The RIAA's lawsuit against a homeless man isn't going according to plan!

The RIAA's file-sharing lawsuit against a homeless man has run into some snags:

In Warner v. Berry, where the RIAA was suing a man who lives in a homeless shelter, the Magistrate Judge -- Hon. Kevin Nathaniel Fox -- recommended that the plaintiffs' application for a default judgment be denied, and that the plaintiffs be ordered to show cause why they should not be sanctioned under Rule 11. The Judge agreed that the default judgment should be denied, but chose not to sanction plaintiffs' attorneys...

The Magistrate Judge found that "[b]y affixing the summons on April 9, 2007, the plaintiffs demonstrated they never intended to conduct 'a thorough address investigation ...' because they employed the 'affix and mail' method of service without exercising due diligence to effect personal service pursuant to CPLR s 308(1) and (2)." Magistrate Judge Fox concluded that Plaintiffs' representation to this Court to the effect that they intended to conduct an investigation to locate Defendant's current address implicated Fed.R.Civ.P. 11(b) because it was made for the improper purpose of unnecessary delay.

We can only hope that this won't prejudice the court in the matter of Warner, Electra et al Versus Charitable Hospice for Dying, Helpless, Starving Children Who Rescue Puppies From Burning Buildings and Volunteer at the Old Folks Home.

(No, that is not sarcasm you detect in the sentence above.)

The Zen of the Spiritual

Surprised ... Yes and No.

A Mexican federal official says the police chief of the border city of Reynosa has been arrested for allegedly protecting members of the Gulf drug cartel.

The official says Chief Juan Muniz will be flown to Mexico City on Thursday to be questioned by organized crime investigators.

Muniz has been arrested by federal agents in Reynosa, across from McAllen, Texas, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to discuss the case.

Reynosa city officials have issued a news release saying Muniz was arrested Thursday afternoon. Muniz could not be immediately reach for comment and it was unclear if he had a lawyer.

The Gulf cartel is based in Tamaulipas state, where Reynosa is located.
*****

And this surprises me, how?
Okay, the Mexicans actually arresting the chief does - the fact the chief was fronting for a drug cartel ... nope, not surprising at all.

He was "depressed".

Relatives of a Fresno high school student who was shot to death after he attacked a police officer with a baseball bat questioned the department's version of events Thursday and said the depressed teenager never received the help he needed from school officials.

Jesus "Jesse" Carrizales, a 17-year-old sophomore, died Wednesday of a single bullet to the chest, fired by a school resources officer, Junus Perry, whom police said Carrizales had ambushed in a crowded outdoor corridor of Roosevelt High School. Officers found a small knife protruding from Carrizales' pocket, police said.

Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer said Thursday that the 6-foot-tall, 250-pound teen sought out the violent confrontation, which he called "a case of suicide by cop."

It wasn't the first time Carrizales had a run-in with police. In 2005, while in middle school, the student was cited for concealing a small knife in his backpack, Dyer said. Relatives said the knife belonged to a friend.

The next year, however, Carrizales' 10 brothers and sisters noticed he had become withdrawn, and the family decided he would do better at an alternative school where he could pursue independent study. He was prescribed Lexapro and Geodon, drugs used to treat depression and bipolar disorder, and in January he transferred to Roosevelt High, said his sister Elisa Ortega.

"He was a boy who needed help," said Ortega, 27. "He was depressed and he was on medication and the school knew it, so maybe they could have treated things differently."

Carrizales' family said the officer didn't have to shoot the teen, and questioned authorities' version of events.

"He never said he wanted to die or anything close to that," Ortega said. "They didn't have to kill him. The Taser guns, the batons they have, that should have been enough to calm the situation down."

Dyer said after Carrizales surprised the officer from behind and struck him in the head with the 21-inch bat, Perry feared for his life.

The officer fell down dazed, and reached for the gun in his hip holster, but the clip fell out.

As the student came at him again, yelling obscenities and raising the bat above his head, Perry grabbed a semiautomatic handgun he carried as backup in an ankle holster. He fired one round, Dyer said.

"It is unfortunate that the officer was put in a position where he had to take a student's life," Dyer told reporters Thursday. "Had he not defended himself there could have been further tragedy."

