Ms. Harriet Miers regretfully declines the kind invitation of Mr. George W. Bush

Smokin' !

Calling Galloway's Bluff The Senate uncovers a smoking gun. By Christopher Hitchens

Also:
US Senate 'finds Iraq oil cash in Galloway's wife's bank account' and of course, related reports.

Galloway defiant over new oil-for-food claims

Galloway faces new Iraq charges

British Lawmaker Responds to Oil-for-Food Allegations

Unbelievably Galloway challenges U.S. senators

Galloway rejects senate perjury claims

CHARGE ME WITH PERJURY

George Galloway denies new oil scandal claims

The BBC declined to comment, as did The Scotsman. Nothing here, or here, or here, or here, or here, here .......... but, what can you expect from the "maestros sans nuts".

So, who's your Daddy!

Boobees!

Artist: unknown ... unless it's Glenn ... then we have issues

Oil for fraud ... er ... friends ... er ... food. Yeah! That's it!

Saddam's henchmen say they rewarded a 'friend'

By David Charter in the London Times

Galloway statement to Senate

SOME of the most senior members of Saddam Hussein’s regime contradicted George Galloway’s denials that he ever sought benefit from Iraqi oil, US investigators said yesterday.

The most damning fresh testimony came from Tariq Aziz, the former Deputy Prime Minister, who told the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations that Iraq granted Mr Galloway oil allocations to help to fund his Mariam Appeal. The investigators said Mr Aziz also told them that a letter allegedly recording a request by Mr Galloway for an increased “share of oil” is authentic. The letter, found in a government building, purports to be from the Iraqi Intelligence Service, dated January 2000.

Mr Galloway’s challenge to the letter’s authenticity was at the heart of a successful libel action he took against Telegraph Newspapers. The case is under appeal. Mr Galloway said his accusers from Saddam’s regime were all under sentence of death and Mr Aziz had been offered a deal to testify.

Taha Yasin Ramadan, the former Vice-President of Iraq, told the subcommittee that Mr Galloway had been granted oil allocations “because of his opinions about Iraq” and because he “wanted to lift the embargo against Iraq”. He added that Mr Galloway was “a friend of Iraq” and “needed to be compensated for his support”. Mr Ramadan said: “Galloway needed money to pay for his actions” and “We gave him oil to sell to make the money.”

Mr Aziz said: “The oil allocations we gave to George Galloway were in the name of either (Burhan al-) Chalabi or to (Fawaz) Zureikat.” He also said: “The oil was allocated in the name of Zureikat and Chalabi, once or twice.

These oil allocations were for the benefit of George Galloway and for Mariam’s Appeal. The proceeds from the sale benefited the cause and Mr Galloway.” Asked if Mr Galloway had been granted oil allocations, Amer Rashid, the former Oil Minister, replied: “Yes.” He described Zureikat as “the oil lifter” for Mr Galloway.

Mr Galloway said last night: “I’ve never met Ramadan or Rashid but they are facing charges which may carry a death sentence, as is Tariq Aziz. He has been held incommunicado for two years and we know that he has been offered a deal to testify.

On the one hand the US Government accuses these men of being homicidal maniacs, on the other they assert that their coerced testimony is utterly trustworthy. Let Senator Coleman bring them and his unnamed sources to court in a case against me, and we’ll see what the world concludes.”

"Now I lay me down to... fungi"

Ergo, I may never sleep again ...

from the Globe & Mail

It's not just your bed, it's an ecosystem, and a swampy one at that. New research has found that your pillow is home to millions of fungal spores from the bathroom, kitchen and other places where you might not want to rest your head.

It's well known that few people actually sleep alone: Most beds are home to thousands of microscopic dust mites, which produce so much excrement they can add a pound or two of weight to your mattress every year, by some estimates. Humans feed the mites by shedding dead skin, and add water from about 100 litres of sweat a year, says Ashley Woodcock, a researcher at the University of Manchester in England.

Still, he was surprised at both the amount and variety of fungi he found when he tested 10 pillows.

[...]

Pillows made from synthetic materials were worse than feather pillows, Dr. Woodcock said. That may be significant for parents of children with asthma, or for adults who suffer from the illness. Many have been advised for years to use synthetic pillows to lessen their exposure to dust mites and the mites' feces, he added. Many experts believe exposure to dust mites -- and their excrement -- is an important factor in the increasing rate of asthma in children.

But in an earlier and much larger study, involving pillows in 150 homes, Dr. Woodcock found that synthetic pillows had five times more dust-mite fecal material than feather pillows, which usually are encased in tightly woven fabrics to keep in the feathers.

He noted that the kind of bedding people use has changed dramatically over the past 20 to 30 years. In many homes, blankets, which can be washed, have been replaced by comforters made from synthetic materials, which make people sweat more and can be harder to wash.

[...]

