More good news – Gonzo’s gone!

According to the New York Times, corrupt, extremely forgetful and dangerously incompetent Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has submitted his resignation to President Bush on Friday.

Of course, the mind recoils at what sort of loser will replace him. In an administration noted for promoting people well beyond their level of incompetence, Gonzo was one of the worst. This president is not known for selecting good people to occupy positions of great authority and responsibility. All too often ideology and party loyalty trump competence and ability.

Ah well.  Another rat leaves the sinking ship of the Bush administration.  Good riddance, Gonzo.  You will NOT be missed.

Once is an accident…

…twice is a coincidence, three times is a conspiracy.

In the case of the relationship between autism and environmental contaminants, there have been too many “coincidences” to count. Check out this article, posted recently at Earthtimes.org:

Quite the Coincidence

When you see so many strange coincidences, the only logical conclusion is that an agent is behind it all. In other words, it’s a conspiracy.

A few weeks ago I came across an obscure but very interesting little book called “The Day We Bombed Utah”. It’s an unsung bit of reportage chronicling our brief, 25-year flirtation with nuclear testing, both above ground and underground, that scattered thousands of tons of dangerously radioactive material across the Utah desert and as far away as New York state. Even after the first victims began to be documented, the government denied the problems were due to radioactive fallout. First 4300 sheep died with severe radiation burns on their skin, mouths and feet. Then people started to get leukemia, skin cancers, brain tumors, and other cancers. Through it all the government continued to deny any connection between nuclear tests and cancer.

The tests began in 1953, and continued until the Reagan administration. Thousands of nuclear explosions, all releasing radioactive dust and ash into the air, and government denials of responsibility for any damages caused to its own citizens.

Sound familiar? It should… for 70 years methyl mercury, AKA thimerosal, has been used as a preservative in vaccines. 70 years ago the first cases of autism began to be identified.

Coincidence? Hardly. Anyone familiar with the way government operates should know that the first instinct of any bureaucracy is self-preservation. First deny, then cover up, then blame something other than yourself. Finally, if you can’t weasel out of it, admit responsibility, but only after the last claimant has died. That’s the pattern – it’s as old as government itself.

And if we’ve learned anything from these “coincidences”, it should be that anyone who takes a government agency at its word is an idiot.

And so is anyone who thinks thimerosal is safe. Sorry, that’s not entirely fair.

You’re either an idiot, a sycophant, or a fellow conspirator.

The Grammy Awards

Okay, I admit it, last night was the first time I’ve ever watched the Grammys in my life. Normally I don’t go for that sort of thing; it seems like so much self-congratulatory nonsense to me. Besides, my favorite musicians rarely win anyway, so why bother?

Last night was the exception, though. See, one of the year’s best albums and songs – “Taking the Long Way” and “Not Ready to Make Nice” – by one of the year’s best groups – The Dixie Chicks – were up for several well-deserved awards. I was most pleased to see them win Best Song, Best Record and Album of the Year. They deserved it.

Snubbed by the country music scene, but embraced by nearly everyone else, “Taking the Long Way” was a middle finger in the eye of everyone who dissed, threatened and insulted them in 2003 after Natalie Maines criticized the president. Their victory last night was a victory for anyone who believes in true freedom of speech.

The video for “Not Ready to Make Nice” is excellent, too. Well done, Chicks. I wasn’t a fan before, but I sure am now. Keep it up.

Free Speech

This just in from Arizona: state Senator Jim Waring, a Republican, has proposed legislation that would make it illegal to profit from using the name of a soldier killed in action without the family’s permission.

While I certainly sympathize with the intent of the bill, I cannot support it. You see, as with all things of this nature, at the heart of it is a political statement with which the good senator disagrees.

Apparently someone in Flagstaff (whose name I shall not mention, out of concern for his privacy and free speech rights) is selling a shirt bearing the names of over 2,800 of our soldiers killed in Iraq so far, with “Bush Lied, They Died” as its headline. Whether you agree with the war, sympathize with the families (it’s hard not to) or disagree with this particular instance of political speech, one thing is, I believe, unarguable. That is, that this type of political discourse, is exactly what the now-3000+ men and women who have died in Iraq, gave their lives to defend.

Free speech cannot be regulated, restricted, taxed, filed, monitored, numbered or limited.

Any attempt to do so leads to dictatorship. And that’s not what they, and the 23,000+ wounded over there, have fought to defend.