth that will surely ostracize me as thoroughly as Christians throughout history have suffered until the present. I am an athiest. My public profession of faith is there is no god. There is nothing but this life and what we leave behind when we deal with one another. There is no greater thing in this world but truth, love and service to one another. I can no longer allow the lie that you all have perceived of me to linger in this world. In truth, I am an athiest, and my heart is at peace. Should any of you who were my friends five minutes ago no longer wish to have me in your lives, I do not understand, for I have been but truthful to you. I will, however, honor your wish and long cherish the memories of great times, good conversations, and unfettered friendships. But I will no longer live the lie that is Christianity. Thank you for allowing me to speak today."

Of course, you could have heard a pin drop. As I walked out of the front door, I realize, now more than ever, how disconnected I am in this state, at this time.

It's good to be alive and at home, with the people I love.

Peace,

JB

Author: Busters33	Number: of 839887
Subject: R.I.P. Liberalism	Date: 11/3/04 1:21 AM

Recommendations: 220

Per this board Bush is:

1. The worst pResident in the history of the U.S.
2. An idiot
3. A thief
4. A war monger
5. murderer
6. a threat to our civil liberties
7. an Empire builder
8. countless other accusations I can't recall

and you COULD NOT BEAT him. Where does this leave you? If you can't beat a president guilty of all the above what does that say about your party? your platform? your ideals? You also lost 3 Senate seats it appears. It would appear you have a lot of work to do in the next four years to make America a two party country again. Or rather than hard work, perhaps you can just continue to rally behind Michael Moore, P. Diddy, Dan Blather (who is almost crying on TV right now) and a candidate who had absolutely no core values and was entirely poll driven. I will sleep well knowing that America as a whole has enough sense to realize that a campaign based entirely on hate is not worth a vote. I'm not sure how you liberals will sleep.

Busters
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Author: warisfun	Number: of 839887
Subject: All offense intended	Date: 11/4/04 11:52 PM

Recommendations: 217

This is for those that think "liberal elitism" was defeated.

The Republican party is a disgrace.

This was the party that started with Lincoln, the first Republican President (and I bet 99% of you who voted for Bush didn't know that), it was originally called the "free land" party.

Is there a more "liberal" moment in American History than the freeing of the slaves? The Republican party has had its ups and downs, and I wouldn't consider Nov 2 one of the former.

Once a lost, fiscally conservative party, saved by Barry Goldwater (who ultimately distanced himself from the religious right), it is now a big spending fiasco run by Karl Rove, a man who has compromised conservative principles to cater to gay hating rednecks who believe the ten commandments should be read daily in our public schools. Tom DeLay is just the tip of the iceberg, here come the SUPER CONSERVATIVES. You've been warned.

All offense intended, Bush is the stupidest, most reckless and incompetent president America has ever had. He's a dry drunk who blames everyone but himself, a spoiled jerk who thinks the bible will purge him of his cronyism sins. The stress of the Presidency has clearly made him lose his goddamned mind, now he thinks he has "political capital" to reform the tax code, something he didn't RUN on and which NOBODY in America voted for. IN FACT, his lame attempts to mention taxes in his campaign were quickly silenced by his staff (remember the all tax is sales tax idea?).

His campaign was an ethical disgrace. His NatSec people ignored every al Queda memo, but he runs on al Queda. He's governor of the 38th ranked state in education, but he runs on education. His plan for his second term cost twice that of Kerry's, but he calls Kerry a tax and spend liberal (In fact, Kerry's record was widely considered "pay as you go"). He makes a terrible mistake invading Iraq, gambling on WMD discovery, but he runs on his "decisiveness". He allowed his 527 cronies to LIE (and they were all lies) about Kerry's Vietnam record when he was a draft dodger who once lied about being in the air force to win a local election in Texas.

America wasn't interested in all of that, which was as obvious as the noses on their fat faces, instead picking Bush for "moral values". That means no gay marriage and no boobs at the Super Bowl. Woo hoo. Hand me a beer and play some Toby Keith.

You can have your new Republican party. Have fun losing your basic rights. Have fun when Bush raises your taxes, and he will, just like his daddy. Have fun when he drafts your fat stupid ___ to go to Iran or N.Korea. Have fun when he mortgages your future for his legacy. Have fun watching China and Iran bankrupt the US through proxy wars.

Most of those who live in Red states won't have to worry about terrorism while most of the blue states do. Ironic huh? Next time you think Bush got a "decisive" victory, remember that half the country hates him and so does 90% of the world.

This isn't my America.
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Author: JDCRex	Number: of 839888
Subject: I'm not going to be politcally correct about it	Date: 11/3/04 6:45 AM

Recommendations: 203

Bush and his team are now in hock to the nastiest, weirdest, dumbest, most irrational bloc in mainstream America.

