A podcast about books, art & life — not necessarily in that order
Fallujah’s going to be a real problem:
“We could take the city,” [Mohammed Abdullah Shahwani, Iraq’s director of national intelligence] said, “but we would have to kill everyone in it.”
As Ralph Peters puts it:
“Nothing says that wars of attrition have to be fair.”
According to this article in the Washington Post, the organized homicidal faction of the Palestinians is calling for reforms of the Palestinian Authority (an end to corruption, nepotism and graft, particularly), and wants a voice in the government.
At first, I was going to make a joke about how tough it would be to vote for candidates who always wear black ski masks, but that seemed mean-spirited. Then I thought about how the article (which I read quickly) doesn’t seem to mention a need to destroy Israel. Which made me think, “Maybe this security wall is already serving its purpose.”
Yeah, it’s embarrassing that the New York Post ran a front-page headline that John Kerry had chosen Dick Gephardt as his VP candidate, the morning that John Edwards got the nod.
But for the Daily News to slam them for it is kinda pissy, especially since the News ran a back page headline last winter that definitively stated Mike Fratello was to be named the Knicks’ head coach. Lenny Wilkens got the job and, Fratello expressly TOLD the idiot NBA-writer at the News BEFORE THE ARTICLE RAN that he wasn’t offered the job and hadn’t even talked to Knicks about it.
Not exactly rested and ready, but at least the big issue is wrapped, in time for my family’s visit for the next 7-10 days!
To get re-started, here’s a post by The Brooding Persian, about the 4th of July in Iran.
In the Persian calendar, today is 18 Tir, which has become a day of protest for Iranians. It marks the anniversary of the 1999 Iranian students national uprising, which was flat-out massacred by the troops of the theocracy. There are protests and demonstrations going on worldwide, a guide for which can be found here. If there was one in NYC tonight/this afternoon, I’d head out for it.
Update: Here’s a little more background on the events of 18 Tir back in 1999.
I’m writing up my profile of Aventis, going over the company’s late-stage drug pipeline to see what might be a good revenue source, when I come across a drug called Sculptra. What is it meant to treat, I wonder?
“Indication: Facial lipoatrophy”
Okay. I’m a smart guy. I guess it means “fat in the face is wearing out.” But I HAVE to look it up to see what it’s all about.
Okay, so I lied. Here’s a piece from the Sunday Washington Post on the genocide in Sudan.
Over at the NYTimes, Nicholas Kristof provides a list of Sudan relief organizations you can donate to, as well as links to writing your Reps & Senators.
Now back to comparing AstraZeneca’s pipeline development to the Indiana Pacers’ rebuild-on-the-fly strategy from 2000-2001 . . .
No blogging for me. I’m sick as a dog (summer colds suck), and have to put together the annual Top Companies report (top 20 pharma, top 10 biopharma) for my magazine.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to explain why last year’s optimism about Merck was misguided . . .
A leader of Poland’s Solidarity movement gave an interview to Dissent recently, explaining his support for the war in Iraq:
[W]e know what dictatorship is. And in the conflict between totalitarian regimes and democracy you must not hesitate to declare which side you are on. Even if a dictatorship is not an ideal typical one, and even if the democratic countries are ruled by people whom you do not like. I think you can be an enemy of Saddam Hussein even if Donald Rumsfield is also an enemy of Saddam Hussein.. . .
[W]ho was worse, Ronald Reagan or Leonid Brezhnev? If I were American I would never have voted for Reagan, but as a Pole, I liked the tough position of Reagan toward Brezhnev. Perhaps Reagan did not quite understand what he was doing, and maybe Bush doesn’t understand either. But the facts are that, suddenly, Libya has begun to speak a different language. Syria has begun to speak a different language. Even North Korea has started to speak a different language. This is not to say that Bush is always right. Of course not. But you must see the hierarchy of threats, of dangers. I asked my French and German friends, Are you afraid that tomorrow Bush will bomb Paris? And can you really be sure that terrorists and fundamentalists will not attack the Louvre? So which side are you on?
Wow. I come across this take on the Iraqi flag during breakfast this morning, then I get an e-mail from new VM reader Nancy with a great link critiquing flags from all over the world (Angola: Machete on flag nicely depicted but not wise idea).
Enjoy.
PS: Cut me some slack, okay? I don’t have a lot of blogging-time at present, as I’m busting ass on the Top 20 Pharma Companies report at my magazine. And it was either this or a rant about the report on how 10 million women continue to have pap smears after they’ve had hysterectomies. Which is to say, they’re getting tested for cancer in organs THEY NO LONGER HAVE. And people complain that drug companies are fucking up healthcare costs? Grumblegrumblegrumble . . .
Update: Both my girlfriend and my mom called to complain about this entry, because not every hysterectomy includes removal of the cervix. Now, notwithstanding the fucked-up freudian issues involved in those two people calling me to discuss this subject, I want to note that the NYTimes article on this subject indicates that the 10 million women in the study don’t include that sub-population. So, yeah, there are 10 million women getting checked for cancer in organs they don’t have. There are also 1.1 million who’ve had hysterectomies and retained their cervixes. They should still get pap smears. Right now.
As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I’ve never watched a movie or read a book by Michael Moore. It looks like Christopher Hitchens has, and he’s not happy about what he’s seen.
What’s tough for me is that I wanted to cite the following line from Hitch’s “review” of Moore’s new “documentary”:
Fahrenheit 9/11 is a sinister exercise in moral frivolity, crudely disguised as an exercise in seriousness. It is also a spectacle of abject political cowardice masking itself as a demonstration of “dissenting” bravery.
Unfortunately, he totally topped himself when he called out Moore for quoting George Orwell:
A short word of advice: In general, it’s highly unwise to quote Orwell if you are already way out of your depth on the question of moral equivalence. It’s also incautious to remind people of Orwell if you are engaged in a sophomoric celluloid rewriting of recent history.
All of which is to say: read it!