"Well, it is a feral soup, isn't it? It is an ideal culture medium for fungi." At least fungi and dust mites don't bite. Bedbugs are making a comeback around the world, including in North America and Europe. Toronto and Vancouver are coping with infestations that have hit apartments, single-family homes, hotels and homeless shelters. Some pest-control companies report a 500-per-cent increase in calls about bedbugs over the past year. The bugs feed on human blood, and their bites can turn into itchy welts and become infected.

more...

Jeanie's "the last great run"

Hi everyone!!!

Things on camp are moving at a fast pace now ..... weather havens and tents are coming down all over the place and my adventures in seacan packing continue. Its definately friggin' cold in the mornings and nights now so I have an excuse to wear my favourite lululemon track pants and a fleece pretty much every night.

A lot of people have left the camp and moved down to KAF (Kandahar Air Field) and soon the CFPSA staff here in Julien will be down to 6 with the rest down south. I get to be the manager on site here as of friday, which doesn't actually mean that much because all the whole place is doing is concentrating on packing and moving. It will look good on a resume though right? :)

Last sunday (a week ago yesterday) Nat (the other fit coord) and I got to go on a run with a bunch of the military guys to the Russian Officers Mess. This is called that because when the russians came in the King and Queen had all ready been ousted and the russians built a building near the queen's palace for entertaining and giving the soldiers kudos etc. There was a pool there and everything.

Anyway, the run is about 3.5km from the front gate of the camp and about 200m elevation gain so we all thought it would make a fun thing to do on a sunday at 0600:). It really was a great run. Because we had to leave the gates we went in a LAV sandwich (Light Armoured Vehicle). One LAV at the front of the group, one at the back and they did security for us as we ran to the base of the hill. Another group was stationed at the top of the hill keeping an eye on the hill as we ran up it.

You don't feel nervous at all leaving the camp actually, especially with that much security:). Some of the guys did 2-3 hill repeats once we got there but Nat and I were all about taking in the view once we got to the top.

I got groped by an ANA guy (Afghan National Army) who wanted a pic with me....he put his arm over my shoulder but then his hand kept creeping down to cup a feel....which I caught on to pretty quick:). I would have thought is was a compliment until I saw he did that with all the girls who made it to the top....men! They're all the same:)

To get to the hill base we ran through the ANA compound they were helping with security as well which is why they were there too.

Also attached is a pic of the group here who got our medals. We were part of the military parade where everyone got their medals. The military get a different one than us because they are more out there whereas we get the General Service Medal for providing support to the troops.

We only had to stand for about an hour and the new ambassador (David Sproule) to Afghanistan was the one who gave CFPSA our medals. We also didn't have to stand at attention like the military luckily because a few of us would have "thundered in" (that means pass out after standing for so long). There were about 3 military who did though.

OK, Lane is bugging me to go start packing a triwall....gotta run! Miss you all!
Jeanie :)
Jeanie Haining
Fitness Supervisor 5270




I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it. - Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey

Year End Clearance ...

It sucks to be sick in Canuckistan

from the National Post

The wait continues

Canada's federal and provincial governments spent $86-billion on our public health care system in 2003, $91-billion in 2004 and are on pace to expend $98-billion this year. Yet as the Fraser Institute demonstrated this week, all this new spending has bought just a one-day reduction on average wait times for medical treatments. At this rate, it would take an additional $744-billion each year -- about 60% of Canada's total GDP -- to reduce waits to zero.

Fraser's annual Waiting Your Turn report, released Tuesday, shows that the marginal costs required to improve our government health monopoly outweigh the benefits they produce. The problem is not a lack of funding in the public system, but rather the monopolistic nature of the public system itself. The system's incentives are all wrong: Patients are seen not as clients to be served, but as drains on the overall budget; care is rationed and postponed to match the annual amount allocated to treatment and centralized decision-making limits competition and stifles innovation. So unless and until a healthy dose of private care is injected into the system, we are unlikely to see much improvement.

More than three-quarters of a million Canadians -- 2.5% of our total population -- are awaiting treatment of some kind, and 85% of them will wait longer than their doctors believe is clinically "reasonable." They risk having their conditions worsen just because our public system can not deal with them fast enough.

Ironically, the worst waits are in Saskatchewan, birthplace of our national medicare scheme. While the province dramatically lowered its average delays this year -- by 7.8 weeks -- Saskatchewanians still had to sit nervously by for an average of 25.5 weeks. A staggering 5.3% of the provincial population is on a waiting list, too.

[...]

It has been six months since the Supreme Court ruled that Canadian governments could not stop the development of a parallel private system in Canada. Yet our federal and provincial governments are still too timid politically to begin experimentation with private health care or even, in many cases, private delivery of public care.

This intransigence has to end, and now. Canadians are suffering unnecessarily -- and in some cases dying -- because their governments cling to the outdated shibboleth that only government is capable of providing fair care to all.

My bold

Build a better mouse trap ...

