Thursday, 25 October 2001

Citing "a reaction that none of us expected," the company's president Steve Rosenberg explained that while some segments for the shows have been taped, they will not be broadcast at all. The shows, tentatively scheduled for November sweeps, would have featured psychic John Edward trying to communicate the messages of Sept. 11 victims for their surviving family members.

...He reiterated that victims' families were the ones that were leading the charge to get these shows done. In fact, he points out, many families affected by the tragedy have gone to see Edward privately for readings, he explains.

A township woman's microwave caught on fire yesterday after she attempted to "cook" some mail in the appliance...

According to a news report on MSNBC's Web site, microwaves might be able to "sanitize" mail, but it would take approximately 20 minutes [??!].

That's not a feasible option because paper placed in the microwave can easily catch fire within minutes ... The microwave dries out paper, reducing its ignition temperature until it catches on fire.

Tuesday, 23 October 2001

09-11-01. This is next. Take Penacilin Now. Death to America. Death to Israel. Allah is great.

Monday, 22 October 2001

Those who staff abortion clinics, of necessity, are a determined lot. Seven of their own have been murdered in recent years simply for providing women with access to a constitutionally protected medical procedure. This week's batch of [110] threatening letters is only the most recent. ... All of those letters were hoaxes, but none led to even a single arrest.

"Of course, we're sorry that Tom Daschle and Tom Brokaw and their staffs have to suffer the fear we have suffered. But why is an assault on them any more horrible than an assault on a young woman who opens the mail at a women's health clinic in North Carolina?"

US Attorney General John Ashcroft warned yesterday that those who would perpetrate an anthrax hoax at this time are guilty of a "grotesque transgression of the public trust." He did not cite antiabortion extremists as an example but mentioned, instead, an employee of the Department of Environmental Protection in Connecticut who, in a misguided attempt at humor, left a harmless white powder on a co-worker's desk and stood silent while the building was evacuated and the workers decontaminated. That stunning lapse in judgment could yield the jokester five years in prison and a multimillion-dollar fine.

Where, one wonders, is a similar vigilance to apprehend and prosecute those who aim not to amuse but to terrify women and their doctors, and to deny them their legal right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy?

Some of the letters included messages from the "Army of God", a domestic terrorist group that has claimed responsibility for attacks on reproductive healthcare providers. The envelopes, mailed to affiliates on the east coast and Midwest, had pre-printed return addresses from the U.S. Marshall's Office and the Secret Service. Some have an embossed message that reads, "Time Sensitive — Urgent Security Notice — Open Immediately." The letters were mailed from Columbus, OH; Atlanta, GA; Chattanooga and Knoxville, TN. At an affiliate in Greensboro, N.C., an initial field test on the grainy substance has come back negative.

Sunday, 21 October 2001