Yes, Sean, you have missed several things in your fixation on Christian Zionism.

As Ivins was Catholic you can certainly say he was pro Roman Catholicism but since he wrote in favor of women in the priesthood he was neither doctrinaire nor conservative in his Catholicism.

Your first quote is wrong. What he said was that he had just heard that "Osama Bin Laden has decreed death to all Jews and all Americans." Possibly he read it in the Washington Times article at about that same time.

The other two quotes may be serious or sarcastic. It's impossible to tell. So I wouldn't hang too many conclusions on them.

You're getting way past the evidence with this idea.

Have I missed anything?

Other than a little context, I'd say you've hit all the thumbs surrounding the nail.

The Washington Post has an article up that provides additional details on some of Ivins' more peculiar behavior, including his apparent threat to poison a woman if she lost a soccer game.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/06/AR2008080604020.html

Also an editorial on why an independent review is needed.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/06/AR2008080602794.html?sid=ST2008080602183&pos=list

(Sorry, I would have shortened the links, but apparently I can't access tiny url from this computer.)

Its very easy to make something a fact, simply by referring to it and getting other people talking about it. Soon it enters the discourse as an established given.

True enough. In fact yesterday, after one of the greatest J'accuse moments of intertube history, I became convinced that one of those "disinformers" was a certain 'Jim F. White' who was masking his true identity behind the cunning pseudonym 'Jim White.' I'm still a little unsure.

Rove said Gulf War Syndrome, vaccine political stumbling block (linked below, rawstory)

Yet another reason to drag Mr. Rove in for questioning. I'm sure our valiant congress has another stern invitation awaiting. The American 'justice' system is a mockery and the whole world is watching.

Someone mentioned a 'Special Investigations Division' was 'released' because of the Clintion/Lewinsky BJ. Makes me wonder ... would anyone kindly provide more info on that?

Searching these threads would be a good feature ...

The Washington Post has an article up that provides additional details on some of Ivins' more peculiar behavior, including his apparent threat to poison a woman if she lost a soccer game.

I play on a number of coed soccer teams. I don't know about the poison thing, but I can attest to the fact that threats are not an unusual thing. In fact, from some of my experiences, I'd almost guess this is a sex-linked trait in soccer players. It's why I always try to score at least one goal per game. ;-}

Nutella,

There is no conceivable way to read Ivins' remarks about the "Christian Nation Express" or Judaism as ironic or sarcastic, unless you think the Frederick News-Post would post a raw antisemitic letter. The reply I read to one of his Christian nationalist letters at that newspaper correctly treated it as a serious expression of his sentiments. Ivins' views remind me quite a bit of those of James Woolsey, a leading neoconservative at the AEI (American Enterprise Institute) and a ringleader of the Iraq War. This is a well-known ideological template for anyone who has been following trends on the Christian right, and especially among the theocons, the Roman Catholic branch of neoconservatism.

Six reporters at the IHT (International Herald Tribune) today have claimed that Ivins used the precise phrases "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" in his email. IHT is one of the most prestigious newspapers in the world. (I am still waiting to see their documentation.)

Thank you Fanzone.

Omooex, let's not throw out the baby with the bathwater.

Glenn, if what this fellow says is even half-right, big pharma (esp. Bayer) had a huge motive to release some deadly Anthrax powder into the environment.

Will someone else please read The CIA's Role in the Anthrax Mailings: Could Our Spies be Agents for Military-Industrial Sabotage, Terrorism, and Even Population Control?, by Leonard G. Horowitz. Follow the links and look at the references and provide objective (not knee-jerk) feedback. (link to article in my sig)

Thanks.

Phone Calls from Phony Cops Get Fast Food Workers to Strip search employees

Someone pretending to be a cop calls an assistant manager of a fast food joint, describes another worker and says she is suspected of theft. The assistant manager is asked to have the employee strip, sometimes worse. This scam has happened dozens of times around the country, and many employees evidently often go along.

"On Nov. 30, 2000, the caller persuaded the manager at a McDonald's in Leitchfield, Ky., to remove her own clothes in front of a customer whom the caller said was suspected of sex offenses. The caller promised that undercover officers would burst in and arrest the customer the moment he attempted to molest her, said Detective Lt. Gary Troutman of the Leitchfield Police Department."

"On Jan. 26, 2003, according a police report in Davenport, Iowa, an assistant manager at an Applebee's Neighborhood Grill & Bar conducted a degrading 90-minute search of a waitress at the behest of a caller who said he was a regional manager -- even though the man had called collect, and despite the fact the assistant manager had read a company memo warning about hoax calls just a month earlier. He later told police he'd forgotten about the memo." [Jack Chin]

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/crimprof_blog/2005/11/phone_calls_fro.html

If you think it is any more difficult for a person posing as a medical biller, bookkeeper or accounting nerd at some insurance company or other to get info from a confidential medical file over the phone from some poor clerk in a cubicle at some insurance company, or even a doctor's office, your fooling yourself. A "matter of fact" but authorative telephone voice, a little knowledge of human nature and the internal workings of these organizations - and some charm - is all it takes.

Google may be right when they say that privacy doesn't really exist anymore.

Google Says Privacy Doesn't Exist, Get Used To Everyone Knowing Everything About You

http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/07/google_says_pri.html