Newsweek has a really good article about the 1900 hurricane which devastated Galveston, and what the residents may expect this time around–if Rita makes a direct hit. There are also photos of the devastation caused by the hurricane which struck the city on Sept 8, 1900, and it really looks similar to pictures of Hiroshima.

While Galveston never returned to its former glory, and there were many reasons for that, the city did rebuild and made an effort to make it a safer place to live–like building a 17 foot high seawall and raising up the city’s elevation.

At any rate, it is now countdown to Rita. So far, she’s weakened to a category 3. Still powerful and capable of doing considerable damage, but still, a 3 is a lot better than a 5.

Well well well. More good news over the transom. Lester Lying Fool Crawford has resigned as FDA Commissioner. Like a true fool, he claims that it is because of his age.

Embattled Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Lester Crawford resigned Friday, telling his staff that at age 67 it was time to step aside.

How convenient. He’s blaming his incompetence and inability to run the FDA as a science based government agency on his age. Is this man the ultimate of pathetic or what?

He also conveniently omitted mentioning that his tenure as commissioner was one of the lowest points in FDA history. His finest hour was backing down on his promise to reach a decision on the morning after pill, knowing that his confirmation depended on that promise.

Crawford’s three-year tenure at FDA was marked by increasing criticism, as the painkiller Vioxx was pulled off the market for safety problems, recalls of malfunctioning heart devices mounted and controversy grew over wider access to emergency contraception.

His resignation came just two months after the Senate, in a long-delayed move, elevated the longtime agency deputy and acting commissioner to the top job.

Last month, morale at the agency plummeted when Crawford indefinitely postponed nonprescription sales of morning-after contraception over the objections of staff scientists who had declared the pill safe. The FDA’s women’s health chief resigned.

I have no idea who is going to take his place, and it could be someone worse. But Crawford’s resignation is most welcome, and a celebration bash is in order. Getting rid of this dork is a major step forward for the FDA.

Seattle Times

I have an absolutely brilliant idea. Tie up all spammers and put them right in Rita’s path. Feed the ferocious hurricane with human waste products (spammers) and then she’ll be so full that she’ll just turn around and go home. Go back to the hurricane homeland and leave the Gulf Coast alone.

And not only will we avoid hurricane damage, but we’ll be rid of spammers.

Can you tell that I hate spammers? Pond scum is superior to spammers.

Here’s another brain twister–just one cigarette a day almost triples the risk of heart disease and lung cancer.

Now, how many studies have we already chalked up on the dangers of smoking? 1,000? 10,000? The first warning of the Surgeon General appeared back in the 1960s, that we knew cigarettes were a carcinogen and presented other dangers to the human body.

Now, here’s one more enlightening study (pardon the pun). This time around, it is destroying the myth of the “light” smoker, those who only smoke a few cigarettes a day, as well as those who cut down on the amount they smoke. These people still face a health risk, although I assume that the health risk is somewhat reduced since they are smoking less. I haven’t read the study itself, so I can’t give all of its conclusions, but it’s basically saying that you are still not out of the woods as long as you keep reaching for that pack of Marlboros.

Norwegian scientists who studied the health records of 43,000 men and women have shown that even light smoking — less than five cigarettes daily — triples the risk of dying of heart disease or lung cancer.

“In both sexes, smoking 1-4 cigarettes per day was associated with a significantly higher risk of dying from ischaemic heart disease and from all causes, and from lung cancer in women,” said Dr. Aage Tverdal of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health in Oslo.Women are at more risk than men, even when they smoke less than a pack a week.

However, my point is that these endless studies are meaningless at this point, and also obvious. Smoking less cigarettes still causes health problems–well yeah, of course it does. You’re still put steaming hot toxic chemicals down into your lungs and into your circulation. What myth are they disspelling that “light” smoking isn’t harmful? Whoever said that it wasn’t?

We have rehashed the dangers of smoking so many times over, yet researchers are still getting millions in grant money to “study the dangers” of smoking. The bottom line is, if I may be so harsh as to put it bluntly: We know smoking is a health hazard. We know it causes a cornucopia of illnesses and exacerbates others. So why do we need any further research? If a person who smokes already knows that it can lead to heart disease, lung cancer, and lead to other respiratory diseases that can kill him, is finding out that it–gasp!!!-also can cause gum disease going to convince him to quit?

Likewise, this particular study. If a person really wants to smoke, and has already been bombarded with the constant news that smoking is unhealthy–is the revelation from this study that “light-smoking men also had a three times greater risk of dying from lung cancer, while women had a five times greater risk,” really going to convince them to quit?

In the same vein, people are well aware that drinking 42 oz sodas and eating a large size order of MacDonald’s fries is going to make them fat. Keep eating this way, and they will be obese. But do they stop gouging their face on junk food? No. Junk foods sales are at an all time high.

Instead of spending so much money on the continuous study of cigarette smoking, how about taking a look at some of the other health evils plaguing the human population. Most people who end up with cancer don’t smoke, for example. Of course, digging into the actual causes of cancer will upset some very powerful corporations and industries, so could it be that’s why hardly anyone is going there? It’s safe these days to pick on tobacco, but God help you if publish research showing a link between pesticides and breast cancer.

MSNBC.com