The Bush administration has scaled back plans to quickly build a ‘virtual fence’ along the U.S.-Mexico border, delaying completion of the first phase of the project by at least three years and shifting away from linked, tower-mounted sensors and communications and surveillance gear, federal officials said yesterday. Technical problems discovered in a 28-mile pilot project south of Tucson prompted the change in plans, Department of Homeland Security officials and congressional auditors told a House subcommittee. While the department took over that initial stretch Friday from Boeing, authorities confirmed that Project 28, the initial deployment of its Secure Border Initiative network, did not work as planned or meet the needs of the U.S. Border Patrol. The announcement marked a major setback for what President Bush in May 2006 called ‘the most technologically advanced border security initiative in American history.’ The virtual fence was to be a key component of his proposed overhaul of U.S. immigration policies, which died last year in the Senate. Investigators for the Government Accountability Office had earlier warned that the effort was beset by both expected and unplanned difficulties. But yesterday, they disclosed new troubles that will require a redesign and said the […]
You might have caught the article in the Sunday New York Times or today’s segments on CNN highlighting a serious form of discrimination, the improper use of genetic information by a person’s employer or insurer. The article in the Times and the pieces of cable news each referenced legislation that I authored, H.R. 493, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA). GINA prohibits insurers and employers from discriminating based solely on a person’s genetic information. I first introduced a bill to protect a person’s genetic information 13 years ago. GINA would prohibit health insurers from denying coverage or charging higher premiums to a healthy individual because of a genetic predisposition to develop a disease in the future. It also bars employers from using genetic information for hiring, firing, job placement, or promotion decisions. This is incredibly important because no one is born with perfect genes. Therefore, genetic discrimination is something that affects every single person on the planet. Only with comprehensive federal legislation will we be able to deter further discrimination, encourage people to participate in genetic testing and research, and reduce long-term health costs. GINA does more than stamp out a relatively new form of discrimination. […]
Turkey is preparing to publish a document that represents a revolutionary reinterpretation of Islam – and a controversial and radical modernisation of the religion. The country’s powerful Department of Religious Affairs has commissioned a team of theologians at Ankara University to carry out a fundamental revision of the Hadith, the second most sacred text in Islam after the Koran. The Hadith is a collection of thousands of sayings reputed to come from the Prophet Muhammad. As such, it is the principal guide for Muslims in interpreting the Koran and the source of the vast majority of Islamic law, or Sharia. But the Turkish state has come to see the Hadith as having an often negative influence on a society it is in a hurry to modernise, and believes it responsible for obscuring the original values of Islam. It says that a significant number of the sayings were never uttered by Muhammad, and even some that were need now to be reinterpreted. ‘Reformation’ Commentators say the very theology of Islam is being reinterpreted in order to effect a radical renewal of the religion. ‘This is kind of akin to the Christian Reformation. Not exactly […]
Canada and the U.S. have signed an agreement that paves the way for the militaries from either nation to send troops across each other’s borders during an emergency, but some are questioning why the Harper government has kept silent on the deal. Neither the Canadian government nor the Canadian Forces announced the new agreement, which was signed Feb. 14 in Texas. The U.S. military’s Northern Command, however, publicized the agreement with a statement outlining how its top officer, Gen. Gene Renuart, and Canadian Lt.-Gen. Marc Dumais, head of Canada Command, signed the plan, which allows the military from one nation to support the armed forces of the other nation during a civil emergency. The new agreement has been greeted with suspicion by the left wing in Canada and the right wing in the U.S. The left-leaning Council of Canadians, which is campaigning against what it calls the increasing integration of the U.S. and Canadian militaries, is raising concerns about the deal. ‘It’s kind of a trend when it comes to issues of Canada-U.S. relations and contentious issues like military integration. We see that this government is reluctant to disclose information to Canadians that is readily […]
They are among the biggest-selling drugs of all time, the ‘happiness pills’ that supposedly lift the moods of those who suffer depression and are taken by millions of people in the UK every year. But one of the largest studies of modern antidepressant drugs has found that they have no clinically significant effect. In other words, they don’t work. The finding will send shock waves through the medical profession and patients and raises serious questions about the regulation of the multinational pharmaceutical industry, which was accused yesterday of withholding data on the drugs. It also came as Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, announced that 3,600 therapists are to be trained during the next three years to provide nationwide access through the GP service to ‘talking treatments’ for depression, instead of drugs, in a £170m scheme. The popularity of the new generation of antidepressants, which include the best known brands Prozac and Seroxat, soared after they were launched in the late 1980s, heavily promoted by drug companies as safer and leading to fewer side-effects than the older tricyclic antidepressants. The publication in 1994 of Listening to Prozac by Peter Kramer, in which he suggested anyone with too […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