Hah!

How stupid is this ...

South Korean bee farmer Ahn Sang-kyu is covered by bees in Daegu, south of Seoul, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2005. Ahn, a local bee farmer, released over 260,000 bees and attracted them to his body to celebrate the opening of a new subway in his town.[Ed.] (AP Photo/ Lee Jin-man)

How stupid is that ...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Public schools can use race as a consideration to help balance the composition of public high schools, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Thursday.

In a 7-4 decision, an 11-judge en banc panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a 2004 three-judge panel ruling on the controversial and long-debated issue.

The judges were considering whether race is a permissible factor in deciding which students will be admitted to oversubscribed high schools in Seattle, Washington.

"We conclude that the district has a compelling interest in securing the educational and social benefits of racial (and ethnic) diversity, and in ameliorating racial isolation or concentration in its high schools by ensuring that its assignments do not simply replicate Seattle's segregated housing patterns," Judge Raymond Fisher wrote for the majority.

Seattle, where about 60 percent of public school students are nonwhite and 40 percent white, lets pupils state their preferences from among the 10 high schools.

Since some schools are more popular and are oversubscribed, the process uses a "tiebreaker" system. At the time of the lawsuit, race was used as one of the tiebreaker criteria in an effort to balance school racial makeup.

Some parents objected in 2000 and kicked off what has become a long legal battle.

In 2002, the 9th Circuit reversed a lower court decision that upheld the law and barred the use of the tiebreaker, but then withdrew its decision for further review. In 2004, a three-judge panel also barred the tiebreaker system.

The Thursday ruling swung back in favor of the lower court's earlier decision.

"It is true that for some students their first choice of school, based on geographical proximity, will be denied because other students' choices are granted in order to advance the overall interest in maintaining racially diverse school enrollments," Fisher wrote for the majority.

But "the district's compelling interest is to avoid the harms of racial isolation for all students in the Seattle school district."

Four out of the 11 judges dissented.

"The district's use of the racial tiebreaker to achieve racial balance in its high schools infringes upon each student's right to equal protection and tramples upon the unique and valuable nature of each individual," Judge Carlos Bea wrote for the dissenters.

"Even if well-intentioned, the district's use of racial classifications in such a stark and compulsory fashion risks perpetuating the same racial divisions which have plagued this country since its founding."

"more pics to give you a visual"

So, this is a seacan (pic 1). That's Lane and Nat moving stuff in and the other pic is from my desk. The large wooden base was the combined mess (Snr NCO's and Officers) but its down now ... so I can see the mountains:)
that is all...
J
Jeanie Haining
Fitness Supervisor
5270

"another brush with greatness"

Hi!
Here's my latest evidence of a brush with greatness....Guy Lafleur:).

I tried not to be starstruck but I couldn't help it:) He played in a ball hockey game with 2 of the teams here .... fun to watch! He broke one of our crappy sticks with his first slap shot. Nat (fitness staff was reffing) and I didn't have the heart to tell him no slap shots are allowed in the game.

Can you imagine saying that to Guy Lafleur!? Well, the camp is coming down more and more everyday... and I'm due in KAF in around 3 weeks. I'm actually excited for the change of scenery... it will be like starting another tour almost. Sorry the stories aren't more exciting .... not much going on except packing seacans. Mom, Peg and Kendra .... look for packages in the mail in the next few weeks!!!!

Miss you all!
J xo :-) Jeanie Haining
Fitness Supervisor
5270
Why do people in ship mutinies always ask for "better treatment"? I'd ask for a pinball machine, because with all that rocking back and forth you'd probably be able to get a lot of free games. - Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey

Redneck Jetski ...

Source: unknown ... thanks be

Just a little inside joke ....

jeanie's continued adventure......

very excited

Hi everyone...
My first brush with celebrities....I met Rick Mercer....he's v. short. But somehow I held back from saying that horrible cliché...."you look taller on television".

We were bartending for the meet and greet and he came behind the bar for a
pic. Yai!


That's my news for today. Its still sunny....but cold in mornings and nights here now. Now that's really all my news.....
miss you all!
Jeanie :)

Jeanie Haining
Fitness Supervisor
5270

When you're going up the stairs and you take a step, kick the other leg up high behind you to keep people from following too close. - Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey

Trust me ...

Last week, Mr. Warren wrote a scathing and pretty snarky column "Bush's Bad Choice", denouncing W.'s choice for SCOTUS.

"I've always loved the name Harriet, or "Hattie" for short. To me, the name evokes some sweet, willowy thing in red hair and freckles, with lively observant eyes, a whimsical self-deprecating wit and a streak of harmless sentimentality, alert alike to charity and danger. I don't know why. I've never met a Harriet."

[...]

"But why am I bothering my reader with such Harrietine musings? Because that is about all anyone knew, about Harriet E. Miers, when President George W. Bush nominated her to the U.S. Supreme Court. Her name. And that she's a close friend of Laura Bush, which is alarming."

