Maureen Dowd: -- "At a time when Americans are willing to vest extraordinary power in the president, to trust him with life-and- death decisions, to give him him considerable leeway in curbing civil liberties and spending billions, this is a time when questions and debate are what patriotism demands. Even the most high-minded government is not infallible." (NY Times, free registration required)

Stratfor: Sea change in U.S.-Israeli relations -- "Geopolitical realities after the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon will force the United States to back away from its relationship with Israel. Cold War priorities that once favored the Jewish state have been replaced by a need for support from Muslim states such as Syria, Iran and Egypt. Israel's guardian in Washington, the Jewish political lobby, is also being challenged by a growing Muslim political power."

Frank Rich: The end of the beginning -- "As we straddle this incredible moment, poised between a glimpse of Armageddon and a future only a fool would predict, there is rampant hunger for certainty..." (NY Times, free registration required)

Reuters: Rumsfeld's star rises in wake of attack -- "In hindsight, it was almost prophetic. On Jan. 11, Donald Rumsfeld, a Cold War veteran preparing to take over as U.S. defense secretary, warned U.S. senators that America must expect the unexpected from a new breed of enemies."

David Talbot: Democracy held hostage -- "We are fighting for freedom -- including the right to vigorously debate. But the war fever crowd wants us all to march in step."

Today was a great day to not have clinical depression. The puppy came back from his overnight trip to the vet safely. The viral gastroenteritis (AKA "stomach flu") that's been plaguing our household seems to have gone for good. The weather is gorgeous. Robert Scoble was kind to phone in response to some questions I had about Radio Userland. I spent several hours dinking around with it and discovered that the "off-the-shelf" weblog feature doesn't appear to support macros or glossary entries. Hmmm. Maybe I'm missing something. For now, I guess we'll stick with the old bubble-gum and bailing wire routine. ;-)

ABC: NYC's ground zero called 'burial ground'

Reuters: U.S. changes rules on downing threatening planes -- "Two mid-level U.S. Air Force generals have been given the power to order the shooting down of civilian airliners that threaten American cities without first checking with President Bush...." [Updated 4:18 PM EST]

Reuters: Bush urges Americans to fly, unveils security steps

Jane's: Where does US intelligence go from here?

NY Times: Is technology an ally? (Free registration required)

Reuters: Bush wants National Guard to help patrol airports

Donald H. Rumsfeld: A new kind of war (NY Times, free registration required)

Salon: The president's secret weapon -- "As President Bush takes inventory of the assets available to wage the new war against terrorism, he may be overlooking one potentially useful weapon in his arsenal: his predecessor."

Richard Rodriguez: A Glossary For Our Times -- "There is wisdom in tragedy, I think; but tragedy is not a sensibility that has come easily to us as Americans. We traditionally have tended toward optimism and a belief that action can be decisive. These days, one hears from Washington, particularly, a new American language of the long haul, of difficulty ahead, years of sacrifice."

Washington Post: Proposed anti-terrorism laws draw tough questions -- "The Bush administration's urgent quest for new anti-terrorism laws bogged down in Congress yesterday, as lawmakers from both parties expressed concern that the hastily prepared package could greatly expand police powers at the expense of privacy and other civil liberties." Let's not forget the nightmare of J. Edgar Hoover.

BBC: Bush sides with the doves -- "So far, the evidence is that Secretary of State Colin Powell is winning the policy battle." The coalition or multilateral approach is more reassuring than deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz's early comments suggesting we unilaterally obliterate Afghanistan et al.

Yesterday was not a good day. It felt as though we were being sucked into a vortex of lunacy. May Congress continue to think intelligently and act in a measured fashion in the face of shrill calls for disposing of the Bill of Rights.

SecurityFocus: Hackers face life imprisonment under 'anti-terrorism' act -- "Hackers, virus-writers and web site defacers would face life imprisonment without the possibility of parole under legislation proposed by the Bush Administration that would classify most computer crimes as acts of terrorism."

