For Whom the Bell’s Palsy Tolls (tags)
Bell’s palsy. It hit suddenly a month ago. I had just stepped off a plane in New York, and my friend noticed the telltale sagging lip. It felt like Novocain. I raced to the emergency room. The doctors prescribed a weeklong course of steroids and antivirals. The following day it got worse. I had to make a decision: Do I host “Democracy Now!,” our daily news broadcast, on Monday? I could speak perfectly well, and I’m tired of seeing women (and men) on TV who look like they just stepped off the set of “Dynasty.” Maybe if they see a person they trust to deliver the news, still there, but just looking a little lopsided, it might change their view of friends and family-or strangers, for that matter-who are struggling with some health issue.Wikipedia, the popular online encyclopedia anyone can edit, stated that I had suffered a stroke.
Theft Iraqi Antiquities By Ann Talbot (tags)
The US reluctance to act cannot be explained by any lack of warning. Professional archaeologists and art historians had told the Pentagon of the danger of looting beforehand. Dr. Irving Finkel of the British Museum told Channel 4 that the looting was "entirely predictable and could easily have been stopped."