At least five students and a probation officer on campus witnessed the incident, police said. No one else was injured.

Fresno Unified School District spokeswoman Susan Bedi said a confidentiality agreement kept her from commenting on Carrizales' history in local schools.

Acting Superintendent Ruth Quinto said in a statement that the district was proud of how staff and students handled the situation.

"They have shown great strength and maturity," Quinto said. "We are continuing and will continue for as long as necessary to support them in any way that we can."

Carrizales' siblings described him as a lighthearted aspiring chef who preferred to play video games with his young cousins rather than take part in adult conversations.

"He was more of a kid himself. He was a momma's boy," said another sister, Irene Ortega, 25, speaking outside her mother's modest Fresno home. "We just want to know what happened before that incident to see what made him do what police say he did."

Perry is recovering at home after being treated for a 2-inch gash on the right side of his head, Dyer said. He is on administrative leave while the department reviews his conduct in Fresno's fifth officer-involved shooting this year.

*****

Ok, I am no wingnut fundie but come on people sometime it is not the boogey-man and sometime it is, but the continuous stream of he was - depressed, sick, slow, retarded, high, drunk, etc., ad infinitum - (take your pick), is getting a bit thin.

Which is making legitimate cases of depression, illness, retardation, etc., fall to the wayside as when the boy cried wolf twice and the men came to kill the wolf carrying off the boy's sheep and there was no wolf, so when the boy cried wolf the third time the men ignored him and the wolf ate all the boy's sheep.

Tourists 1 Wildlife 0

News from the wild that isn't good at all.

Group of Gibraltar's Barbary apes to be killed

A renegade group of Gibraltar's Barbary apes has annoyed residents so much that authorities announced plans Thursday to kill them.

A cluster of 25 Barbary apes - a species of monkey usually weighing about 15-25 pounds - moved to a popular beach-side area some months ago where they have been stealing food, entering rooms through open windows and harassing tourists, officials said.

The territory's tourism minister, Ernest Britto, has decided to kill the beach dwelling group, government spokesman Francis Cantos said.

"I can confirm that tourism minister Britto has decided to issue a license for a cull," said Cantos.

"The decision was not taken lightly. It is a last resort," Britto told the Gibraltar Chronicle newspaper.

The newspaper said two monkeys have already been captured and given lethal injections.

The pack, part of the territory's population of around 200, invaded a sandy beach area called Catalan Bay where they remained because they were able to rummage for food. The area is popular with tourists and has a luxury hotel.

Britto said he determined that the monkeys posed a danger to public health.

The animals mainly inhabit the high ground of Gibraltar, a British colony off Spain's southern tip.

The British Army, which is responsible for their care, has in the past often had to replenish Gibraltar's population with monkeys from Africa. Barbary apes also live in Morocco and north Algeria.

Polygamist sect hearing in Texas descends into farce

A court hearing to decide the fate of the 416 children swept up in a raid on a West Texas polygamist sect descended into farce Thursday, with hundreds of lawyers in two packed buildings shouting objections and the judge struggling to maintain order.

The case - clearly one of the biggest, most convoluted child-custody hearings in U.S. history - presented an extraordinary tableau: big-city lawyers in suits and mothers in 19th-century, pioneer-style dresses, all packed into a courtroom and a nearby auditorium connected by video.

At issue was an attempt by the state of Texas to strip the parents of custody and place the children in foster homes because of evidence they were being physically and sexually abused by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a renegade Mormon splinter group suspected of forcing underage girls into marriage with older men.

As many feared, the proceedings turned into something of a circus - and a painfully slow one.

By midafternoon only two witnesses had testified, and both only to lay the foundation for documents to be admitted. One witness, a state trooper, was cross-examined by dozens of attorneys, each of them asking the same question of a behalf of a child or parent.

As the afternoon dragged on, no decisions had been made on any of the youngsters' fate.

Texas District Judge Barbara Walther struggled to maintain order as she faced 100 lawyers in her 80-year-old Tom Green County courtroom and several hundred more participating over a grainy video feed from an ornate City Hall auditorium two blocks away.