If we're going to enact tyrannical legislation, John Robb suggests we ought to at least do what the Romans did -- put a one-year time limit on it. Unfortunately, our terrorist woes will not have gone away in one year's time.

Wired: Why liberty suffers in wartime -- "During all of America's major wars -- the Civil War, World War I and World War II -- the government restricted Americans' civil liberties in the name of quelling dissent, silencing criticism of political decisions and preserving national security."

Reuters: New 'war vote' virus deletes computer files -- "When the attachment entitled "WTC.exe" is opened, the virus deletes all the files on the computer's hard drive and sends copies of the e-mail to every address listed in the computer's address book...." Another Outlook/Outlook Express exploit. As Dan Gillmor recently pointed out, these aren't Internet worms, they're Microsoft worms.

Dave Winer: Don't open email enclosures

John Robb: E-mail attachments are dead [scroll to bottom of page] -- There is an alternative to the present scheme of things.

So long, Bill of Rights?

SJ Merc: Oracle boss urges national ID cards, offers free software -- Larry Ellison, worth $15 billion, and his company, Oracle Corp., are offering to donate a national ID card system and database software. "Oracle has a longstanding relationship with the federal government. Indeed, the CIA was Ellison's first customer, and the company's name stems from a CIA-funded project launched in the mid-1970s that sought better ways of storing and retrieving digital data." Polls show approximately 70% of Americans favor national ID cards. Critics suggest that the system can (and will) be misused and may be vulnerable to hacking, and amounts to an internal passport which can be used to target critics of the government. It's questionable if such a system would have prevented the attacks on NYC and DC. Not surprisingly, Sen. Dianne (citizens should not own guns) Feinstein is "interested" in Ellison's proposal.

Salon: The end of liberty -- "Law enforcement officials are taking advantage of the war on terrorism to get everything they ever wanted." Again, the risk is that Congress will blindly pass all manner of legislation without adequate foresight, merely to avoid any hint of partisanship. This is knee-jerk legislation, with no "sunset clause" -- i.e., once we go there we don't go back to the way things used to be.

NY Times: Concern over proposed changes in Internet surveillance -- "...Federal agents under the proposed law could very easily -- and without making a showing of probable cause -- get a list of everyone you send e-mail to, when you sent it, who replied to you, how long the messages were, whether they had attachments, as well as where you went online." (Free registration required)

Wired: Infected DSL users get 86ed -- "Educate yourself about computer security or get the hell off the Internet is the message that some Internet service providers are delivering to their customers." Too many worm-infected Windows 2000/Windows NT boxes with permanent network connections are screwing things up for the rest of the world. Good riddance.

The Sunday Times [London]: Why do they hate America? -- "Anti-Americanism has long been the vicious, irrational, global ideology of our time. 'It combines,' says Sir Michael Howard, the historian, 'the nastiest elements of the right and left.' It is dangerous and stupid and, in the days after September 11, shockingly distasteful."

Anthony Lewis: 'To Thine Own Self Be True' -- "That will be a fair test of his policy for dealing with terrorism as the policy unfolds: Does it uphold the values of America?" (NY Times, free registration required)

NY Times: Defense may be inadequate for germ or toxic attacks -- This is the kind of stuff that keeps me awake at night. The consensus seems to be that the current risk is low, so perhaps all the more reason for the US to move forward quickly with whatever retaliatory measures we have planned. However, if we botch it, we risk a gigantic Muslim backlash, serious destabilization of the Middle East, and implosion of the world economy.

Wired: Bush's 'laws for war' -- "President Bush sent his anti-terrorism bill to Congress late Wednesday, launching an emotional debate that will force U.S. politicians to choose between continued freedom for Americans or greater security." There has been a large hue and cry, from both liberals and conservatives, to try to preserve American civil liberties as much as possible following the terrorist attacks. On the other hand, Congress and the Senate appear poised to pass anything and everything in an effort to avoid any hint of partisanship. Needed: Balance and discussion.

