Year: 2006
CREEPING TOTALITARIANISM DEPT.
First they came for the exothermic chemists…
Here’s something that will keep me awake tonight: The Consumer Product Safety Commission conducts SWAT raids. Their target? A seller of chemistry sets for kids. Between fear of terrorist bombings and fear of meth labs, you can get arrested these days for having Pyrex glassware. Read more
HEALTH DEPT.
HIV/AIDS and the Avian Flu
In a previous post I linked to a short note about the early days of the AIDS epidemic. It’s well-written, but I’d like to address a side issue that rubs me the wrong way. The author touches on it in her opening sentence: At a time when the mere threat of avian flu or SARS… Read more
RELIGION DEPT.
Gods, Powers, and Saints of Small Things
Yesterday we went to see the new X-Men movie. The movie was pretty good, but the really amazing part was that we got the closest possible parking space to the theater. The only closer space was handicapped parking. After the movie we went to dinner and this time we got the parking space right in… Read more
HEALTH DEPT.
25 Years of HIV
Alexandra Billings has a moving account of the early days of the AIDS pandemic here in America: At a time when the mere threat of avian flu or SARS can set off a coast-to-coast panic–and prompt the federal government to draw up contingency plans and stockpile medicines–it’s hard to imagine that the national response to… Read more