Mon, 21 Oct 2002
Americans Taking Up More Space, Leaving Less for Evildoers

Obesity may be America's secret weapon in war on terror.

"The average American today is between fifty and seventy pounds overweight," said Dr. Charles Reardon, author of the study. "That means that a terrorist who hopes to fit in here would have to eat like a pig to do so."

via anthony

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Falwell and His 'Christian Right' Have It Wrong

Rev. Jan Linn et al deliver a very lucid smack-down to Falwell:

It is not Christian in attitude or actions because both represent what Jesus spoke and acted against. Those who lead the Christian right are the Pharisees of today's Christianity. They play the role of moral and thought police, condemning to hell anyone whose actions they consider wrong and whose views are different from their own. Their religiosity runs a mile wide but their spirituality is an inch deep.

... and ...

In our view the Christian right gives new meaning to Mohandas Gandhi's comment that he might have become a Christian had he not known so many.

via Common Dreams

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For Richer: looking at the widening wealth gap in the US

Paul Krugman, over at nyt.

... you can't understand what's happening in America today without understanding the extent, causes and consequences of the vast increase in inequality that has taken place over the last three decades, and in particular the astonishing concentration of income and wealth in just a few hands. To make sense of the current wave of corporate scandal, you need to understand how the man in the gray flannel suit has been replaced by the imperial C.E.O. The concentration of income at the top is a key reason that the United States, for all its economic achievements, has more poverty and lower life expectancy than any other major advanced nation. Above all, the growing concentration of wealth has reshaped our political system: it is at the root both of a general shift to the right and of an extreme polarization of our politics.

via anthony

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419 scam stories

I think someone, somewhere needs to collect up all the 419 scam premises - I know I've received a lot of variations, and got a completely new one today which makes quite a story:

Due to the military campaign of LAURENT KABILA to force out the rebels in my country, I and some of my colleagues were instructed by Late President Kabila to go abroad to purchase arms and ammunition worth of Twenty Million, Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars only (US$20,500,000.00) to fight the rebel group. We were then given this money privately by the then President, LAURENT KABILA, without the knowledge of other Cabinet Members. But when President Kabila was killed in a bloody shoot-out by one of his bodyguards a day before we were schedule to travel out of Congo, We immediately decided to put the funds into a private security company here in Congo for safe keeping. The security of the said amount is presently being threatened here following the arrest and seizure of properties of Col. Rasheidi Karesava (One of the aides to Laurent Kabila) a tribesman, and some other Military Personnel from our same tribe, by the new President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the son of late President Laurent Kabila, Joseph Kabila.
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