The hearing disintegrated quickly into a barrage of shouted objections and attempts to file motions, with lawyers for the children objecting to objections made by the parents' attorneys. When the judge sustained an objection to the prolonged questioning the state trooper, the lawyers cheered.

Upon another objection about the proper admission of medical records of the children, the judge threw up her hands.

"I assume most of you want to make the same objection. Can I have a universal, `Yes, Judge'?" she said.

In both buildings, the hundreds of lawyers stood and responded in unison: "Yes, Judge."

But she added to the chaos as well.

Walther refused to put medical records and other evidence in electronic form, which could be e-mailed among the lawyers, because it contained personal information. A courier had to run from the courthouse to the auditorium delivering one document at a time.

"We're going to handle this the best we can, one client at a time," Walther said.

Little evidence had been admitted by midafternoon. The first attempt to admit evidence resulted in an hourlong recess while all the lawyers examined it. The rest of the morning was spent in arguments about whether to admit the medical records of three girls, two 17-year-olds and one 18-year-old.

Department of Public Safety Sgt. Danny Crawford testified to DPS's discovery of a church bishop's records taken from a safe at the ranch that listed about 38 families, some of them polygamous and some that included wives 16 or 17 years old. But under repeated cross-examination, Crawford acknowledged the records contained no evidence of sexual abuse.

State officials asked the judge for permission to conduct genetic testing on the children and adults because of difficulty sorting out the sect's tangled family relationships and matching youngsters with their parents. The judge did not immediately rule.

Amid the shouting and chaos among the lawyers, who came from around Texas to represent the children and parents free of charge, dozens of mothers sat timidly in their long cotton dresses, long underwear even in the spring heat, and braided upswept hair.

In the satellite courtroom, about 175 people strained to see and hear a large projector set up on the auditorium's stage. But the feed was blurry and barely audible.

"I'm not in a position to advocate for anything," complained Susan Hays, the appointed attorney for a 2-year-old sect member.

Outside, where TV satellite trucks lined the street in front of the courthouse's columned facade, a man who said he was an FLDS father waved a photo of himself surrounded by his four children, ranging from a baby to a child of about 9.

"Look, look, look," the father said. "These children are all smiling, we're happy."

Walther signed an emergency order nearly two weeks ago giving the state custody of the children after a 16-year-old girl called an abuse hot line claiming her husband, a 50-year-old member of the sect, beat and raped her. The girl has yet to be identified.

Authorities raided their compound April 3 in the nearby town of Eldorado - a 1,700-acre ranch with a blindingly white limestone temple and log cabin-style houses - and began collecting documents and disk drives that might provide evidence of underage girls being married to adults.

The children, who are being kept in a domed coliseum in San Angelo, range in age from 6 months to 17 years in age. Roughly 100 of them are under 4.

FLDS members deny children were abused and say the state is persecuting them for their faith.

The judge must weigh the allegations of abuse and also decide whether it is in the children's best interest to be placed into mainstream society after they have been told all their lives that the outside world is hostile and immoral.

If the judge gives the state permanent custody of the children, the Texas child services agency will face the enormous task of finding suitable homes. It will also have to decipher brother-sister relationships so that it can try to preserve them.

Over the past two weeks, the agency has relied on volunteers to help feed the children, do their laundry and provide crafts and games for them.

Gov. Rick Perry would not say how much the case is costing the state, but said: "Does the state of Texas have the resources? Absolutely we do."

The sect came to West Texas in 2003, relocating some members from the church's traditional home along the Utah-Arizona state line. Its prophet and spiritual leader, Warren Jeffs, is in prison for forcing an underage girl into marriage in Utah.

*****

P.T. was right! This whole thing is a badly written TV movie (and you know it will be). Barnum wherever you are try not to laugh too hard.

Dangers of Bisphenol A (BPA) From canned food

From TreeHugger.com:

Dangers of Bisphenol A (BPA) From canned food

According to the FDA, 17% of the American diet comes out of cans, and many of those have an epoxy liner made with Bisphenol A, a chemical which can mimic human estrogen and which is linked to breast cancer and early puberty in women. While the leaching of BPA from Nalgene water bottles and other polycarbonate bottles is a concern, the danger from canned food may be greater. The Environmental Working Group tested canned food bought across America and found BPA in more than half of them, at levels they call "200 times the government's traditional safe level of exposure for industrial chemicals." There are no standards for BPA; it is allowed to be put in anything, and billions of pounds are produced each year. EWG found:

Of all foods tested, chicken soup, infant formula, and ravioli had BPA levels of highest concern. Just one to three servings of foods with these concentrations could expose a woman or child to BPA at levels that caused serious adverse effects in animal tests.

