Day: December 18, 2001

Gun Control and 9/11

The best line about gun control and the 9/11 attacks comes courtsey of the New York Times‘ John Tierney in an article about war-related toys,

American males’ fascination with guns doesn’t seem so misplaced now that they’re attacking Al Qaeda’s fortress. No one is suggesting a Million Mom March on Tora Bora.

Second-best gun related quote comes from a piece by Lisa Snell talking about her 5-year-old’s reaction to seeing the 9/11 attack on television,

My mother-in-law called from Baltimore before 7:00 AM [Pacific] to tell us to turn on our television. My five year old saw the live coverage of the second plane crashing into the WTC. He immediately went and found his Spiderman t-shirt and told me that he and Gavin would not be at school when I picked them up because they were going with the Power Rangers to save the world. He urgently wanted to get to school to call a meeting with Gavin and Tanner, his five-year-old compadres, to decide what to do—a typical reaction from a boy who lives and breathes bad guys versus good guys. People are always talking about how bad television is for children and they seldom talk about how bad their schools are for children. Yet, I would rather be on a highjacked airplane with someone inoculated by Power Rangers than someone who believes the message of every school institution: that weapons are bad and that the authorities and the government will solve all problems and protect you.

Amen. At the moment, my daughter alternates between Power Rangers and Batman (we watch the extremely violent Justice League cartoon together). Someday, when I have nothing better to do, I’ll write up a summary of psychological studies of children and mock violent play (it ain’t necessarily a bad thing).

If We Censor Scrabble, Doesn’t that Mean the Terrorists Have Won?

Here’s an odd little story about a controversy engulfing the 2001 World Scrabble Championship. It turns out that “fuck” is in the official Scrabble dictionary and was used by a player in a sixth round game. But when the Scrabble folks posted the game to the 2001 Championship web site, somehow the “f” gets replaced with an “h”.

What really fascinates me about this is the elaborate chess-like notation system they have developed for Scrabble games. How cool is:

10. Andrew: EGPRRWY 12a PREY +38 169

Creationism == Terrorism (Gag)

New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis is retiring and I have two words for him — good riddance. Lewis used his last column as an opportunity to take a swipe at people who happen to believe that the Bible is literally true by comparing such people to the 9/11 terrorists. Lewis wrote,

I have been writing it for 32 years. As I look back at those turbulent decades, I see a time of challenge to a basic tenet of modern society: faith in reason.

No one can miss the reality of that challenge after Sept. 11. Islamic fundamentalism, rejecting the rational processes of modernity, menaces the peace and security of many societies.

But the phenomenon of religious fundamentalism is not to be found in Islam alone. Fundamentalist Christians in America, believing that the Bible’s story of creation is the literal truth, question not only Darwin but the scientific method that has made contemporary civilization possible.

Religion and extreme nationalism have formed deadly combinations in these decades, impervious to reason. Serbs in the grip of religion and mystical nationalist history killed thousands and expelled millions in their “ethnic cleansing” of Bosnia. Fundamentalist Judaism and extreme Israeli nationalism have fed the movement to plant settlements in Palestinian territory, fueling Islamic militancy among Palestinians.

Fundamentalist Christians dare to question Darwin and the scientific method? But I thought the entire point of the scientific method was to question provisional facts and theories?

I happen to think the creationists are wrong, but to lump Fundamentalist Christians and creationists in with the 9/11 terrorists is absurd.

This argument makes about as much sense as does the argument by someone like George Gilder who points out that the worst human rights violations of the 20th century were all carried about by men who rejected Christianity — therefore, Gilder argues, it is atheism, humanism and paganism which are responsible for mass murder.

Animal Liberation Front Recounts 2001 'Accomplishments'

There is a lot of back and forth over whether or not animal rights terrorism is really terrorism. Fortunately the folks at the Animal Liberation Front have been kind enough to provide a laundry list of their assorted crimes which might be a nice eye opening look at what the terrorist group considers to be a good year. Here’s the complete text of the press release from the Frontline Information Service,

Here are some totals for the year of 2001 from actions on the frontlines for animal liberation. Please remember this list is far from complete; it simply represents the crude numbers of actions known by the ALF Press Office. Numerous actions, especially minor property destruction ones, typically are never reported on or claimed by anyone. The following actions were claimed by either the Animal Liberation Front or similar organizations or anonymous individuals. ELF actions are included when they targeted animal abuse businesses.

Business targeted:

6 Bank of New York offices or facilities
5 research labs
4 Bank of America offices or facilities
4 animal breeders
3 Stephens Inc. offices or facilities
3 fur farms
3 McDonalds
3 Dairy Queen
3 meat stores
2 Burger King
2 Pizza Hut
2 factory farms
1 fur store
1 hunting store
1 pet store
1 wild horse facility
1 circus animal train

Damaged property:

approx. 70 windows or glass doors
approx. 10 vehicles and 1 yacht
3 fires set

Animals rescued or released:

3000 mink
1030 ducks and unknown numbers of ducklings
468 chickens
200 horses
62 pigeons
50 geese
42 beagles
28 rabbits
10 ferrets

Source:

Animal Liberation totals for 2001. Frontline Information Service, Press Release, December 16, 2001.

Number of Human Victims of Mad Cow Disease May Be Small

At one time, estimates were that upwards of 100,000 people in Great Britain might die from Mad Cow Disease — the first time I ever heard of the disease was in a speech given by Howard Lyman in which he claimed the disease would prove worse than AIDS. These estimates have been steadily revised downward, and a recent study by French scientists suggests that the disease may peak at a couple hundred deaths.

The current research is based on a computer model of the disease that incorporates new assumptions about the disease.

One of the striking things about the variant CJD that is believed to originate as a result of Mad Cow Disease is that young people seem especially susceptible to it, as compared to the non-variant CJD — which is unconnected with Mad Cow Disease — which generally afflicts people over the age of 50.

The average age at death of victims of vCJD is only 28, while 93 percent of people who die from CJD are over the age of 50. This leads some researchers to conclude that for some reason, young people are especially susceptible to vCJD, and that as time goes by this will result in a fall-off of the number of cases and deaths.

The study, published in Science, says, “Our prediction of the epidemic of vCJD lies in the ‘optimistic’ end of the ranges of previously published figures, and this low value is in favor of a large species barrier between cattle and humans.”

Add to that, the fact that susceptibility to the disease seems to affect only a specific genetic subpopulation of individuals, and it may turn out that only a tiny number of people ever exposed to Mad Cow Disease ever have a chance to contract vCJD.

The study suggests that the total number of vCJD deaths is likely to be somewhere between 205 and 403, although these estimates are highly dependent on current information about vCJD and could change with new information.

Still, it is encouraging that the worst scenarios seem extremely unlikely at this point, and vCJD is unlikely to become a massive epidemic in Great Britain.

Sources:

CJD deaths ‘may have peaked’. The BBC, November 23, 2001.

Worst of Mad Cow May Be Over. Paul Recer, Associated Press, November 22, 2001.