Volume 266 | No. 11

Mon, Feb 14

2016—A cargo jet linked to the CIA lands in Harare, Zimbabwe carrying 67 tons of South African currency and the decomposing body of a Black man. 2016—With wind blowing 20 m.p.h., and the thermometer at -13°, the wind chill in Portsmouth falls to -38°. 2015—Another 18 inches of snow fall on Portsmouth, making nearly eight feet in under three weeks. 2004—The White House releases some of George W.[MD] Bush’s military records, but they fail to prove he was present for duty. 1973—The first American POWs released from North Vietnam arrive at Travis AFB, Calif. [See tomorrow.] 1971—Nixon’s secret taping system is installed in the White …

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Sun, Feb 13

2013—Justice Antonin Scalia goes to his final judgment. 2008—The Senate tells the CIA to lay off the waterboarding. 2007—An Al-Qaeda tape calls George W.[MD] Bush a drunk gambler. 2002—Donald Rumsfeld’s ex-assistant Ken Adelman predicts the Iraq War will be a “cakewalk.” 1991—A super-accurate, laser-guided U.S. bomb kills some 400 Iraqi civilians in a bunker in Baghdad. 1983—Radicalized by anti-Semite Henry Ford, decorated WW II vet and anti-tax crank Gordon Kahl and his son Yorivon murder two U.S. Marshals and wound three other lawmen in a shootout near Medina, N.D. 1981—Hexane gas illegally discharged from a Purina plant fills the Louisville, Ky. sewer system. A spark …

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Does This Mean War?

by W.D. Ehrhart The headlines these days are ominous. “Russia warns of retaliation if its demands are not met.” “U.S. allies are stepping upto counter Russia’s Ukraine threats.” “Blinken: No concessions in response to Russia on Ukraine.” “Will there be a war over Ukraine?” It’s enough to keep you awake at night. Russia may no longer be the Soviet Union, but it’s still the original Evil Empire: unrepentantly aggressive, a bully, eager to needle the West at every opportunity, willing to risk war to achieve its selfish aims. Or so our government and our mainstream media would have us believe. But once again—as Americans have …

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All Will Be Well…Maybe

An unrelenting barrage of distressing news can be bad for the digestion. We have therefore prepared the following bit of good news as an apertif. Human tests may soon begin on a new technology designed to help people with paralysis regain independence through the control of computers and mobile devices. Specifically, this new device will enhance the ability of paralyzed people to “communicate more easily via text or speech synthesis, to follow their curiosity on the web, or to express their creativity through photography, art, or writing apps.” That’s just the beginning. According to Neuralink, “As our technology develops, we will be able to increase …

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Let The Games Battle Begin

Typical run-of-the-mill media outlets are obliged by industry standards to employ quotes from accredited experts to convey even obvious statements of fact. In our case, we are imbued with expertise as a consequence of our seniority. Therefore we can confidently proclaim ex cathedra that things have been rather grim of late. The U.S. death toll from Covid hit another milestone on January 31st. Officially the total is now over 900,000. Omicron—the “mild” variant of Covid-19—took just 51 days to knock off the latest tranche of 100,000 Americans. That’s the equivalent of another 9/11 every 36 hours. Awful as it is, that’s an understatement. The Wall …

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