Arthur Schiff, who died of lung cancer last week in Coral Springs, Fla., at 66, was a businessman who ran his own marketing company for 23 years. And his passing, like the man himself, was altogether quiet, with not a single newspaper noting his death.
But wait, there's more!
But wait, there's more!
Arthur Schiff was an ingenious salesman, a veritable artist of American capitalism. He sold everything, and sold it by the trainload: pots and pans, pantyhose, wrinkle cream, teeth whiteners, windshield wipers, scratch removers and weed whackers. Anyone who ever watched television in the graveyard hours knows Schiff's work. Likely as not, it enchanted, amused, appalled or got them to reach for their wallets and their phones.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2006 00:00 ||
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A Ginsu knife could cut anything; the famous ad shows the cutlery tearing through a tin can
Although that's what the voice over said, it was a lie. The commercial actually had to retract and re-record that particular little line.
What the knife was really cutting through on-screen was an aluminum beverage can and not a food storage can, something that would have blunted a Ginsu knife in seconds or less.
Without Schiff, American kitsch would be poorer
Perhaps so for this nation's kitsch, but Americans would be a lot richer had this huckster never been born. Schiff and his idiot-bastard-child, Ron Popiel, helped usher in an era of marketing based upon "perceived value". If IBM or AT&T ever attempted to devote the amount of money Ronco spent on television advertising time, their executives would instantly be fired.
By purchasing massive blocks of inexpensive late-night programming time, Ronco projected themselves as a manufacturing powerhouse. Popular perception ran as follows; "If they can afford these lengthy and expensive commercials, they must really have a dynamite product." This is the basis of perceived value. A triumph of style over substance, the credo of our age.
Dynamite products they were not. In fact, exactly the opposite was true. Ronco products were designed with paper-thin tolerances and materials that would outlast the warantee by milliseconds, on a good day. Shipping and handling often exceeded the actual purchased item's value and commonly represented a separate and highly profitable revenue stream all of its own.
Schiff is probably responsible for a solid 10% of our non-decomposing landfills. The items sold could not be serviced or repaired nor were they durable goods in any sense of the word. The black eye given to honest entrepreneurial spirit and true capitalism will last far longer than any other legacy that Schiff has left to us.
How do I know this? I worked, very briefly, for one of the vacuum packaging food storage product marketing firms. Their goods were essentially aquarium pumps with a high school diploma. The advertised marketing claims involved serious misrepresentation of fact. Most frightening of all; If production became backlogged, all they had to do was decrease how often the informercial ran. If sales dragged, merely upping the infomercial airtime was all it took.
We are talking about sales entirely driven by marketing and not a thing to do with quality or cost effectiveness. This is the pinnacle of perceived quality and it represents the nadir of quality engineering and everything that is wrong with today's planned obsolescence goods. Whenever you see a label that reads, "NO USED SERVICEABLE PARTS INSIDE", remember to thank Arthur Schiff.
#4
Speaking of saving money, in search of immediate air-conditioning relief I made the mistake of sitting in a movie theater, while Nicholas Cage's remake of "The Wicker Man" was playing. Not only is it poorly acted junk, a Feminazi plot was grafted over the original story of present day Paganism. The "Stepford Wives" was protested by Feminists. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a Masculinist.
Save your money and your lunch by avoiding this emitic waste of time. Thumbs way, way, way down.
#5
Art was a god to us studying Bizzz Addders, including Marketing Management, at university. Sigh, GLEN FORD has also passed - one of my favs when Hollywood was Hollywood, NOT Holly weird.
#8
The next round's on me at the O club in Art's memory...daiquiris whipped up in my Magic Bullet, of course.
I know people who swear by the Magic Bullet.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/03/2006 9:01 Comments ||
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#9
I still have Mom's Veg-O-Matic. The sucker actually works.
Posted by: Mike ||
09/03/2006 9:41 Comments ||
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#10
is that a fishing rod in your pocket or...
