terrorism
mikethemadbiologist | August 8, 2009
Yesterday, I raised the possible specter of violent intimidation breaking out at a health care townhall meeting. Turns out I was off by about twelve hours:
Tampa, Florida-- Fireworks were expected, but organizers of a town hall meeting on health care reform were caught off guard Thursday night by just how explosive the issue became.
Hundreds showed up for the 6:00 forum held at the Children's Board of Hillsborough County on Palm Avenue in Tampa. The auditorium which holds around 250 people, filled up so quickly eventually Tampa Police were ordered to begin turning people away.
Inside, U.S.…
grrlscientist | July 11, 2009tags: politics, American constitution, national security, terrorism, Bill Maher, streaming video
Should America curtail our constitutional rights under the guise of preventing terrorist attacks? NO NO NO. I just wanted to remind you of an important discussion that occurred nearly one year ago when American was trapped in the clutches of a lunatic moron who aspired to be "dictator" -- I wonder when Obama will finally stop all this invasive secret governmental spying on Americans? [3:41]
mikethemadbiologist | June 13, 2009So asks Dave Neiwert (italics mine):
If your answer is yes, then stop this cowardly half-assed screwing around. You speak the language of war and honor; but the honor code of the warriors you pretend to revere demands that you declare your intentions. If you really believe that the only way to get the America you want is to negate a fair election, shred the Constitution, and violently cleanse the country of everyone who doesn't agree with you, then man up and get on with it. If it's a shooting war you want, do not doubt that there are plenty of progressives who will oblige you. If this goal…
mikethemadbiologist | June 5, 2009Even I am speechless over this. You know those terrorists captured a couple of weeks ago in NYC? It appears that at least one of them was motivated by trying to pay for a brother's liver transplant:
"My insurance wasn't good enough," said Lord McWilliams, 20, who has a deadly liver disease.
His brother, David Williams, wanted money "to speed up the process," McWilliams said. "Medicaid only goes so far."
He dismissed as "crazy" federal accusations that Williams was a Jew-hater who wanted to wage jihad.
McWilliams said the FBI informant who lured his brother and three other hapless petty…
mikethemadbiologist | June 4, 2009Recently, I wrote about how bioterrorism seems to freak people out needlessly. A Man With a Ph.D. makes some other good points:
Biological terrorism is scary because it is easy to imagine doomsday while few really understand the difficulty of working with any sort of pathogen. Or even simple bacteria.
Governments around the world have spent billions using experts in the best labs tn order to weaponize pathogenic agents. It is an extremely difficult problem. Things like how do you make sure it kills the ones you want instead of your own people come into play.
A home hacker would not be able…
mikethemadbiologist | June 2, 2009A recent post about the looming specter of bioterrorism by William Lind due to 'biohacking' seems overblown to me. But before I get Lind, what I find particularly disturbing about hyping a non-existent bioterror threat is that it makes combating infectious disease--the stuff that kills millions worldwide--much harder due to unnecessary regulations and restrictions. Onto Lind:
For years, I have warned in these columns and elsewhere that the future weapon of mass destruction we should most fear is not a nuke. Rather, it is a genetically engineered plague, a plague no one has ever seen before…
mikethemadbiologist | June 1, 2009By now, you have probably heard of the assassination of Dr. George Tiller, an ob/gyn who performed late-term abortions. Lots of other people have commented on this, but make no mistake about it: this will stem from demonizing abortion. It's really not that far from Republican presidential candidate John McCain's sneering about the 'health of the mother' exemption to pulling the trigger. As Digby puts it:
If you think that women should have to endanger their lives in order to give birth to a fetus with no brain, then you probably think this man was a murderer.
Or maybe it should be '…
mikethemadbiologist | May 31, 2009Friends, this is compassionate conservatism we can believe in:
Heh.
grrlscientist | May 27, 2009tags: HSUS, Humane Society of the United States, Animal Rights, terrorism, animal shelters, streaming video
This video shows you a little information about the Humane Society of the United States or H$U$ -- is a tax-free corporation that supports terrorist organizations while pretending to the public that they raise funds to provide shelter to homeless animals. Terrorist? What can I possibly mean? Watch this video and find out ... [2:27]
mikethemadbiologist | March 30, 2009...and both Helmut and the Mad Biologist told you that would be the case over a year ago. From The Washington Post (italics mine):
When CIA officials subjected their first high-value captive, Abu Zubaida, to waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods, they were convinced that they had in their custody an al-Qaeda leader who knew details of operations yet to be unleashed, and they were facing increasing pressure from the White House to get those secrets out of him.
