Kitty Says Moo

Why Western culture triumphed:

LUCKNOW (Reuters) – Lawyers tied a young man to a tree and beat him outside a court in India for refusing to marry one of their relatives, an official said on Wednesday.

And why its days may be numbered:

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – A Dutch broadcaster will air a show this week in which a terminally ill woman selects a recipient for her kidneys from three contestants, despite government calls for the programme to be scrapped.

And finally, another of the benefits of state-sponsored medical care:

BEIJING (Reuters) – A Chinese woman’s 64-year-old headache has ended after doctors removed a bullet that relatives said lodged in her skull when Japanese soldiers shot her during World War Two, state media reported on Monday.

Sure, the waiting lines a re a bit long, but they did a fine job when they got around to it.

I was reading a press release from something called the “Institute of Medicine” today, which immediately had me suspicious, of course, and rightly so; this institute is actually part of the Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy at the University of Virginia School of Law. And whenever lawyers start preaching on public policy, I instinctively check to see if my wallet is still there.

The press release was in the form of a demand that the FDA immediately regulate the nicotine content of cigarettes, calling it an “aggressive step” that would “end the use of tobacco.” Of course, countless medical studies have shown that when smokers switch to cigarettes with less nicotine, they simply adjust their smoking frequency to maintain the same level of blood nicotine. And in so doing they increase their intake of PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons), which are far more carcinogenic than nicotine.

Now if I was a good deal more cynical than I am I’d say these lawyers actually want people to smoke more, thereby giving more money to tobacco companies, which in turn would make more money available to the lawyers who continue to sue tobacco companies even after the great multi-state tobacco settlement of 1998. (Indeed, the ‘98 settlement was instrumental in forcing tobacco companies to increase the price of cigarettes to raise the finds needed to pay off the states and the lawyers following the ‘98 settlement.)

But I’m not a cynic, so I’ll just assume the lawyers in question are idiots.

Once again the UN shows why it is the moral compass for the world:

Pakistani UN peacekeeping troops have traded in gold and sold weapons to Congolese militia groups they were meant to disarm, the BBC has learnt.

These militia groups were guilty of some of the worst human rights abuses during the Democratic Republic of Congo’s long civil war.

The trading went on in 2005. A UN investigative team sent to gather evidence was obstructed and threatened.

The team’s report was buried by the UN itself to “avoid political fallout”.

And this from not long ago:

Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper said on Wednesday UN peacekeepers and civilian staff were raping and abusing children as young as 12 in southern Sudan.

If I hear one more person say “Sure, it has flaws, but it’s the only one we have…” or “Look at all the good that UNICEF (who, according to public radio, helped fund bin Laden through a front set up by the Muwafaq Foundation in the Sudan) does…”

Sorry. No humor today.

This just off the wire services:

“During a campaign speech, Barack Obama overstated the Kansas tornadoes death toll by a factor of approximately 1,000, saying 10,000 had died when only 12 did. He later explained that he made a mistake because he was tired.”

In other news, Obama promised that his planned economic intiative would result in the creation of at least 300 billion new jobs in the United States over the next millenium.

Apparantly Econ is no longer a required course at high school or college. Case in point:

There’s a bulletin on MySpace.com that urges members, “Do not pump gas on May 15th.” Why? Well, “There are 72,110,073 members currently on the network, and the average car takes about 20 to 30 dollars to fill up. If all MySpace members did not go to the pump on the 15th it would take $2,163,302,190.00 out of the oil companies’ pockets for just one day.” Of course, assuming everyone keeps driving as they did before, they’ll put $2,163,302,190.00 back in “oil companies’ pockets” on May 16th.

That’s not where the dumbness ends, of course. The brilliant author of this bit of tortured logic assumes that every MySpace member everyone fills their gas tank every day. That’s pretty hard to imagine, even if the average age there wasn’t around 14.

Barack Obama has been criticised by some for not taking any strong positions, preferring to run on a very vague and general program that won’t offend anyone. Well, this should change that:

DETROIT — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Monday that U.S. energy policy must change in order to help domestic automakers answer the rising global demand for fuel-efficient vehicles.

“For years, while foreign competitors were investing in more fuel-efficient technology for their vehicles, American automakers were spending their time investing in bigger, faster cars,” according to a text of the Illinois senator’s remarks that were provided to The Associated Press.

Obama was to deliver an afternoon speech before Detroit business and political leaders on how he would work to revive the struggling U.S. auto industry and change America’s energy policies.

That’ll show the critics. And I hear he’s currently working with his advisors on a hard-hitting position paper calling for lowering the cost of prescription drugs, too.

I was reading one of those 20-something political blogs- you know, the ones written by an overacheiving young liberal arts major that gives the impression that the writer drives a used Prius, wears a lot of hemp clothing and eats in vegan cafes- and this particular one was all about “Social Entrepeneurship”.

What exactly is social entrepeneurship? According to the blog, it refers to companies, or maybe investors, who pursue both financial and social returns. Nothing much is said about what constitutes a “social return”, though I guess the implication is that it means something that people wouldn’t ordinarily pay for if given the choice. Like, Ben and Jerry’s currently donates 7.5% of pretax profits to their own foundations, and if given the choice, I’m sure most people would rather that their ice cream cost 7.5% less, and then they could donate the money if they wished.

But how flexible is this notion of “social return”? What about “employing people”. Is that a social end? Does that make MacDonalds and GM “social entrepeneurs?” Hey, I bought a car! I’m a social investor!

Or does it have to have a political componant? Would the definition of “social entrepeneur” then include people like Joseph P. Kennedy III, who makes money off Hugo Chavez’ cheap oil program? And what about the investors? Are the Venezuelans who pay for this subsidy in the form of higher oil prices at home, then, investors in social entrepeneurship?

This obviously requires a lot more thought.

LONDON (Reuters) – A large English cheddar cheese has become a star of the Internet, attracting more than 1 million viewers to sit and stare at it as it slowly ripens.

First placed in front of a webcam in late December, the Westcombe cheddar from West Country Farmhouse Cheesemakers leaped to public attention in early February and has since attracted viewers from 119 countries.

“The hits went over 1 million this morning. It has been a real challenge keeping the cheese up and running with all the interest it has generated,” a spokesman for the company running the website, www.cheddarvision.tv, said Wednesday.

I was just reading a news item on the BBC’s web site about the exciting development of a “Motion sensitive laptop.” I thought those had been around practically forever….