Read more: BPA Danger may be greater from Tin Cans than Water Bottles

Lunar Moth

This trippy-dippy lunar moth that affixed itself to the kitchen window a couple of nights ago. Got this incredible shot of the beautiful green beastie:

French aghast at new English incursion to their language

To the barricades! That's the message of language purists aghast that the lyrics of France's entry in a hugely popular European song contest are - mon Dieu! - in English.

Critics, including the French government, are adamant: Sebastien Tellier should not perform "Divine" at Eurovision - unless it is in French.

"A song represents the soul of a country," said Marc Favre d'Echallens, who heads a group dedicated to defending French against the growing use of English.

"It appears logical that a song representing France be a French song sung in French," he said, denouncing cultural "uniformity" and the "hegemony" of the English language in the world today.

It's the latest battle in a war France has waged for decades to defend French against the encroachment - some call it the invasion - of the English language.

The televised May 24 Eurovision contest, with entries from Andorra to Russia, drew some 100 million viewers last year - when France placed 22 out of 24 finalists, with 19 points.

Serbia's Marija Serifovic won with 268 points and a heart-wrenching rendition of the ballad "Molitva," or "The Prayer" - sung in her native language.

France's losing entry mixed English and French, with the lyrics "L'amour a la francaise let's do it again, again, again, again."

Wildly popular in Europe, Eurovision has lifted artists from obscurity to celebrity. ABBA won in 1974 with a song that spoke of another French defeat - "Waterloo." And Celine Dion's win in 1988, singing "Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi" (Don't Leave Without Me), helped launch her career.

This year's contest features performers from 43 countries. Eurovision bills itself as one of the longest-running television shows in the world, with the first contest in 1956. France has won 14 times.

France's entry, "Divine," - with only two lines in French - was chosen by France-3, the public television station.

France's minister for cooperation and Francophonie, or French speakers, issued a strongly worded statement Wednesday reflecting his disapproval.

"When one has the honor of being selected to represent France, one sings in French," Alain Joyandet said. He has urged Tellier and France-3 to consider changing the song.

Joyandet was scheduled to meet Thursday with an official of Tellier's RecordMakers label, Stephane Elfassi.

Tellier was not immediately available to comment on the uproar. However, his producer, Marc Teissier du Cros of RecordMakers, said the singer "is quite amused."

After writing the song in English, Tellier "tried to adapt it in French but it didn't work out," du Cros said.

"For me, this is yesterday's debate," he said. "Today an artist ... has the right to choose the language in which he wants to sing."

Still, Eurovision statistics show English holds sway in the contest, in which viewers pick the winner by phone and text message. English or mostly English songs have won 22 times.

More than half of this year's Eurovision contestants - 25 - will sing in English.

Lawmaker Francois-Michel Gonnot of President Nicolas Sarkozy's governing conservative UMP party, set the nation's indignation in motion, asserting that he has received mail from French-speakers as far away as Vietnam and Africa, urging him to take a stand.

"'Be careful,' they wrote. 'If you, the French, don't defend the French language, who will?'" Gonnot told Associated Press Television News. "France has the will to be a great power, and it relies on its history, a culture and a language that today is spoken by 175 million people across the world."

But, he added, French is a "threatened language."

Ironically, English, too, may be losing ground if the lyrics of Tellier's "electro" tune are any indication. Their meaning may test the linguistic mettle of even some native English-speakers: "Oh oh oh / I'm alone in life to say / I love the Chivers anyway / 'Cause Chivers look divine." The meaning of Chivers is unclear.

In 2006, then-President Jacques Chirac stormed out of a European Union summit when a French industrialist spoke in English - and called it "the language of business."

"We fight for our language. It is in our international interest," Chirac said.

