Wednesday, May 14, 2003

First They Came for the Oreos.... ...and I did not speak out because I preferred Fig Newtons. Here's a bleeding-edge nuisance lawsuit that makes me want to buy a truckload of Oreos and pass them out on school playgrounds as if they were Ritalin. Lawsuit Seeks Ban on Beloved Oreo Cookies Tue May 13, 9:17 AM ET By Adam Tanner SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A lawyer who has spent much of his life enjoying Oreo cookies has sued Kraft Foods Inc. seeking to ban the much-loved cookies in California because they contain trans fat, an ingredient he calls inedible. Kraft boasts that people have eaten 450 billion Oreo cookies since they introduced the chocolate wafer sandwich cookies with a creamy filling in 1912. But if British-born attorney Stephen Joseph has his way, that culinary love affair will come to an end, at least until Kraft stops using hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils to make the cookies. Read the whole thing. [Hit & Run] 1:56:52 PM    comment () Chechnya hit by new suicide attack. The second attack in three days - reportedly carried out by women - leaves at least 14 dead, a senior official says. [BBC News | Front Page | UK Edition] This was apparently an assassination attempt aimed at the Russians' puppet ruler. This information about how the attempt was carried out is particularly interesting: Chechen Emergencies Minister Ruslan Avtayev told Itar-Tass Mr Avtayev also said the suicide bombers claimed to be journalists and were allowed to approach the podium where the republic's leaders were standing. That sounds very much like the trick al Qaeda used to assassinate Ahmed Shad Masood. 11:55:14 AM    comment () Iraqi Censorship. A Canadian advising the Iraqi Media Network is claiming U.S. attempts to censor the news, specifically that, as the Boston Globe reports, "the US-led administration's Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance had requested the station's news programs be reviewed by the wife of Jalal Talabani, a Kurdish leader and a major figure in the postwar politics of Iraq. ''Could you imagine a political leader being able to check the content of any Western media?'' [Canadian documentarian Dan] North said." U.S. officials had no comment to the Globe. [Hit & Run] As a matter of fact I can imagine it, and so can North unless he's forgotten about the times the Canadian government has censored coverage of Canadian court cases. 11:49:56 AM    comment ()

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