Entries for November 2007

There are some subspecies of Homo sapiens who will seemingly stop at nothing to obliterate their fellow mammals. An exaggerated statement? Perhaps. But the statement makes more sense when one considers the plight of the poor Florida manatee.

Despite a huge influx of Homo sapiens into the state of Florida during the past few decades, these gentle, giant mammals have managed to increase their numbers. Normally, more people means destruction of animal habitat and a decrease in animal population. But with the help of another very dedicated subspecies of Homo sapiens, environmentalists, manatees have managed a small increase in their number.

On Monday, I explained how and why President Bush's desire to stay relevant in the remainder of his term is unlikely to occur. That said, if the president wishes to stay relevant, I present herewith a laundry list of ideas for him. The sad fact is, most of them would require a complete reversal of course, which, stubborn as he seems to be, is not likely to take place:

1. Bush could attempt to fix the economy, or at a bare minimum feign concern for the economic doldrums in which he has placed the United States. He could do something about the enormous debt his administration has racked up. He could try to bolster the quickly failing dollar. He might even consider expressing one iota of disquietude about his record national debt and America's quickly dissipating leadership in the international finance arena.

I wondered last week whether President Bush had any idea how annoyingly irrelevant he has become.

The question arose at a hastily arranged White House news conference at which the president was asked whether he felt he was " 'becoming increasingly irrelevant?' In response, Bush cited his vetoes—which only recently has he started exercising on congressional spending. 'When I tell you I'm going to sprint to the finish and finish this job strong, that's one way to ensure that I am relevant,' Bush said."

Want a good example of how responsible international leaders react to climate change? Here's what Stavros Dimas, the European Commission member responsible for environmental policy, told a joint parliamentary session of the European Parliament last month:

Will someone please explain to the president how annoyingly irrelevant he's become? He still has the power to lead us into poorly executed military operations: Afghanistan, Iraq, and so on (perhaps even Iran). He may still wield a mean veto pen. But the time has long passed since he should be allowed to lead a U.S. delegation on an important scientific mission.

Unfortunately, W will be heading the U.S. delegation to the United Nations Conference on climate change in Bali next month.

Who won? You decide. The media are all over the place. The most telling initial response I saw was in the Rasmussen Reports poll, which as of Thursday (before the debate) had Hillary Clinton ahead nationally with 41 percent among Democrats, then Barack Obama at 22, and John Edwards at 14.

Then as of Friday morning (the poll was taken Thursday night but before the end of the Vegas debate), Clinton's and Edwards's numbers fell, but Obama picked up 2 percentage points.

Merck last week announced one of the largest settlements in the history of civil litigation over its Vioxx painkiller drug that patients claimed caused heart damage and strokes. Merck presented the $4.8 billion settlement as almost "airtight."

But a little birdie, or rather, a little monkey tells me that one plaintiff is refusing to accept Merck's offer and is instead joining a petition being filed today with the Food and Drug Administration by