Video Gamers As Race of Super Soldiers? Pentagon Reports Gamers Think Faster 'Than Normal People'

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Minds work up to 20% quicker. Pentagon researchers believe video games stimulate human brains so much that they are going to become a new tool in the war on terrorists. The Air Force today released a scintilla of the data, and it shows video games aren't turning heads into mush. "We have discovered that video game players perform 10 to 20 percent higher in terms of perceptual and cognitive ability than normal people that are non-game players," said Ray Perez, a program officer at the Office of Naval Research warfighter performance department. "Our concern is developing training technologies and training methods to improve performance on the battlefield," said Perez, who holds a doctorate in educational psychology. He described the war against terrorists as presenting significant challenges to warfighters on the ground because they must be able to adapt their operations to innovative and deadly adversaries who constantly change their tactics. "It's really about human inventiveness and creativeness and being able to match wits with the enemy."

Ohio Righty Talker Bill Cunningham: Muslims After Sex With Children

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Talk show host Bill Cunningham, whose nickname is the Cunning Ham, has riled up the Islamic community by saying on the air earlier this week that the goal of their religion is "sex with children for eternity." Cunningham's weekday radio show on 700 WLW-AM goes into national syndication on 325 stations later this week. He takes over Matt Drudge's Sunday night radio time slot at the end of the month.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is irate and demanding a rebuke of Cunningham from Clear Channel, the station's corporate parent. So far, nothing, says CAIR's Cincinnati executive director Karen Dabdoub. Cunningham was on the air railing against Islamic militants Tuesday when he said their goal was to die violently, meet virgins in paradise, and diddle kiddies. The way he constructed his sentence appeared to make child sex a tenet of the Muslim faith.

"The great war of this generation's time is the war against Islamic fascists . . . They do not live for life, they live for death. Only through death can they believe they can be with those 72 virgins in heaven and have sex with children for eternity, which is the goal of that religion."

CAIR said the remark promotes anti-Muslim hatred and will have a negative impact on America's image overseas. Cunningham's comment unquestionably will be spread far and wide by the Internet over coming days. CAIR has an audio clip of Cunningham's remark and called it evidence of increasing evidence of intolerance against members of the Islamic faith in the United States.

Ohioans Who Gave Their Lives: All Served The Nation Post 9/11

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- The names and faces are memorialized online, and by typing the word Ohio in the hometown line you can see them all. Somebody once wrote that soldiers at war "learn of death and maiming when most are concerned with marriage and mortgages." The list presents the reality of war. The call. The bravery. The sacrifice. The loss.

Who remembers now the early days after the World Trade Center's fall into heaps of rubble, when Americans in uniform were first sent to The Philippines? But the faces of those who died in 2001 -- long before Iraq -- begin the list. Then we took the news quietly. It was just the beginning.

H/T to Bill Callahan, who has memorialized the Cleveland area's fatalities. He made me think about the things men do in war, and the things war does to us. And how little we think about it at all, how we barely dare to think. As the poet Wilfred Owen put it:

"Let the boy try along this bayonet blade
How cold steel is, and keen with the hunger of blood . . .

War On Terror: Full Text Of President Bush's Win On Warrantless Wiretapping

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- The complete text of the ruling by the Ohio-based 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals allowing the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance program is 65-pages long.

It offers a comprehensive legal review about presidential powers and national security. It is definitely worth reading -- no matter which side you are on, pro-administration or not.

The appeals court split 2-1, with two Republican appointed judges backing President Bush. Julia Smith Gibbons of Tennessee and Alice Marie Batchelder of Medina County in Ohio were in the majority. Judge Ronald Lee Gilman, a Democrat and Memphis law school prof put on the bench by Bill Clinton, wrote the dissent. It starts on page 46 of the ruling.

Does it seem that our federal legal system is divided along party lines? Are their too many one-vote margins deciding major constitutional issues? And how much of this narrow outlook can be traced back to the Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling after the disputed November 2000 presidential election; the election that Al Gore won by popular vote but lost by a sole vote in the legal system.

OH-05 Surveys: 'War On Terror' Fades Since 2004

FOSTORIA, Ohio (TDB) -- An Ohio contact in Washington , a Buckeye transplanted to the White House grounds, likes to keep his eye on the political pulse back home and steered The Daily Bellwether to Rep. Paul Gillmor's newly released annual constituent survey, which offers a snaphot of public opinion across 14 counties. It shows that 38.7 % of the respondents -- primarily people in rural Northwest Ohio -- now consider the ''War on Terror' the most important issue facing Congress. That's a big drop since President George W. Bush ran for re-election.

Other tidbits: Gillmor has recently started a blog, but only 9% of his constituents have ever read a blog. And Internet use in OH-05 is way below national levels. Only 55% there vs. about 70% nationally, according to Nielsen/NetRatings, which tracks online trends.

What the Buckeye found interesting, however, is what the Ohio Republican didn't mention on this year's survey report, or anywhere else recently. Some 61% considered the war "most important" two years ago, a steep decline on an issue that has come to define the presidency of George W. Bush. The drop shows up only in this Gillmor press release when he released his survey results from a year ago.

Northwest Ohio is reliably Republican and conservative and represents a slice of Middle America. Despite the growing uncertainty over success in Iraq, 57.9% of those who took part in Gillmor's survey said U.S. troops should stay until ''democracy is stabilized and peace has been restored." The Buckeye wondered why Gillmor did not disclose what the percentages were in 2004 and 2005 (if he asked the question).

Gillmor's complete survey is here. A map of OH-05 is here compliments of Wikipedia.

Some political scientists consider Sandusky County in OH-05 an important bellwether in presidential elections. They say that if Sandusky votes Democratic in a presidential year, the Dem candidate should carry Ohio, a swing state that traditionally determines who moves into the White House.

Gillmor's blogging hasn't exactly been stimulating and there's a sample here. But at least he's dived into the 'sphere.