Weekly Review

By Roger D. Hodge

U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz decreed that Canada, Germany, France, Russia, and other nations that opposed the conquest of Iraq will be ineligible for $18.6 billion in reconstruction contracts. The announcement was greeted with astonishment by the blacklisted countries; Russia said that it would now refuse to consider restructuring Iraq's $8 billion debt, and Canada said the decision would probably rule out further reconstruction aid.¹ German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder said the blacklist might violate international law. "International law?" the president responded. "I better call my lawyer."² A suicide car bomber blew up outside an Iraqi police station, killing at least 17 people; a gas truck exploded in the middle of Baghdad, and an American soldier died while trying to disarm a bomb.³ A bank in suburban Baghdad was robbed of about $800,000 and⁴ Saddam Hussein was found cowering in a pit on a farm near Tikrit.⁵ New Jersey's big bear hunt ended with 328 confirmed kills.⁶ Vice President Dick Cheney reportedly killed more than 70 farm-raised ringneck pheasants during a "canned hunt" in which 500 of the birds were released for the pleasure of Cheney and nine companions; the men were credited with 417 pheasants and an undisclosed number of ducks.⁷ U.S. forces killed six children in Afghanistan, along with two adults, just four days after nine children were killed during another air strike. A military spokesman admitted that "such mistakes" might hurt America's reputation in the area.⁸ Newly released White House tapes revealed that President Richard Nixon disliked Ronald Reagan. Nixon said that "he's just an uncomfortable man to be around, strange."⁹ Other tapes revealed that Nixon was planning to use the Justice Department and the FBI to take revenge on his enemies once the Watergate scandal blew over. Nixon also thought that New York City "should go through a cycle of destruction."¹⁰

The United States Supreme Court upheld the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law, which bans unlimited political contributions to political parties. The majority concluded that "it was not unwarranted for Congress to conclude that the selling of access gives rise to the appearance of corruption."¹¹ Several officials in Las Vegas were in trouble for accepting bribes from a strip-club operator. "There's a tendency on the part of people to think politicians are inherently corrupt," said the mayor. "That's unfair, but it's a fact."¹² David Lynch let it be known that he is helping the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi raise $1 billion to build 100 "peace palaces" around the world. "When you do [transcendental meditation]," Lynch declared, "this level of unity can be enlivening the world consciousness and it can go into the atmosphere."¹³ Canadian psychologists found that men are unable to think rationally when they see a beautiful woman.¹⁴ Al Gore endorsed Howard Dean for president; Joe Lieberman, Gore's former running mate, was somewhat miffed.¹⁵ GlaxoSmithKline's head of genetics admitted that "the vast majority of drugs — more than 90 percent — only work in 30 or 50 percent of the people."¹⁶ The British Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency warned doctors not to give antidepressants such as Zoloft, Paxil, and Celexa to children and adolescents, because the drugs have been linked to suicide and self-harm.¹⁷ Moody's Investors Service downgraded California's credit rating after Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger cut the registration fee for automobiles without having a plan to pay for the change, and the¹⁸ Pentagon accused Halliburton, which recently removed its name from outside its corporate headquarters in Houston, of overcharging for gasoline in Iraq.¹⁹ President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan was almost assassinated.²⁰ Canada's Air Transport Security Authority banned fruitcakes in carry-on luggage.²¹

A new theory was put forth that global warming began 8,000 years ago, when farmers began clearing forests for agriculture and grazing large herds of livestock, which increased carbon dioxide and methane levels; by AD 1700, according to the theory, human activity had increased the global temperature by 0.8 degrees Celsius, an increase roughly equal to that caused by industrial activity since then.²² It was reported that the earth's magnetic field has weakened by about 10 percent over the last 150 years; scientists said that large solar storms could cause "significant but not catastrophic" damage to the ozone layer as a result.²³ Lightning struck a church in Swaziland and killed a priest, five children, and three others.²⁴ Mick Jagger accepted a knighthood; Keith Richards was disgusted and said it was a disgrace: "It's not what the Stones is about, is it?"²⁵ Stress, it was discovered, can make you live longer.²⁶ Elephants in Thailand were said to be hijacking sugarcane shipments, and²⁷ Keiko the killer whale died of pneumonia in a Norwegian fjord. Local officials said it was "downright sad."²⁸ Scientists were studying the bombardier beetle, which can fire liquid at its enemies from its rear end at up to 300 squirts per second, in the hope of building a better airplane engine.²⁹ Physicists at Harvard University succeeded in "freezing" a beam of light.³⁰