Category: News

ACLU Releases First Concrete Evidence of FBI Spying Based Solely on Groups’ Anti-War Views

American Civil Liberties Union : ACLU Releases First Concrete Evidence of FBI Spying Based Solely on Groups’ Anti-War Views

Two documents released today reveal that the FBI investigated gatherings of the Thomas Merton Center for Peace & Justice just because the organization opposed the war in Iraq. Although previously disclosed documents show that the FBI is retaining files on anti-war groups, these documents are the first to show conclusively that the rationale for FBI targeting is the group’s opposition to the war.“It makes no sense that the FBI would be spying on peace activists handing out flyers,” said Jim Kleissler, Executive Director of the Thomas Merton Center for Peace & Justice. “Our members were simply offering leaflets to passersby, legally and peacefully, and now they’re being investigated by a counter–terrorism unit. Something is seriously wrong in how our government determines who and what constitutes terrorism when peace activists find themselves targeted.”

And the departed shade of J. Edgar Hoover smiles.

Coulter Cancellation Cheered By Local Republicans

Who’s on deck for GOP dinner?

GRAND RAPIDS — Chris Meyer immediately bought 10 more tickets to the Kent County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day Dinner — once he heard commentator Ann Coulter backed out of her March 16 commitment as keynote speaker.Meyer, a Grand Rapids attorney and Republican candidate for state House, protested Coulter’s scheduled appearance by telling supporters on his campaign Web site he planned to leave the event after dinner and before Coulter’s speech.

But now that GOP officials are hunting for a replacement, Meyer said he can feel comfortable going full tilt at the party’s biggest fundraiser of the year.

“I’m pleased she’s not coming,” said Meyer, involved in a GOP primary with Tim Doyle for a chance to succeed state Rep. Jerry Kooiman, R-Grand Rapids. “She’s a divisive figure, and anytime when you’re talking about a Lincoln Day Dinner, especially in an election year, to have a divisive figure come in is not good for the party.”

Well, at least one local Republican, but I’m proud of him, and I doubt he’s alone.  The good news in 2005-2006 is that Republicans all over the place are getting sick of being expected to toe the party line and support the freaks that they’ve been expected to support, no matter how appalling their words and actions.  You see it on the micro-scale here, and on the macro-scale with the slap-downs that Congressional (especially Senate) Republicans have given the Dubya over the past year or so.

The Prion Anomaly

Seed: The Prion Anomaly

Science has been progressing at a fantastic speed this decade. For old timers such as myself, the replacement of paradigms in biology has been intellectually bearable, but only just so. I was born and educated in the era before 1950, when life was the domain of proteins, and I had to adapt myself to a new way of looking at life after the discovery of the double helix and the nature of the genetic code. James Watson and Francis Crick’s seminal paper, in 1953, finally provided the structural and chemical explanation of how cells store, use, and pass on information to daughter cells. This gave rise to the central paradigm in molecular biology: that structural information in the cell flows irreversibly from gene to protein, intrinsic to which is the concept that the sequence of amino acids in a protein entirely governs its final structure. Similarly, what is true for protein synthesis is also true for the mechanisms of heredity: that the genome (the full complement of genes in a cell) controls phenotype (all the characteristics of a living organism).
AdvertisementMore than a half-century later, a large majority of biologists believe that the mechanism postulated by molecular biology is not only true, but the only conceivable system in life. Yet, a small number of researchers have recently discovered provocative anomalies that are threatening this scientific idea. The question then is this: Is the central paradigm of molecular biology—that all genetic information is stored and transferred digitally through DNA—the only possible explanation of how life evolved, or are there other mechanisms of heredity in living organisms? Evidence is mounting that hereditary information can be transferred in an analogous way through the prion.

Whoa.  A paradigm shift in molecular biology?

Via reddit.

Iran Renames Danish Pastries

CARTOON CRISIS: IRAN RENAMES DANISH PASTRIES

Tehran, 7 Feb. (AKI) – Iran has decided to rename Danish pastries “Mohammedan” pastry – a new twist in the crisis which has triggered protest by Muslims throughout the world against cartoons of Mohammed first published in Denmark.

Man, what kind of morons would rename a food item in protest of the country it was named after?  Sheesh.

One thing we’re learning about Iran these days — they sure have a sense of humor.

Probably a desirable quality in a nuclear or almost-nuclear power.