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/03/2006 10:07 Comments ||
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#11
Seriously, Zen I'd rather live in a society where Schiff can push his junk and people can buy it -- and expose it in blogs, as necessary -- than in a society in which some people decide what is appropriate to build and sell, and how.
Haven't met yet the person I want to run the world him/herself. It's messier our way, but overall it has some significant advantages.
#16
Now now, I could do very nice job running the world ...
I like the way you think, Steve. It's a dirty job but somebody's got to do it.
My post in no way replies that Schiff should never have been allowed to go to market with his shoddy crap. Only that such tripe accustoms the consumer to getting less than their money's worth and dulls any awareness of what actual quality is.
I am an inveterate thrift shop junkie. Why? I find that goods manufactured over 30 to 50 years ago are incredibly more durable and well-built than the plastic muck spewn forth today. My kitchen is full of expensive French Le Creuset cookware, all discarded by yuppies who inherited their parents' homes, that I then bought for bare pennies on the dollar. They can have their ridiculously overpriced Caphalon, I'll take enameled cast iron any day.
I buy cast iron skillets for $3.00 and fine vegetable dyed Mexican serapes for $5.00. Old metal-bodied Dremel tools, complete with steel tool box, plus arbors and bits for a whopping $10.00. You couldn't pry this stuff out of my hands unless you waved a $100.00 bill in my face.
Keep your electricity guzzling Ronco George Forman grill. I'll use a Wagner cast iron comal on my O'Keefe & Merritt gas range.
#17
My mother-in-law is now in an assisted living facility. I have my eye on her old toaster, which had been her mom's. Has the wire-reinforced fabric-wrapped cord and takes wide bread. ;-)
Good catch on that Dremel! Dremels with sandpaper bands are THE way to trim dogs' nails, by the way. Once you accustom the dog to it it's fast, easy and if you accidently go a little into the quick it heat-seals the wound immediately. Basically puts weeks of nails being worn down if the dog were living in the wild and concentrates it into a 2 minute grooming effort.
If you've got a dog and he or you hate doing nails, this will change it for you. No pain, no pressure on the sensitive quick, just a short session with the ol' Dremel and they're good to go. I do mine with the dogs on my lap on the couch or the easy chair. They fight for who gets to go first to get the cuddling and tolerate the nails as the price of admission. ;-)
#18
lotp, thanx for the dremel info wrt dog nails. My dobie has really long nails and a long quick. Normal exercise only reduces them a little. Cutting her nails has been a pain (literally and figuratively). I'm going to try the dremel.
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has urged nationals to emigrate to Africa, warning them that if they do not move quickly all the best paid jobs will be taken by Chinese or Indians. "Before it's too late, move to Africa, which is filling up with Chinese, Indians, Bangladeshis and others," Gaddafi said in a speech late Thursday marking the 37th anniversary of his seizure of power.
Remind me what continent Libya is on again?
Go to Africa, create large estates, build thousands of homes. No one will ask you why you're doing it. On the contrary, they will thank you because you are taking part in the building of the continent...
"Civil servants who are nearing retirement as well as the young should head to Africa," said Gaddafi, who has long since tired of Arab nationalism and insisted on an African future for his oil-rich north African nation. "Those who want to raise livestock, farm, open a shop or chemist's, work in communications, convert people to Islam, provide medical care or look after the environment, all will find work in Africa," he asserted in a country which is itself a magnet for tens of thousands of job-seekers from sub-Saharan Africa.
"Go to Africa, create large estates, build thousands of homes. No one will ask you why you're doing it. On the contrary, they will thank you because you are taking part in the building of the continent," the official JANA news agency quoted him as saying.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2006 00:00 ||
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"get the hell out of my country. I don't want no population - none of ya pay enought tax anyway. Geddout! Now! Piss off, all of ya's."
A prominent South African clergyman and opponent of apartheid has told how an apartheid-era minister washed his feet in a gesture of contrition.
Rev Frank Chikane survived a murder attempt in the 1980s. He said he was grateful for the gesture made earlier this month by ex-minister Adriaan Vlok.
