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mousey musings
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
As I sift through the reports coming out of New Orleans, I am struck by how much the chaos resembles the hypothetical aftermath of a nuclear strike on a major urban center. The casualties aren't comparable, of course, but the total collapse of local health services, the creation of hundreds of thousands of homeless people, and the breakdown of law and order all remind me of the single-city scenarios described in nuclear war literature. How well equipped are we to deal with a major metropolitan area becoming uninhabitable for weeks or months?
Imagine that the same situation in New Orleans was compounded by radioactivity, hundreds of thousands of seriously wounded people, fallout downwind, and the complete destruction of the inner core of the city. How would our social system, already taxed from responding to a "mere" hurricane, be able to cope? This little thought experiment ought to make us think twice about allowing arms control talks with the Russians to stall indefinitely. There are still tens of thousands of nuclear weapons in the world; perhaps it's time to think about what effect even one of them might have on our modern society.
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Racist media roundup, New Orleans edition. The media have been running photos of looters. Every one I've seen has been nonwhite. At first I figured that was just the demographics of New Orleans, but then someone pointed out the contrasting captions on photos of whites and nonwhites with looted goods:
Photo of nonwhite who "looted"
Photo of whites who "found"
Photo of another nonwhite who (guess what?) "looted"
Saturday, August 27, 2005
You Have the Right to Videotape -- Some fascist (literally) cops were hit with $41,000 in damages because they arrested someone for videotaping them. Ah, if only there were another zero or two police might get the message: People have the right to record their government at work.
Thursday, August 25, 2005
There's a great post over at Balkinization dealing with the fears of white males. In short, why are so many men relatively unafraid of traffic accidents, war, surgery, etc but extremely fearful of being culutrally marginalized?
Monday, August 22, 2005
Political Cartoon Rorschach Test -- This attempts to guess your political views from what you find funny. After all, everyone believes that their opponents are not only offensive, but can't even take a joke. Can you take a joke that challenges your political beliefs?
Sunday, August 21, 2005
Touched by His Noodly Appendage -- Finally, a religion I can adopt -- Pastafarianism makes an excellent counter to all those theists whose only mode of argument is "well, then how do you explain (insert mystery here)?" Why, His Noodly Appendages made the rattling noise / transformed the species / resurrected Jesus, of course! We cannot truly understand the ways of the Flying Spaghetti Monster; we are merely vessels doing His work.
Friday, August 19, 2005
bakuteh
Tonight I made myself bakuteh, a yummy chicken stew with herbs I'd never heard of before and an entire bulb of garlic for a single (big) bowl of stew. Yum!
Overheard in New York -- This site contains snippets of conversations that people overheard and submitted. Some of them are hilarious while others are disturbing.
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Hidden Costs of Toll Roads -- It appears governments routinely enter non-compete agreements with toll-road investors that not only prohibit future highway improvements that might threaten the toll roads' revenue, but in some cases also require lower speed limits, extra traffic signals, etc on the public roads in order to make the toll road appear more attractive.
Sunday, August 14, 2005
Lutherans Reject Easing Gay Clergy Rules -- I went to an ELCA school, and the administration was bigoted half the time and merely ignorant the other half. It looks like they're following ELCA doctrine pretty closely. Oh, and these are the liberal Lutherans, mind you. Why do so many otherwise liberal people maintain memberships in things like country clubs that won't admit African-Americans or religious organizations that call gays and lesbians sinners against God? People must have a strange way of dissociating their membership fees/offerings from the actual activity and policies of the organizations they support. I suppose it's also possible that many people who tell friends and pollsters they have nothing against "those people" are lying and find a way to express themselves with their wallets.
Mmmm.... My latest snack food discovery is a collision of my two favorite junk foods: Flamin' Hot Cheetos and Limon (lime-flavored) chips. Behold, the wonder that is Flamin' Hot Limon Cheetos!
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