For years, English words have crept into the French language: le look, le weekend, le hotdog. But these days, everything from the soundtracks for television commercials to the lyrics of French pop songs are in English.

In France, some words have now been legislated into French, like "logiciel" for "software."

Indeed, kings and emperors preceded staid lawmakers in deciding how the French should talk. In 1510, Louis XII ordered that legal investigations be written in French.

Favre d'Echallens said one possible riposte to the "Divine" song would be withholding public funding for France-3 television. He said the broadcaster, by picking an English song, was failing in its public service missions, which he said include an obligation to promote French.

"It is the French who pay (the taxes) ... Maybe the French want to hear a song in French," Favre d'Echallens said.

Maybe.

Parisian Robert Tordjman, 73, said he just hopes Tellier wins for France.

"If it allows him to win the contest, then let him sing in English," Tordjman told APTN. "We'd accept it."

*****

File this under "Some need a life in a BAD way"!

Elephants thought extinct may have survived!

Something from the wild that is good news for a change:

Borneo's pygmy elephants may be descendants of an extinct Javan elephant race, saved by chance by an 18th century ruler, according to a new study released Thursday.

The study suggests that a small number of opposite-sex elephants can produce a thriving progeny of thousands if left undisturbed on an island, giving fresh hope to conservationists trying to protect nearly extinct species of large mammals.

"If proven, this fascinating story would demonstrate that very small populations of large mammals can be saved from the brink of extinction (simply by) moving a few individuals, from a seemingly doomed population, to a different and safer habitat," the study published in the Sarawak Museum Journal says.

Study co-author Junaidi Payne said the Sultan of Java in Indonesia in the 18th century likely sent some pygmy elephants as gifts to the Sultan of Sulu in the Philippines. The Sultan of Sulu at some point apparently shipped them to Borneo and abandoned them there for unknown reasons.

"There are a number of historical records of elephants shipped between various places in Asia by rulers as gifts to impress others," Payne told The Associated Press.

Borneo pygmy elephants, which are genetically distinct from other subspecies, grow less than about 8 feet compared to about 10 feet in height of Asian ale elephants.

They also have babyish faces, large ears and longer tails. They are more rotund and less aggressive.

The pygmy elephants in Java were extinct by the end of the 18th century, but the few that were brought to Borneo thrived, the study found.

Historically, Borneo never had any elephants and the origins of pygmy elephants - a distinct subspecies of its mainland Asian cousin - remained shrouded in mystery until now.

Borneo is a large island shared by Indonesia, Malaysia and the sultanate of Brunei. It is separated by at least 250 miles of sea from Java, the main island in Indonesia. Sulu is much farther to the east.

Payne said just one fertile female and one fertile male elephant, if left undisturbed in enough good habitat, could in theory end up as a population of 2,000 elephants within less than 300 years.

"And that may be what happened in practice here," said Payne, who works for the global conservation group World Wildlife Fund.

There are about 1,000 pygmy elephants in the wild in Borneo today, mostly in the Malaysian state of Sabah.

"If they came from Java, this fascinating story demonstrates the value of efforts to save even small populations of certain species, often thought to be doomed," said Christy Williams, coordinator of WWF's Asian elephant and rhino program.

Augustine Tuuga, assistant director of the Sabah Wildlife Department, said the study confirms what many conservationists have long believed - that a small number of animals can flourish into large herds even though they may have multiplied by inbreeding.

"My own feeling is that as long as there is no continous hunting and there is no problem about diseases their numbers will multiply," he said.

Science News

Scientists: Big Quake Likely in Calif.

California faces an almost certain risk of being rocked by a strong earthquake by 2037, scientists said in the first statewide temblor forecast.

New calculations reveal there is a 99.7 percent chance a magnitude 6.7 quake or larger will strike in the next 30 years. The odds of such an event are higher in Southern California than Northern California, 97 percent versus 93 percent.

"It basically guarantees it's going to happen," said Ned Field, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Pasadena and lead author of the report.

The 1994 Northridge earthquake under Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley was magnitude 6.7. It killed 72 people, injured more than 9,000 and caused $25 billion in damage in the metropolitan area.