Other former detainees say Mr Vlok should have apologised personally to all victims of police abuse.
Mr Vlok testified to the post-apartheid truth commission and received amnesty.
Mr Vlok was security minister in the late 1980s, a period when emergency laws granted police sweeping powers of arrest and detention against anti-apartheid activists.
Rev Chikane, former head of the South African Council of Churches, told at the weekend how Mr Vlok had arrived at his office and given him a Bible with the words "I have sinned against the Lord and against you, please forgive me (John 13:15)" on its cover.
"He said 'I take you as a representative and an embodiment of all the other people I should be talking to,'" Rev Chikane said, quoted by the Pretoria News.
"He then asked for water ... he picked up a glass of water, opened his bag, pulled out a bowl, put the water in the bowl, took out the towel, said 'you must allow me to do this' and washed my feet in my office," Rev Chikane said.
Mr Chikane, who was head of the South African Council of Churches during the state of emergency of the late 1980s, survived an assassination attempt when clothes impregnated with poison were placed in his suitcase while he was travelling.
Mr Vlok's symbolic apology has drawn some criticism.
Former activist Shirley Gunn, who was detained with her baby son for more than two months, described the foot-washing gesture as "provocative and insensitive".
"I still haven't got the truth out of (Mr Vlok) about what happened to me," Ms Gunn said.
"He can't just wash Frank Chikane's feet and think that that is the end of it ... he needs to apologise to his victims directly."
Current SACC General Secretary Eddie Makue commended Mr Vlok's gesture, but said it was no substitute for full disclosure.
"Many high-ranking members of the former government failed to participate unreservedly in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission process," he said, quoted by the South African Press Association.
"As a result, we are left with many unanswered questions concerning responsibility for gross human rights violations during the apartheid years."
Rev Chikane is now director general of the South African president's office.
Posted by: john ||
09/03/2006 17:52 ||
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Johannesburg - Former apartheid minister of law and order Adriaan Vlok has apologised to the director-general of the Presidency, Reverend Frank Chikane, for the atrocities committed by police under his command.
According to a SABC news report on Saturday, Vlok had requested a meeting with Chikane because he saw Chikane as a symbol of those who had suffered at the hands of his police.
Chikane is the former general-secretary of the SA Council of Churches.
Vlok washed Chikane's feet during the meeting, to show his humility.
He asked Chikane to accept his apology and gesture. He said he wanted to reconcile with God.
Chikane accepted Vlok's apology.
Posted by: john ||
09/03/2006 18:02 Comments ||
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In 1999, Vlok was granted amnesty by South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission for the 1988 bombing of Khotso House, the Johannesburg headquarters of the South African Council of Churches. The blast injured 21 people.
Vlok, who was the only Cabinet minister of the apartheid era to apply for amnesty, told the commission in 1998 that he took "full political and moral responsibility" for the bombing. He admitted that he had conducted a smear campaign against activist Shirley Gunn of the African National Congress, then a liberation movement. He had alleged Gunn was the bomber of the church council building.
Posted by: john ||
09/03/2006 18:04 Comments ||
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I read that, and I think, that's not apology, that's just another case of hubris.
(2006-08-29) One year after hurricane Katrina, despite an outpouring of billions of dollars from government, church and private charity, and countless teams of volunteers who have come to their aid, many residents of New Orleans have still failed to restore their homes and neighborhoods, or even to clean up the storm-tossed debris, according to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-CA.
Katrina was a tragedy in itself, Rep. Pelosi said at a news conference in a neighborhood where moldy furniture still lay in front yards, but it exposed a tragedy of greater proportions. Some people in this region have lost the spirit of our forefathers the work ethic, the persistence, the determination to overcome adversity.
The California lawmaker said that when she becomes the next Speaker of the House she plans to use her new prominence to tell Americans to stop expecting the federal government to protect you from natural disasters, and to bail you out afterward.
When reporters asked what might be learned in the aftermath of Katrina, Rep. Pelosi said there were at least three lessons.
