The problems the author envisions, on who will pay what for future expensive diagnostics, seem tiny compared to the biowarfare possibilities. I was a little surprised to see them completely unaddressed in this interesting article.

Not one word in the article about what is done with the poop? No e.g. fertilizer use? That's a pretty serious lacuna in this article.

Donald Trump is suing "TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald" author Timothy O'Brien and publisher Warner Books, claiming the book makes defamatory statements about Trump. He's apparently seeking $5 billion in damages.

When the Donald created the USFL, and lodged a $1.5B antitrust suit against the NFL, he won $3 plus interest (trebled damages). Best of luck, the Donald.

http://www.thisistheusfl.com/ESPN_20th_Antitrust_Lawsuit.htm

I was always very impressed with Salon's selection of letters to the editor, and sad to see the change to the new format. I don't want to see everybody's comments.

Perhaps the best approximation to the old system would be to have a cookie remember my selection of the "Show only Editor's Choices" radio button, and for the "Read all letters on this article" to have a star next to it in the case that some Editor has made Choices.

there are no serious efforts being made to switch commercial aircraft to alternative energies like hydrogen.

Please, please don't make the common mistake that hydrogen is an alternative energy source, that might save the airlines money. It is merely an alternative means of energy transport. There are no big hydrogen wells in Siberia to serve the world's energy needs -- hydrogen is obtained through use of oil.

It is difficult to say how aware Bush is of the reality in Iraq, but some part of him must be cursing the day he decided to invade it.

The sentence is hardly complete without the phrase "(well before September 11th)".

I had not previously been aware of Bush's self-comparisons to Lincoln. That might explain his zeal to strip us of our civil liberties. He's got a ways to go to match Lincoln; I hope he doesn't see it as a contest.

While it wasn't precisely news, the first paragraph (on Bush's intransigence) warmed my heart. Keep digging that hole, W! Don't let the Republican party crawl out while you're not looking!

I'm not really sure how I ended up reading Buckley's book, but it's sort of amazing to me how much this review reminds me of the experience of reading the book -- rather than actually being funny, it had many set-pieces taking the form of jokes but not delivering. Rather like Tom the Dancing Bug's (brilliant) Super Fun-Pak Comix, or Buckley's (or Bruce McCall's) unfunny work for the New Yorker.

Incidentally, there's a smoking-through-a-tracheotomy scene in the amazing "Ong-Bak: the Thai Warrior" as well.

This seems like a great way to nuke one's chances for a pardon. What could have gotten into Libby that he would give up his get-out-of-jail-free card?

"The Notorious Bettie Page" -- which was written by Harron and Guinevere Turner, the writer, producer and star of the 1992 film "Go Fish"

Likewise, Harron directed and Harron+Turner wrote the 2000 film "American Psycho" (based on Ellis' book).

How could you pass up the obvious headline?

Rice has become the voodoo doll that Powell was in the first term.

This reminds me of Tony Snow's use of "tar baby"; the usage is correct, but given who's involved it's a really bad choice of words.

Democrats will be able to do that only by demonstrating -- for the first time during the Bush presidency -- that they are willing to stand up to Bush and his congressional loyalists

Give them a little credit; they did manage to defeat Social Security privatization. So perhaps call it the second time during the Bush presidency.

South Korea says it was relatively small. Russia says it may have been of the magnitude of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

They're in agreement, then. Little Boy, at Hiroshima, was the equivalent of ~15 kilotons of TNT. The biggest Russia ever set off, the Tsar Bomba, was more like 50 megatons (and could have been 100 if they'd wanted). "The explosion was hot enough to induce third degree burns at 100 km."

How can someone get it to dawn on Cheney that maybe there's something wrong if he has to hide regular meetings with Kissinger from the public?

It's not a question of hiding Kissinger per se. Noone deserves to know the identities of anyone Cheney sees fit to discuss with the use of absolute rule.

He has adopted the Groucho Marx doctrine: Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes

For shame, Blumenthal. This is the Chico Marx doctrine.

...a 50-50 tie. Since Vice President Dick Cheney holds the tie-breaking vote, that would essentially give control to the Republicans.

What was the last time we had an actual party-line vote where having 51 votes would have made the difference? 12 of the Democrats even voted to legalize torture.

As long as the Republicans are willing to vote like sheep, and the Democrats have 12 wild party-bucking mavericks (don't try to put reins on them -- they play by their own rules), the Republicans will control the house even with only 40 senators.

I would be delighted to see Giuliani made to answer questions concerning the he required be installed in World Trade Center 7, which collapsed despite not having been struck by any planes. Ideally, this questioning should be under oath.

In some ways, just another example that the law should be whatever Giuliani says it is, except that in this case it was something like a $50M building threatened (and destroyed) to satisfy his ego.

"Ted says he's not a homosexual," the Rev. Mike Ware, a good friend of Haggard's, tells the Times. "The restoration team wants experts to evaluate that."

I nominate Dan Savage.