a jumble of morning bits and pieces

There's ( Frank Deford )

and ( game/nostalgia crossover humour )

and last but not least, for this morning, ( a thanks to my sweetie )

*splutter*

This is just... stupid.

At issue is a conference on suicide prevention to be held Feb. 28 in Portland, Ore., and organized by the Suicide Prevention Resource Center of Newton, Mass., a SAMHSA contractor. On the program is a talk that, until recently, was titled "Suicide Prevention Among Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender Individuals."

Everyone seems to agree the topic is important. Studies have found that the suicide risk among people in these groups is two to three times higher than the average risk.

So it came as a surprise to Ron Bloodworth -- a former coordinator of youth suicide prevention for Oregon and one of three specialists leading the session -- when word came down from SAMHSA project manager Brenda Bruun that they should omit the four words that described, precisely, what the session was about.

...

An HHS official ... said there is not a department-wide policy against using terms relating to sexual identity or orientation at federally funded venues.

added for clarification:

"It is incredible, the venom from these people," said Mark Weber, a spokesman for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the agency within the Department of Health and Human Services that is funding the conference and told presenters they should remove the words from the title of a talk.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27202-2005Feb15.html

I suppose that they would see no reason not to omit "African Americans" in the title of a conference on "Combating Hypertension Among African Americans"?

It's going to be a long four years...

an Iraqi hero

I haven't had time to check any Iraq blogs in quite a while. This is from "I Should Have Stayed Home" (http://ishouldhavestayedhome.blogspot.com/)

A real hero
From a source in the Iraqi Ministry of Interior:

Baghdad Police HQ reported that at 1200 hrs today, Police Constable Abd al Amir was killed in the line of duty at the Khalil bin Walid Polling Center in the Yarmuk section of Baghdad. Abd al Amir identified a suspicious man wearing an explosives belt, and immediately tackled him, shielding the lines of voters with his body, and dying instantly when the terrorist detonated his belt.

Yes, I take it at face value, because I see no reason to doubt it. And whatever you think of the war or the way the postwar period has been bungled handled by the administration, I think you have to respect this kind of sacrifice.

Peter, have you seen this?

http://thewarp.net/war/stern/index/armor1.html

More Space Marine goodness.

mistakes in intelligence

I'm finishing a midterm this evening, part of the coursework for a master's degree in strategic intelligence I embarked on last year (and I've got a loooong way to go yet). I was rereading one of the assignments for the class in prepping for one of the questions, and it struck me this is an interesting piece to read in light of the failure of intelligence over Iraq's WMD.( Read more... )