Now PCs must be PC?

LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- Los Angeles officials have asked that manufacturers, suppliers and contractors stop using the terms "master" and "slave" on computer equipment, saying such terms are unacceptable and offensive ....

Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana

How long a minute is depends on what side of the bathroom door you're on.

Who's lying, Senator Frist?

Last Sunday morning on either a news show or a political talk show (I really don't remember which), a reporter was talking to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN). The reporter mentioned Sen. Ted Kennedy's (D-MA) concern that the pending Medicare reform bill didn't contain a provision for re-importing prescription drugs from Canada. Medicare administrators and patients have a real stake in this issue, because US-made drugs sold in Canada cost considerably less than US-made drugs sold in the US.

Senator Frist took strong exception to Kennedy's statement. "He's lying," said Frist. "Senator Kennedy hasn't read the bill. It's in there."

Let's look at that statement.
1. Nobody has read the bill. It's 1200 pages, continually revised.
2. Sen. Frist most certainly hasn't read the bill. You know how long it takes to read a really good book that's 1200 pages long? This is is not a 1200 page good book. This is 1200 pages of turgid legalese. He doesn't have time to read it.
3. Saying that the re-importation provision is in there is disingenuous. There is such a provision that allows re-importation only if the FDA approves it.

Having the FDA involved seems like a good idea - safety, etc. But the FDA has made it quite clear that they will not approve allowing prescription drugs from Canada even if the drugs are US-made (and therefore already FDA-approved).

Add to that the fact that the bill prohibits Medicare administrators from bargaining with drug companies for better prices. It becomes quite clear that this Medicare "reform" package is designed to accomplish two things:
1. Guarantee the price-gouging by drug companies - price-gouging in which it's much less expensive to purchase drugs made in the US, shipped to pharmacies in Canada, then re-imported to the US, than it is to purchase directly from US pharmacies.
2. Provide window-dressing in which it appears that the Republican-controlled Congress and White House provided a real prescription drug benefit for Medicare patients. Note that the "benefits" do not take effect until two years from now.

Drug Companies win, Republicans win, Voters get sucker-punched, Seniors get little real benefit.

"Won't get fooled again......."
--The Who

Things at which I'm good:
Things at which I'm not so good:

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it

"To initiate a war of aggression... is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole."
-Justice Robert Jackson, Nuremburg Trials, 1946

And Howard Dean wants to be the candidate for these guys?

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (AP) - A bullet fired in the air during a Ku Klux Klan initiation ceremony came down and struck a participant in the head, critically injuring him, authorities said.

Gregory Allen Freeman, 45, was charged with aggravated assault and reckless endangerment in the Saturday night incident that wounded Jeffery S. Murr, 24.

About 10 people, including two children, had gathered for the ceremony. The man who was being initiated was blindfolded, tied with a noose to a tree and shot with paintball guns as Freeman fired a pistol in the air to provide the sound of real gunfire, Sheriff Fred Phillips said.

A bullet struck Murr on the top of the head and exited at the bottom of his skull, authorities said.

Freeman fled the ceremony [ in a pickup truck with Confederate flag decals? ] but was arrested near his home, authorities said. He was released on $7,500 bail.

The Associated Press: AP-ES-11-24-03 1326EST You just can't make up stories this bizarre.

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it...

... or to not graduate.

Your Local Weather, in Latin

Click Here.
http://latin.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=[ZIP CODE]

Rocket Surgeons and Brain Scientists

British brain surgeon Donald Campbell, 54, crashed his twin-engine plane into a house when he ran out of fuel because he miscalculated when converting "gallons" to "liters" Details.

Neuroscientist Patricia Goldman-Rakic, 66, was fatally run over in August while jaywalking (and police said the driver was not at fault)Details

Good News and Bad News

The Good News: The White House has been able to recruit plenty of fresh foreign troops to Iraq.

The Bad News: They are all al-Qaeda.