---

Friday, September 13, 2002

Baltic Soil Yields Evidence of a Bitter End to Napoleon's Army. The remains of the Grand Army of Napoleon, reduced to frozen, starving rabble after the retreat from its disastrous siege of Moscow in 1812, were discovered in Lithuania. By Michael Wines. [New York Times: Science] 11:36:59 PM  Permalink  comment []

The Contemplator's Folks Pages. [via Fred Lapides] Lots and lots of good stuff here; lyrics to dozens of songs, along with MIDI files. Eileen Arun Jackaroe House Carpenter Still Growing The Water is Wide Mary of the Moor Lord Rendel Barbara Allen The Lakes of Ponchartrain Lily of the West Shenandoah There is, of course, a common thread that runs among the list above; I'm sure I've missed some, too. 11:33:14 PM  Permalink  comment []

Powerful Stuff from Sam Smith Sam Smith's Progressive Review always presents trenchant, accurate commentary backed by facts which are generally hard to come by. In a media environment totally dominated by the corporate and conservative, he's a a breath of reason.  A prime example is the fact that the U.S. and its allies have, over the past decade, killed more innocent Iraqi citizens than has the Butcher of Baghdad. Not just from our continuing and largely unreported bombing, but through the economic, social, environmental, and health costs of our sanctions - as much an act of war as an invasion. It matters not to the dead whether you shoot, bomb, or starve them. Approximately 5,000 children under five have been dying each month as a direct consequence of our embargo. In one of the rare media references to this, Leslie Stahl on 60 Minutes in May 1996, asked Madeleine Albright, "We have heard that a half-million children have died [because of sanctions against Iraq]. I mean that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And -- and you know -- is the price worth it?" Madeleine Albright's stunning reply was: "I think this is a very hard choice, but the price -- we think the price is worth it." This was the same woman who lectured us on the evils of Slobodan Milosevic. Obviously, since the supposed purpose of the sanctions was to get rid of Hussein, they've been a collosal failure, and those 5,000 kids a month have died in vain (if there could ever be a purpose to that many innocent deaths). Remember 5,000 kids a month is almost 2 9/11's, out of a country less than 1/12th  the size of the United States! "By the count of author Bill Blum, since 1945 we have bombed China, Korea, Guatemala, Indonesia, Cuba, Congo, Peru, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Grenada, Libya, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan, and Yugoslavia. . . At what point does the constant reiteration of failed and fatal policy become a war crime and reckless incompetence become grotesque cruelty and tactics of death become -- to use a term used casually these days -- genocide? "There were nearly two million killed during the Vietnam war, most by air attacks that dropped twice as many bombs as we did in all of World War II -- nearly one 500-pound bomb per person. One million civilians were killed by our strategic bombing in Japan even before we got to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. More than two million civilians were killed in our bombing runs over North Korea. And one million Iraqi have died as a result of our sanctions. "Add these up and you come to the same figure as the Holocaust. . . Trace the American role in this extraordinary violence to its source and you come not upon political extremes, but to the heart of this country's establishment." And now we're at again, and once again the major media doesn't say a mumblin' word. Before approving of a war, don't we all owe it to ourselves and our country to take a cold look at these facts. If the facts can be proven false, let me know. (If it's not 5,000 how many is it?) But let's do that first before we go backing some war that will kill tens of thousands. 9:32:01 PM  Permalink  comment []

God Says Jim sends me a link to http://www.saysgod.com/. My favorite quote is "All this will someday be your children's." And who's to say god didn't say this? In any case, it's true. 3:38:34 PM  Permalink  comment []

© Copyright 2004 Steve Michel.