Week in Review

The molecular structure of DDT

• Hooray for the IRS--No. Not the Internal Revenue Service. They still get boos. I'm talking about Indoor Residual Spraying of DDT for malaria control. After decades of scare science from environmentalist nuts caused the banning of DDT in places like Africa (which then saw dramatic increases in malaria deaths) the World Health Organization announced this week that it will again support the safe and highly effective use of DDT. From the article:
  

Indoor residual spraying is the application of long-acting insecticides on the walls and roofs of houses and domestic animal shelters in order to kill malaria-carrying mosquitoes that land on these surfaces.

“Indoor spraying is like providing a huge mosquito net over an entire household for around-the-clock protection,” said U.S. Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), a leading advocate for global malaria control efforts. “Finally, with WHO’s unambiguous leadership on the issue, we can put to rest the junk science and myths that have provided aid and comfort to the real enemy – mosquitoes – which threaten the lives of more than 300 million children each year.”

Each year, more than 500 million people suffer from acute malaria, resulting in more than 1 million deaths. At least 86 percent of these deaths are in sub-Saharan Africa. Globally an estimated 3,000 children and infants die from malaria every day and 10,000 pregnant women die from malaria in Africa every year. Malaria disproportionately affects poor people, with almost 60 percent of malaria cases occurring among the poorest 20 percent of the world’s population.

• Hooray for Tony Blair--He may be the only one in Europe, but British PM Tony Blair gets it. In a pamphlet published by the British Foreign Policy Center, Blair argues that the "strain of, frankly, anti-American feeling in parts of European politics is madness when set against the long-term interests of the world we believe in." He essentially argued (correctly I think) that Europe needs us far more than we need them. "The danger," Blair warned, "is if they decide to pull up the drawbridge and disengage," adding "We need them involved."
  

• Hooray for George W. Bush--Who openly pondered this week whether the United States is in the midst of a "Third Awakening" of religious devotion. What's worse is that he brought this up before a group of (the following word in quotes should be uttered with a decidedly seething and conspiratorial tone) "conservative" journalists. Who knows if he is right. It's just funny to see all the uncomfortable squirming that follows in the wake of W's press conferences these days!