Stratfor: US measures may incite domestic terror -- New federal controls may push 'militia' groups and other fringe ultra-conservatives over the edge.

John Robb offers a larger view of what's at stake.

For the record: As the three people who visit this site know, I have been pretty critical of President Bush in the past and felt bitter after the November election. However, he's hit his stride. Mark Shields noted the other evening that on January 20 it was fair to say there was some doubt about the legitimacy of the Bush presidency; on September 20, there is no doubt whatsoever. His speech Thursday night was 10 out of 10.

Spotty posts this week -- too much 'stomach flu,' too much stuff going on on the homestead.

AP: Arafat says he'll enforce cease-fire -- "Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said Tuesday he ordered his forces to prevent any attacks on Israeli soldiers and to hold back even if fired upon. Israel responded by promising not to launch attacks on Palestinians." This is big news.

Frank Viviano: The high price of disengagement -- "Now we appear ready to unleash our vast power on some part of the Muslim world. A world that recalls the past much more vividly, and remembers the fact that radical Muslims like Osama bin Laden and his followers were trained and armed by the United States to fight the Russians in Afghanistan. That such retaliation may set in motion an endless exchange of atrocities haunts many people around the world today."

The Economist: A bitter harvest -- "The notion of jihad, or holy war, had almost ceased to exist in the Muslim world after the tenth century until it was revived, with American encouragement, to fire an international pan-Islamic movement after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979."

Richard Dawkins: Religion's misguided missiles -- "Promise a young man that death is not the end and he will willingly cause disaster."

Robert Fisk: Bush is walking into a trap -- "This crime was perpetrated - it becomes ever clearer - to provoke the United States into just the blind, arrogant punch that the US military is preparing."

Robert Scheer: Bush's Faustian deal with the Taliban [May, 2001] -- "The gift, announced last Thursday by Secretary of State Colin Powell, in addition to other recent aid, makes the U.S. the main sponsor of the Taliban and rewards that 'rogue regime' for declaring that opium growing is against the will of God." We need to take a long, very hard look at ourselves in the mirror before we start obliterating what is already probably the most wretched country on earth. Perhaps Messrs. Bush, Cheney and Powell might address the $43 million given to the Taliban or the CIA funding and training of Mr. bin Laden.

CNN: Taliban given three days to hand over bin Laden -- Most significantly, the ultimatum comes from Pakistan.

Washington Post: At the Pentagon: Response Hampered by Confusion, Lack of Preparedness

Salon: Send in the online spooks? -- "In the aftermath of terrorism, civil libertarians are running for cover. But are they protesting too much?"

Reuters: Europol questions bin Laden role in attacks -- "The head of the European Union's law enforcement arm warned on Saturday against rushing to blame the Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden for masterminding Tuesday's attacks on New York and Washington."

Christian Science Monitor: A New World Order? -- "Critical now, observers say, is for the Bush administration to work from this initial base to build an 'inclusive' coalition of countries, including moderate Arab states and Islamic regimes." Also of interest, "'The regional atmosphere is driven by the perception of American double standards,' says Laura Drake, a Mideast specialist at American University. 'The over-riding sentiment is that Palestinian and Iraqi human life is less valuable to Americans than their own, and the talk about civilization seems hypocritical to them.'"

William Raspberry: "All of this raises two questions: Why do so many in the Muslim world -- not just the terrorists but quite ordinary men and women -- consider us their enemy? And is there anything at all reasonable for us to do about it?"

Open letter to Michael Eisner: "The SSSCA, which you are in the middle of buying from Congress, would outlaw the software that powers the independent Internet, the Internet that had many of us crying on our keyboards this week, from loss, relief or rage."

