Bruce Ivins Rips the FBI’s Anthrax Case to Shreds in His Will
Remember the rationale the FBI gave for why he sent anthrax to Senators Daschle and Leahy?
In 2001, members of the Catholic pro-life movement were known to be highly critical of Catholic Congressional members who voted pro-choice in opposition to the beliefs of the Catholic Church. Two of the more prominent members of Congress who fell in this category were Senator Tom Daschle, then Senator Majority Leader; and Senator Patrick Leahy, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, both recipients of the 2001 anthrax mailings.
The FBI suggested Ivins was ardently pro-life, which contributed to his selection of Leahy and Daschle as targets.
Problem is, they never actually prove that Ivins was ardently pro-life. Rather, they describe him discussing his wife’s pro-life activities as head of the local Right to Life group.
On July 10, 2002, in an e-mail to a friend, Dr. Ivins identified his wife, [redacted] as the President of the Frederick County Right to Life, as well as having connections to many other pro-life/anti-abortion groups.
They go on to include another excerpt from the email that suggests he considers himself pro-life–though it also suggests he is not entirely sure an anti-choice stance is the true Christian stance.
Dr. Ivins later states in the same e-mail, "I’m not pro-abortion, I’m pro-life, but I want my position to be one consistent with a Christian.
Without providing the context of that sentence, Ivins’ use of the conjunction "but" in the sentence does more to suggest Ivins has some doubt whether traditional pro-life activities are Christian than it does to prove that he–and not just his wife–was ardently pro-life.
Yet the claim that Bruce Ivins was pro-life was the primary reason the FBI gave for why Ivins targeted Daschle (they brought up the PATRIOT Act, but focused more on Leahy’s involvement in slowing the passage of the bill). In addition, the FBI explained the "Greendale School" reference on one of the envelopes because of the couple’s joint membership in the American Family Association (with no indication that Bruce Ivins–and not his wife–was the active subscriber of their materials).
Which is why it’s so damning to the FBI case that Ivins wrote instructions in his will that if his family refused to cremate him and scatter the ashes, he would give a huge donation to Planned Parenthood.
Six weeks after Bruce E. Ivins killed himself, the cremated remains of Mr. Ivins, the Army scientist and anthrax suspect, are stored at a funeral home here, awaiting the outcome of an unusual probate court proceeding.
In a will he wrote last year, a few months before the Federal Bureau of Investigation focused the anthrax letters investigation on him, Dr. Ivins wrote of his wish to be cremated and have his ashes scattered. But fearing that his wife, Diane, and their two children might not honor the request, he came up with a novel way to enforce his demand: threatening to make a bequest to an organization he knew his wife opposed, Planned Parenthood.
“If my remains are not cremated and my ashes are not scattered or spread on the ground, I give to Planned Parenthood of Maryland” $50,000, Dr. Ivins wrote in the will. Court records value the estate at $143,000.
Ivins’ clever trick with the will in no way indicates he was pro-choice. All it does is show that he gambled his wife’s own opposition to choice was stronger than her desire to bury him. But it does make it clear that his wife was the anti-choice zealot in the household, not him. The membership in the American Family Association and the articles opposing Leahy and Daschle? There’s no reason to believe Ivins cared about them or even read them.
But if Bruce Ivins wasn’t an anti-choice zealot, then several more pieces of the FBI case fall apart.
Poor man. Pressured from all sides and now maligned by so many in power. God grant him Peace.
Subject: 2008 Texas A&M School Commencement Address……
Neal Boortz is a Texan, a lawyer, a Texas AGGIE (Texas A&M), and now a nationally syndicated talk show host from Atlanta . His commencement address to the graduates of this year’s A&M class is far different from what either the students or the faculty expected. His views are thought provoking:
ADVISORY: The other 4,312 words of Neal Boortz (with a covert helping of the bad side of Pat Buchanan stuck on the end) rambling conservative crap have been edited out for being a complete waste of precious electrons and digital space. Should you, Mr. So Called American, choose to return here, please restrict comments to appropriate length and use links to long winded tomes you wish to advise people of. This is not a proper place for you to randomly publish rambling manifestos like some kind of two bit cut and paste Unabomber or something. And if today’s comment is indicative of your standard work product, well, perhaps you might just consider a different venue altogether. Boortz’s views are not thought provoking, they are vomit producing. Cheers. – bmaz
With a good lawyer, there was no way that a judge/jury would ever find Ivins guilty. In fact, the government hasn’t even conclusively proven its case at all. There are more holes in this case than there are in swiss cheese.
