The murders at Fort Hood have been blamed on jihadi terrorism, a fantasy disease called post traumatic syndrome by proxy, and “going Postal”.
Presumably “Road Rage” will be the next diagnosis for the Psychiatrist who went on his own personal terrorist strike.
But until now, I was not aware that many of his victims were themselves members […]

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A New York Times blog post by Lisa Belkin, “A Bully at Age 4?” raises the question, “How young is too young to be a bully?”
A comment from a parent described a big 4-year old child hitting other 4-year old kids at school, not allowing other kids to play if he didn’t feel like it, […]

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Teenage blogger and newspaper writer, Walker Morrow, has become something of a balloon boy for older bloggers in Canada who have been crticizing erosion of free speech and other constitutional rights by Human Rights Commissions.  They watched in disbelief as Canada’s media giant, Canwest, abandoned Morrow when legal action was threatened over his article, “Questionable […]

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Thalidomide is the drug behind one of the largest medicine linked disasters of the twentieth century. Back in the late 1950’s/early 1960’s, it was used to treat severe morning sickness in pregnant women in Europe, resulting in 10 thousand children being born with missing limbs.
Apparently, one of the side effects of the medicine was to […]

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All Catholic Filipinos have a devotion to “Mama  Mary”. It’s a cultural thing.
Americans tend to be individualistic in their approch to religion, so tend to parse Bible verses.  But the Philippines, until recently, was still a country of peasants, where religion was taught to children by stories and fiestas.
So Jesus was “Kuya Jesus”, older brother […]

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ITA 2000 was amended after several years of hibernation and the new ITA 2008 has emerged. While we are yet to digest the changes, there are some persons who are calling for changes in ITA 2000. It is not […]

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Time magazine has an article about overprotective parents. The Title is appropriate:
The Growing Backlash Against Overparenting
Fair enough.
My problem is how the article is framed:
…we just wanted what was best for our kids. We bought macrobiotic cupcakes and hypoallergenic socks, hired tutors to correct a 5-year-old’s “pencil-holding deficiency,” … We hovered over every school, playground […]

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And it ain’t a happy day for the CRU.  True, this is a cybercrime, and the perpetrator(s) should be brought to justice.  But equally as big is the contents of the >1000 e-mails and >3800 documents. 
The Hadley Climate Research Unit has confirmed the hack, so this is not a hoax, and global-warming-skeptic sites like […]

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When I was working as a physician in the US, our Federal clinic’s policy was to order mammograms on all women starting at age 4o.
Why was this important? Because there is some indications that mammogram and early diagnosis increases the cure rate for breast cancer in young women.
This statement is not as obvious as you […]

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A TV Channel in Bangalore ( TV9 ) reported today that mobile calls were being received from Paksitan to mobile users in Delhi, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Mumbai etc allegedly from either terrorists or terror funding organizations. The channel gave out four distinct numbers with the ISD code 092 and stated that some of the calls were […]

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FreeMediaOnline.org, Free Media Online Blog, November 18, 2009, San Francisco — One of the worst managed U.S. federal agencies will have a new leadership. President Obama has announced his intention to nominate former CNN chairman and CEO Walter Isaacson, a Democrat, to chair the Broadcasting Board of Governors, BBG, an independent federal agency […]

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Quick. Name the most dangerous terrorist organization in the US, organizations that are responsible for  47 of the53 most destructive terrorist attacks in the US.
Muslims? No.
Right wing Militias? No.
The Christian fundamentalist types? No.
It’s the Animal rights extremists.
Via SecondhandsmokeBlog, quoting from the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals decision U.S. v Christianson:
… between 2000 and 2005, 43 […]

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The CDC announced an increase in STD’s and an administration spokesman insisted that it’s all Bush’s fault, because some schools preach abstinence:
“Chlamydia and gonorrhea are stable at unacceptably high levels and syphilis is resurgent after almost being eliminated,” said John Douglas, director of the division of sexually transmitted diseases at the U.S. Centers for Disease […]

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Many government programs depend on political legerdemain and budget gimmickry.  Social Security and Medicare are prominent examples.  Most Americans believe Social Security and Medicare funds are locked in a vault somewhere, ready for withdrawals when they retire.  We are disquieted to learn these “Trust Funds”, as they are called, are not funds at all, but […]