One: dont buy a house between a lake and the sea thats built below sea level, she said. Lesson two: if theres a hurricane coming, get out of town. And lesson three: if your home gets wrecked, clean up the mess and start rebuilding like many people on the Gulf Coast have already done or at least rip it down, cart off the debris and start over on higher ground.
Rep. Pelosi reserved her harshest comments for people who have made a lifestyle out of blaming President Bush for everything.
Were you expecting President Bush to show up at your door and whisk you to safety in his armored SUV? she asked rhetorically. After the storm, did you think he was going to skydive out of Air Force One and start shoveling the junk out of your living room? Wake up and smell the personal responsibility. What have you been doing for the last 360 days? Get off your keister, organize your neighbors and get this mess straightened up.
Asked if she was concerned that her remarks might be perceived as less than compassionate, the lawmaker said, Compassion does not mean fostering a culture of dependency that leaves people vulnerable and helpless when the inevitable trials come.
Sometimes the greater part of compassion, she added, is challenging people to use their God-given abilities in a way that preserves their human dignity and strengthens them for the next crisis.
#2
WELL, there are some gems of truth here when you look at the situation. Or mabey it is just so politically incorrent to point out that this region of the country was the highest recipient of public assistance Before Katrina.
Posted by: bk ||
09/03/2006 9:35 Comments ||
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#5
This has to be BS. No politician from socialist San Francisco would ever advocate a sense of personal responsibility. Self-reliance is not in the Democraps playbook.
#7
Note up at the top, where it says "Scrappleface." The post is satire, not Nancy Pelosi's actual words.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
09/03/2006 13:51 Comments ||
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#8
Dear Nancy, that last face lift must have stretched too tight and must be causing adverse brain reactions. You just let go with some common sense. Did you forget that the entire basis for the Demo Party is that Big Gov will take take of you, no matter what? These lazy jackoffs have heard this spiel their entire lives. They believe it completely. You can't just ask them to change course in mid-stream now.
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Posted by: Frank G ||
09/03/2006 22:21 Comments ||
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#16
Idiot.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
09/03/2006 22:32 Comments ||
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#12 StupidIdiot - When I was growing up - in the 1950's, in the South, in a bigoted town, in a bigoted family - we didn't. Nor did the use the "n" word so popular with racist "singers"/rappers these days.
My Mama always said only TRASH talks like that.
So now we all know what you are.
Loser.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/03/2006 23:13 Comments ||
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Wowie, Zowie, it's 2006 and minority leader Pelosi is just awakening to what I have known all my life. When I was a kid, we called 'em porch monkeys for a reason.
ISLAMABAD: Low quality carpets and rugs in mosques raise chances of respiratory infections among the regular mosque-goers, a doctor has told Daily Times.
The doctor said the chances of catching throat infection, asthma and skin and respiratory allergies would be higher in the people having close contact with the fibres of cheap quality carpets or rugs.
Not only in the mosques but the poor quality carpets in any place like houses are also dangerous to human health, said Dr Rizwan Qazi of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS).
I am not trying to say that people should stop going to mosques. The purpose of my observation is that such carpets should be removed from mosques, he said. He said poor quality carpets and rugs could cause serious respiratory infections. He said mosque goers, when in position of Sajda or prostration, inhaled dangerous particles from carpets. Those who are already suffering from respiratory diseases should better avoid contact with carpets, he said. Referring to the example of Haj pilgrims, he said the people with or without respiratory problems could also use masks to avoid carpets hazards. But the trend of wearing masks is not very common. Besides, a healthy man would not use mask while going to the mosque, he said. He said Chatai, a kind of mate made of leaves, could better be used instead of carpets and rugs in mosques. He said Chatai was not only cheap in price, but it was also safer for use as compared to the poor quality carpets.
