There are a bunch of stories I didn't have time to get into lately but I want to mention them anyway:
Tamiflu is a problem when you're talking about giving it to kids, which is something that doesn't come up in all the talk about stockpiling it and how it's going to keep us all safe from Bird Flu. When I started researching items to have on hand during the PanFlu, I wrote Tamiflu off my list for two reasons. One was because I wasn't convinced of its efficacy and the other was because there was no recommended dosage for kids under twelve. I wasn't surprised to read that some bad reactions were cropping up.
The cadavers in a popular travelling corpse exhibit may be from Chinese prisoners:
While the notion of displaying the dead for profit is bound to provoke controversy, some critics say this particular show, which relies entirely on cadavers from China, is more troubling than those sponsored by other companies that have gotten into the macabre business of anatomical exhibitions. Citing the Chinese government's poor human rights record and the medical establishment's practice of recycling the organs of executed prisoners, medical ethicists and human rights advocates are questioning whether the show's specimens were legally obtained.
"Given the government's track record on the treatment of prisoners, I find this exhibit deeply problematic," said Sharon Hom, the executive director of the advocacy group Human Rights in China.
Enforcement of the USA PATRIOT Act is all about secrecy:
The act, among other things, gives federal agents the right to order, without judicial review, libraries and other entities to produce records of transactions, and never reveal information about the order. How often agents use those powers is hard to say. The Department of Justice has not responded to repeated calls from Democrats such as Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois and Republicans such as John E. Sununu of New Hampshire to declassify the aggregate number of requests. The Washington Post recently estimated that the government has been issuing 30,000 national security letters a year, like the letter that Library Connection received.
Good news then that extending the Act has been postponed:
Thursday, half a dozen senators worried about civil liberties – three Democrats and three Republicans – said they would try to block the measure to renew the Patriot Act, CBS News correspondent Bob Fuss reported.
"If further changes are not made, we will work to stop this bill from becoming law," GOP Sens. Larry Craig, John Sununu and Lisa Murkowski and Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin, Russ Feingold and Ken Salazar said in a letter to the Senate Judiciary and Intelligence committees Thursday.
On Friday, the bipartisan group of lawmakers declared victory, saying they had gathered enough votes to block the Republican leaders from forcing a vote on a proposal put forth by negotiators trying to merge House and Senate versions of the bill. The Patriot Act provisions expire Dec. 31 if not renewed by Congress.
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