WHAT! FBI case? I never read or saw anything but gibberish.
And God help his family. Grant them Peace as well.
Was there or was there not an autopsy?
Wow, Bruce must have had an interesting relationship with his wife and he left a moneybomb behind to persuade her to honor his final request.
I cannot explain my reaction which is to laugh hysterically. I hope i’s because I just watched SNL but what if it isn’t? What is so funny about it? I guess I find it endearing. A final act of demanding respect.
OT David Foster Wallace rip.
How tragic. Here’s his obituary at the New York Times.
On the news…
Too many of the good ones are choosing a quick exit.
I wonder if the most accomplished feel they have nothing more to offer and even if they did, it would be of no particular benefit in setting the world right.
I’m far to curious about what comes next and how it all turns out than to make such a choice.
So who are the FBI covering up for? One is left with the conclusion that they know who did it and they know it is the administration and their dirty tricks. Ivins was the poor unfortunate dupe that was “suicided” by bushco. Business us usual for the bushies.
not necessarily anyone – been thinking all along this tragedy was a WH attempt to tidy things up before November . . .that fell terribly flat
ironic as shit they present it in all it’s Law Enforcement approach to terrorism glory
Mueller is up this Wednesday before the SJC. Goodness. They are going to have so much to talk about.
I hope that all the Gulf Coasters are well this morning. We hear that the remains of Ike will be visiting some of the rest of us today, Michigan by this afternoon and me, I guess, overnight.
Yup, we’ve already got flooding across s. MI due to unrelated storms. It’s gonna be very wet here by Monday morning.
I find it compelling that Ivins’ wife would ask that his estate continue to pay legal fees to support his innocence. It’s a modest estate of $143,000. Look how much he left his children.
—————- From the same NYT article above ————————-
Ms. Ivins has continued to defend her husband’s innocence, asking the Orphans’ Court of Frederick County to keep paying his lawyers at Venable L.L.P. from his estate to talk to the news media and prepare for possible Congressional hearings “to show he was not the perpetrator of the crimes.” Court papers say that Dr. Ivins paid $102,500 in legal fees before his death and that the estate incurred another $28,276 in fees through Aug. 21.
The will leaves $20,000 each to his children, both 24, with his firearms and ammunition going to his son, Andrew, and his car to his daughter, Amanda.
First off, I am in the camp that agrees with most of you: Ivins seems to have been railroaded.
But
Would cremation hide or mask the presence of anthrax exposure or other substances which might not cause illness, but definitely provide evidence of unusual exposure?
I am most interested in what prompted him to change his will.
What or who.
Though note it was before the Feds really focused on him.
Was he in therapy?
Was his friend helping him with his drinking problems at the time?
EW – can you fit this into the timeline for me?
They took swabs from him while he was alive.
Moreover–he was an anthrax researcher. Signs of exposure to anthrax would be expected.
When I read “his wife was the anti-choice zealot in the household”, I jumped to wondering if the wife’s handwriting has been scrutinized.
If you’re a microbiologist working on anthrax for the US government and the intention of doing so is to kill people in large numbers, then my rational mind tells me that one would have to be pro-choice to work for years in that field. I can’t imagine a pro-lifer would be doing that kind of work.
I still think Ivins was getting ready to blow the top off the investigation (he was going to reveal who in the Bush White House/Pentagon ordered the anthrax to be sent to liberals & Democrats) and the FBI suicided him to silence him.
There are a very large number of fundamentalists working in the military and the so-called defense industry. In fact, the Air Force which has gigadeath weaponry is literally infested with fundamentalists, most of whom, I presume, are anti-choice.
