TWE

. . . resulting in crime? No, say it ain't so: > Federal prosecutors here have charged a retired Palm Springs, Calif., lawyer with taking kickbacks from a prominent New York law firm in exchange for serving as plaintiff in dozens of class-action and shareholder lawsuits that earned the firm $44

> Eating dark chocolate may have a protective effect on the cardiovascular system in healthy people, the results of a new study suggest. Link [http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=healthNews&storyID=2005-06-24T183417Z_01_B289314_RTRIDST_0_HEALTH-CHOCOLATE-ARTERIES-DC.XML] .

> Milton Friedman is no dopehead. But that's his hallowed name atop the list of more than 500 economists who've signed an open letter asking our Drug War-addled politicians to stop the prohibition of marijuana and instead legalize it and tax it. > The petition asks

Mogadishu is a hot spot, but not of the wi-fi sort. Eric Scheske had to resort to the Mogadishu public library (who knew Carnegie's grants stretched so far?) to blog. He has only minutes until his pursuers discover where he has ducked, various recovered religious artifacts crammed into

> Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as science "without any presuppositions" . . . a philosophy, a "faith," must always be there first, so that science can acquire from it a direction, a meaning, a limit, a method, a right to exist . . . It is still metaphysical faith

> "Until fairly recently," writes welfare scholar James Payne, "girls who got 'in trouble' were whispered about–and expelled from school. Seeing this social disapproval, other girls made a great effort to avoid pregnancy. Today programs like free day care for student mothers make unwed

For the next week, readers will probably notice that TDE is different. There will be fewer posts and the fare will be a little odd. Eric Scheske will be on undercover assignment in Mogadishu, Somalia to recover holy relics of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church that were stolen by Mamelukes in

Eric Scheske's house has a magazine problem. They're all over the place. He ran across a great idea in his local paper recently: use old cereal boxes to hold them. Cut off the top inch or so, then cut at an angle to about one-third of

. . . in traditionally-male jobs: > A failed romantic relationship between two pistol-packing guards led to some tense moments inside an armored car at a Slidell bank. > Loomis, Fargo & Co. employee Quiana Anderson, 27, told authorities she was driving to Hancock Bank at 1411 Gause Blvd. to make a pickup

We hear the measure didn't run into very stiff competition: > Impotence drugs such as Viagra would not be covered by Medicaid and Medicare, the government health programs for the poor and the aged, under new prohibitions approved by the House on Friday. > By a 285-121 vote,