CNN: Falwell apologizes to gays, feminists, lesbians -- Jerry Falwell and his friend Pat Robertson had just recently publicly proclaimed that Tuesday's terrorist attacks were the 'wrath of God' for our secular tolerance. "Falwell said he believes the ACLU and other organizations 'which have attempted to secularize America, have removed our nation from its relationship with Christ on which it was founded.'" Jerry, read your history, OK? Or go live with your fanatic cousins, the Taliban. The founding fathers were largely deists, not Christians.

A number of people have lamented the lack of analysis of the roots of our recent woes in the US media. Often lacking is an answer to 'How did this happen?', not in terms of intelligence failures, but in terms of historical US foreign policy in the middle east.

From August 1998, Bin Laden comes home to roost, an interesting look at how the CIA's funding and backing of Bin Laden backfired.

The Guardian: They can't see why they are hated -- "Americans cannot ignore what their government does abroad." But, we do.

Stratfor: Hijacking clues may be red herrings

Reuters: Congress moves to change way of life -- Regarding the Hatch-Feinstein bill mentioned below, "Several Democrats said many senators did not know exactly what they were voting on, and supported the measure in their determination to condemn terrorism." Can our elected officials please use their brains? Yes, these are trying times. That is no excuse to throw your hands in the air.

Mir Tamim Ansary: "But the Taliban and Bin Laden are not Afghanistan. They're not even the government of Afghanistan. The Taliban are a cult of ignorant psychotics who took over Afghanistan in 1997. Bin Laden is a political criminal with a plan. When you think Taliban, think Nazis. When you think Bin Laden, think Hitler. And when you think 'the people of Afghanistan' think 'the Jews in the concentration camps.' It's not only that the Afghan people had nothing to do with this atrocity. They were the first victims of the perpetrators."

Wired: Senate OKs FBI Net Spying -- "FBI agents soon may be able to spy on Internet users legally without a court order." All week, I have listened to sober, wise men saying, essentially, We need to ensure that our privacy and civil liberties don't get thrown out the window in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks. The measure is proposed by Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Dianne Feinstein (D-California), the latter having historically been no friend of electronic privacy. In our grief and anger, do we have to plunge headlong into both war and abrogation of the Fourth Amendment? Can we have a measured response?

On the way to and from the pharmacy mid-day, the Belen Police Dept. had cruisers going up and down Main St., red lights flashing, American flags waving from the car windows. The fire department had parked an enormous hook-and-ladder truck, with its ladder fully extended, and a large flag billowing from the end of the ladder. Local stores sold out of flags mid-week.

I missed the original broadcast of today's memorial service, having to take my elderly dad to the doctor. Catching parts of it rebroadcast later in the day, I have to say that President Bush really touched the hearts of the American people in a way that we desperately need right now.

CNN: Fed enlists ISPs in terrorist probe -- "The FBI served EarthLink with a search warrant to gather electronic information relating to national security, said Dan Greenfield, spokesperson for the Atlanta, Georgia-based ISP." Other ISPs have been approached and acknowledge cooperation with federal authorities, but all deny any installation of e-mail surveillance systems. The FBI has no comment.

Bill Moyers had a fascinating conversation this evening with two mental-health professionals who have been volunteering time in NY manning telephones. They both expressed concern that in our collective national rush to war, we will bypass the time needed for thoughtful reflection, talking to others, and dealing with a host of fears and raw emotions -- almost a sort of denial. They seemed to agree that the magnitude of this week's events have not begun to sink in. It still seems unreal (or surreal).

David S. Broder: A new reality for George W. Bush -- "Now the challenge is much larger: to forge a strategy, far different from his campaign agenda, to deal with the realities we face."

Reuters: Tight security could impinge on U.S. freedoms -- "'Terrorists have achieved two victories so far,' Eland said, referring to the mass killings caused by the hijack attacks on Tuesday and the fear engendered by the attacks. A third victory, he said, would be forcing a change in American behavior."

