This One Bites His Own

From SFGate:

Mota said Aguilar didn’t stop beating the boy, or even appear concerned, when the Modesto police officer arrived in a helicopter that touched down in a cow pasture and ordered him to stop at gunpoint. When Aguilar raised his middle finger and resumed kicking the boy, Officer Jerry Ramar killed him with a single shot to the forehead, authorities said.

“He wasn’t acting like a crazy person, running around or screaming,” Mota said. “He said, ‘I’ve just got to get the demons out of him.’ He was very calm.’ ”

The boy was beaten beyond recognition. His name has not yet been released. DNA tests will be conducted on him, Aguilar and the boy’s mother to confirm their relationship, Singh said.

It may seem horrible to take a cheap shot at this or to blame any so-called “normal” group for involvement.  But read Matt Taibi’s accounts of James Hagee’s followers casting out demons and you realize that this type of psychosis is both encouraged and coddled by some people considered mainstream Americans.  No – how about Senators John McCain or Joe Lieberman, each of whom are closely associated with and have spoken or been endorsed by his Cornerstone Church in San Antonio.

Hagee’s urging to cast out demons combined with his dark, end-timer philosophy and the hard right’s continual fascination with torture and the murder of their political opponents or people who they secretly lust for make this scarier than just another case of a kid better off aborted.

Red Cross Is Fined For Blood Violations

Besides the most recent million dollar plus fine and the total now reaching more than 20 million dollars, the spokesman’s statement might be the scariest of all.  Red Cross Is Fined For Blood Violations – washingtonpost.com

"These are very serious problems, and the American Red Cross is working to address them. But the nation’s blood supply is perhaps as safe as it’s ever been," she said.

What do you mean "perhaps" ?

Korean Cabinet Resigns Over US Beef

We might not have the history of Europe but it is clear that some people can discern between spin and their kid’s health, at least where American factory farms are concerned.

A South Korean housewife participates in a rally against U.S. beef imports in front of the government complex in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, June 9, 2008. South Korea’s ruling party dispatched lawmakers to the United States on Monday amid a domestic political crisis generated by fears American beef imports could harbor mad cow disease.(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)  The Associated Press: SKorea Cabinet turns in resignations over imports

We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ FDA (or do we?)

Good thing some pharmaceutical company execs are saving a buck and getting the big returns.  Sorry about your dead relatives:

The FDA has not determined when the chondroitin sulfate entered the heparin supply chain, but suspicion rests on China.  Changzhou used two consolidators to supply it with a raw ingredient made from pig intestines, as is chondroitin sulfate.  Those consolidators obtained the ingredient from unregulated workshops.   In April,  FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach has said that while the FDA has no specific evidence that the chondroitin sulfate contamination was intentional, “the concern is that it had to be by design.”  The reason for the counterfeiting may have been economic.  According to The New York Times,  oversulfated chondroitin sulfate costs $9 a pound compared with $900 a pound for heparin.

MIT Study Proves Heparin Deaths, Reactions Result of Fake Ingredient

Hybrid Tools for Hybrid Wars

Some deep thoughts for a tough problem that is accelerating in its approach

This poses a particular challenge to a U.S. war machine that has focused on targeting and destroying an enemy’s key command centers and supply lines, usually through bombing campaigns. In Lebanon, even though the IDF fighters controlled the skies, Hezbollah was able to move men and equipment around the battlefield. "To have relatively free rein on the ground under air dominance, literally with fighter aircraft hanging over you, that to me is the essence of hybrid warfare," Scales says.

A hybrid enemy is extremely adaptable. But the U.S. military’s weapons buying process is highly bureaucratic. The military lays out requirements that are approved by various oversight bodies. Then manufacturers provide specialized weapons. Hybrid enemies use what’s available, most often on the open market, and adapt the weapons to their enemy and the terrain. Suicide bombings confound Western minds, but they are acceptable among hybrid enemies who adhere to what are considered primitive tribal notions of revenge or the heroic warrior. "A diabolical enemy will take you on in an irregular war in order to leverage the best pieces of your technology, but use it the best way he can," Scales says.

:FEATURES: :Hybrid Wars (5/1/08) — www.GovernmentExecutive.com