[...]

"But Ms. O'Connor made decisions (such as her celebrated ruling on gerrymanders) akin to the stereotype of a woman shopping."

[...]

"The best thing I've heard about Ms. Miers is that Nathan Hecht, the least ambiguously conservative member of the Texas Supreme Court, thinks she will do. Notwithstanding, were I a liberal Democrat, I would be in a rush to confirm this appointment.

Politically, I would say, a disaster. President Bush has telegraphed his weakness to his enemies ("not spoiling for a fight," as The New York Times gloated), and shaken the confidence of his allies. The John Roberts appointment was already a slide -- a smooth, competent, legal technocrat as Chief Justice, not a man of deep convictions. It's a war, and convictions are not optional."

There's more, but, that was the gist of it.

To his credit, Mr. Warren is backtracking this week. I shall boldly note that Mr. Warren has humbly acknowledged that the US Constitution places trust with the people to decide their fate.

David Warren writing in the Ottawa Citizen (subscription required)

Today, instead of my usual two cents' worth, the reader gets two single-penny columns. I wanted to subtract from what I said last week on President Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In the week since, much dust has settled, and it has become clear that Ms. Miers is acceptable to the broad right-wing Republican constituency, and to not a few Democrats. She is despised, chiefly, by the right-wing intellectuals (people like me), who were heartbroken that Mr. Bush would pass over the long list of brilliant, strict-constructionist legal scholars that have arisen in response to the challenge presented by two generations of often deconstructionist rulings by the same Supreme Court.

Especially, that he should do so to appoint some woman who was his own personal lawyer and who looks at first glance as if she could be -- on the grand constitutional issues, outside her own territory of corporate law -- a ditz.

(A strict "constructionist" is an interpreter who reads the U.S. Constitution as if it were written in plain English, which it was. A "deconstructionist" is my cute attempt to label judges who prefer to rewrite the Constitution as they go along -- in the U.S. case, mostly by riffing on the 14th Amendment.)

While I'm not sure we right-wing elitists were wrong, I hope we were, and without speaking for anyone else, I'm beginning to think I was wrong.

If Ms. Miers clears the U.S. Senate, we will see what sort of judge she'll be.

But for now, President Bush's apparently weak argument, "Trust me," is beginning to look much sounder. Perhaps the great Texas jurisprude Lino Graglia put this best in an interview with Hugh Hewitt. To paraphrase: the Supremes are in the habit of arrogating to themselves decisions that should really be made by the people (on everything from abortion, pornography, and school prayer, to all-male military academies in the State of Virginia). Power naturally flows to their heads. Yet the Constitution had nothing to say about such things, and explicitly left to the people what it had nothing to say about. It is this trust in the people that has made America the beacon she is.

Harriet Miers may be exactly the sort of real-world type who can understand that. George Bush, from knowing her well over a long time, is in a good position to know she knows. She doesn't need bells, whistles and law degrees from Harvard and Yale. It might even help not to have them.

Jeanie in Afghanistan

More pictures.....
I've been talking so much about the dodgeball that I figured I should email
some pics....plus one more of the hot soldier guy:)








Jeanie Haining
Fitness Supervisor
5270

jeanie reporting in....

Hi everyone!!!
So that big earthquake in Pakistan sent a few aftershocks our way this morning. It was pretty crazy actually. We were all standing in the welfare office tent (not that you would know what it looks like because I suck at sending pics .... but I digress) and all of a sudden is was like being in a boat in terms of feeling nauseous anyway. I stepped out of the office onto the ground and was fine ... and then jumped back in the office .... and out again .... just because at that point I was entertaining myself:). Other than that, nothing too big.

I'm sad because Tammy left yesterday so I feel like a loser now because we hung out a lot the last few weeks .... but Natalie, another good friend from the bosnia roto, is coming back next week so I'll have a friend again:).

Actually, I have met a cute friend and I've attached a pic because I want to share some of the eye candy we have here. His name is Aaron and he's from Vancouver Island ... but has lived in Gagetown for 12 years .... I know couldn't I just meet a nice guy from Kelowna or something:) Anyway, we hang out a lot and he's hilarious so most of the time its just me laughing. (notice I took all the boys off this email ... they don't need to see all this). Also, his dodgeball team for our tournament were called the green bastards and so I've attached their team pic .... their "packages" were part of the costume so don't think they're real ...... The dodgeball tourney was hilarious .... people got right into all the games and we had a huge crowd around the sports pad watching it. Good times...good times.

I haven't been checking my personal email that much lately but I have gotten a few emails from you guys and thanks! Your stories are hilarious and I will make the time to send individual emails too. Peg, glad your trip east was so awesome! You deserve that time for sure!

I've also attached some pics of my bedspace but now its different because I moved into tammy's spot (it was better) so I'll have to do some new ones soon.

