TWO FROM J. ORLIN GRABBE

First, some startling news about US war crimes in Iraq from ZNet:

Firebombing Falluja

The United States is using napalm in Falluja. So far, the military has denied the allegations, but the proof is mounting. On Nov. 28 The Daily Mirror’s political editor, Paul Gilfeather filed a report stating: “US troops are secretly using outlawed napalm gas to wipe out remaining insurgents in and around Fallujah. News that President George W. Bush has sanctioned the use of napalm, a deadly cocktail of polystyrene and jet fuel banned by the United Nations in 1980, will stun governments around the world.”

For over a week rumors have circulated in the Arab press that both napalm and other chemical weapons were used mainly in the Jolan district of Falluja, a major area of the fighting. Now, despite a US media blackout, more evidence is leaking out and causing a furor in the British Parliament. As Gilfeather reports: “Last night Tony Blair was dragged into the row as furious Labour MPs demanded he face the Commons over it. Reports claim that innocent civilians have died in napalm attacks, which turn victims into human fireballs as the gel bonds flames to flesh.”

Click here for the rest.

This is horrible. That pretty much sums up my views on this.

Next, some interesting news about life expectancy from the BBC:

'We will be able to live to 1,000'

It is not just an idea: it's a very detailed plan to repair all the types of molecular and cellular damage that happen to us over time.

And each method to do this is either already working in a preliminary form (in clinical trials) or is based on technologies that already exist and just need to be combined.

This means that all parts of the project should be fully working in mice within just 10 years and we might take only another 10 years to get them all working in humans.

When we get these therapies, we will no longer all get frail and decrepit and dependent as we get older, and eventually succumb to the innumerable ghastly progressive diseases of old age.

Click here for more.

This is pretty fascinating, but one wonders who all would get access to these therapies. Looking at health care today, in America and in much of the rest of the world, it's pretty clear that radically extended lives would only be available to the rich, at first anyway. And if these therapies eventually become available to vast segments of the population, one also wonders how this would affect economics. Babies will continue to be born, but people won't die. Not only would people be faced with very slow or even no career advancement, but there's also the question of how we're going to feed everybody, or where we're going to put them. Near immortality sounds pretty cool, but would present massive problems the likes of which humanity has never encountered.

Of course, this all may be a bunch of bullshit.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$