ByThe Associated Press
Do you believe in Iraqi “WMD”? Did Saddam Hussein's government have weapons of mass destruction in 2003?
Half of America apparently still thinks so, a new poll finds, and experts see a raft of reasons why: a drumbeat of voices from talk radio to die-hard bloggers to the Oval Office, a surprise headline here or there, a rallying around a partisan flag, and a growing need for people, in their own minds, to justify the war in Iraq.
People tend to become “independent of reality” in these circumstances, says opinion analyst Steven Kull. The reality in this case is that after a 16-month, $900-million-plus investigation, the U.S. weapons hunters known as the Iraq Survey Group declared that Iraq had dismantled its chemical, biological and nuclear arms programs in 1991 under U.N. oversight. That finding in 2004 reaffirmed the work of U.N. inspectors who in 2002-03 found no trace of banned arsenals in Iraq.
Despite this, a Harris Poll released July 21 found that a full 50 percent of U.S. respondents - up from 36 percent last year - said they believe Iraq did have the forbidden arms when U.S. troops invaded in March 2003, an attack whose stated purpose was elimination of supposed WMD.
Other polls also have found an enduring American faith in the WMD story.
Renovations under way, but New Orleans block may be too pricey for past residents
NEW ORLEANS - Gloria Cauldfield looked down the littered street to where workers were busily restoring three flooded rental houses - adding new kitchens, baths, central air and heat, fresh paint.
Nice places. Much nicer than they were before Hurricane Katrina ripped off their roofs and sent floodwaters surging through them last August.
Cauldfield, who's lived on Broadway Street for 26 years and knew everyone on the block in this working-class neighborhood, is pretty sure she won't know the people who move into them.
“People are waiting to see if they can move back. But they only paid $225 for rent before. Somebody in the block had said they're going to be $600 or $700 a month,” Cauldfield said. “From $225, that's a big jump.”
5 years later, Sept. 11 conspiracy theorists say they're gaining momentum
Kevin Barrett believes the U.S government might have destroyed the World Trade Center. Steven Jones is researching what he calls evidence that the twin towers were brought down by explosives detonated inside them, not by hijacked airliners.
These men aren't uneducated junk scientists: Barrett will teach a class on Islam at the University of Wisconsin this fall, over the protests of more than 60 state legislators. Jones is a tenured physicist at Brigham Young University whose mainstream academic job has made him a hero to conspiracy theorists.
Five years after the terrorist attacks, a community that believes widely discredited ideas about what happened on Sept. 11, 2001, persists and even thrives. Members trade their ideas on the Internet and in self-published papers and in books. About 500 of them attended a recent conference in Chicago.
The movement claims to be drawing fresh energy and credibility from a recently formed group called Scholars for 9/11 Truth.
The organization says publicity over Barrett's case has helped boost membership to about 75 academics. They are a tiny minority of the 1 million part- and full-time faculty nationwide, and some have no university affiliation. Most aren't experts in relevant fields. But some are well educated, with degrees from elite universities such as Princeton and Stanford and jobs at schools including Rice, Indiana and the University of Texas.
Former Sen. and astronaut John Glenn released from Ohio hospital following car crash
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Former Sen. and astronaut John Glenn and his wife, Annie, were discharged Sunday from a hospital where they had been recovering from what he called a “very serious” car accident.
“I do not recommend you go test your air bags the way we did the other night,” Glenn said.
Neither Glenn nor his wife was seriously injured, said Dr. Paul Beery. Beery said the former senator suffered a minor fracture in his sternum.
“As far as this being minor, it's not minor to me because it hurts,” said the 85-year-old Glenn.
Annie Glenn, 86, is recovering from what her husband called “bumps and bruises.”
Trying to stop taking antidepressants can be harrowing
When Gina O'Brien decided she no longer needed drugs to quell her anxiety and panic attacks, she followed doctor's orders by slowly tapering her dose of the antidepressant Paxil. The gradual withdrawal was supposed to prevent unpleasant symptoms that can result from stopping antidepressants cold turkey. But it didn't work.
“I felt so sick that I couldn't get off my couch,” O'Brien said. “I couldn't stop crying.”
Overwhelmed by nausea and uncontrollable crying, she felt she had no choice but to start taking the pills again. More than a year later the Michigan woman still takes Paxil, and expects to be on it for the rest of her life.
In the almost two decades since Prozac - the first of the antidepressants known as SRIs, or serotonin reuptake inhibitors - hit the market, a number of patients have reported extreme reactions to discontinuing the drugs. Two of the best-selling antidepressants - Effexor and Paxil - have led to so many complaints that some doctors avoid prescribing them altogether.
