as the government shutdown dragged on, gloom mounted. james clapper, the director of national intelligence, warned that foreign intelligence services might swoop in and recruit furloughed c.i.a. workers. that seemed a little paranoid, but then we’re talking about spies. the c.i.a.-doom scenario sounded a bit like the problems facing the cast of “homeland” this season, except for the part where a member of congress is a terrorist mole who falls in love with an intelligence agent who frequently fails to take her bipolar disorder medication. reality in washington has gotten so muddled that the land in “homeland” is looking sort of attractive. on wednesday, house republicans pushed to refund bits and pieces of the government that the members particularly like, such as veterans and the national guard. also anything that lends itself to a dramatic press conference, such as national parks and cancer treatment for children. since the house proposals are never going anywhere in the senate, there’s a limit to what you want to know about what went on during the debate. let’s summarize: democrats: “meaningless political theater!” republicans: “come to the table!” coming to the table has now replaced strangling obamacare as the most popular g.o.p. war cry. there is a longstanding political rule that when all else fails, you demand more talking. if you’re running for office against a guy who’s got 70 percent in the polls, it’s time to call for a debate. if you’re already having four debates, it’s time to call for six. “why don’t we sit down and have a conference committee about how we’re going to fund the federal government?” demanded representative ander crenshaw of florida. republicans have posed this question a lot, and it would be an excellent one if they were not the same folks who have spent the last half-year refusing to sit down and have a conference committee about the federal budget.
a significant finding from washington state university shows that garlic is 100 times more effective than two popular antibiotics at fighting disease causing bacteria commonly responsible for foodborne illness. their work was published recently in the journal of antimicrobial chemotherapy a follow-up to the author's previous research in applied and environmental microbiology which conclusively demonstrated that garlic concentrate was effective in inhibiting the growth of c. jejuni bacteria. garlic is probably nature's most potent food. it is one of the reasons people who eat the mediterranean diet live such long healthy lives. garlic is also a powerful performer in the research lab. “this work is very exciting to me because it shows that this compound has the potential to reduce disease-causing bacteria in the environment and in our food supply,” said xiaonan lu, a postdoctoral researcher and lead author of the paper. one of the most interesting of the recent findings is that garlic increases the overall antioxidant levels of the body. scientifically known as allium sativa, garlic has been famous throughout history for its ability to fight off viruses and bacteria. louis pasteur noted in 1858 that bacteria died when they were doused with garlic. from the middle ages on, garlic has been used to treat wounds, being ground or sliced and applied directly to wounds to inhibit the spread of infection. the russians refer to garlic as russian penicillin.