Several mosques in the federal capital pose threats to human health because they use poor quality carpets. A mosque, situated in street 47 of Sector G-11/2, is one such example. The poor quality of the carpets in this mosque can easily be seen. While breathing in Sajda in the mosque, one can feel he is inhaling the fibres into his lungs. The immediate reaction is itching in the nose.
When the matter was brought to the notice of khatib of the mosque, he said except few no worshiper ever complained about the carpets. He dismisses the arguments of doctors against the use of poor quality carpets. He said the mosque administration did not have enough money to remove the old and buy new and expensive carpets. He said that Chatai could also not be used in the mosque because it was difficult to offer prayer on Chatai during the winter. Athar Saeed Dil, a spokesman of the Health Ministry, said no specific guidelines were issued to the mosques to avoid the use of substandard synthetic carpets. He said no mosques-specific discussion took place in the ministry in this regard.
He said the Health Ministry frequently issued general guidelines and appeals to people that they should avoid the use of synthetic carpets. He said the ministry especially focussed on the issue in the months of March and April, when the allergy season is on its peak.
He advised people to use vacuum cleaners instead of brooms to clean the synthetic carpets. He added that the vacuum cleaners suck not only the dust particles but also the fibres of the synthetic carpets, reducing the threats of respiratory infections. An official of the Auqaf Department, who requested not to be named, said his department ensured proper cleanliness at the mosques in its jurisdiction. He, however, stated that the issue of the synthetic carpets was never discussed.
He said there were a number of illegal mosques in the federal territory and these mosques did not care for cleanliness. The problem of lack of cleanliness and the one you are mentioning (carpets issue) are quite common there (in illegally built mosques), he said. He said the Auqaf Department could not take any action against the illegally built mosques for ignoring cleanliness because these mosques were not registered under any law of the land.
He said, If, for instance, we impose a penalty against any illegal mosque on account of poor cleanliness, it mean that we have recognised its existence in our territory. Such mosques should either be recognised or removed.
Posted by: john ||
09/03/2006 08:04 ||
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"Little Sajda Prayer AccessoriesTM Rumsfeld Rug & Carpet Company® Do Not Remove This Tag Under Penalty of Fatwah"
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
09/03/2006 9:15 Comments ||
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#2
Hmmm... I wonder if we could do this deliberately, like our ancestors did with the smallpox laced blankets.
Posted by: N guard ||
09/03/2006 9:50 Comments ||
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#3
N guard: That was Baron Jeffrey Amherst. Along with his subordinate Colonel Henry Bouquet, they fought in some of the nastiest, dirtiest combat ever seen in the North America.
No quarter, no prisoners, no mercy or respect of any kind, on either side, first in the French and Indian War, followed by Pontiac's Rebellion.
#12
I'm holding my breath until some mullah issues a fatwa on the "appropriate" types of prayer rugs. Well, not really, I'm gonna be a hypocrite like Cindy "Fasting" Shehan.
Posted by: BA ||
09/03/2006 20:42 Comments ||
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Nepal's Maoist leader warned of mass protests in the streets of the capital Kathmandu if rebel demands for the election of a body to rewrite the country's constitution were not met. "If a free and fair environment for constituent assembly elections is not created, we will launch a capital-centred revolution where we hope thousands of people will participate," Prachanda told a rally in the capital.
The rally was staged to commemorate those killed in weeks of violent protests that forced King Gyanendra to give up absolute rule in the kingdom in April and hand power to an interim multi-party government. Under the peace process launched soon after Gyanendra handed back power seized from lawmakers in February 2005, a power-sharing government of Maoists and political parties is to be created until elections to a constituent assembly can be held next year. The assembly will rewrite the Himalayan country's constitution.
Nepal's Maoist rebels and the government have been observing a ceasefire for the last four months after jointly organizing the mass protests which led to the king's climbdown.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2006 00:00 ||
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Prachada and his commie handlers need to be booted out of the himalayan kingdon, the people are going to have to take matters into their own hands before this thing is over I afraid, These Moaist punks (shit heads) are behaving like any other group of Terr.'s; whining that unless they get their way they will take their ball and go home. Phuque the Commies! ( didnt we already learn that lesson?) India and the USA need to quash this problem in the bud before the Chinks gain an even greater stronghold over our ONLY reliable ally in Asia, INDIA. wake up you morons before it's too late. They may not have any oil but they do have the most strategic position in Asia.