Also, it looks like a go for me going to Kandahar and finishing my tour so I'll be home around Feb 2 (that's the end of my contract) I am planning on heading to Fredericton soon after to go see Tam again (she and I are convinced we can open some cool business in the untapped world of small-city New Brunswick) and who knows...maybe meet up with the cute guy and get to find out if his kissing is as good as I keep imagining it is:) (Mom, I know you probably didn't need to read that ... just skip that part and go ahead to the next paragraph)

I'm sure something else big has happened but right now it escapes me. I'm into groundhog day mode and okay with that. I don't really want to know the difference b/n sunday and wednesday yet ... maybe closer to my HLTA, which will be spent in Thailand ... SO excited. Okay, you can all hate me now ...... but know that I miss you!!!!! :)

talk soon,
J xo :)
Jeanie Haining
Fitness Supervisor
5270
If they ever have a haunted house for dogs, I think a good display would be
a bathtub full of soapy water. - Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey

UN scammed and finally leashed

"PARIS (AFP) - Jean-Bernard Merimee, France's former representative at the UN Security Council, was taken into custody by a judge investigating corruption linked to the Iraqi "oil-for-food" programme." more ...

"PARIS (Reuters) - Police have detained a former French ambassador to the U.N. Security Council Jean-Bernard Merimee was taken in by police on Monday over allegations he may have benefited from oil supplies allocated under the program by former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein the source said." more ...

"France's former UN ambassador has been taken into custody as part of an investigation into allegations of wrongdoing in the Iraq oil-for-food programme.

According to judicial officials on Tuesday, Jean-Bernard Merimee is suspected of having received kickbacks in the form of oil allocations from the government of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

He was also a special adviser to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan from 1999 to 2002." more ...

More crock ...

National: Contract calling for no paper trail raises furore

Federal officials are under fire for a $132,000 contract signed with an outside consultant that specifies the firm must leave no paper trail in government offices. The deal Indian and Northern Affairs Canada signed with Ottawa-based Totem Hill Inc. explicitly states "presentations shall be oral with supporting material provided to aid comprehension, but not retained by the department." The February 2005 contract ensures there are no documents that auditors can later verify and citizens can consult through requests under the Access to Information Act. "Verbal reports are just completely unacceptable," said Tory MP John Williams.

You can't make it up!

British Columbia: Deadly fungus spawned by homosexual spores

"Researchers in the U.S. report that a deadly fungus, which spread from Vancouver Island to the mainland, was spawned when two less-dangerous strains engaged in a homosexual union. Cryptococcus gattii is normally restricted to tropical and subtropical areas. In 1999, it began to infect people on Vancouver Island, and three new cases were discovered on the mainland this year. More than 132 people have been made ill on Vancouver Island, and four have died. The fungus lives in trees and soil, and has also infected dogs, cats, llamas and porpoises. Now, scientists at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, who compared fungal gene sequences, have identified two strains of the fungus in B.C. They believe the lethal strain was created when fungi of the less hazardous version mated with a member of another, yet-to-be-discovered strain. An earlier revelation that the deadly strain was all of the same sex, or mating type, gave birth to the theory that the dangerous strain arose from homosexual mating."

... my bold

I'll pass!

Don't these guys have anything better to do?
from the Ottawa Citizen

Take 10 worms, call me in the morning
Blood-suckers studied as allergy cure

First, British doctors reintroduced live maggots to clear away infected flesh --a last resort when antibiotics fail. Now, they are testing intestinal, blood-sucking hookworms to fight asthma.

These are ugly little parasites that latch on to the inner wall of your intestine and feed on human blood. Too many worms, and you become anemic.

But with just a few, immunologist David Pritchard of the University of Nottingham thinks he can help control asthma and other allergic reactions.

"We're giving people 10 larvae (baby worms), which is a safe dose," he says. Now his team will find out whether that's enough to beat asthma and hayfever.

These allergies are caused partly by white blood cells that become overactive, he says. The immune system is out of control, hurting instead of helping.

But hookworms have developed a way of tricking the human immune system, in order to escape being killed by it.

He says this "dampening effect" may also calm down the overactive immune response that causes an asthma attack.

A few worms in the gut appear to stimulate the production of regulatory T-cells -- cells that suppress overactive white blood cells. This came to light after someone noticed that Africans who have a lot of hookworms are mysteriously free of most asthma and allergy troubles.

Dr. Pritchard has tested the worms himself, letting them burrow through his skin.

"They know just where to go. They're in within minutes. It's still a bit of a mystery as to what happens in the skin," he said. "But ... they hit the bloodstream, reach the lungs, crawl up the trachea (windpipe), are swallowed, and that's it. They go through the stomach and attach to the small intestine and feed on blood.

"They itch like hell" when they burrow through the skin, he says. As well, large numbers of worms can cause intestinal pain or general weakness.