The Evangelicals.

They are EXACTLY the type of people who a few hundred years ago were burning witches at the stake. The only thing that prevents that now is a a few centuries of social decorum. Anyhow, they now get to do it at the ballot box to a certain extent, so that satiates their sadistic tendencies enough to keep them happy.

Anyone, ANYONE who shovels money to the cap-toothed pompadoured charlatans who run these religio-businesses, who believes that the earth is not much more than 5 thousand years old, who would hardly have ever come across an open homosexual yet is convinced that they are a threat to their family is an absolute MORON. Simple as that.

And you certainly don't have to be an atheist to realise this. Plenty of very religious people can comprehend the unvarnished truth about these dazzle-eyed maniacs. But, they are George W. Bush's base, or a very important part of it. And they've put him back in the White House.

They didn't do it for free, though. Watch out America. The Rapture crowd are coming. And they won't have the good graces to vanish into the sky like they are always hoping they will. They've got judges to appoint, gays to politically ghetto-ise and schools to ruin with fairytale standing in the place of science. And, of course, all those inerrant biblical prophecies to fulfill in the Middle East. They won't get it all, of course, but they're going to try their hardest, with IOUs as collateral.

The Pod People are on the march!
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Author: LorenCobb	Number: of 839889
Subject: German Pumps - Ja!	Date: 9/21/05 10:32 AM

Recommendations: 185

Remember those estimates that it would take three months to pump out New Orleans?

About 10 days ago I was in a hotel in the Dominican Republic, watching Deutsche Welle, the German international television channel. I saw a great story about a team of 89 experts from Germany that had flown over with some 15 high performance pumps to help pump out the city.

Ten days later, I hear that New Orleans is dry. But has there been any mention in the US media of Germany's help?? Any thanks to Germany? None that I have seen.

Deutsche Welle (English version):
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1704325,00.html

Here are quotes from two European sources (found through Google):

The German mobile pumps were installed Saturday at Station 19 and already have moved 20 million liters of water out of the flooded city. Their progress could be measured late Sunday by the high-water mark on the brick wall of the station, which was two meters above the surface of the remaining black water.

The pumpers work around the clock in 12-hour shifts -- in the sweltering daytime heat and at night when the only sound other than the forlorn howling of abandoned dogs in the deserted city is the churning of the pump motors and the gurgling of water pouring into the canal. It's tough work hauling the drainage hoses, which weigh as much as 180 kilograms, from place to place as the pumps are moved.

"The heat is a problem for us," Weber said. "We're not really used to this climate."

Most of the pumpers are volunteers who left their jobs for four weeks to help Americans recover from Katrina, the latest in a string of disasters where their expertise has been needed.

The agency, known in German as Technisches Hilfswerk, helped dry areas flooded by the Asian tsunami last year and by heavy rains in the south of France in 2003.

"It's great to be in America and help the people here. It's a great feeling to be here," said Oliver Braun, leader of the team working at Station 19.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/12092005/323/german-pumping-team-helps-new-orleans-flooding-recede-faster-expected.html

The THW mission includes 89 experts in water damage/pumping and infrastructure and a five-person support team from the Cross of St. John; they are joined by five members of the Luxembourg Civil Defense. The group arrived in New Orleans on September 8. The TWH team brought with them 15 high-capacity pumps – 10 which can handle up to 15,000 liters per minute, and 5 which can handle 5,000 liters per minute – and has so far deployed pumps in four locations in the city and in neighboring St. Bernard's Parish.

http://www.germany-info.org/relaunch/politics/new/pol_bo_THW_09_2005.htm

I realize that President Bush, in common with a lot of Americans, finds it difficult to admit that international aid has been helpful. But how hard is it, really, to stand up and say, "Thank you!" once in a while?

I'll do it myself: "Dankeschön, Deutschland!"

Loren
-------------------

uthor: sandyleelee	Number: of 839893
Subject: Tee hee	Date: 10/17/05 7:55 PM

Recommendations: 180

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aIh7Ul2ZhzQE&refer=top_world_news In an interview yesterday, Wilson said that once the criminal questions are settled, he and his wife may file a civil lawsuit against Bush, Cheney and others seeking damages for the alleged harm done to Plame's career. If they do so, the current state of the law makes it likely that the suit will be allowed to proceed -- and Bush and Cheney will face questioning under oath -- while they are in office. The reason for that is a unanimous 1997 U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling that Paula Jones' sexual harassment suit against then- President Clinton could go forward immediately, a decision that was hailed by conservatives at the time. I love it when their maliciousness comes back to bite them on the ass. SLL

---------------

Author: IronicFelix	Number: of 839897
Subject: I honestly don't get it.	Date: 2/4/05 4:24 AM

Recommendations: 166

If Social Security is running a surplus and won't run a deficit until sometime about 40 years from now...