A little OT- I’ve tried a couple of times to get Christian fundamentalists to put all the ‘life’ issues on the table together and have a conversation: ‘pro-life’ (anti-choice), death in war on all sides, capital punishment, etc. The few people I’m closest to to try that were conceptually unable to even begin such a conversation. I characterize their thinking as savagely anti-choice, pro-bush doctrine, pro-capital punishment, issue by issue… in sound bites. There seems to be no thinking beyond the sound bites… All contradictions in the positions are erased by not thinking them together…
pro fetus folks
the best description of pro life issues I have ever heard was Sister
In that other category are millions of faithful Christians, among them is Sister Joan Chittister. She is a Benedictine nun who served as a prioress of her order for 12 years.
She’s a social psychologist, she leads a worldwide network of women for peace and runs a spiritual Web site. Sister Joan has a Ph.D., 11 honorary degrees and was the recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award from Penn State. And that’s not all.
She is the author of 30 books, including CALLED TO QUESTION: A SPIRITUAL MEMOIR, SCARRED BY STRUGGLE; TRANSFORMED BY HOPE, and this classic in contemporary spirituality, WISDOM DISTILLED FROM THE DAILY.
Sister Joan is also a regular columnist for the independent Catholic newspaper, THE NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER.
Welcome to NOW.
“MOYERS: Depending on the sources, Sister Joan, there have been some 37,000 civilians killed in Iraq, or maybe a 100,000. Why is abortion a higher moral issue with many American Christians than the invasion of Iraq and the loss of life there?
CHITTISTER: Could I ask you that question? Because that is the moral question that brings me closest to tears. I do not understand that, Bill. You see, I’m absolutely certain that some of the people that we’re killing over there are pregnant women. Now what do you do? Now what do you do? That’s military abortion.
MOYERS: Somebody said to me… that’s what?
CHITTISTER: That’s military abortion. Why is that morally acceptable?
MOYERS: Somebody said to me the other day that Americans don’t behead, but we do drop smart bombs that do it for us.
CHITTISTER: And that are not smart as we think they are.
MOYERS: What do you mean?
CHITTISTER: Well, what is this smart bomb stuff? We’ve still got a image in our head from 1991 of this little golf ball dropping down a furnace. It’s not working that way.
MOYERS: Dobson, Falwell, Robertson and a lot of secular pundits and columnists are saying that this election was decided by moral issues. Do you think moral issues were that decisive in this campaign?
CHITTISTER: Well, I don’t believe… I’m not exactly sure that they were as decisive in the end. And I’m not sure that there’s any way we can measure that. But even if I say, “Yes, they were,” the fact of the matter is that they are some moral issues, they’re not all moral issues.
The fact of the matter is that they’re all in contention with something else which is also a moral value and also equally important unless you put it completely out of your mind or your heart. For instance, let’s look at the abortion question. I’m opposed to abortion.
But I do not believe that just because you’re opposed to abortion that that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking. If all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed and why would I think that you don’t? Because you don’t want any tax money to go there. That’s not pro-life. That’s pro-birth. We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of pro-life is.”
http://www.pbs.org/now/society/chittister.html
Please forgive this OT post, but I’m hopping mad about what was delivered into my home this morning in the Sunday paper. My home and millions of others, actually…please write about this:
Got Propaganda “Obsession?” – In your Newspaper? – We did.
A paid insert – four color high gloss – 2 sides, with DVD insert – with virtually no profit motive and no chance to recover the costs.
http://news.google.com/news?hl…..tnG=Search
http://www.editorandpublisher……1003849752
Your Jewish American Zionist Zealots (AIPAC) @ work…illegal propaganda designed to denigrate an entire religion. McCain would have entitled it: “Bomb Iran.” It IS political propaganda designed specifically to boost the McCain campaign. It IS terrorism via DVD.
Brought to you by Alan Dershowitz, Daniel Pipes, Ari Fleischer and the Nazis who brought you the lies that led to the invasion of Iraq…all orchestrated by Michael Ledeen, the ADL, the Hudson Institute, etc.
Call these bastards by their names…”Hate Mongers For Israel.”
Thanks for the heads-up on that. It’s appalling.
