Iris Chang
Iris Chang, author of
The Rape of Nanking,
killed herself yesterday. I met her ("Hi, I loved your book") when I saw her speak in San Francisco several years ago. She was very down to earth. If you're not familiar with the incident, in 1937-1938 Japanese troops captured the Chinese city of Nanking and embarked on a campaign of murder, rape and looting. For more information, you can read her book, or get a brief summary
here from the BBC.
Sorry Everybody
Rob sent along
this link yesterday. It's us apologizing to the world in pictures for Bush's election.
CNN ran a story on it today, so Rob scooped CNN.
The Lunatic Fringe
Can be found
here. I think hanging out at Church lowers your IQ. I found this comment typical of the attitudes of evangelicals;
"There's such a decline of moral values," said Rebecca Garcia, an Antioch teacher and real estate agent. "The pushing of gay rights, abortion -- it's not to say that I don't like homosexuals. I don't like their sin."
Someone (actually entire groups of sexually frustrated, uptight, bigoted, hateful churchgoers) spends waaaay too much time thinking about other people's bedroom habits. Other comments;
- "Before I voted for him, I was waiting for him (Bush) to say, 'My Lord Jesus Christ,' " said John Romero, a 66-year-old retired custodian from Bay Point.
- "He's (Bush) putting God first," added Sol Shimmel, 49, a Martinez preschool teacher. "There has to be someone more powerful we can depend on."
- "I'm not sure in the long run what kind of threat it (same-sex marriage) could be," said Edith Van Horn, a 76-year-old Concord retiree. "But I'd rather err to the right."
I'm trying to think of some snappy wrap-up to this post, but it's just too depressing to know that it was these types of people (sexually frustrated, uptight, bigoted, hateful churchgoers) who put Bush into office... along with the morons already listed in previous posts.
Tyson Foods
Why you
shouldn't buy chickens from
Tyson Foods. Oh, and
this and
this and
this.
http://filmstripinternational.com/
Courtesy of John
And so it continues...
The U.S. is seeking to
derail a report that links Arctic warming to greenhouse gases.
Mark Morford
If you haven't read Mark Morford's columns in the San Francisco Chronicle, you should. In today's
column he writes about why, as tempting as it is, we should not move out of the country. My favorite line in it is,
"The nation has officially, stupefyingly handed the world's worst president a blank check to do whatever he and his cronies like, without fear of major repercussions or voter disillusionment or damage to an imminent re-election campaign, because there won't be one." Take the time to read the whole column, he makes a good case for staying and fighting the good fight.
Here's a stupid person
Mark Johnson writes about the election aftermath:
4 More Years. heh. My cubicle neighbors are lamenting..."I don't know what I'm going to do." For me, the choice was between a turd sandwich, and a shit casserole with a little mystery meat mixed in - I've been eating the sandwich for a while now and know what to expect. I'm not a big fan of the taste, but it makes me feel safe, and it doesn't do me any harm either. I didn't think the casserole would be an improvement, I didn't want to pay more for it, and as you would expect, the mystery meat was a big unknown but with an odd smell.
Here's my advice to my co-workers: get over it - it will really have little impact on your day-to-day life. And next time, focus on getting a candidate that can really represents your values and vision for the country, not just "Anybody But Bush".
So now I understand. Apparently this was about turd sandwiches and learning to like them. Apparently no one he knows is in a committed relationship with a person of the same sex and wants to get married. Apparently no one he knows has lost a child in Iraq (he should go to RealVoices.org and listen to
Cindy Sheehan speak about losing her son). Apparently he doesn't know anyone suffering from life threatening diseases who may benefit from stem cell research. Nope, he's just going to keep eating that turd sandwich. F*cking moron.
Joan Ryan
Joan Ryan wrote a
great column in this morning's SF Chronicle about the election results. Apparently voters felt Bush was more moral than Kerry. She asks, " Is it moral to wage war on a country that did not attack us, and to wage it on false pretenses? Is it moral to stuff more money into the pockets of the wealthy while teachers buy their own crayons and patch their own classroom walls, and while people with mental illness live on the streets and in prison cells for lack of services?"
Even more to the point, she states, "Our country has always included a mix of religious and political beliefs. But we shared a foundation of certain "truths to be self-evident'' that allowed us to meet on common ground. Today, I don't know. "
The column is worth reading.
The UK Perspective
My thoughts exactly
Election aftermath
Democracy is dead.
Where for art thou Ethics?
According to
this article, Merck fought for years to keep safety concerns from undermining the drug's commercial prospects.