The methods succeeded in breaking him, and the stories he told of al-Qaeda terrorism plots sent CIA officers around the…
oracknows | March 2, 2009Over the weekend, some readers sent me a link to a story that, presumably, they thought would be of interest to me, given that I graduated from the University Michigan Medical School back in the late 1980s. Specifically, it's a report that U. of M. has halted the use of dogs in its surgical training:
Surgeons training at the University of Michigan Health System will no longer use live, healthy dogs to learn drastic surgical procedures that can save people's lives, the university announced Thursday.
The anesthetized animals -- obtained from shelters -- were used to teach tracheotomies, how to…
awild | February 17, 2009
The Taliban Beetle, a specimen at the Naturhistorisches Museum Basel, Switzerland.
Meet the Taliban Beetle.
I took this picture in 2004 while visiting the collections at the Natural History Museum in Basel, Switzerland. For reasons I was unable to discern, a coleopterist working in the collection in the late 1990's had intended to name this new Afghani ground beetle after the country's ruling party at the time. Whether he came to regret this decision in the post 9/11 world, I do not know.
No formal description of the Taliban beetle was ever printed. So despite the official looking…
mikethemadbiologist | January 25, 2009I'm becoming more enthusiatic about Eric Holder as Attorney General. It's nice to see some clarity about waterboarding--that is, partial drowning interrogation. From Steve Benen:
The exchange was helpful in learning about both the senator and the nominee. [Republican Senator] Cornyn wanted Holder to admit that he'd torture a terrorist in a "ticking-time-bomb scenario," in order to "save perhaps tens of thousands of lives." Holder responded sensibly, noting that we have interrogation methods that aren't torture, and that torture wouldn't produce reliable intelligence anyway.
Cornyn was…
amillikan | December 31, 2008Aspiring scientists who have been conducting experiments form home labs have been encountering opposition. One DIY chemist was arrested for having a lab under the premise that it could be used to make bombs or drugs. Some biotech watchdogs fear that doing science outside of a lab may lead to biological hazards. "Actually the more likely negative scenario is that these DIY labs will produce absolutely nothing," said ScienceBlogger Jake Young from Pure Pedantry.
mikethemadbiologist | December 21, 2008Over at What's New in Life Science Research, I discuss different ways of being a bioterrorist. Comments are off here, go comment over there.
mikethemadbiologist | November 25, 2008I've written before about the scourge of turkeys that are terrorizing the greater Boston area. One thing I've noticed is that the turkeys have gone missing this year. Apparently, one such turkey named "Sully" (by turkey-loving sympathizers) that established an enclave in South Boston is nowhere to be found:
Sully reportedly arrived in the neighborhood more than six months ago with a half-dozen other turkeys, but they all left and he stayed behind and set up a territory in the area around Dorchester Heights. His fame was immediate - There's a wild turkey! Living in Southie! - but the more he…
revere | November 19, 2008The Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) is one of the most maligned and hated federal agencies. And for good reason. They are worse than useless, performing uncounted acts of "security theater" (in Bruce Schneier's apt coinage), like confiscating water bottles and making you take off your shoes. The TSA also has an active use of "behavior detection officers" whose job it is recognize the telltail signs of a terrorist intention -- like looking anxious before getting on an airplane. The TSA claims the program, which is now in operation at 150 major airports and employs almost 2500…
mikethemadbiologist | November 17, 2008Apparently, Al-Queda is quite...concerned about having Democrats in power. By way of maha, I found this David Ignatius op-ed, who quotes Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradhawi (italics mine):
Before the election, the radical Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradhawi even issued a fatwa supporting John McCain: "Personally, I would prefer for the Republican candidate, McCain, to be elected. This is because I prefer the obvious enemy who does not hypocritically [conceal] his hostility toward you . . . to the enemy who wears a mask [of friendliness]."
Obama makes the jihadists nervous because he is an appealing new face whose…
mikethemadbiologist | October 25, 2008From the Oxdown Gazette comes this interview transcript with Sarah Palin:
Brian Williams: Back to the notion of terrorists and terrorism, this word has come up in relation to Mr. Ayers -- hanging out with terrorist - domestic terrorists. It is said that it gives it a vaguely post uh 9-11 hint, using that word, that we don't normally associate with domestic crimes. Are we changing the definition? Are the people who set fire to American cities during the '60's terrorists, under this definition? Is an abortion clinic bomber a terrorist under the definition?
Sarah Palin: There is no question that…
mikethemadbiologist | October 20, 2008From Fayetteville, NC:
Someone slashed the tires of at least 30 vehicles parked outside the Crown Coliseum on Sunday during a rally for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, authorities said.
Sheriff's deputies are investigating. The tires were cut while people were inside the Crown Coliseum listening to speeches, said Maj. E. Wright of the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office.
Many of the damaged vehicles were parked on Wilkes Road. Representatives from Obama and Sen. John McCain's campaigns said they were unaware of the acts.
Susan Lagana, the North Carolina communications director…