Seven years ago, a fringe group from one Abrahamic religion, believing they were on a mission from God, launched a devastating attack within the U.S. This morning a fringe group from another Abrahamic religion is defaming the religion of the first fringe group in order to promote the election of the Republican presidential ticket, which includes a vice-presidential candidate who is a member of a fringe group from yet another Abrahamic religion and who believes that (1) God sends humans on missions of war and (2) God intends that the world end during her lifetime. If that ticket is elected, per actuarial tables, the chances of her becoming president are at least one in seven (i.e., 14%).
and that doesn’t take into account his history of melanoma, and the effects of his POW years, it does have a negative effect on lifespan. Let alone whatever the state of his mind is.
Old-Timer/End-Timer 2008
That is the republic ticket this year.
Didn’t Dad and Grandpa (McCain) die at ages 60 and 71? If so, how does the genetic component alter actuarial tables?
Grampy McCain hauling is Mum along and pointing out that she is still going in her 90’s….. AND so can every senior center where the female to male ratio is pretty much 9:1 once you hit their 70’s…..
her vile meaness keeps her goin imo..(sued crippled ex wife for a BUTLERSTray)
I’m still struggling with the incongruity of Ivins staying with this wife for 30+ years and remaining in a modest house, both of which suggest a man very content with his work, his wife and his station in life. I can’t reconcile that with the “money bomb” in the will clearly aimed at what he expected to be actions by his survivors against his stated intentions. That doesn’t seem to be the action of a man comfortable with those around him. I don’t know where this goes, but it is just another deep mystery in the whole affair.
However, I did find this on a website called Cremation Source:
Was his wife a member of a fundamentalist sect that didn’t agree with cremation or at least the scattering of ashes? As Marcy suggests, if she was the one with the membership in the pro-life groups and contributions to pro-life causes, that could possibly fit with this situation. It also would suggest that Ivins wasn’t comfortable with his wife’s views but didn’t allow them to overcome the rest of his feelings for her.
See, it makes sense to me. My mom’s a very moderate Catholic, but we have already had arguments over whether she’d support my cremation if I died before she did. And my mom and I get along splendidly.
I’d like either HJC or SJC to push for the release of the rest of that email, where Ivins talks about his stance on choice. I have a gut feeling that they have taken one sentence out of context to suggest it says the opposite of whta it actually says, all in support of a really sketchy case in the first place.
EW, do you think the FBI simply wanted to close the file on this case, or are you disinclined to speculate regarding their motive?
I’m not really sure. I’m willing to entertain the possibility that he made the anthrax, though that case is getting increasingly shot full of holes, too. But it’s a question of whether he sent it where, IMO, the case gets really embarrassing.
I suspect it’s a mix. There are those who don’t want to cast a wider net to look at those, like Scooter Libby, who had the most invested in getting an anthrax vaccine. And there are those who just don’t want the FBI to be perceived as failing miserably on this (though pushing an obviously bogus case doesn’t help them there).
Religious prohibition against cremation makes sense to me as well.
There was some acrimony in my family when my mother wanted to have my father cremated. Apparently, you have to be buried in the ground to be resurrected at the second coming or whatever. Some people are really firm about burial.
What this says to me is that Ivans himself was no zealot.
There is also a belief among some spiritualists, I guess you might call them, that burial of the body holds the spirit (or soul) to the burial site for a long time, instead of letting it go to The Light. Cremation releases the soul from its attachment to the body. Probably this can be linked to the use of funeral pyres in many early cultures, including India. It is not uncommon to run across this conviction these days. I have no idea whether Dr. Ivins believed this or not.
“Apparently, you have to be buried in the ground to be resurrected at the second coming or whatever. “
This is precisely the point where I (long derided on my Catholic grade school playground for being “Teacher’s Pet” and “Miss Smarty Pants” because I got very good grades and loved learning), swiftly became seen as being somewhat, uh, “dangerous.”
I remember the moment, in fifth grade, I think, when I raised my hand and asked, “Sister, if we should not be cremated because our soul cannot then be reunited with our glorified bodies at the Second Coming, and if God as we know is All-Loving, then what happens to the poor souls who happen to die when burnt up in a house fire?”
Sister told me after a very long silence, “Just sit down. You don’t need to concern yourself with matters that God’s justice will handle.”