CNN says the story of five rescued firefighters [see below] was a mistake.

BBC: Miracle escape for five firefighters

PC World: Will attack hurt net privacy?

Wired: Anti-attack feds push Carnivore -- Several large ISPs have already been approached by the FBI, wanting to install e-mail surveillance equipment on their lines. This is apparently only temporary, since the feds plan to install surveillance equipment on the main Internet trunk lines as soon as possible.

Dan Gillmor: "If law enforcement and national security agencies declare war on the American people in the process, they will give the terrorists a gift. The despicable people who planned this will triumph if we add to the damage."

William Safire: Inside the Bunker -- Why Bush didn't return to Washington ASAP, and why Cheney didn't appear on TV Tuesday; a mole in the White House? (NY Times, free registration required)

The FBI will not rule out the possibility that the Pennsylvania plane was shot down. The Pentagon vehemently denies this scenario.

Arianna Huffington: Blinded by scandal -- "Obsessed with sharks and Gary Condit, the media, like the White House, missed earlier warnings about possible terrorist attacks at home."

Salon: Commision warned Bush -- The Bush administration apparently ignored a bipartisan report, the culmination of two-and-a-half years' work, in favor of starting over fresh, having Dick Cheney study the terrorism problem.

The Dalai Lama's letter to the President of the United States -- Is the appropriate response to violence more violence? (I would never have seen this in a million years. Thanks to Dangerousmeta!.)

Our household has been battling an intestinal virus this week. That, coupled with Tuesday's tragic events, has meant another unintended hiatus. There has been so much excellent coverage of the week's events on the web (not limited to mainstream media sites), that it's pointless to go back and try to reconstruct timelines which are now painfully familiar. However, there is much in the aftermath to read about and to ponder. A hat-tip to Dave Winer's Scripting News site for some exceptional coverage and insight.

ZDNet: Security experts protest copyright act -- "Two well-known computer security experts pulled down their works from the Internet this week for fear of being prosecuted under 1998's Digital Millennium Copyright Act."

Maureen Dowd: I can't take it anymore -- "W. continued to give away the store to Big Business last week, legally unleashing Microsoft and signaling media conglomerates that they can conglomerate away — accelerating the centralization of American power into the hands of a very few very rich people."

BBC: E-paper moving closer -- "The success or otherwise of this electronic equivalent to paper will depend in part on finding what is called the killer application."

Wired: New copyright bill heading to DC -- "With the help of Fritz Hollings (D-S.C.), the powerful chairman of the Senate Commerce committee, [music and record industry lobbyists] hope to embed copy-protection controls in nearly all consumer electronic devices and PCs. All types of digital content, including music, video and e-books, are covered."

Sound innocuous? It gets better. Under the proposed new law, any computer user connected to a network (think: Internet) who does not have federally approved copy-protection on his/her computer would be guilty of a federal felony.

You ask, "I'm not pirating music or movies, why should I care?" Under some readings of the proposed legislation, you could be guilty of a crime if you distributed a file that you received from someone who had broken security technology. It could be something as innocent as a "virtual xerox" of an article or story.

What is the purpose of copyright? To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries. The RIAA, Disney, and other megacorporations have conveniently forgotten this express purpose, which comes from no less than Article I, section 8, clause 8 of the United States Constitution.

Richard Stallman: The Right to Read -- This is a very short short story from 1996 which is turning out to be more prophetic than the author might have envisioned.

Reuters: Judge demands documents on FBI computer spy system -- "A federal judge on Friday ordered prosecutors to show him documents next week describing how a classified FBI computer spying system works, saying their argument the system should be kept secret from defense attorneys was 'gobbledygook.'"

Reuters: Congress threatens to take White House to court -- The Bush administration has refused to turn over documents related to the development of its energy policy by the Sept. 6 deadline imposed by the General Accounting Office (GAO). Ari Fleischer's statement sounded positively petulant and childish.

