Monthly Archives: August 2007
Record Numbers of Poppies in Afghanistan
New York Times has an article detailing the record levels of opium being produced in Afghanistan this year. We are spending $600 million on counternarcotics efforts, divided between eradication, interdiction, and “alternative livelihoods.” Government officials admit, however, that eradication “drives farmers into the hands of the Taliban.” Why not pay the farmers for the opium they produce and then destroy the crop, instead of insisting they grow wheat, which makes a tenth of the profits? A lot of the high cost of heroin in the United States is added at the end, because it costs so much to smuggle it in and refine it for street sale. As the leader of the free world, and with trillions of dollars in tax revenue, we should be able to outbid the Taliban.
Marques Slocum is Awesome
Marques Slocum, Michigan defensive tackle, fills out a Facebook online quiz, hilarity ensues.
Iraq, from the Ground
Seven US Army foot soldiers write a piece about the war as they see it, published by the New York Times. This is good, because almost all of the front page war news quotes come from army administration officials, several levels off the street. Really worth reading.
Today’s Quote
Jack Shafer, assessing the value of print news:
“As good as the Web is at keeping apace with the current, it isn’t very good at telling me when my news tank is full. The final editions of well-edited newspapers still do a better job of conveying the most vital news than does a browsing of the Web. It gives readers a yardstick with which to measure the news before they dive in. If I had just 10 minutes to catch up on what’s happening, I’d rather fan through the paper pages of the Times and Post than click my favorite sites.”
Youtube Video of the Day
Funniest two minutes of TV I’ve seen all summer.
[youtube=watch?v=oTrssyssSVE]
FDA Approves Seconds
Harry Potter and the Chinese Knockoffs
Found in the New York Times. Pretty funny.
Last Comic Standing
The comics on the new season of Last Comic Standing are not funny. They are way out of their element on every challenge that requires creative thinking. There are three or four comics that haven’t made me laugh once, and that I feel the producers picked the final comics to make an intriguing ten, not to pick the funniest comics (And yes, the producers do pick the finalists, not the celebrity talent scouts). There were way funnier comics in the semi-finals that didn’t make it. I feel like the comics from previous seasons were much funnier than this bunch.
Dirty Dealings
Ted Stevens, the senator from Alaska, is under investigation for bribery. Bribery is illegal. All of this, however, isn’t.