Hey, not that I really mind sitting atop somebody’s home page for days on end, but can someone post something a little more interesting than my dopey M & Ms sidetrack? It’s embarrassing me that it’s still lingering on top of 12apostrophes. Where is everybody?
Here’s some news briefs to get you going:
- The Health Minister of South Africa—the country where 1 in 10 people has the HIV virus—has been publicly advocating vegetables and garlic as the best way to manage the disease. She went to an international AIDS conference in Toronto last month and displayed a table of vegetables. Depressing. Needless to say, the international scientific and health communities are up in arms.
- Australians having apparently started “revenge killings” of stingrays, in honor of Steve Irwin, the animal lover and conservationist. Go figure.
- In good news, ABC’s factually incorrect right-wing smear effort of a “docudrama” about 9/11 did somewhat of a flop in the ratings Sunday. Hey, there’s a reason to love football afterall. I was going to link you to the ThinkProgress article about it but their site is down.
This reminds me that yesterday, while taping a football game for duodecad or however you spell that, I saw an NFL 9/11 tribute that actually made me teary-eyed. But the thing that made me cry wasn’t the memory of the tragedy (which obviously merits mourning), but rather the memory of what could have been. The memory of how much people cared and came together then, all over the world, and how MUCH the Bush administration fucked that up. There was a brief, worldwide outpouring of sympathy and unity, and the Bush administration did everything imaginable to destroy it.
For some reason the image of crying giant athletes (don’t laugh) was a powerful reminder that goodwill en masse doesn’t come around very often, and collective emotional resonance even less. We could have done so much with that. If someone in power had really wanted to, they might even have used it to make the world a slightly better place. But maybe I’m dreaming.
One Response to Fewer Little Things…
Wait — garlic doesn’t protect me from HIV?!? Ruh-roh . . . I have to make some phone calls (although maybe a LOT of garlic could protect you by lessening the number of people willing to sleep with you).
In other news, although I didn’t know Mr. Irwin personally, I believe he LIKED dangerous animals, and even educated the public about the conservation of feared, hated, and misunderstood species. But the good news is, take that stingrays! I bet stingrays will think twice about killing people now . . .
In other, other news, giant crying athletes are an obvious reminder of goodwill en masse. Sort of like, “Look — even this giant athlete, who knows nothing of the world outside of this football field, was moved to tears.” Wow.
Finally, that “somebody,” as in, “somebody’s home page . . .” — that’s you! It’s your home page, and mine, and Pulao’s, and “Duodenum’s” and Matt’s (and others’, if they want it). So sit atop until somebody sits on top of you (maybe not the best image . . .).