Washington Post: Unemployment rate jumps to 4.9 percent. Ouch. Bush says he "cares deeply." Ever had to work, George? Amazing how much deep do-do we're in for having such a caring guy running the country.

The Bush administration wants to ease regulation of the nursing home industry, reducing inspections and lessening or eliminating penalties [NY Times]. Does this person "we" elected have a clue about anything? If his own dear old mother were in one of these homes (and they were not filthy rich), he would sing a different song. Unbelievable.

Reactions to the government's decision not to break up Microsoft:

Salon: Slap on the wrist?

Dan Gillmor: The government's misguided gift to Microsoft

Dave Winer: Quid Pro, Microsoft?

Jim Hoagland: "...Whether by design or by failing to anticipate the cumulative impact of their actions, Bush and his foreign policy aides have created the theme of America the Absent in world affairs. They seem to ignore that old adage -- the one that holds that those who are absent always lose the argument."

Elisa D. Harris: "...The American plan to replicate the Russian [anthrax] strain was unknown to all but a handful of people until now. Why have American plans to replicate the Russian work been kept secret?"

Sen. Pete Domenici (R. New Mexico) claims there is no harm in tapping Social Security [Reuters]. "Government forecasters see virtually no surplus outside of Social Security for several years." Excuse me, but what happened to the zillions of dollars in projected surplus that Bush kept harping on during the election campaign, the ephemeral foundation of his tax cut for the rich? "Republicans are scrambling to find a way to provide an extra $18 billion for defense that Bush wants for next fiscal year, which starts on Oct. 1, as well as billions more for an education overhaul that he supported." If the administration abandoned their Reaganesque obsession with a 'Star Wars' program, perhaps we wouldn't be having this argument.

Pres. Bush has promised to keep his fingers out of the Social Security piggybank. [NY Times]

Are we overvaccinating our pets? [ABC]

Nevada just says 'No!' to nuclear waste. [Reuters] Hey, not in my back yard!

Justice Dept. rolls over on Microsoft break-up. [Washington Post]

From the 'Let Us Be Humble' Dept.: Scientists posit that the universe 'could condense into jelly'. [BBC] However, the odds of this occurring (assuming the theory is valid) are, well, astronomical.

In this month's newsletter, The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) debunks six assertions of the "Social Security is broken" proponents. A couple of key points raised: The system is basically sound, with future shortfalls fixable by modest means (not requiring total overhaul). The 2016 "collapse" date is bogus. The mantra that the program does not save or invest for the future is blatantly false.

A Michigan high school student has been suspended for reading a parody of his school's tardiness policy, deemed an "assault" by school authorities. [AP] Zero tolerance? No, zero sense.

An Ohio man has been sentenced to seven years in prison for what he wrote in his private journal [Reuters]. For the record, I don't condone what this person wrote about, and he apparently needs psychiatric help. However, I find it frightening that a person can be so sentenced for private, not published, writings.

Tommy Thompson, Secretary of Health and Human Services, acknowledges that most of the Bush-approved stem cell colonies are not usable [Reuters]. In an effort to wipe the egg off President Bush's face, Thompson struck a deal so that the National Institutes of Health will have access to five colonies developed at the University of Wisconsin. [Washington Post]

Robert Scheer: What George doesn't know -- "The president fails to realize that the only way out of this economic slowdown is government spending."

Reuters: Calif. judge rejects 290 stoplight camera tickets -- The issue in the judge's mind is that Lockheed Martin was getting a percentage of the fines collected.

BBC: Childen 'slow' at learning English - "Children learning to read and write in English are slower to master it than other European youngsters learning their own language, new research suggests." [Resist temptation to make off-the-wall comment about current president.]

NY Times: U.S. germ warfare research pushes treaty limits -- The lid has come off. This explains why the current administration has balked at strengthening the germ weapons treaty, which would mean inspection of our research facilities and, hence, airing our controversial secret "defensive research." However, don't entirely blame Bush; this stuff started back when Clinton was in office.

