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#Gates #defense budget: back to 1963? 1975? 1993?

  1. This defense budget is a liberal dream, the rolling back of scores of hitherto invulnerable mega-programs. but …
  2. It remains to be seen what the budget will actually be after Congress gets done saving programs that protect jobs in the midst of the worst recession since 1945.
  3. People seem to forget that these defense spending waves are cyclical. A surge of dovish sentiment and force reduction in the 70s was followed by the Reagan rearmament. How much do you want to bet that we see another spending surge in 2017?

      Defense Secretary Gates just proposed the most sweeping overhaul of America’s arsenal — and of the Pentagon budget — in decades.  Major weapons programs, from aircraft carriers to next-gen bombers to new school fighting vehicles, will be cut back, or eliminated. Billions more will be put into growing the American fighting force, both human and robotic.

      via Gates Proposes Radical Overhaul of Pentagon Arsenal | Danger Room from Wired.com.

      April 7th, 2009 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Category: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

      Quackery> Ecstasy Pushed as PTSD Treatment

      Wow, how quacky. Isn’t one of the key side effects of MDMA that it burns out serotonin? How is that going to help PTSD sufferers?

      MDMA has an interesting history. Developed by the pharmaceutical firm Merck in 1912, it was widely used in private psychiatric settings in the 1950s and ‘60s. The Army experimented with it briefly in its search for mind control drugs, Doblin said.

      It induces feelings of extended euphoria — hence the name ecstasy — as well as heightened awareness and a greater connection to emotions.

      But it was embraced by the counter-culture of the late 1960s, and by the 1980s it was competing with cocaine as the most popular party drug. In 1985, the Drug Enforcement Administration had it classified as a “Schedule I” drug, alongside LSD and heroine.

      “It was really a shame because we were only beginning to understand its potential for medical treatment” when it was criminalized, Doblin said. “With drugs like this, there is a lot of misconception. … They are like the surgeon’s knife: If they are used properly, they can heal. If they are used poorly, they can kill.”

      The research project began with people suffering from PTSD who were victims of crime – rape and childhood sexual abuse were the most common – and only recently expanded to veterans.

      via Ecstasy Pushed as PTSD Treatment | Danger Room from Wired.com.

      March 4th, 2009 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Category: Uncategorized | Leave a comment