Half of America apparently still thinks so, a new poll finds, and experts see a raft of reasons why: a drumbeat of voices from talk radio to die-hard bloggers to the Oval Office, a surprise headline here or there, a rallying around a partisan flag, and a growing need for people, in their own minds, to justify the war in Iraq.
People tend to become “independent of reality” in these circumstances, says opinion analyst Steven Kull. The reality in this case is that after a 16-month, $900-million-plus investigation, the U.S. weapons hunters known as the Iraq Survey Group declared that Iraq had dismantled its chemical, biological and nuclear arms programs in 1991 under U.N. oversight. That finding in 2004 reaffirmed the work of U.N. inspectors who in 2002-03 found no trace of banned arsenals in Iraq.
Despite this, a Harris Poll released July 21 found that a full 50 percent of U.S. respondents - up from 36 percent last year - said they believe Iraq did have the forbidden arms when U.S. troops invaded in March 2003, an attack whose stated purpose was elimination of supposed WMD.
Other polls also have found an enduring American faith in the WMD story.
Renovations under way, but New Orleans block may be too pricey for past residents
NEW ORLEANS - Gloria Cauldfield looked down the littered street to where workers were busily restoring three flooded rental houses - adding new kitchens, baths, central air and heat, fresh paint.
Nice places. Much nicer than they were before Hurricane Katrina ripped off their roofs and sent floodwaters surging through them last August.
Cauldfield, who's lived on Broadway Street for 26 years and knew everyone on the block in this working-class neighborhood, is pretty sure she won't know the people who move into them.
“People are waiting to see if they can move back. But they only paid $225 for rent before. Somebody in the block had said they're going to be $600 or $700 a month,” Cauldfield said. “From $225, that's a big jump.”
5 years later, Sept. 11 conspiracy theorists say they're gaining momentum
Kevin Barrett believes the U.S government might have destroyed the World Trade Center. Steven Jones is researching what he calls evidence that the twin towers were brought down by explosives detonated inside them, not by hijacked airliners.
These men aren't uneducated junk scientists: Barrett will teach a class on Islam at the University of Wisconsin this fall, over the protests of more than 60 state legislators. Jones is a tenured physicist at Brigham Young University whose mainstream academic job has made him a hero to conspiracy theorists.
Five years after the terrorist attacks, a community that believes widely discredited ideas about what happened on Sept. 11, 2001, persists and even thrives. Members trade their ideas on the Internet and in self-published papers and in books. About 500 of them attended a recent conference in Chicago.
The movement claims to be drawing fresh energy and credibility from a recently formed group called Scholars for 9/11 Truth.
The organization says publicity over Barrett's case has helped boost membership to about 75 academics. They are a tiny minority of the 1 million part- and full-time faculty nationwide, and some have no university affiliation. Most aren't experts in relevant fields. But some are well educated, with degrees from elite universities such as Princeton and Stanford and jobs at schools including Rice, Indiana and the University of Texas.
Former Sen. and astronaut John Glenn released from Ohio hospital following car crash
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Former Sen. and astronaut John Glenn and his wife, Annie, were discharged Sunday from a hospital where they had been recovering from what he called a “very serious” car accident.
“I do not recommend you go test your air bags the way we did the other night,” Glenn said.
Neither Glenn nor his wife was seriously injured, said Dr. Paul Beery. Beery said the former senator suffered a minor fracture in his sternum.
“As far as this being minor, it's not minor to me because it hurts,” said the 85-year-old Glenn.
Annie Glenn, 86, is recovering from what her husband called “bumps and bruises.”
Trying to stop taking antidepressants can be harrowing
When Gina O'Brien decided she no longer needed drugs to quell her anxiety and panic attacks, she followed doctor's orders by slowly tapering her dose of the antidepressant Paxil. The gradual withdrawal was supposed to prevent unpleasant symptoms that can result from stopping antidepressants cold turkey. But it didn't work.
“I felt so sick that I couldn't get off my couch,” O'Brien said. “I couldn't stop crying.”
Overwhelmed by nausea and uncontrollable crying, she felt she had no choice but to start taking the pills again. More than a year later the Michigan woman still takes Paxil, and expects to be on it for the rest of her life.
In the almost two decades since Prozac - the first of the antidepressants known as SRIs, or serotonin reuptake inhibitors - hit the market, a number of patients have reported extreme reactions to discontinuing the drugs. Two of the best-selling antidepressants - Effexor and Paxil - have led to so many complaints that some doctors avoid prescribing them altogether.
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