But a person with 10 worms "won't even know they're in there," he says.

"I studied men in Papua New Guinea with a few worms, and they were running up and down volcanoes and chopping down trees."

He and colleagues are now enrolling patients for the first step, a test of whether hookworms control hayfever next spring. The bigger goal, however, is to move on to severe and sometimes life-threatening asthma.

Meanwhile, other doctors are seeing whether worms can control other immune diseases.

Dr. John Croese in Australia is examining whether hookworms can reduce Crohn's disease, an immune attack on the intestine. And Joel Weinstock of the University of Iowa is investigating pig whipworms and Crohn's disease.

Hookworms are microscopic when they invade the body, and grow to about two centimetres long.

They survive up to 10 years. If they bother the person, a dose of medicine kills them off.

Are they finally going to get one right?

from the Ottawa Citizen

Doctors misdiagnosing, over-prescribing drugs for attention deficit disorders, UN warns
Commission says more studies also needed on long-term effects of medicines

UNITED NATIONS - The children's rights committee of the United Nations has, for the first time, warned that doctors in developed countries may be wrongly diagnosing some youth with hyperactivity and attention deficit disorders and over-prescribing drug treatments.

Members also say the long-term effects of Ritalin and other drugs commonly used to treat the disorders remain unknown, and more study is needed to determine whether they are safe.

"Our information is that, in many instances, it is used as more or less a control mechanism to keep the child in school -- to deal with their misbehaviour in class," Brent Parfitt, a Canadian member of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, said in an interview from Geneva.

"It's primarily with respect to western nations ... our colleagues have indicated they're concerned about the long-term effects of the drug, and so our recommendations are for those countries to study it in more detail."

Many in the medical profession say up to 11 per cent of children around the globe suffer from varying degrees of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and attention deficit disorder (ADD).

At risk of being diagnosed are children displaying impulsive or inappropriate behaviours coupled with a lack of ability to focus.

Many doctors warn that without treatment, sufferers could become social outcasts who may even turn to substance abuse or crime.

But the UN committee's reports show there is a growing concern that children's human rights are being violated when these drugs are prescribed. The reports are directed at Australia, Finland and Denmark, whose turn it was to appear before the committee this year to demonstrate they are complying with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Canada is next scheduled to appear before the committee in 2008.

The committee hears evidence submitted not only by diplomats from the countries being interviewed, but also from activist groups.

"The committee is ... concerned at the information that attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and attention deficit disorder are being misdiagnosed and, therefore, psycho-stimulant drugs are being over-prescribed, despite the growing evidence of the harmful effects of these drugs.

"The committee recommends that further research be undertaken on the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD and ADD, including the possible negative effects of psycho-stimulants on the physical and psychological well-being of children, and that other forms of management and treatment are used as much as possible to address these behavioural disorders."

The committee's conclusions follow a resolution by the Council of Europe, a 48-nation body that in part monitors human rights violations, which expressing its concern over the use of drugs for treatment of ADHD.

"When the Council of Europe makes a resolution you can pretty well be sure that the information is relatively accurate," said Mr. Parfitt, a former deputy ombudsman for British Columbia, and one of 18 independent experts on the committee.

Health Canada recently asked all makers of drugs used to treat ADHD to submit data from all clinical trials and post-marketing reports by the end of 2005 for review, according to the Citizens' Commission on Human Rights, which the Church of Scientology established in 1969 to "investigate and expose psychiatric violations of human rights."

"There is no brain scan, blood test, X-ray or 'chemical imbalance' test to verify the existence of so-called ADHD," said Brian Beaumont, spokesman for the commission's Vancouver chapter.

The commission said Health Canada will review the following drugs: Concerta, Adderall XR, Dexadrine, Ritalin and Attenade.

How much is that 'dillo in the window?

... these little geezers are a might late for the migration south ... must be the tequila.


A little taste of Texas North.

MMmmmmmmmm .........

A little crunchy perhaps, but with dill and hollandaise ... who knows!

It's.just.NOT.OK......

from the Ottawa Citizen

The stem cell supply that pits ethicists against geneticists

A debate is raging over the 'millions' of cells held in a Toronto lab

TORONTO - Andras Nagy has created an entire mouse from a single cell. He has also produced fluorescing rodents that glow in the dark.

But these days, the geneticist is more famous for the cells he keeps in an unmarked lab at the end of a long, cluttered hallway at Mount Sinai Hospital.

Behind the locked door are the two batches of stem cells Mr. Nagy grew from cells he extracted from two tiny human embryos. The embryos were destroyed, but their stem cells continue to grow at an incredible rate.

"There are millions of them in here," says Mr. Nagy, removing a tray from a warm, humid incubator. He slips the tray under the microscope to reveal the non-descript clumps of stem cells that impassion both scientists and ethicists, albeit for different reasons.