This was the dawn of a new recognition — henceforth I would not believe EVERYTHING they tell me.
[OTOH, I have always been in love with the social justice arm of the Catholic Church — Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, Bishop Oscar Romero, etc. etc. and still consider my recently unchurched self to be deeply Catholic, just one who appreciates the deep sinfulness of all Church members including its official hierarchy and who hasn’t lost her mind nor her God-given capacity of reason.]
WOW, do they really want to lay it off on IIvins being pro-life? The “pro-life” movement has a long proud history of encouraging terrorism. I remember escorting at the North East Women’s center in Philadelphia during the eighties, when the mostly male protesters, out doing the Lord’s work, threw raw chopped chicken parts a the terrified young women seeking help, while calling them the most unchristian of names. This, of course, not to mention killing doctors and bombing clinics. How does this square again with their wanting to put one of these nut jobs in the White House? The White House has some involvement here… just as they did on the case of Dr. Kelly in UK. JMO
Indeed, they do. Three Canadian doctors have been shot, we suspect by James Kopp, who has confessed to killing Dr Slepian in Amherst, NY (”but I didn’t mean to kill him … quite”), and there are charges here outstanding against Kopp in at least one of those cases. Dr Morgentaler’s clinic in Toronto, not far from where I live, was fire-bombed, the historic building in which it was housed close to destroyed, in 1992. One of the doctors who was shot was years later stabbed by a different attacker at his clinic.
I don’t mean to drift into the wrong kind of debate, but in my experience the anti-abortionists care about some kinds of life and not others. Many are xenophobes or racists. So working on a program that your own government might use to kill the Other in large numbers would not be such a stretch for many of them, I am sorry to think and say.
Perhaps they believe in the will of God more than free will.
Trying to muster up the power to fight fascism doesn’t make one a target for disposal by Republicans…one becomes a target after one gets that power. Freedom isn’t free..hundreds of thousands of lives are extinguished in the pursuit of it.
Pretty obvious he was worried his wife’s uber Christianity would override his wishes if not for the threat of financial loss. Here in Mississippi, where Baptists dominate, cremation is definitely frowned upon. We have a long and storied communal history with our ancient Egyptian brethren. Mummifying and monument making still thrive in our society. Perfect example of a cultural meme that has survived millenia.
Enjoy.
The Catholic Church maybe does not forbid cremation, but it does not. like. it.
I can’t help but think their real concern is that too much investigation will reveal that BushCo has been violating the CWB treaty.
Where’d the equiptment that made the “weaponized” spores come from? The more they point at Maryland, the less likely is seems. A paranoid might think there’s another lab somewhere, not reported. Covering the existance of such a lab would not be possible if the anthrax case went to court.
Boxturtle (of course, it could have been a suicide, right? /s)
This is what has never made sense to me. We went into Iraq for alleged bio-weapons of mass destruction, yet we have facilities making them. How does this square?
Do as we say, not as we do. It applies across the board.
OT: Conflict Over Spying Led White House to Brink
Quite a gripping tale of how Cheney used bureaucratic compartmentalization to manipulate policy as he saw fit. But, it’s still lying by omission when you don’t give decision-makers all the facts they need to make sound decisions. Gosh, I hope this kind of behavior on Cheney’s part is deemed illegal.
Addington’s method of manipulation is to brandish anger and cow people into bending to his will. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall to see his reaction to Comey’s “No good lawyer” reply. Seriously, Addington needs some thorazine, a padded cell and straight jacket.
– Tom
OT, but yum. So does that mean that Goldsmith and Comey have been chatting again? I keep hoping for that, a bit more, a bit more. EW will tell us.
I’m more interested in how chatty Card was about this. I think Card would willingly talk if subpoenaed by a nice congressional committee–about this and about Plame.
Addington’s method of manipulation is to brandish anger and cow people into bending to his will. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall to see his reaction to Comey’s “No good lawyer” reply. Seriously, Addington needs some thorazine, a padded cell and straight jacket.
——————-
all of them,are we gona have to endure Germany 1933,all over again?
Addington needs one thing. A cell for the rest of his days.