...and the country as a whole is currently running a deficit and is actually borrowing from Social Security...

...why is it that Social Security's possible future revenue-payments imbalance is considered a crisis whereas the current federal budget deficit is not?
-----------------

Author: rsimbob	Number: of 839898
Subject: Sometimes I hate being right	Date: 9/9/05 8:28 AM

Recommendations: 165

On June 27, 2002, I wrote:

As an American citizen, I wish that Bush could think. I wish that he could speak. I wish that he could act in some interest beyond his own. I wish that he wasn't in the pocket of our own fringe of religious fundamentalist would-be overlords. I wish that he wasn't stage-managed by people who use their positions of power to impose repression in the name of their misconception of liberty. I wish that he had any comprehension of our history, our economy, our language, our law or our society so he could actually form a vision of the future that includes all of the people in our nation and the place of our nation in the world. I wish that as executive he had the experience and ability to execute anything other than mentally impaired prisoners.

I don't want him to fail. That's not in my interest. But, regardless of his approval rating, he is failing whether I want him to or not; and the swiftness and thoroughness of his failure will exact a terrible price on all of us for years to come if it cannot be slowed and checked -- even on those who are sufficiently short-sighted today to believe that they approve of his performance.

Surviving Bush and the dark forces of ignorance, fear, greed and self-righteous superstition that are massed behind his vacant smirk will be one of the greatest tests of our republic.

http://boards.fool.com/Message.asp?mid=17426326

Who knew then that surviving Bush would be so much more than a theoretical political exercise? Who knew that his ignorance, fear, greed and self-righteous superstition would actually cost the lives of so many people then alive.

Innocent Iraqui men, women and children caught in his war for lies who have died at a rate even Saddam culdn't achieve. American troops sent in inadequate numbers with inadequate equipment and inadequate training to perform a fool's errand based on inadequate planning under inadequate leadership. American children, mostly poor and mostly dark skinned, in cities across the country as programs that housed, fed, and protected them have been cut and privatized with disastrously inadequate replacements. And now the victims of the anti-government, anti-tax philosophy implemented by Bush and his minions for 5 years -- not those killed by the storm that nobody could have saved, but the greater number who have since died of neglect and incompetence.

The rich have gotten richer; the poor have gotten poorer. If a people is to be judged by their treatment of the least among them, then we should be judged harshly for what has occurred to the least among us under Bush. More and more of them are becoming less and less. More and more of them are dying. The youngest, the oldest, the sickest, the poorest. And the oil companies post record profits, and corporate leaders reap record compensation. And the gaps grow.

But Bush is beyond accountability. He has no political future, but he needs none. He'll retire with his unneeded and unearned pension to supplement his unearned fortune. The Bush family won't have to worry about finding him baseball teams to pretend to run or companies to run into the ground. He can fish and cut brush and sit on Trent Lott's front porch and smirk out the rest of his days without a care in the world -- just as he is now.

In the meantime, he has the time and the opportunity to do the greatest damage of all -- appoint at least two relatively young Supreme Court justices who can perpetuate in our laws the philosophy of ignorance, fear, greed and self-righteous superstition that Bush embodies. They can continue to roll back the clock long after time has finally claimed Bush's smirk and sent him to join his victims.

And there's no way to prevent this. Mid-term elections won't matter. The opposition is too weak and too weak-willed. After a slight delay to complete damage control and shift the blame under cover of new lies, ideology will rule again. The rich will continue to get richer, and the poor will continue to get poorer. Those entrusted with our government will continue to work for its demise. And their politics will continue to kill people. The mentally impaired prisoners Bush executed in Texas were just the beginning of his body count.

Sometimes I hate being right. More right than I could have known. More right than I could have feared.

Simbob
------------------------
DUNCES CONFEDERACY <===> continuation of top RATED 99 posts from prior year in my twenty TMF subForums, FYI

[Techno Doomed ]

David Galbraith: "From F**ked company to F**ked Industry. 7 entire sectors that the Internet will nuke

Following on from the acquisition of Skype by Ebay, this weeks Economist leads with a prediction that everyone would have laughed at if it had been in Mondo 2000 ten years ago:

'the rise of Skype and other VOIP services means nothing less than the death of the traditional telephone business established over a century ago... the death of the trillion dollar voice telephony market... it is now no longer a question whether VOIP will wipe out traditional telephony, but a question of how quickly it will do so'

What other sectors are toast:

2. Retail banking - retail banks are crap, expensive, lazy and complacent. Why do I have to mail pieces of paper that look like 19th century parchment 3000 miles to deposit virtual money via a building with travertine floors and 20 foot ceilings?