Mr. Nagy's bosses issued a media release and congratulations when he unveiled the cells, Canada's first two batches of human embryonic stem cells, in June. They say Mr. Nagy's work offers hope for curing chronic and fatal disease. They have also given him scientific approval to create several more stem cell lines from additional human embryos.

But some observers were dismayed to learn about Mr. Nagy's cells or, more specifically, the days-old embryos he used to create them. And two of Canada's leading ethicists have now called for a moratorium on the donation of "fresh," as opposed to frozen, embryos for research until the rules are clarified and better safeguards are in place to protect people undergoing fertility treatment and their embryos.

"It is not OK to just keep pushing the boundaries on what is allowed without involving the public and explaining the reasons for doing so," says ethicist Francoise Baylis of Dalhousie University.

Mr. Nagy is definitely pushing boundaries by doing fresh human embryo research no other scientist in Canada has undertaken. But he stresses that all the work is done in "full compliance" with federal research rules.

If the government decides a moratorium is needed and the rules need revision, Mr. Nagy says he will gladly comply.

Meanwhile, he welcomes the debate. "I am very, very happy because it has to be cleared up," he says.

Mr. Nagy started extracting the cellular contents of human embryos about three years ago. Canadian fertility clinics provided him with the embryos: some were just a few days old and healthy, others were damaged and non-viable, and still more had spent years in the freezer.

The donations are anonymous and made with the consent of people who underwent fertility treatment and decided they no longer wanted or needed the embryos for reproductive purposes.

For his first project, Mr. Nagy says he used several embryos. The aim was to develop techniques for extracting stem cells and nurturing them in the lab. Cells taken from two days-old embryos resulted in the creation of the stem cell lines unveiled in June.

Some people, most notably U.S. President George W. Bush -- who has halted extraction of stem cells from human embryos at federally funded U.S. labs -- are morally opposed to such experiments, saying it is not right to destroy potential human life.

Mr. Nagy is at the opposite extreme. He sees it as a kind of scientific salvation. "I am really happy that I could rescue them," Mr. Nagy says of the potent cells he derived from the embryos, which would have been discarded if not used for research.

Embryonic stem cells can turn into any type of cell in the body, and researchers dream of using them to develop treatments to mend everything from spinal cords to failing hearts and brains. "They have incredible potential," says Mr. Nagy, voicing a viewpoint held by many scientists.

But there are major hurdles to overcome before anyone starts replacing people's heart cells and neurons. One is learning how to coax stem cells to turn into specific types of tissue. Another is to grow stem cells without any animal products.

Many existing human embryonic stem cell lines, including Mr. Nagy's lines, are cultured with mouse "feeder" cells that excrete growth factors, which stimulate stem cells to grow.

As part of his upcoming project, Mr. Nagy plans to use human feeder cells, grown from foreskins snipped off at circumcision. "It's a source now often discarded," he says.

The Stem Cell Network, a federally financed group, has approved his three-year project to create three or four more cell lines. Mr. Nagy cannot say in advance how many embryos will be used, but he says the plan is to use days-old embryos donated for research.

Mr. Nagy has scientific approval and is waiting for the OK from the stem cell oversight committee, which next meets in November. The committee, created by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, is meant to ensure ethical use of embryos and stem cells.

The problem, say ethicists, is not that Mr. Nagy is necessarily breaking any rules. It's that existing safeguards leave the door open for doctors to ask parents to donate healthy and viable embryos, which are just a few days old. The main worry, Dr. Jeffrey Nisker of the University of Western Ontario wrote in the Canadian Medical Association Journal last month, is that women may be coerced into donating healthy embryos that they could freeze for later attempts at pregnancy.

Normally, doctors advise people undergoing fertility treatment to freeze all spare healthy embryos, which gives the women and couples time to consider whether to try for more children, give the embryos up for adoption, donate them to research or opt for destruction once their families are complete.

Canada's research rules, quietly amended* by the CIHR earlier this year to explicitly say fresh and frozen embryos can be used for research, are "very open ended," says Ms. Baylis.

She would like them to clearly spell out the type of fresh embryos eligible for donation to research.

* my bold ... no discussion or debate ... sneaky bastards.

Uh oh ...

If life gives you lemons ...

.. make lemonade, fer crissake!

Foul, foul, foul !

from the Washington Times

Landowners must yield to ballpark

The District will begin using eminent domain to acquire parcels of land at the site of the Washington Nationals' ballpark by the end of this month, after unsuccessful negotiations with nearly half of the landowners. City officials said they expect to file court documents to take over at least some of the 21-acre site in the coming weeks and have $97 million set aside to buy the properties and help landowners relocate.

The city made offers to all 23 landowners on the site last month but received no response from 10. "We think there are some that we'll have good-faith negotiations with," said Steve Green, director of development in the office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development. "There are some we haven't heard from at all." Many property owners on the site said the city's offers are inadequate.