The damage created by an earthquake depends greatly on where it hits. A 7.1 quake - much stronger than Northridge - hit the Mojave Desert in 1999 but caused only a few injuries and no deaths.

California is one of the world's most seismically active regions. More than 300 faults crisscross the state, which sits atop two of Earth's major tectonic plates, the Pacific and North American plates. About 10,000 quakes each year rattle Southern California alone, although most of them are too small to be felt.

The analysis is the first comprehensive effort by the USGS, Southern California Earthquake Center and California Geological Survey to calculate earthquake probabilities for the entire state using newly available data. Previous quake probabilities focused on specific regions and used various methodologies that made it difficult to compare.

For example, a 2003 report found the San Francisco Bay Area faced a 62 percent chance of being struck by a magnitude 6.7 quake by 2032. The new study increased the likelihood slightly to 63 percent by 2037. For the Los Angeles Basin, the probability is higher at 67 percent. There is no past comparison for the Los Angeles area.

Scientists still cannot predict exactly where in the state such a quake will occur or when. But they say the analysis should be a wake-up call for residents to prepare for a natural disaster in earthquake country.

Knowing the likelihood of a strong earthquake is the first step in allowing scientists to draw up hazard maps that show the potential severity of ground shaking in an area. The information can also help with updating building codes and emergency plans and setting earthquake insurance rates.

"A big earthquake can happen tomorrow or it can happen 10 years from now," said Tom Jordan, director of the earthquake center, which is headquartered at the University of Southern California.

Researchers also calculated the statewide probabilities for larger temblors over the same time period. Among their findings: There is a 94 percent chance of a magnitude 7 shock or larger; a 46 percent chance of a magnitude 7.5 and a 4.5 percent chance of a magnitude 8.

The odds are higher that a magnitude 7.5 quake will hit Southern California than Northern California - 37 percent versus 15 percent.

Of all the faults in the state, the southern San Andreas, which runs from Parkfield in central California southeast to the Salton Sea, appears most primed to break, scientists found. There is a 59 percent chance in the next three decades that a Northridge-size quake will occur on the fault compared to 21 percent for the northern section.

The northern San Andreas produced the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, but the southernmost segment has not popped in more than three centuries.

Scientists are also concerned about the Hayward and San Jacinto faults, which have a 31 percent chance of producing a Northridge-size temblor in the next 30 years. The Hayward fault runs through densely populated cities in the San Francisco Bay Area. The San Jacinto fault bisects the fast-growing city of San Bernardino east of Los Angeles.

___

If you are interested in more information and studies about California and the 'Big One' check out the following links.

On the Net:

U.S. Geological Survey: http://www.usgs.gov

Southern California Earthquake Center: http://www.scec.org

California Geological Survey: http://www.conservation.ca.gov/cgs/

"Normal" Life on Polygamous Church ranch.

Sect members say life 'normal' life on polygamous church ranch.

Members of the embattled polygamist sect said Wednesday life was relatively normal on their West Texas ranch at the center of one of the nation's largest child-custody cases.

The Yearning for Zion ranch is owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints that state authorities raided two weeks ago in search of a 16-year-old girl who claimed her husband beat and raped her.

Child welfare officials have removed all 416 children living there from the custody of their parents. The 16-year-old has yet to be found.

Members gave a few tours to show their lives - isolated from what they regard as a hostile and sinful outside world - center on family and faith.

A gleaming, white limestone temple is the center of the 1,700-acre ranch with large, log-style homes, a school, a dairy, a rock quarry and a community garden planted with vegetables, fruit trees and a grape arbor.

No one who lives here calls it a compound.

"All of us say the ranch. It's the ranch. It's home," said Rozie, a 23-year-old married member of the sect.

Each family begins and ends the day with prayer, said Dan, 24, whose wife remains housed in the San Angelo Colesium complex 45 miles to the north with their 4-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son.

"It is lifeless here without our kids around here" he said. Sect members won't allow their last names to be used because they worry about the effect on their children in state custody.

A custody hearing to begin to decide whether the children, who range in age from six months to 17 years, will be in permanent state custody begins Thursday.

*****

Not too sure what "normal" is but there is more to this than is known and it is not all the "church's" doings either.