3. Photography - The number of art schools in Britain reflects the requirement for large numbers of illustrators to record the conquests of the early Victorians rather than a British aesthetic taste. These illustrators were replaced by photographers. The photographers will, in turn, largely be replaced by amateurs given that digital photography achieves quality through unlimited quantity. The good photographers will survive, but the army of mediocrity that still shoot weddings on film to overcharge for the prints will be overtaken by editing the best shots from the army of guests with digital cameras."

4. The Music Industry - enough said. Except 5 years after Napster why are millions of people using iPods to spend the same amount of money to rent songs rather than own them? Perhaps those white cables lead to electrodes that slowly fry your brain leaving you as a blackened silhouette - like the billboards show.

5. Suburbia - the railways created them and cars extended them, but the donut effect will kill them. Inner suburbs will become ghettos as the young middle class populate the former inner city industrial areas and those who are older, with families hook up to broadband internet, liaise with China and India and commute a couple of days a week to the office from real countryside.

6. Realtors - An architect spends 7 years training and gets up to 16% for designing a house and then is liable for 12 years. A realtor with 3 months training, who doesn't know a cornice from a corniche, gets up to 1.5% for opening the door and opening his/her mouth without any liability. The good news is that it wont be for long, eventually cartel-like operations such as Manhattan realtors will be disintermediated by more efficient online marketplaces. Hahahaha.

----------------
The impossible logic of copyright in the digital age

One of the problems that I have with the current Supreme Court ruling over file sharing is the assumption that this stuff can be legislated absolutely.

As media is reduced to an atomic state of bits, it starts to show quantum-like uncertainty, is it a thing like an LP or a transmission like a song on the radio, a particle or a wave?

Hidden within the Supreme Court ruling is the other side of the coin:

Just as people have created software that allows people to share things they don't own, with copy protected digital media nobody owns anything. Everything you buy is actually rented.

Why is it legal to develop software which necessarily prevents ownership of something you buy?

At the moment I buy albums in flea markets for 10c a song, read books that I bought in the UK in the US and can read all the books I want by checking them out of the library.

I cannot buy second hand MP3s, watch DVDs I bought in the UK (without hardware that will surely be banned at some point) or check out unlimited electronic books from the library.

The bottom line to all this: stuff should just be a whole lot cheaper and the problem would surely go away.

The role of the media industry has always been to promote and distribute media - when the network replaces these what is that role?

Notes on RIAA and MPAA Press Conference: Corante
Posted by david galbraith on June 27, 2005

---------------------
http://www.buzzmachine.com/archives/2005_01_19.html#008914

Gained in translation

: Gotta love it: Now the FCC is mucking up international relations. The Greeks are pissed that the FCC would investigate the decency of the Olympics.

Greece does not wish to be drawn into an American culture war. Yet that is exactly what is happening. The Federal Communications Commission has launched an investigation into the broadcast of the opening ceremonies of the Athens 2004 Summer Olympic Games.

The first step was taken in December, when the commission demanded that NBC provide it with tapes of the broadcast. This was in response to nine complaints about indecency from U.S. citizens (globally, viewers exceeded 3.9 billion).



7. Walmart - Walmart has Woolworths written all over it. As a portal into the People's Republic of China staffed by Mexicans, its a pretty weird place to be frequented by people from Kansas. Its demise wont have much to do with the Internet, except in that it epitomises the last hurrah of the way things were in retail. They should buy Amazon.
link »

tags: [predictions]

posted via Wists: permamark
========================
Tuesday, November 1, 2005
Scooter Libby's novel shooting up the charts on Amazon
Scooter Libby wrote a novel in 1996, called The Apprentice, and ever since he was indicted on charges of obstruction of justice, perjury, and making false statements, his book has been selling well on Amazon.

The sex scenes in the book feature tasteful fare such as bestiality with children.

"The main female character, Yukiko, draws hair on the 'mound' of a little girl," Collins reports. "The brothers of a dead samurai have sex with his daughter." Meanwhile, "certain passages can better be described as reminiscent of Penthouse Forum," Collins writes. "Other sex scenes are less conventional."

Collins quotes from the indicted aide's novel: "At age 10 the madam put the child in a cage with a bear trained to couple with young girls so the girls would be frigid and not fall in love with their patrons. They fed her through the bars and aroused the bear with a stick when it seemed to lose interest."

Will our porn-hatin' Attorney General be the next to go after Libby? Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 03:53:38 PM permalink | Other blogs commenting on this post
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