15 October 2004

At least they're still rich enough to extort

[source, source]

President Muammar Gadafy yesterday embarrassed his latest high-profile western visitor, the German chancellor Gerhard Schröder, by demanding compensation for thousands of landmines left in the Libyan desert during the second world war.

During talks in Tripoli, Mr Gadafy complained that dozens of Libyans were still being injured and killed by the anti-tank mines, which were buried by Erwin Rommel and his retreating army more than 60 years ago.

Maybe they should take the case to the UN Human Rights Commission.

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Good news: malaria vaccine breakthrough

[source]
We’ve come across some very good news for millions and millions of people around the world, especially in Africa. It seems that researchers have made a tremendous break-through in developing a vaccine against malaria, historically perhaps the most debilitating and destructive disease to afflict mankind. Those of us Diplomads who have served in the tropics can testify to the ravages of malaria, especially among children. The L.A. Times, not normally one of our favorite papers, covers this remarkable and encouraging development well. You can also go to the informative press release of the Malaria Vaccine Initiative for more details.

What we find particularly interesting is that given the negative spin being put on “big pharmaceuticals” in the US election campaign and wherever else political correctness thrives, e.g., the UN, we note that this vaccine has been developed by Western capitalist pigs such as the huge drug multinational SmithKlineGlaxo with support from the ultimate capitalist pig, Bill Gates and his foundation. In addition, not mentioned in the articles we have seen is the ground-breaking and expensive research done on malaria and distributed freely to researchers all over the world by the ultimate tool of greedy imperialist capitalist pigs, the US military.

So it seems that just as the B-52 has liberated more people, especially women, than any NGO or UN pronouncement, greedy Western capitalists and their tool of oppression, i.e., the US military, will now save the lives of more men, women, and children than . . . well, let’s just say that Bill Gates has improved and now saved the lives of more people in more countries than Mother Teresa and whomever that forgettable person is that just got the latest Nobel Peace Prize.

Long Live Capitalist Greed and the Oppressive Imperialist US Military!

Do you think that will catch on as a slogan in European leftist circles? We can dream, can’t we?

It just reminds of a post in the comments of which someone claims that capitalism has killed more people than the slaughter in Darfur. Think of all of those children, no longer subject to malaria, who will now die of other causes. Will this kind of horror never end?

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We left in the important information

[source]

Over on ABC’s ‘Noted Now’ website, a quote from my own Governator:

SCHWARZENEGGER SAYS BOTH BUSH AND KERRY EVASIVE IN DEBATES: “Both of them did not answer some of the questions, which I think is upsetting to me. I think it is much better to be straightforward with the people.… You know like Kerry did. Bush did the same thing in some instances, not really get into it and answer it.”

So I click along to the linked Reuters story and get this (the deleted words are in bold):

“Both of them did not answer some of the questions, which I think is upsetting to me,” Schwarzenegger told KGO radio in San Francisco. “I think it is much better to be straightforward with the people.” “I mean if you get a question about Iran and about the nuclear power and what you are going to do in the future with this nuclear power, and you don’t even answer that question, I think it’s a mistake, You know like Kerry did,” he continued. “Bush did the same thing in some instances, not really get into it and answer it.”

ABC has since issued a correction, which puts them a step ahead of AFP. Just an accident, nothing to see here…

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Oh, we just put that on the brochures

[source]

Immigrant students who pass New York’s Regents exam in English still can’t get out of segregated English as a Second Language classes, writes Samuel Freedman in the NY Times. They need 96 percent on the exit exam, which seems designed to keep students out of the mainstream forever. In theory, they get extra help in English as a Second Language classes. In practice, they get a slower, lower-level curriculum.

And the ESL teachers get jobs and the school district gets extra money. But we daren’t change public schools or it might hurt The Children™.

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Free speech for me but not for thee files

[source]

At U-Mass Amherst, a candidate for student government president was called a racist for opposing a plan to set aside seats in the Student Senate for ALANA, a group claiming to represent non-white students. Throwing around accusations of racism was OK. Parodying the charge — by drawing a caricature of a Klan Grand Wizard endorsing the minority group — may get nine students suspended or expelled. They were photographed standing in front of the caricature. FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education) is on the case.

[…]

In a letter to university officials, FIRE observed that the UMass president defended the free speech rights of Rene Gonzalez, a graduate student who wrote a Daily Collegian article last spring that called Army Ranger Pat Tillman an “idiot” and “a ‘G.I. Joe’ guy who got what was coming to him” after the former pro football star was killed fighting in Afghanistan.

It’s doubly bogus because the students didn’t distrubute the picture, others did. Apparently at U-Mass, if you say something politically incorrect which another student records and plays later, you are guilty of “harrassment”. So much for open and honest dialogue involving divergent opinions at U-Mass.

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