Bush, Cheney, Addington, Bolton, Feith, Wolfowitz deserve fair trials.
But only in the sense that everyone, no matter how evil, deserves a fair trial. Similarly, they do not deserve to be interrogated harshly, as they have caused others to be interrogated.
What is remarkable about this story is that three die-hard Republicans, Comey, Goldsmith, and Aschcroft, stood up to Cheney, Hayden, Gonzales, and Addington. By contrast, congressional Democrats have capitualted to them at every turn.
Who do you trust:
Rovian sock puppetUS attorney Jeffrey Taylor, who laid out the case against Ivins,or your lyin’ eyes?
I don’t believe I am being nice to plunger either. I just checked my NYT for this DVD. It seems that the two places where shipments of the DVD have been reported are very blue areas. It could be less an attempt to help McCain for this election than to sway Jewish votes and others who would be frightened by this sort of thing for the long term.
Our local Aish Hatorah put on “Obsession” a few years ago. I refused to come, but a local Muslim wrote a letter to the Jewish Light saying that the film did no help in allying Jews and the Muslims who really despise radical Islam.
The DVD was tucked into today’s Toledo Blade (in the very blue collar, not Jewish, Lucas County in Ohio).
A question for everyone — asked above but not answered: Was there or was there not an autopsy? I have seen it reported there was not, but also that there was, and I’m curious to know which is correct. I’ve never seen an official cause of death reported, though I’ve seen the many reports that it was an OD of Tylenol 3. Okay, I can buy that — but was that where the investigation into his physical condition ended? Thanks to anyone who can answer that.
There was a full tox screen/blood analysis done; that has misled many to say there was a full or partial autopsy performed, but the official position has consistently been that there was no comprehensive sectional autopsy. For what it is worth, I don’t particularly believe that; I suspect there was a full exam secretly performed. If there was not, it was intentional obstruction and malfeasance.
Thank you.
Looking forward to the hearings this coming week.
Does anyone have the date last year – other than a few months before the FBI focused on Ivins – when Ivins changed his will?
From EW’s timeline:
May 7, 2007: Ivins claimed he was aware that his anthrax matched that used in the attack within three months of the attack; he claims he was told by three colleagues who had tested the anthrax used in the attacks
———————–
Did he and three colleagues figure out that Ivins was being set up as the fall guy?
Please cease and desist with all and any references to this matter. It has officially been crammed down the memory hole.
-The Committee of Public Knowledge
After reading the RAND study of how to deal with Terrorism and the conclusion is that THE best way using police/legal action over military
U.S. Should Rethink “War On Terrorism” Strategy to Deal with Resurgent Al Qaida
BushCo FBI can’t find their way out of a cardboard box….no wonder we are loosing the War on Terra™ !
new post at the mothership
In Molly’s Back Yard: Resisting Rove
that should say arresting Rove
Ivins just proves in his Will that he is a Real Jerk that ALWAYS had to have his way, even in death.. He knew how much his wife (and he) hated Planned Parenthood and this forced her to have his remains cremated. If anything, this Will shows how manipulative and sneaky he was! The FBI findings remain well intact.
Brilliant work Holmes! Please support your conclusions. I await your detailed reply.
If only…*g*
Trollhouse cuckoos – recipe by Betty “That’s a Crock”.
Obsession in Charlotte Observer
And one question that is never asked is this: Who was behind the orchestrated murder of world class microbiologists following 11 September? These were people who were deeply involved in research sequencing DNA and they were highly regarded in their field. It was almost as though anyone who could definitively identify where the anthrax originated and wasn’t part of the cabal was killed to preclude exposure of the perps and their handlers.
You don’t have much imagination, I guess.
http://www.truthout.org/articl…..nting-iraq
Friday 12 September 2008
#
Congress Asks: Who Misled the Anthrax Investigation by Pointing at Iraq?
by: Bill Simpich , t r u t h o u t | Report
On September 16, the House Judiciary Committee will hold oversight hearings to review the FBI’s role in investigating the 2001 anthrax attacks, followed by the Senate Judiciary Committee on the 17th. (Glenn Greenwald, August 20 interview with Charles Grassley).
