Watch What You Say It's not just the French who are waging war against foreign phrases like "log-on," "mouse-click" and "couch potato." In a dispatch from Transitions Online [www.tol.cz], Sophia Kornienko reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin has established a new Language Council that will "slap heavy penalties on journalists and politicians who let so-called pollutants slip into their speech." But Russia's leaders are not known for "speaking with the tongues of angels," Kornienko observes. "One analyst concedes that Putin himself speaks correct Russian, 'but his entire vocabulary is only about 1,500 words -- a fifth-grader's vocabulary'."

Terrorists Are Us The Pentagon is training two California National Guard (CNG) units to respond to chemical, biological and radioactive weapon attacks on the Democratic National Convention this summer in Los Angeles. CNG Col. Lou Antonetti explained that "The threat of domestic terrorism is not a question of will-it-happen, but when." Antonetti did not explain why the focus was on "domestic" attackers, or why the Republican National Convention was not also identified as a terrorist target.

First Amendment vs. the Fist A Seattle Police Department (SPD) report on the World Trade Organization police riots identified two major causes for the debacle: (1) Police officers ran out of food, water, tear gas and pepper spray and, (2) the city "had only about nine months to plan for the event rather than the 14-24 months considered standard by the US State Department. (The State Department prepares for demonstrations two years in advance?) The report concluded that the SPD was "taught a hard lesson by a well-trained and equipped adversary." The idea that nonviolent citizens exercising their First Amendment rights are "adversaries" was repeated in Washington, DC, in advance of the April protests against the World Bank and IMF. DC's Executive Assistant Police Chief Terry Gainer explained that his officers were prepared to allow their fellow citizens to "puff their chest a little and have an appropriate amount of protest." What would the Founding Fathers think of allowing the police to determine what amount of protest is "appropriate"?

Profit, Not Prudence The British Medical Journal raises an interesting fact. "Prudential Insurance Company is the largest supplier of health insurance and the largest owner of for-profit health maintenance organizations (HMOs) in the USA. It also owns a big share of five of the six largest tobacco companies." As of 1995, Prudential owned $12 million worth of RJR Nabisco stock, $100 million of Philip Morris, $36 million of American Brands and almost $97 million of Loews. Prudential's tobacco portfolio totaled $248 million. Insurance giants Travelers and Cigna also own millions of dollars in tobacco stocks. Economist Milton Friedman once uged business leaders to ignore any "social responsibility other than to make as much money for their shareholders as possible." The British Medical Journal still finds it odd that in the US, "the laws of the market demand allegiance to profit over health."

Ridged Condors When biologists with the US Fish and Wildlife Service's Condor Recovery Program first began removing condors from the wild in 1987 and placing them in zoos for captive breeding, it was clearly stated that the endangered vultures would never be used as a commercial attraction. That has changed. The 1,800-acre San Diego Wild Animal Park has announced the debut of Condor Ridge, a $3.48 million attraction featuring an array of hawks, parrots and ferrets, and "a diorama of a condor in flight." Five hapless condors are on display, confined inside a six-story-tall aviary decorated with a pile of boulders.

In CIGNAs and in Health Public Citizen's Health Letter [1600 20th St., NW, Washington, DC 20009] reports that "for three years, ending in May 1999, CIGNA turned over editorial control of its own health newsletter to the [Philip Morris] tobacco company." CIGNA instructed the staff of its Well-Being Newsletter to allow the tobacco firm "to censor virtually all references to the dangers of smoking." An internal memo stipulated: "Offensive local articles can be replaced with another of similar length at no cost to [Philip Morris]. If we opt to replace or modify a national article, it costs [Philip Morris] $3,000 per issue." The newsletter staff skipped the entire Winter 1996 issue when Philip Morris complained about a story that reported cigarette smoke could trigger an asthma attack. CIGNA's willingness to make censorship profitable merely reflects the company's mission statement: "Profitability is the ultimate measure of our success."

Scooped or Shafted? Vermont's beloved progressive ice-cream company, Ben & Jerry's, has been gobbled up by Unilever, the global conglomerate that makes Q-tips, Popsicles and Wisk detergent. "It was an outcome neither Ben Cohen nor Jerry Greenfield favored," the Associated Press reported, "But the two founders were under pressure from shareholders to sell to Unilever, which offered $43.60 per share, or nearly 25 percent over Ben & Jerry's closing [stock] price."

SUVing the Environment Mitsubishi Motor Sales of America (MMSA) proudly proclaims its work with the nonprofit organization Tread Lightly!, which promotes "responsible outdoor recreation [to protect] the great outdoors." Toward this end, MMSA sponsored a "series of restoration projects" in Grand County, Colorado, noting that corporate hand-outs are eagerly sought "at a time when government budgets have been cut by as much as 80 percent." MMSA's restoration effort included "a new bridge [and] several stream crossings" designed to benefit "riders of motorcycles, ATVs, snowmobiles and four-wheel drive vehicles." Mitsubishi manufactures sport utility vehicles.

Juan "Exxon" Valdez The Pentagon is pouring $1.6 billion worth of helicopters, arms, communications gear and combat training into Colombia. The ostensible reason: To fight the cocaine industry. Military analyst Michael T. Klare believes the aid has more to do with Colombia's 2.6 billion barrels of untapped petroleum -- the hemisphere's largest reserve. A May 1997 White House report identified US access to oil in Colombia and Venezuela as a "vital interest." Last year, rebel forces bombed Occidental Petroleum's Cano Limon oil pipeline 79 times. According to Klare, "a key element of the guerrillas' stated program is to expel foreign interests and use future oil profits to improve the lot of Colombia's impoverished masses."

Mole Nip: To New York radio talkshow host Mike Gallagher. Ticked off by an anti-milk campaign sponsored by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Gallagher announced that he would shoot a steer "live" on his radio show. When the moment came, Gallagher turned away from the wide-eyed animal. "Oh, I don't want to look at him," Gallagher said. "Would people be mad at me if I backed out?" We'll never know: As Gallagher looked away, the steer was shot to death.