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One of the frustrating things when working in child maternal health in poor countries is trying to integrate medical aims into the cultural background of the people, without destroying it.
This NYTimes story, about trying to get the Mullahs in Afghanistan to approve of their people using birth control, is a good example of how to […]

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The terror mail threat received by the Sri Lankan Cricket team before the Ahmedabad Test has once again brought focus on the Cyber Cafes. The mail was sent from a Cyber Café in Chattisgarh and promptly the Police have arrested the Cyber Café owner. For records, Police are happy that an arrest has been made […]

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An article by Hillary Stout in the New York Times, “For Some Parents, Shouting is the New Spanking,” focuses on the damage to children done by parents’ shouting and, therefore, the need for parents to control their tempers.
Although I agree that a steady diet of shouting and bullying isn’t a good way for well-meaning, devoted […]

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I live in a housing village on Fort Hood.  On November 4th, at approximately 1:30 PM, the emergency alarms went off.  I was expecting to hear that this was a test of the “Emergency Alert System.”  Instead, I heard, “Attention.  Seek shelter immediately.  Close all doors and windows.  Turn off all ventilation systems.  Seek shelter […]

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I often come up with what I plan to write on during my morning run. For some reason, ideas seem to bounce into my brain housing group (military term) as I am punishing myself physically. Today, I decided to put politics in the background; somewhat, and talk about life in general. Don’t worry, I promise […]

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Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, self-proclaimed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, is being promoted to, what amounts to, full citizen of the United States of America for purposes of standing trial, in civilian court, for his war crimes.  He’ll get all the rights and privileges afforded citizens, and even just residents living under the laws of our […]

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  Information Security (IS) concept has  been under a continuous evolvement. Initially, IS was a technical concept as creators of software and computer systems struggled to make the system more trustworthy. The fundamental requirement for this purpose was to let the systems be accessed and operated only by authorized persons. Hence Access control was the […]

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Consider this case:
A well educated software professional working in Infosys is travelling in train from his native place to Delhi. He has to catch a flight to Bangalore. The train is getting delayed. He feels that he may miss his flight. Now, what does he do?
Sit quitely and resign to the fact that he may […]

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A study among Chinese factory workers shows exposure to high doses of Bisphenol A at their jobs resulted in an increase of erectile dysfuntion.
Compared to the other workers, men with high BPA exposure were about four times as likely to report trouble achieving erections, about seven times as likely to say they had difficulty ejaculating, […]

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The purpose of a memoir is to tell the truth about oneself with a purpose. Not to just lay out all the family garbage, but to make it mean something to the reader. Jeffrey Koterba does that masterfully in his humorous memoir.
Koterba is a nationally syndicated political cartoonist who didn’t have an easy path toward […]

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I was going to get back to pontificating on what I believe this week, but have been so angered by the media coverage of the Islamic terrorist attack on Fort Hood that I felt the need to speak on this top.
First, and foremost, my thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and the families […]

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The NYTimes has an article on “violence” at Fort Hood. At Army Base Some Violence is All To Familiar” the headlines cry.
Yes, one more “Ain’t it awful” report on how violent veterans are, without mentioning that the “violent crime” rate is still lower than that of Chicago.
The problems of violence on military bases is not […]

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 In an interesting development in Pune, it is reported that Nasscom became a complainant in case of a data theft allegation resulting in the arrest of a head of a BPO. The case pertained to an allegation that the medical history data of a US based company was being stolen and sold to another company. […]

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One of the big blocks against the Health bill in Congress was the possibility of taxpayer money paying for abortion.
The Catholic Bishops, who have been on record supporting universal health care for thirty years, declined to support the bill because the clintonsque language in the bill allowed what the bishops to call “money laundering” to […]

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 During the Cyber Security Summit 2009 at Bangalore, last month, the Think tank constituted to suggest modifications to ITA 2008 had recommended to GOI that the notification of Section 67B of the new ITA 2008 be better kept in abeyance since it poses a threat to innocent […]

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Wow! Another reality show and one that we get to see mother/daughter duos in action. This show Dallas Divas and Daughters airs every Sunday evening at 8pm EST on the Style Network. During this half-hour, we get a glimpse into the lives of five sets of mothers/daughters who live in Dallas, Texas and are considered […]

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