Chairmen Senator Patrick Leahy and Congressman John Conyers have asked FBI Director Robert Mueller to attend. Conyers has specifically asked Mueller to address whether White House officials initially pressed the FBI to show the attacks were linked to Iraq, why Steven Hatfill was a key suspect in the investigation and why Bruce Ivins kept his security clearance for so many years.
Since it was his body, and he explicitly declared his desire for its disposition, I think it’s hard to argue that somebody else, whether his wife, kids, friends or the government should have more to say about it than he.
He certainly knew his wife better than you or I do. Perhaps it was his belief that a money bomb directed to any other cause would not have made his purpose so very clear. He did not trust her to do as he wished even while understanding that she had his best interest in mind: Salvation when Christ returns again at the end of the world.
I didn’t realize that there were any pieces left.
P.S. Please don’t feed the trolls.
Fear not, my Troll House Cookies are made with arsenic.
Maybe they made him agree to cremation…so that the truth would never be “dug” up and found. (since no autopsy was done). What if he put that clause in his will so that his wife would fight the cremation?
Okay…tin foil hat, I know, but there is something weird about this.
ot
the Clintons are coming the Clintons are coming..
http://www.truthout.org/articl…..e-tightens
http://www.truthout.org/
Gov. Ted Strickland is still excited that the woman he backed for president earlier this year is coming back to Ohio.
Let’s hope the Clintons can harness some of the “bubba vote”
http://www.usatoday.com/news/p…..rmey_N.htm Because if the McCain campaign has its way there will be No Bubba’s Left Behind (NBLB) This is a new program started by the McCain/Palin/Rove Team
OT – Cliff-diving and the financial world:
Lehman Heads Toward Brink as Barclays Ends Talks
Bank of America in Talks to Buy Merrill Lynch
A.I.G. to Plan Restructuring and Asset Sales
OT, calculatedrisk says Lehman will file bankruptcy today.
Comments over at CalculatedRisk are boiling over.
Some believe the BofA/Merril Flinch $40B merger deal is meant to freeze the short-sellers who have been betting everyone is going down. Good luck with that.
Odds are with the shortsellers.
Tomorrow is Monday Meltdown?
The commenters at CR run bearish. The NYT said that the government has had people in the Lehman offices looking at their books, and they believe that it is not as exposed as Bear Stearns was. The bankruptcy is for the parent of Lehman. They assert that the subsidiaries are solvent, so they will continue to operate as the business winds down. The credit swaps are closing and netting today, and the bankruptcy code apparently permits that to go forward after the filing.
We can’t keep bailing out these failed enterprises. They never had assets to justify their stock prices. Instead they had people who worked for them who could make money trading or selling securities. There is no there. Let the people who wanted to make money off the people who make money trading stocks and selling securities go down with the failed people at these entities.
Looks like Ian Welsh gets what he wanted, bankruptcy for Lehman, and moral hazard for shareholders. The government refused to guarantee the debt at Lehman, so acquisition talk collapsed.
Jeebus. Can’t say I like any of the solutions for this problem. I am not one that advocated for or against the Bear solution that was formulated; in theory, I hate it, in practical reality, I understand it may have been the right thing to do generally. That said, I was troubled then and am now, by the selectiveness we as a government have now injected into the equation. Right or wrong, we pulled the string for Bear. But not for Lehman. Is one more worthy? Is it just a timing deal; i.e. Bear just happened to be the one on deck when a stand had to be made, and if their roles were reversed, Lehman would have been accomodated as Bear was back then? How do we decide who to save and who to allow to die?
Pats 19 New Jersey Jets 10
I almost suspect that the Bear deal was the cost of showing to some folks that there is no magic bullet by which their cookies might be pulled from the fire by the Fed. (How’s that for mixing?)
Anyway, if the no-deal rumors bear out it sure sounds like gut-check time for the investment companies at last.
For all the hedge funds left in the lurch while banks get first crack at Lehman’s collateral:
On My Own, Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald.
OT but relevant to an earlier thread.
From Charlie Rose Green Room with Sarah Palin (@ 3:17), favourite authors include C.S. Lewis and Dr. George Sheehan.