News to Spit on Your Antiquated Views
BBCNews has an excellent report on what states are under the microscope for the 2006 midterm election. The one saving grace for the Republicans, associated with an unpopular war and an even more unpopular President, is that they get to run against Democrats, who are perennial experts at proving their incompetence at running campaign.
The UN has released a list of the top 10 most underreported stories concerning the world. In the ‘obvious’ section: “Every year, the U.N.’s Department of Public Information (DPI) unveils its list of the world’s 10 most under-reported stories, implying that politics, murder and sex scandals still take precedence over poverty, peace-building or economic developments.”
Coming Anarchy has a good post on the recent violence that has swept through San Paolo, Brazil, mainly from one of the world’s largest and best managed criminal organizations. Plus it references one of the best movies made in the past 25 years, City of God.
The Washington Post also has an article about the health concerns associated with teenage sex. The most telling quote:
“They tend to agree that the mixed message America sends to teens about sex — authorities say “don’t” while mass media screams “What are you waiting for?”– endanger our children.
The outcome? Levels of teen sexual activity look remarkably similar here and abroad, but U.S. rates of teen pregnancy, childbirth, abortion and sexually transmitted diseases are among the highest of all industrialized nations…”
In a less serious and spiteful tone, where else can you read “Ah, Adama, it’s the penis. The wooden penis. Once, I feared it. Now it calls to me in my dreams and tells me to carry it everywhere.” Only on Salon, which has a book review of a post-abroad white boy story. Also, from the same review, this sounds exactly like me: “Adama’s love life, it must be said, is much like that of the average American male in his 20s: flailing, contradictory and unconsidered. He is teased mercilessly by the local flirt, launches a formal courtship of a regal herdsman’s daughter (only to chicken out after he wins her hand) and falls in love with two women — one married, the other a prostitute — neither of whom is foolish enough to take him too seriously.
Today’s history lesson: it’s the 40th anniversary of the Cultural Revolution in China. BBCNews has a collection of eye witness accounts from what became one of the biggest acts of genocide and mob-violence in human history.