Others are suing the city on the grounds that it has no right to use eminent domain to acquire land at the site, despite a Supreme Court ruling affirming the right of municipal governments to take private property for the purpose of economic development. In April, the city notified property owners on the site that they would be required to move out by Dec. 31. City officials said the District is on target to have title on all of the land by that date, but they don't expect to have full possession of the site until early next year, with construction on the $535 million stadium to begin in March. That would give the construction team, led by Clark Construction Group of Bethesda, about two years to build the ballpark in time for Opening Day of 2008.

more ...

The bubble's going to burst and it won't be pretty ...

from the Ottawa Citizen

[...]

While the city's [Ottawa's] average assessment increase on all residential properties is 11.84 per cent, there were many areas with property assessments that jumped far beyond that average.

In particular, residents of Kitchissippi, Rideau-Vanier and Somerset wards should brace themselves for a substantial tax increase in 2006. Kitchissippi Ward, which includes trendy Westboro and up-and-coming Hintonburg, had the highest average increase on residential properties, at 18.55 per cent, while Rideau-Vanier's average increase is 16.79 per cent. Somerset Ward is a close third at 16.1 per cent.

[...]

That's not the least of it ... 41% seemed to literally jump off the page. Cripes! This place is built on a swamp!

The provincial assessment system is run by a bunch of loonies who get a commission based on the assessed values. Tell me that's not ripe for theft! Any appeal will cost to initiate, and would be two or more years in the system.

AAaaarrrrggggghhhh!!

This is NOT good news ...

From the Washington Times

Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has placed the military firmly in control of his nation's nuclear program, undercutting his government's claim that the program is intended for civilian use, according to a leading opposition group.

Leaders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the force created specifically to defend the 1979 Islamic revolution, now dominate Iran's Supreme National Security Council, the country's top foreign policy-making body under the constitution.

Mr. Ahmadinejad, a little-known former mayor of Tehran before his surprise election in July, is a former IRGC commander, as is new council Secretary-General Ali Larijani, who has taken the lead in negotiations about Iran's nuclear programs.

Revolutionary Guard commanders also have taken charge of the council's internal security, strategy and political posts, according to a report issued by the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran. A Revolutionary Guard veteran even serves as the council's press spokesman.

"The military under the new president is firmly in control of the nuclear program and the nuclear negotiations with the United Nations and the West," said Mohammad Mohaddessin, chairman of the NCRI's foreign affairs committee, in a telephone interview yesterday.

The personnel changes "make it less and less credible that Iran is pursuing nuclear programs for peaceful uses," he said.

The report, which also tracks Iran's extensive nuclear infrastructure and technical programs, charges that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamanei has turned to IRGC personnel in order to "eliminate all bureaucratic and political obstacles to obtaining nuclear weapons."

Iran, which claims the right to pursue a civilian nuclear program to meet its domestic energy needs, is in intense negotiations with European Union powers France, Britain and Germany over the fate of its nuclear programs.

The Bush administration is deeply skeptical of Tehran's ambitions. The board of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency last month threatened to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions if it does not allow tight international oversight of its programs.

The NCRI is the political arm of the People's Mujahadeen, a secular Iranian bloc that broke violently with the Islamic leaders of the revolution shortly after the ouster of the U.S.-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

The opposition group has had a checkered and at times contradictory role. Branded a terrorist group by U.S. and European governments, it also has proven to be the single best intelligence source on Iran's clandestine nuclear programs, exposing in recent years massive research and testing sites inside Iran unknown to U.N. and Western monitors.

But other analysts also have reported a wave of senior appointments for Iran's military, especially from within the more ideological forces under the direct control of the ruling Islamic clerics.

Houchang Hassan-Yari, a political scientist at the Royal Military College of Canada, noted in a recent analysis that current and former members of the IRGC now can be found throughout Iran's political and administrative bureaucracy, from lawmakers in parliament to mayors, university officials and even managers of some of Iran's biggest business concerns.

The corps is "on the verge of being transformed from a junior player in the country's military defense to a key factor in the country's military and security doctrine -- a rise that could come at the [traditional] army's expense," he noted.

Bill Samii, an Iranian analyst for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, said a key factor in Mr. Ahmadinejad's surprise presidential election was the support of the Basij Resistance Force, a paramilitary force with extensive links to the Revolutionary Guards Corps.

The new president, with virtually no experience in foreign affairs when he was elected, named a senior Basij leader as a top adviser just after assuming office in August.

Not just yet ...

Cabin in the woods ... a little bliss and a lot of wood to split. That deck needs staining.

Even the sumac isn't fully red. A windy day with the leaves turning their backs.

Another week ... to Canadian Thanksgiving ... and these maples should be brilliantly red.

Mont Ste. Marie ... from the village on the lac. That's a radar tower on top.

Lac Ste. Marie ... looking south from the village.

It's just the sun ... what a heavenly day!

That hill will be gold and green.

Well ... the snow will come soon enough.