Give Hillary Clinton credit for a hard-fought win in Pennsylvania. Her comfortable 10-point margin, while less than the blowout she needed, gives her some breathing room to continue her primary battle against Barack Obama.
But party officials must ask: To what end? Time is running out, as this Associated Press analysis points out, and she faces very long odds and dwindling campaign funds. Obama, flush with cash, is widely expected to win delegate-rich North Carolina on May 6, and he has a good chance of taking Indiana the same day.
Clinton has no chance now to overtake Obama in elected delegates, meaning that Obama must somehow collapse or be fatally crippled as a candidate for her to plausibly emerge as the party’s nominee.
The scenario that Clinton proposes – superdelegates handing her the nomination over the will of elected delegates and a majority of voters and primary states – would cause nothing short of a civil war in the party and leave Clinton’s touted “electability” against McCain much in doubt.
In short, how does Pennsylvania change the hard realities of the race?
Wichita’s BTK investigation was featured in a Washington Post article this week about catching criminals by analyzing the DNA of family members — without their permission. Wichita police were able to link Dennis Rader to the BTK crimes in part through his daughter’s DNA, which it obtained from her medical records through a court order. States want to expand this approach by doing DNA searches of criminal databases. If there is a near match with someone who is already in prison, that means a family member of that person may have committed the crime. Privacy advocates are concerned, the Post reported, that such searches turn family members into genetic informants without their knowledge or consent, and could subject thousands of innocent people who happen to be related to someone in a criminal database to “lifelong genetic surveillance.†Also, because minorities are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system, minorities would face greater scrutiny.
America will be living with the human costs of the Iraq war for a long time.
As many as 300,000 veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder or serious depression, according to a Rand Corp. report released last week — and the costs could reach $6.2 billion in the next two years alone. About 1 in 5 vets of the war report symptoms of traumatic brain injury.
The study, titled “Invisible Wounds of War,†warned of “long-term, cascading consequences†for the country, including higher rates of veteran suicide, divorce, drug use and unemployment.
At the same time, the study found that major gaps in mental health care for vets remain: Only 53 percent of vets with PTSD sought professional help in the past year, and half of those who did get help received “minimally adequate†care.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the animal-rights group, has announced a $1 million prize for the first person who can create test-tube meat.
Parts is parts? PETA says that growing meat without real animals is more humane and environmentally friendly.
Still, I doubt if consumers will find the idea of lab-grown Frankennuggets appetizing.
But don’t scoff, says Slate writer William Saletan, who points out that scientists are already having success growing replacement organs such as livers and hearts.
“To put it crudely,†he writes, “if you can grow a hunk of flesh for transplant, you can grow it for food.â€
Are we on the verge of a Brave New World of food?
