star trek boogers

Before you convict the recently deceased Bruce Ivins of the anthrax mailings you might want to consider a few things. Homeland, the Dept. of Justice, and the news media (yes, even the illustrious NY times) really mucked up this investigation from the beginning. So much so that DOJ had to pay the first "he's-our-man" 5.6 million dollars in defamation reparations. A similar suit against the NY Times was dismissed at the request of the plaintiff. I guess 5.6 M and a front-page retraction from the Times was enough.

Now that Ivins is dead, he'll never be charged and we may never know who sent the letters that killed 5 people. Although Ivins is certainly one person who could have done it because he had access to the material and he may have had a motive - to foment fear about anthrax in order to get research money for his lab. He may have had a history of depression and mental illness, but remember, we've only heard from one therapist. His friends and co-workers stress that he's not the guy but some family members aren't sad that's he's dead. Who knows, but compelling evidence from this administration should always be taken with a grain of salt. Don't however lick the envelope unless you're certain it didn't come from the Ft. Detrick Bioweapons Reasearch Facility.

Count on a nice tidy summary of the case to be filtered to the media in the next week. Remember, they solved this case once before. Mistakes can be made.

Such is the case for Scotty's ashes (James Doohan) which were to be sent into space last night, except the rocket, a Falcon 1, blew up in low orbit, beaming Scotty down, rather than up. Think about the next generation this week when you're blowing your nose.

Aye Captain!