Nowhere to hide:

A 14-year-old Lake Havasu boy has become the sixth victim to die nationwide this year of a microscopic organism that attacks the body through the nasal cavity, quickly eating its way to the brain.

Aaron Evans died Sept. 17 of Naegleria fowleri, an organism doctors said he probably picked up a week before while swimming in the balmy shallows of Lake Havasu.

According to the Centers For Disease Control, Naegleria infected 23 people from 1995 to 2004. This year health officials said they've noticed a spike in cases, with six Naegleria-related cases so far -- all of them fatal.

...

Though infections tend to be found in southern states, Naegleria has been found almost everywhere in lakes, hot springs, even some swimming pools. Still, the CDC knows of only several hundred cases worldwide since its discovery in Australia in the 1960s.

The amoeba typically live in lake bottoms, grazing off algae and bacteria in the sediment. Beach said people become infected when they wade through shallow water and stir up the bottom. If someone allows water to shoot up the nose -- say, by doing a cannonball off a cliff -- the amoeba can latch onto the person's olfactory nerve.

The amoeba destroys tissue as it makes its way up to the brain.

People who are infected tend to complain of a stiff neck, headaches and fevers, Beach said. In the later stages, they'll show signs of brain damage such as hallucinations and behavioral changes.

Once infected, most people have little chance of survival. Some drugs have been effective stopping the amoeba in lab experiments, but people who have been attacked rarely survive, Beach said.

"Usually, from initial exposure it's fatal within two weeks," Beach said.

I cut out the part about the nasty becoming more active with rising temperatures (Global Warming!) because, you know, kind of obligatory. Hardly even needs to be said. We're all getting older and close to death. The reason for this mysterious malady? Climate change.

Thanks to Arthur.

Posted by: Ace at 09:02 AM | Comments (28)
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Big-ups for Mitch McConnell today.

As many of you know, Sen. Dick Durbin wanted to use the Department of Defense Appropriations Bill as a vehicle to pass his "DREAM Act", a bill that would have granted an amnesty-like path to citizenship for illegal aliens who claim to be students.

McConnell dropped the hammer today, though, and filed cloture on the DoD bill. What does this mean?

It means that Durbin's DREAM Act amendment suddenly became non-germane and could not be offered to the bill.

As a result, the bill will have to be moved seperately in the future, or perhaps attached to another piece of legislation.

Which means it would be subject to a filibuster.

Approps bills don't generally have filibusters sustained. Having the Dream Act attached to DoD would have pretty much guaranteed it's passage.

Now, the Dream is dead. Sort of.

Reid is threatening to bring it back prior to adjournment in November.

So a battle was won today, but the war continues.

On ground more favorable to us.

Posted by: Jack M. at 08:08 AM | Comments (8)
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Saw this early in the week and promptly forgot about it. The Venezuelan president calls breast enlargement "the ultimate degeneration." I'm so pleased it's not The Gays this time.

Chavez complained about the new fad of giving the plastic surgery operation at 15 -- when Latin Americans celebrate a girl's coming-of-age -- during a diatribe against what he says are Western-imposed consumerist icons such as Barbie dolls.

Chavez made his rant on his weekly tv show, which ran for a record eight hours. One would think he has better things to do like shut down newspapers and radio stations or nationalize an industry or two.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 07:26 AM | Comments (28)
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Check out Jim Treacher's latest.

Good for a grin.

Posted by: LauraW. at 07:20 AM | Comments (10)
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DrewM. did the obligatory debate post. I'll do the obligatory "you can only pander so much" post.

Obama:

"I think it's hard to project four years from now," said Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois in the opening moments of a campaign debate in the nation's first primary state.

Hillary!:

"It is very difficult to know what we're going to be inheriting," added Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

Edwards:

"I cannot make that commitment," said former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina.

You can pander all you want if you don't have a shot at winning.

"I'll get the job done," said Dodd, while Richardson said he would make sure the troops were home by the end of his first year in office.

Posted by: Dave In Texas at 06:13 AM | Comments (28)
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Great-Smelling Self-Immolation

CANADIAN teens have found a new pastime - dousing each other with body spray before setting each other on fire.

Ontario police said they were aware that students were taking body sprays to school and lighting others ablaze - usually for a split second.

Some light their pants on fire, while others bare their stomachs before squirting the spray and flicking a lighter, canada.com reported.

Awww. It's so cute how frisky the cubs are, before they mature into the most boring people in the blandest nation on Earth.

Play careful, kids. You don't want to have to explain a scar twenty years from now and accidentally entertain someone.

Posted by: LauraW. at 06:04 AM | Comments (15)
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Call it a partial, temporary victory in the battle against amnesty.

WASHINGTON — The prospects for immediate Senate action on the DREAM Act, which would grant legal status to hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants, disappeared Wednesday amid Republican opposition.

But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., pledged that senators would vote on the the measure, which is strongly opposed by anti-illegal immigration groups, before the Senate finishes its work for the year in mid-November.

"All who care about this matter should know that we will move to proceed to this matter before we leave here," he said.

Posted by: DrewM. at 05:35 AM | Comments (5)
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Call it a partial, temporary victory in the battle against amnesty.

WASHINGTON — The prospects for immediate Senate action on the DREAM Act, which would grant legal status to hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants, disappeared Wednesday amid Republican opposition.

But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., pledged that senators would vote on the the measure, which is strongly opposed by anti-illegal immigration groups, before the Senate finishes its work for the year in mid-November.

"All who care about this matter should know that we will move to proceed to this matter before we leave here," he said.

Posted by: DrewM at 05:35 AM | Comments (6)
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Coming from a guy who appears to play his cards very close to the chest and is usually pretty reserved in his public proclamations, this is a fairly major statement.

“Your country is rich [referring to Iraqi's] and I want you to set aside differences between yourselves and your Sunni brothers and stand like a formidable mountain against attempts by certain satellite networks which try to disrupt this unity because these networks exaggerate about the reports of deaths and explosions and depict them in a way as if tribal war is underway in Iraq,”

H/T Gateway Pundit

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 10:21 PM | Comments (9)
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Two hours of Democrats pandering to every left wing nut job via MSNBC. God, will this campaign ever end?

Posted by: DrewM. at 05:07 PM | Comments (57)
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