The thing that troubles me about the whole thing is the original complainant that precipitated the 'raid' and the goings on that have followed has been 'identified' (though not named) and has not been found by the state authorities.

Two things ... one - is not the identity of an anonymous caller, anonymous; two - if they can't find the 16 year old female who they know the identity of, does she even exist?

If the answer to the first question is ... yes, then there are some people who have a lot of explaining to do.

If the answer is ... no, then we're screwed as a nation (as if we weren't already).

If the answer to the second question is ... yes, she does not exist, then there are some people that have a hell of a lot of explaining to do.

If the answer to the second question is ... no, she exists, then we are totally fucked as a nation ... they can't find their own informant - bad sign, a very bad sign.

The shrub at his most articulate moment ever.

Something They Aren't Telling Us About

Another Local Paper Uncovers Another U.S. Soldier Suicide in Iraq

By Greg Mitchell

Published: April 16, 2008 2:00 PM ET

NEW YORK: In what has become a regular ritual, a local newspaper has reported the death of a U.S. soldier in Iraq -- officially described by the military as a "noncombat" fatality -- as, in fact, a suicide.

The rate of suicides among military personnel in Iraq, who are suffering from multiple tours of duty, has surged in the past two years. E&P has chronicled this phenomenon for much longer than that.

In the latest case, John Brewer of the St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press reports on the death of Spc. Jacob J. Fairbanks, 22, who hailed from that city, last week while serving in Iraq, six months into his second tour of duty there with the Army.

The military says only that it is under investigation -- and that's where the reporting generally stops -- but the family of Fairbanks, 22, said the Army told them their son died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

"Part of my soul and heart is gone," said his mother, Janette Fairbanks, in the Pioneer Press story. "Part of me will be sad forever. My baby's gone." He leaves behind a wife and child and three step-children.

Fairbanks, a field artilleryman assigned to the 1st Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, was on his second tour in Iraq and was stationed in Baghdad.

Another soldier with the 101st Airborne, Shane Penley, age 19, also died last week from wounds suffered while stationed at a guard post. That, too, is "under investigation."

Fairbanks was a member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. His wife told family she had spoken with her husband via webcam for three hours before his death, and it was a "positive" conversation.

His mother said to Brewer: "I don't want any soldier to get killed over there, but why did it happen to my son? I just don't think it should have been him. He had his whole life ahead of him."
*
Greg Mitchell probes the little-covered suicide surge in his new book "So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundit -- and the President -- Failed on Iraq."

*****

Thanks for the piece usmc1.

The Animals

ZZ Top

Manfred Mann's Earth Band

Alligator Antibiotics?

Researchers are studying American alligator blood as a potential source for powerful new antibiotics. Apparently, proteins in the blood can kill E. coli, herpes simplex, and the nasty methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Apparently, many reptiles and amphibians have some of these powerful proteins flowing through their blood. From Science News: Many of these critters live in "sort of nasty places" that are polluted, and gators probably eat all kinds of sick animals, comments Paul Klein, a reptile infectious disease specialist at the University of Florida College of Medicine in Gainesville. Fierce battles with prey and other gators can leave gaping flesh wounds—but the animals are fairly hardy. These peptides provide a first line of defense—important in the lower vertebrates, who have a slower antibody response than humans, says Klein.

"It seems Mother Nature has built in a circulating system of antimicrobial factories that protect the animals while they are waiting to develop the cell-mediated response that we would develop quickly," he says.

Tax Stamp for Drug Dealers

This "Special Tax Stamp," issued by the IRS in 1951 to a "retail dealer in opium, coca leaves, etc.," is up for auction on eBay. Starting bid is $7.95.

Detached Ear

Went to get the thread pulled out of my ear from my surgery last week in which my left ear was literally detached and sewn back on.
Like I said I never do anything half ass - have a csyt ... detach an ear.
Well the first two threads came out with ease then the third one said whoa there buddy and the ear seperated from the head a bit so no more thread removal ... at least until next Tuesday.
Doc says it will be fine but wanted to wait to remove the rest of the thread holding my ear on my head.
Most likely won't even be a scar (I heal extremely well - which knowing me is an extremely good thing, too).
What is funniest is that I detach and ear and begin to hear better!