Posted by: bk ||
09/03/2006 9:41 Comments ||
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In 2004, 479 trafficking-related cases were registered, 289 individuals arrested, 248 cases filed and 72 were convicted, the report says citing cases in which law-enforcement officials "mistakenly" identified trafficking victims as voluntary participants in human smuggling and initiated criminal procedures against them...
A recent report titled 'Fading light: A Study on Child Trafficking', points out the lack of recognition of complexities involving domestic child kidnapping, smuggling and trafficking in the country's existing laws. In 2002, the government introduced the Human Trafficking Law, proposing imprisonment for human traffickers and compensation to victims but the law addresses only international trafficking and neglects the domestic, the report says.
In 2004, 479 trafficking-related cases were registered, 289 individuals arrested, 248 cases filed and 72 were convicted, the report says citing cases in which law-enforcement officials "mistakenly" identified trafficking victims as voluntary participants in human smuggling and initiated criminal procedures against them, highlighting the need for training on the distinction between trafficking and smuggling. Based on the findings of the report in 2001 and 2003, as many as 39,157 male and 2,061 female children were trafficked from rural to rural and urban areas within and from Sindh, with or without their consent.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2006 00:00 ||
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Health experts are to hold an emergency meeting in Johannesburg this week, following the discovery of a deadly new strain of tuberculosis. The strain - known as extreme drug-resistant TB - has horrified World Health Organisation doctors. In one outbreak in South Africa, 52 of 53 patients died within weeks of becoming infected.
'This new strain leaves us facing a nightmare,' said Paul Nunn, coordinator of the WHO's drug-resistance unit. 'It is resistant to nearly every drug in our arsenal. We are now on the threshold of the appearance of a strain of TB that is resistant to every medicine known to science.'
The strain was originally discovered by scientists earlier this year. They looked at cases of multiple drug-resistant TB - which has developed over the past decade in many parts of the world - and discovered that among these a worrying new 'extreme' strain had evolved.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/03/2006 00:00 ||
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coming soon via illegal aliens to a town near you
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/03/2006 10:11 Comments ||
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Already arrived in Toronto thanks to the 150 (HIV infected) delegates from the recent AIDS conference that have claimed "refugee" status and remained here.
Obesity has reached pandemic proportions throughout the world and is now the greatest single contributor to chronic disease, an international conference was told here. It is the number one health problem of the American poor.
Whereas 40 years ago malnutrition and starvation were the major health and nutrition problems of the American poor.
"This insidious, creeping pandemic of obesity is now engulfing the entire world," Australia's Monash University professor Paul Zimmet, chair of the 10th International Congress on Obesity, said on the opening day of the conference.
The spread of the problem was "led by affluent western nations, whose physical activity and dietary habits are regrettably being adopted by developing nations," Zimmet told more than 2,000 delegates. The world now has more fat people than hungry ones, according to World Health Organisation figures, with more than a billion overweight people compared to 800 million who are undernourished.
The congress on obesity is held every four years, with the last three staged in Toronto (1994), Paris (1998) and Sao Paulo (2002). "The conference will treat obesity as the keystone of all health priorities because it is the single greatest contributor to chronic disease throughout the world," said University of Sydney professor Ian Caterson, the event co-chair. "There are now more overweight people in the world than undernourished and we are seeing the double burden of the extremes of malnutrition -- undernutrition and overnutrition -- in many developing countries.
"We know this is not about gluttony -- it is the interaction of heredity and environment. We know that small changes can make a big difference in peoples weight and health."
Zimmet said the problem needed urgent solutions -- not just widespread changes to diet and exercise but the rethinking of national policies on urban and social planning, agriculture policy, education, transport and other areas. He also warned in an opening address that the growth of obesity-related diabetes, or so-called "diabesity", was set to bankrupt health budgets all over the world.
