Cynda Collins Arsenault or the Secure World Foundation writes about an undercovered issue: US plans for space wars.:

“Thanks for bringing to light many uncovered news items. Can you also let people know about an issue building on the horizon - Will we be starting another arms race in space? A meeting took place in Geneva this week that received very little media attention. See 2 articles below followed by a 3rd article on US plans. (taken from Eisenhower Institute’s Space Watch)

“International Space Security Conference Opens In Geneva

“An international conference, initiated by China, designed to help prevent an arms race in outer space, opened on Monday in Geneva. The objectives of the conference are to help introduce the concept of space security.‚ The Chinese ambassador for disarmament, Hu Xiaodi, warned against current trends in space weaponization, saying that „changes in the perception of security, the coming into age of related weapons technologies as well as the developments in combat theories, all lead to the increasing danger of turning outer space into a battlefield.‰ Participants in the conference have included all 65 member states of the Conference on Disarmament and representatives from China, Russia, Canada, and various UN agencies.

“Pentagon Developing Spacecraft Capable of Delivering Conventional Weapons

“The Pentagon is reportedly developing a suborbital space capsule that, in the next five years, would be launched from the US and could be capable of delivering conventional weapons anywhere in the world. The spacecraft, called the Common Aero Vehicle, is a super-speed craft, capable of carrying up to 1,000 pounds of munitions. The Falcon program, a testbed for the CAV program, is hoping to develop and test a reusable hypersonic cruise vehicle, to be used within the next three years. The plan is to have the Falcon program carry the CAV to anywhere in the world within hours. An advantage to this program is that, unlike a missile, the CAV, once deployed, could be stopped.”

Ken Chevis writes from Toronto:

“Your country’s politicians have spent 1500 plus American lives and over $200 billion in hard-earned taxpayer money to remove one monster from the streets of Baghdad and yet they leave countless pedophilic monsters on the loose in towns and cities across the U.S. These politicians and the religious fanatics run around like chickens (literal translation) with their heads off trying to save the life (?) of one individual and yet sit on their hands when it involves improving the lot of Native Americans. Bush (Jeb and Little Georgie), Frist and DeLay should heed the words of one of the world’s greatest statesmen, Winston Churchill, when he wrote….”the problem with political suicide is that you often live to regret it”.

M. Neven Du Mont writes:

I wish I could say I am withholding or withdrawing a ton of $$$ from MoveOn, as a gesture of opposition to its decision to ignore the Iraq quagmire, born and bred in the American war machine mind. Unfortunately, I cannot as I have not for years been in a position to donate money to anything beyond my immediate survival.

“I can and do withdraw from making time to read their e-mails to keep up with their work, and I will no longer recommend them. What really bothers me is that, one more time, I learn of still another American, whether individual or group, putting forward first the shoe that best fits expediency; courage of conviction is dead, buried, and no longer mourned.

“My life is nearly over, but I have always been something of a “futurist”; i.e., projecting current trends and history into the near and not-so-near future. I am surprised at how accurate I have been. So, now, another projection - this based on today’s world news, and without input from my personal prejudices.

“The EU and China will call in their loans, the dollar will be deflated below the worth of the German mark in the ’30s, and in the middle of all this - or perhaps started because of it - the environment will “collapse” in world shattering weather anomalies of proportions that put the December (’04) tsunami to shame. A frantic attempt from the insane American administration will include several nuclear bombardments which, of course, will only trigger more climate anomalies. But, not to worry: the button pushers will be safe in their bunker(s). . . and so it will go.I truly hope I am wrong, but nothing in the last 5 years - and before that - has proven so yet.”

Susan Oehler writes from Ashville:

“Danny, you might find this article interesting. It is a critical review of the recent “review” of American coverage of the war in Iraq.

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/735/re9.htm

“My own personal response to the “review” of positive vs. negative coverage - is that it was a sham. The US corporate press still does a terrible job of getting facts to the people…. I don’t care at all about hearing someone’s positive vs. negative opinions. I want information!”

SOME HUMOR TO START THE NEW WEEK WITH

From The Onion: “EPA To Drop ‘E,’ ‘P’ From Name”

“WASHINGTON, DC—Days after unveiling new power-plant pollution regulations that rely on an industry-favored market-trading approach to cutting mercury emissions, EPA Acting Administrator Stephen Johnson announced that the agency will remove the “E” and “P” from its name. “We’re not really ‘environmental’ anymore, and we certainly aren’t ‘protecting’ anything,” Johnson said. “‘The Agency’ is a name that reflects our current agenda and encapsulates our new function as a government-funded body devoted to handling documents, scheduling meetings, and fielding phone calls.” The change comes on the heels of the Department of Health and Human Services’ January “decision .”

THE “OUTING” 2

Last week I quoted a sensitive article about me by Deborah Emin whose thoughtful letters frequently appear in the blog. I finally met her for an interview and was very impressed with what she wrote in this week’s Gay City News, a NY weekly. I excerpted the piece in the blog and sent it out to friends because I felt she was very insightful about my maniacal mission. Unfortunately I hadn’t read it fully, I am not sure whether I gave the wrong impression or she assumed incorrectly, but in the article, Deborah refers my business partner Rory O;’Connor as “my long time companion.”

He is in one sense but not in the way that terms is generally understood and some eagle-eyed readers wrote to question me about this disclosure as if it was the revelatopm of some dark secret. I found the comments amusing and no big deal, but they do give one pause about the sexual anxieties many of us harbor.

My daughter Sarah chuckled but called it a case of life imitating art. She told me about a hilarious Seinfeld Episode on a similar misunderstanding.” She werites, The episode of Seinfeld is called “the Outing”.

“No thanks to Elaine, Jerry must work hard to prove he is straight when a college reporter mistakenly reports that he and George are gay, “not that there is anything wrong with that.” Things really get out of hand when the article is picked up by the New York Post.

“Ask Rory if this means I can call him Dad #2.”

http://www.gaycitynews.com/gcn_412/whatmakesdannyrun.html

EVENTS

Last week, I spoke at a Borders sponsored panel on the new book News Incorporated to which I Ive contributed a chapter. Blogger Marta Steele wrote it up: www.wordsunltd.com

This week I will be screening WMD at Brandeis University on March 31. See www.wmdthefilm.com for more. If you are a student, consider organizing a screening on your campus. For more info: www.wmdthefilm.com …. Tonight I will drop in to an event to wish Amy Goodman well on her new national (paperback) book tour.

Keep your emails coming: dissector@mediachannel.org