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12/16/2005 Archived Entry: "A small collection of news"

I'M LUMPING TOGETHER SEVERAL ITEMS that I've been meaning to blog this week. They deserve individual attention I haven't been able to give them. Some are news. Some are views. Some are beyond tragic. One is even nice. Here goes.

Professor R.J. Rummel has updated his genocide statistics. For the second time in a month. Upward. He now says 262 million people were slaughtered by their own governments in the twentieth century.

Bush secretly gave the NSA power to spy on Americans without warrants. Oh my. I am SO surprised. So very, very shocked. (Thank you, SJ.)

Here's how the War on Terror rewards one of its friends. The story is by Franz Kafka, as re-written by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfelt, et al. Another case in which "mistakes were made."

Bovard the Merciless rips into journalists for their robotic praise of air marshals. "Reports of spinal recovery" by journalists in the wake of the Katrina catastrophe "were premature." I particularly love the guy who wrote that the recent shooting sent a strong message to terrorists. What? A strong message that America's hired defenders will be shooting disruptive mentally ill people while polite quiet terrorists go about unnoticed?

Sheila Velazquez writes from cold, cold Bozeman, Montana about independent efforts to help the hungry homeless. Although I dispute the fedgov's stats on hunger in America, she writes movingly about people who take real local problems onto their own shoulders.

Doug Thompson, who usually specializes in angry political rants has grateful words for some truly outstanding service out there in mega-corporateland. (Thank you to Mystery Woman for this one.)

Posted by Claire @ 07:32 AM CST
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