"Soldiers dying in Iraq are dying to defend the US against terrorism as a victory in Iraq is a victory in the war on terror. They are dying to defend freedom and democracy in the US and to spread freedom and democracy to Iraq. They are dying for the interests of the US, her allies, and by extension, all Americans (whether they understand it or not). They are not dying for Haliburton, oil, or any other ridiculous shit / slant the anti-war types or conspiracy theorists want to spin. Haliburton is a company (among many others, both US and foreign) that seized a chance to profit in REBUILDING Iraq. There is a big difference between that and war-profiteering. Haliburton did not start the war, terrorists and those that support them did. Putting the chicken before the egg just won’t fly."
-polymath
"[B]efore you [Europeans] write us off as just a bunch of sweaty, hairy-chested, Bible-thumping morons who are more likely to break their fast by dipping a Krispy Kreme into a diet cola than a biscotti into an espresso - and who inexplicably have won more Nobel prizes than all other countries combined,
host 25 or 30 of the world's finest universities and five or six of the world's best symphonies, produce wines that win prizes at your own tasting competitions, have built the world's most vibrant economy, are the world's only military superpower and, so to speak in our spare time, have landed on
the moon and sent our robots to Mars - may I suggest you stop frothing at
the mouth long enough to consider just what are these ideas we hold that you find so silly and repugnant?"
- LynnKramer
"Democracy may have been invented in Greece, but cowardess was invented in France where it lives and thrives to this very day."
- RedTigress
"I'm referring to the Iraqi terrorist bastard fighters. The ones liberals insist are either not in Iraq, or are there by the thousands, depending on which liberal you listen to."
- noguru
"How is it that the Left can believe absolute crazy shit, like the Bush-Saudi Arabian money connection, or the even worse and totally false Bush-bin Laden connection (based on 100% lies) and look at you straight and say there was absolutely no way that Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda had ties?"
- reducto
I'm back from Kitty Hawk, and it's not the most exciting place in the world, but I got to hear plenty of Schiavo talk.
Like I told Red Tigress in one of these comment windows, I never had a firm opinion on this, and have usually been swayed by the POV of the person talking about it. But with nothing else to blog about, I might as well go on about this.
So we have a woman who's in a Persistent Vegitative State, at least according to most doctors, and shows no signs of ever coming out of it. The family wants to keep her alive and the husband wants to kill her.
In general, I think it should be the spouse's choice. You choose the person you marry, you don't choose your family. Some people make stupid decisions by marrying people who might try to kill them if they're ever in a PVS, but that's their own fault. In this case, on a personal level, I think Michael Schiavo should give custody of her to her parents who are apparently willing to give up everything to keep this girl alive. Michael's got a whole new family, and understandably doesn't want the financial burden of a vegetable, but I don't see why he couldn't just give custody to her parents.
I used to know why he wouldn't give up custody, but I can't remember. It probably had something to do with her wishes, but the guy contradicted himself on Larry King Live by saying he didn't know what Terri wanted. Everybody who claims to know that Terri wanted to die is a Schiavo, which rubs me the wrong way off the bat.
So...yeah...I'm not liking the whole case. The courts have probably made the right choice, but I'd much rather they reinsert the feeding tube for at least a little while just to review the case. If Jeb Bush does anything, it's probably political suicide. Doing something because protesters tell you to is almost always a bad idea.
Nader did say something I found interesting, suprisingly. I read an article a couple days ago where Nader was saying they banned anybody from even feeding her food or water through her mouth, which is very different from just pulling out the tube. When you ban people from giving her food orally, that's the court ordering she be starved to death, not just the court ordering she stop being helped. That I find wrong.
I feel I should say that the South Park episode on this was hilarious.
LONDON — Tens of thousands of anti-war protesters marched through central London (search) Saturday, past the American Embassy (search), to mark the second anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Demonstrations were also kicking off in other cities around Europe.
The protests were nowhere near as big as those held in February 2003, just before the war, when millions marched in cities around the world to urge President Bush (search) and his allies not to attack Iraq.
