Martyrdom is the Most Noble Sacrifice One Can Make for the Cause’ Palestinian author ‘Adnan Kanafani: ‘I think martyrdom is the most noble sacrifice one can make for the cause – a cause pertaining to the essence of being, to life and death. This great people – the Arab people as a whole – has managed to shape a new culture from these ideas – the culture of martyrdom. The opponents try to bring us down from this honor, with claims about suicide bombers, terrorists, and so on. But we don’t care about that, because we have rights, and we sacrifice our souls in order to attain these rights. Therefore, the martyrs are the vanguard of this nation. Because of the blood they have sacrificed, the very least we owe them is to always remain optimistic that victory will be ours one day.’ […] ‘The Mother in Our Arab and Islamic History Has Always Sacrificed Her Children and Prepared Them for Martyrdom’ Ibrahim Za’rour, history professor at the DamascusUniversity: ‘Martyrdom is the value that surpasses all values. The most exalted level in the elevation of mankind is when a person sacrifices his soul for the sake […]
WASHINGTON — Only one in five veterans returning from combat duty in Iraq or Afghanistan with signs of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is actually screened for it, the Government Accountability Office reported. Using data provided by the Department of Defense, GAO investigators found in review that 9,145 (5%) of the 178,664 service men and women deployed in Afghanistan or Iraq may be at risk for developing PTSD, but only 2,029 (22%) of the at-risk group were referred for further mental health evaluations. In March, researchers from the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association that 35% of Iraq war veterans sought mental health services for any reason in the year after returning home. Of them, 12% per year received a diagnosis of a mental health problem, the investigators found, and an additional 23% per year were seen in mental health clinics but did not receive a diagnosis. More than half of those who were referred for a mental health problem received follow-up care, but less than 10% of all returning vets who were treated for mental health problems were referred through the military’s screening program, those investigators found. […]
Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and New York City Corporation Counsel Michael Cardozo today filed a lawsuit challenging the Bush Administration for failing to address the impacts of its new federal fuel economy standards for SUVs and light trucks on air quality, fuel conservation and global climate change. ‘At a time when consumers are struggling to pay surging gas prices and the challenge of global climate change has become even more clear, it is unconscionable that the Bush Administration is not requiring greater mileage efficiency for light trucks,’ said Attorney General Spitzer. ‘The failure of this Administration to lead on vital environmental issues like this will burden our nation for generations to come.’ ‘Given the number of light trucks that travel daily around New York City, the NHTSA should not have ignored, among other things, the significant environmental effects of the carbon dioxide emitted from such vehicles that contribute to climate change,’ said New York City Corporation Counsel Cardozo. ‘The City remains concerned about the adverse impacts from global warming that our residents, infrastructure, and resources have and will continue to experience in light of the City’s coastal, island geography and extremely dense urban population.’ Spitzer and Cardozo […]
Global warming is killing coral reefs, the Bush administration has formally admitted. And the admission means that, under US law, it will finally be obliged to take action to reduce the pollution that causes climate change. The US National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has this month ruled that two species of coral – elkhorn and staghorn – must officially be registered as threatened under the US Endangered Species Act, partly because they are imperilled by rising sea temperatures. They are the first species ever to be listed as a result of global warming. The two corals are the main reef-building species in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Florida, but they have declined by 80 to 98 per cent throughout the region. The NMFS – part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – concluded that ‘elevation of the sea surface temperature’ was partly to blame. The ruling accepts that the corals die when the sea temperature exceeds 29C, because a curious relationship between tiny algae and the coral breaks down. Corals are really colonies of billions of tiny animals called polyps. They lay down limestone skeletons that build the reef. But the tiny reef-builders in turn […]
WASHINGTON — Who should get the first flu vaccine during a worldwide outbreak – the 60-year-old grandmother with a weak heart and lungs or the healthy 4-year-old with decades ahead of her? Government guidelines put the ill grandmother at the head of that line, for now. Younger, healthier people should be moved ahead, argue bioethicists at the National Institutes of Health, raising new issues to consider as federal officials review the nation’s pandemic guidelines. ‘Death seems more tragic when a child or young adult dies than an elderly person – not because the lives of older people are less valuable, but because the younger person has not had the opportunity to live and develop through all stages of life,’ Drs. Ezekiel Emanuel and Alan Wertheimer wrote for Friday’s edition of the journal Science. It’s a different way of weighing the agonizing decision of how to ration scarce vaccine if a super-strain of influenza sparks a worldwide epidemic. If that flu arises, it will take manufacturers months to brew inoculations for everyone. First doses will go to workers in vaccine factories and to people caring for the ill, a Bush administration decision widely shared by health […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
