Developing death in the name of life Strange things can happen in the wake of a war.
In the more than two years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks on
the United States, there has been an unprecedented tide of
legislation and regulation against our personal liberties and
freedoms, including some nullifications of privacy and personal
property rights that would have Jefferson and the other framers
of the Constitution rolling over in their graves. And all in the
name of national security. But even scarier than that…
According to New Scientist, we've also been developing DEADLY
VIRUSES.
No, this isn't an excerpt from the latest Tom Clancy or Robert
Ludlum thriller. I'm talking about real scientists funded by
your tax dollars whose sole goal is to produce ever-more deadly
strains of pox-type viruses - ostensibly so that we can figure
out ways to combat them.
Some of these viruses (among them not only the cowpox and
monkey-pox you may have heard of, but also new mouse-pox and
rabbit-pox varieties), are so well engineered that they have
proven themselves to be 100% lethal - even among subjects who
have been vaccinated and fortified with antiviral drugs.
While this may seem vitally important to some in the new
post-9/11 world (especially to the Fools on the Hill), it scares
me more than a little. Why? Because weaponized viruses and other
agents of biological warfare have a nasty habit of falling into
the hands of the wrong kinds of people. How else do you think
someone - a crazoid who's still at large, by the way - was able
to paralyze our nation's capital with innocent looking envelopes
of weapons-grade anthrax in the autumn of 2001?
If this can happen, clearly the security at our bio-warfare labs
leaves something to be desired. I look at it this way: It's most
certainly far easier to steal already-developed biological
weapons than it is to make them from scratch.
So why are we doing the hardest part of terrorists' jobs for
them?
Drowning on dry land
When will these people learn?
I mean, didn't it make national news when a female runner died
after consuming too much liquid during last year's Boston
Marathon? Didn't we all hear about the 18 frat brats who were
kicked out of a New York college last March after forcing a
pledge to drink so much water he vomited and died? Haven't we
all heard of water intoxication?
Obviously not.
Just a few weeks ago, another fraternity hazing ritual ended
tragically, as a young pledge was forced to drink so much water
that he ended up in critical condition at a local hospital,
water flooding his lungs -deadly pulmonary edema. And here's the
disturbing part of the story: The fraternity that forced this
young man to undergo the potentially deadly water torture had
only just been reinstated - after a 3-year suspension for
hazing!
Thankfully, after some tense hours at the hospital, the young
pledge eventually cheated pulmonary edema out of yet another
waterlogged victim to make a full recovery.
The lesson here is simple: Humans aren't fish. We don't need to
gulp gallons of water each day to stay healthy. In fact, we can
exist quite easily on not much more than the water we get from
our food (the right food, that is - like meat and fruit).
And pass this along to your grandkids - especially if they're
college-aged and hoping to pledge for a fraternity (or
sorority):
Three Greek letters on a sweater aren't worth drowning on dry
land for.
Not watering down the truth,
William Campbell Douglass II, MD
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