With international forces still facing a violent opposition in Iraq, protesters were divided about what to demand from leaders now. While some wanted a full troop withdrawal, others argued that that would leave Iraqis in a worse position than before the invasion.
"We got the Iraqis into this mess, we need to help them out of it," said Kit MacLean, 29, waiting near Hyde Park's Speakers' Corner before the London march began.
They can't even make up their minds about what they want anymore! The protesters are finally realizing you can't just abandon Iraq and expect everything to be hunky dory, but they keep protesting. Can anyone explain to me why they are still protesting? We already get that you oppoesed the war, so what are you trying to prove?
If it were the Germans, French, Russians, etc. doing it, I could rationalize it with their high unemployment rates and a bunch of people with nothing better to do, but the British?
97% of Pro Football Players are Overweight or Obese
Using the BMI to measure obesity in this country makes about as much sense as using someone's salary to determine their race.
So I took a stroll on over to the CDC's website to look for their obesity area. Sure enough it's under diseases, along with things like Cancer and Epilepsy. I figured that surely they would acknowledge this huge problem with the BMI, well, I was right. After digging a little, I found this:
Are athletes and other people with a lot of muscle considered to be overweight when their BMI is over 25?
According to the weight categories, any person with a BMI over 25 would be classified as overweight. This may not mean they have excess fat. Such categories are based on scientific findings that the risk for disease increases as BMI increases.
Most studies have examined the relationship between BMI and risk of disease. Therefore we do not know whether two people with the same BMI but different amounts of fat have different risks for disease.
It is important to remember that weight is only one factor related to disease. If you have questions or concerns about the appropriateness of your weight, please discuss them with your health care provider.
Am I reading this right? It's almost as if in their effort to defend the BMI's legitimacy, the CDC is actually insinuating that increased muscle mass is bad for you. I'm not a nutritionist, but that doesn't seem right.
So going back to the obesity section, I ventured into "Contributing Factors". Apart from overeating, working out seems like the next big contributing factor, so I find it curious that the CDC would fail to mention that as a contributing factor.
The FAQ section pisses me off. Nowhere to they mention muscle.
What is the prevalence of overweight and obesity among U.S. adults?
In 1999–2000, an estimated 30% of U.S adults aged 20 years and older — nearly 59 million people — were obese, defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more. Source: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999–2000.
In 1999–2000, an estimated 64% of U.S adults aged 20 years and older were either overweight or obese, defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of 25 or more. Source: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999–2000.
Walk outside your door and tell me if 2 out of 3 people you see look overweight. This measurement system is insane.
Why are so many people overweight or obese today?
There are a number of factors that influence overweight or obesity, including
Behavior—eating too many calories while not getting enough physical activity.
Environment—home, work, school, or community can provide barriers to or opportunities for an active lifestyle.
Genetics—heredity plays a large role in determining how susceptible people are to overweight and obesity. Genes also influence how the body burns calories for energy or stores fat.
It can't be that hard to add one more category to this:
Muscle Mass - our system is flawed and doesn't take into account a person's muscle mass and has in turn classified physically fit people like Tom Cruise, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Mel Gibson as obese.
Remember folks, we're in the middle of an obesity epidemic, and the only way out of it is getting rid of the BMI.
WASHINGTON — U.S. employers added more than a quarter-million jobs in February — the most in four months — in a bright sign that the labor market is on the mend. Wall Street rallied on the news, propelling the Dow Jones industrials to a 3 ½-year high.
At the same time, more job-seekers returned to the hunt, pushing the unemployment rate higher.
The latest picture of the country's employment climate, released by the Labor Department yesterday, showed that the nation's payrolls expanded by 262,000 last month. Gains were broad-based: Manufacturing, construction, retail, health care and business services were among the sectors seeing increases.
Check out the graph they give you. A consistent job gain would probably be better, but I kind of like not knowing what next month is going to bring. Will we gain 50,000 jobs or 500,000? You never know, which makes it so much more exciting.
On another note, I found this cool little tracker thing from Pourquoi Pas, you can see it to the right there. It was a little difficult maneuvering through the French website, but I did it.
As we told you last week, 
