Breastfeeding Now Considered Pornographic. America - land of the free. And to guarantee that freedom, everyone has to be constantly watchful. Like the photo store clerk from Eckerd who dutifully reported a Peruvian-born couple's lewd shots of their infants to the Richardson (Dallas/Texas suburbs) police. The photos showed the parents' two infants bathing naked, lying together in bed with their mother (again naked) and the 1-year-old Rodrigo suckling his mother's (naked) breast. So the couple was arrested -- the maximum prison sentence for the crime in question being 20 years -- and the children taken away. Thomas Korosec has the details in his Dallas Observer article. [kuro5hin.org]

    

An interesting perspective, not done justice by a brief excerpt: Israel (Philip Greenspun)

" This article is intended for people who've grown weary and confused after exposure to the relentless media coverage of the conflict in and around Israel, often referred to as a "crisis". The questions to be answered include the following:

• Why does the United States support the State of Israel?
• Why do Arabs reject the State of Israel? (sub-question: "Are Arab Leaders Crazy?")
• Why do Muslims hate Jews?
• Why do Muslims hate the United States?
• Why are the governments of the Middle East so unstable?
• Why are the Palestinians so violent?
• How have the Israelis survived for so long?
• Is there really a crisis?
• What can we, as average American citizens, do?

. . . .

If you want to stop funding terrorists, work for a $20/barrel tax on imported oil and a $10/barrel tax on domestic oil, which doesn't require an expensive military to defend but we still want to discourage its use to curb pollution. The tax should be phased in over five years, thus giving businesses and consumers time to replace inefficient older machines.

Terrorism is theater. Terrorism will taper off if people lose interest in news coverage of acts of terror. It is tough to ignore a spectacular event such as the destruction of the World Trade Center but we can do our share by ignoring newspaper and television stories about run-of-the-mill terrorism. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is like a traffic accident on Interstate 95: a tragedy for the handful of people involved that wouldn't have affected the rest of us if we hadn't slowed down to gawk.

The last couple of years have been the most violent and even so the number of people killed on both sides has been about 1000 per year. Shouldn't this many deaths provoke our sympathy and interest? If we're motivated by humanitarian concerns there are richer opportunities for saving lives right here at home.

For example, the National Academy of Sciences estimated that between 50,000 and 100,000 Americans are killed every year by medical malpractice (To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System, Kohn et al, 2000). The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration reports that 41,821 people died in motor vehicle crashes in the U.S. in 2000, at a cost to the economy of $230.6 billion, not including intangibles such as physical pain or reduced quality of life (link). Many of these deaths could be prevented with simple engineering, information system, and procedural improvements.

If we want to be unselfish and help foreigners we might look at malaria, a preventable disease that kills between 1 and 3 million people each year. "

    

Blood and Bones for Oil: Anything into Oil (Discover Magazine)

Technological savvy could turn 600 million tons of turkey guts and other waste into 4 billion barrels of light Texas crude each year

    

Teaneck Jewish Center Going Ortho (TeaneckShuls mailing list)

"A new mechitza minyan, to meet the growing desire of an important part of the congregation that wants to daven in an orthodox style, will begin on Shabbat, April 26, at 9:30 in the library of the Jewish Center of Teaneck, 70 Sterling Place. The services are under the auspices of Rabbi Ira Grussgott, rabbi of the Jewish Center, who received his smikhah from Yeshiva University."

    

Death Rate From Virus More Than Doubles

"he death rate from severe acute respiratory syndrome has more than doubled, to 5.6 percent, since the epidemic was first detected in mid-March, causing deep concern among health officials.

Although the overall death rate, according to World Health Organization statistics, has hovered around 4 percent in the last three weeks, it has varied widely among the 26 countries, plus Hong Kong, with cases of the disease, known as SARS."

    

Masked and Anonymous: Free Mike Hawash

"On the inside, it’s a different book, a new chapter. It really makes you think and appreciate what you have, it did for me, I hope you learn too. A 2500 sq. ft. house, not big enough? Trust me, it’s BIG, HUGE!! Kids are bouncing in your lap, jumping on your back, running between your legs…bothersome? Noisy? Annoying at times? Listen to me, enjoy it before you don’t have it. Patience my friend, patience! Patience with your wife, because she works hard raising your kids; patience with your kids because they’re the joy of your life; patience with your neighbors because you’ll miss their sight, their sound, their laughs, their cries. Patience with your friends, because you never know who’s your friend…until…you’re inside."

    

Cold War Memories: Pull Up and Run! (Danford.net)

"what would it be like to fly a prop-driven Skyraider carrying a nuclear bomb on the first day of World War III?"

    

Why Kabul and the U.S. Need Nation-Building: Attacks on Afghan schools escalate (Houston Chronicle)

At many of the boys' schools and the nearby villages the men left leaflets claiming to be from the Jamiat Jehash Moslemein, or Muslim Gathering Movement, warning people working with the Afghan or U.S. government to quit for their own safety.

The leaflets say Muslims should not get into government cars, or visit any government worker injured in a mine blast, or go to dog fights. Girls and women should not go to school. All Muslims should stay off roads used by government cars and stay away from places where foreigners go, such as hotels.

"They want to make the situation critical," said Soltan Mohammad Azizi, a deputy education minister in Kandahar province. "They attack schools -- they don't care which schools. They just don't want children to go to school."