Also check out the Pentagon's mock germ-making plant in Nevada. But don't worry, it's all harmless.

Garret mentions that similar research goes on up at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The Battelle Memorial Institute, in West Jefferson, Ohio, is the contractor awarded the neato job of creating genetically altered "super anthrax."

The logic here is that we must do this to stay ahead of the Russians, the Libyans, the Iraqis, and the Iranians (in terms of vaccines for our troops), all of whom have been industriously creating millions of gallons of pestilence.

MSNBC: Breaking down a male myth -- Most men are not really "emotional mummies." Difficulty expressing emotions is another matter, since many boys are raised to not be "feminine" (i.e., not to express their feelings). [Via Dave]

NY Times: New stem cell issue as Congress returns -- in the last several weeks, the debate has shifted from questions of ethics to questions of whether Bush's plan is adequate for successful research.

Times of India: US may resume nuclear testing -- "In what could be a dramatic reversal of US policy, the Bush administration is now indicating it may not be averse to resumption of nuclear tests that the so-called Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) seeks to outlaw." [Via Garret]

Reuters: Bush vows to ease economic pain of U.S. workers -- "I care." Yup, about getting re-elected.

Hartford Courant: Teachers at risk of autoimmune disease -- All the exposure to infections is thought to be a factor.

A new study indicates chocolate is good for you. [Reuters] Chocolate contains flavonoids, which can help keep your heart and circulatory system healthy.

Troy Donahue is dead at age 65. [AP] I remember seeing him in John Waters' "Cry Baby" and thinking, man, the years have not been kind. A lot of down times.

I've been avoiding all the recent intra-family homicide stories lately, but I see a Florida mother is the latest to go off the deep end [AP]. It's noted that anti-depressant medications were found in her home. With the recent talk about potential deadly side-effects of popular anti-depressant drugs like Prozac and Paxil, one might wonder if we're seeing an insidious trend or merely statistical aberrations.

Valencia County News-Bulletin: Bear in yard watched TV with couple -- OK, this is getting too darned close to home, like seven miles down the road, near a local golf course. Time to load 'em up.

Spent your George W. Bush tax refund yet? Here's an interesting slant I received in an e-mail message:

...It's actually an advance on next year's return.... The way I understand it is, if you are single and got the $300 rebate, and next year you're supposed to get a $500 return, they'll deduct the $300 and send you $200. So, how is this some kind of tax-relief when it looks more like a shell game?

Reuters: Heart pioneer Christiaan Barnard dies

BBC: Billionaire suspends stem cell donation -- "Jim Clark, the founder of internet companies such as Netscape and WebMD, said restrictions imposed on the research threatens to throw the United States into what he called the dark age of medical research."

Vaccine makers are being sued by parents of autistic children over minute amounts of mercury which they claim caused their children's disorder. [AP]

Washington Post: Bush faces round two on economy -- "Bush's goal is to turn the tables on the Democrats, to shift the debate from 'Who lost the surplus?' to 'Who's saving the economy?'" Good luck...

Salon: Breaking into the lock box -- Republicans, along with some Democrats, are arguing that the Gore metaphor for Social Security is irrelevant.

President Bush was apparently so exhausted from his recent month-long vacation that he was forced to rest up at Camp David over the Labor Day weekend. [Smirking Chimp] (How long before AP threatens to sue these guys for running verbatim reprints?)

It's always a warm fuzzy feeling to hit an old saved link and get a "Forbidden: Your client is not authorized to access the page" error. Sheesh.

Newsbytes: Government urges U.S. high court to ignore Microsoft appeal

Linus Torvalds thinks Hailstorm is no threat -- "If Microsoft is going to tax everyone on the Internet, don't think the governments will watch their monopoly on tax collection go by." [Register]

September already?