Around 370 speakers and presenters at the six-day congress will discuss a range of issues, including scientific research on how the brain regulates energy and advances in the prevention and clinical management of obesity. The conference is being attended by academics and health professionals from Australia, Japan, the United States, Britain, Canada, Sweden, Indonesia and New Zealand.
#2
"It is the number one health problem of the American poor."
-I know that is true but it still amuses me to no end that "our poor" are fatter than most other nations' really rich folks. I knew an indian once who said that only in America will you see poor fat people. I knew what he meant, they were not truly poor by real standards.
Our poor people actually have better standards of living than the majority of the middle class in India. Which ought to tell you that the truly poor in India live in wretched conditions.
I would LOVE to send our so-called poor there, so they could get a taste of what it is like to have really bad living conditions, with no safety net and no chance of opportunity.
#4
In a world that has been plagued by rolling famines throughout its history, I find the thought of obesity as a world health issue incredibley ironic. So we now have more fat people in the world than starving people, and we live long enough for obesity's negative effects to be clearly demonstrated in the individual. And people are upset by this? People, we now live long enough and well enough to actually worry about getting TOO much food! Even 100 years ago, that was an unthinkable problem : the world that existed back then had famines caused by war and drought that killed hundreds of thousands at a time. And now we have international conferences lecturing us on how big our butts are, and demanding that we had over all of our social planning powers to them so that they can correct us.
#5
Don't even have to go back 100 years, Shieldwolf - in this country, never mind the rest of the world.
Americans really did starve to death during the Great Depression. Not a huge number, as is usually the case in famines, but still....
In a world where millions of people go to bed really hungry (as in no food, not as in nothing to eat since 8 pm) most nights, and have no access to clean water, this is the LAST thing we should be worrying about.
So of course these wacky-demics, who have never missed a meal - or even had to scramble to find one - decide this is the world's biggest problem.
I think the wacky-demic lefties, and their fellow travelers the Useless Nitwits and the NGOs (otherwise known as the Toyota Taliban), are the world's biggest problem.
I think we need a conference to address that pressing issue. Think I could get a grant?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/03/2006 15:44 Comments ||
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#6
Yawn. First it was the fault of "affluent western nations" that everyone else was starving to death. We fed them, and now it's our fault that they're fat little porkers. WTF do they want. No need for gratitude, but some consistency would be nice.
Posted by: ST ||
09/03/2006 15:46 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Arthur Schiff, who died of lung cancer last week in Coral Springs, Fla., at 66, was a businessman who ran his own marketing company for 23 years. And his passing, like the man himself, was altogether quiet, with not a single newspaper noting his death.
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has urged nationals to emigrate to Africa, warning them that if they do not move quickly all the best paid jobs will be taken by Chinese or Indians. "Before it's too late, move to Africa, which is filling up with Chinese, Indians, Bangladeshis and others," Gaddafi said in a speech late Thursday marking the 37th anniversary of his seizure of power. 
Nepal's Maoist leader warned of mass protests in the streets of the capital Kathmandu if rebel demands for the election of a body to rewrite the country's constitution were not met. "If a free and fair environment for constituent assembly elections is not created, we will launch a capital-centred revolution where we hope thousands of people will participate," Prachanda told a rally in the capital.
A recent report titled 'Fading light: A Study on Child Trafficking', points out the lack of recognition of complexities involving domestic child kidnapping, smuggling and trafficking in the country's existing laws. In 2002, the government introduced the Human Trafficking Law, proposing imprisonment for human traffickers and compensation to victims but the law addresses only international trafficking and neglects the domestic, the report says. 
Health experts are to hold an emergency meeting in Johannesburg this week, following the discovery of a deadly new strain of tuberculosis. The strain - known as extreme drug-resistant TB - has horrified World Health Organisation doctors. In one outbreak in South Africa, 52 of 53 patients died within weeks of becoming infected.
