Minor Wisdom

A good guy gets some recognition

Since 1999, Eric Reeves has been calling attention to the tragedy of Darfur. Today he gets some well deserved recognition for his efforts from the Christian Science Monitor.

Unsure of their arithmetic

Actual wording on the nutritional label of a pack of Famous Amos chocolate sandwich cookies now on my computer desk. Please keep in mind that there are exactly six cookies in the package:

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size: 3 Cookies (34g)
Servings Per Container: About 2

He just might keep this promise.

Tom Burka's headline says, "Bush Vows To Keep Making Speeches Promising To Fix New Orleans."

"[I]n Darfur all of our nightmares have become realities."

Jan Egeland, the UN's Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, warns:

Our entire humanitarian operation in Darfur – the only lifeline for more than three million people – is presently at risk. We need immediate action on the political front to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe with massive loss of life. Since 2004 we have seen tens of thousands of deaths each year. If the humanitarian operation were to collapse, we could see hundreds of thousands of deaths. In short, we may end up with a man-made catastrophe of an unprecedented scale in Darfur.
...

In recent weeks we have all been distracted by developments in other parts of the world. In the meantime in Darfur all of our nightmares have become realities. Over the last two years the international humanitarian community has gave a glimmer of hope to the suffering of Darfur — we made significant progress in improving health, education, nutrition and water and sanitation indicators to commendable levels. This has been achieved through the generous contribution of donors and more importantly the courage — and tragically the lives — of humanitarians on the ground.

This can all be lost within weeks — not months. I cannot give a starker warning than to say that we are at a point where even hope may escape us and the lives of hundreds of thousands could be needlessly lost. The Security Council and member states around this table with influence on the parties to the conflict must act now. Hundreds of humanitarian organizations from around the world are watching what you will be doing or may refrain from doing in the coming weeks.

Kingfish

All the King's Men, starring Sean Penn as Huey Long, will open in theaters on September 22. To view the trailer, click here. (Via Southern Appeal.)

Boozocracy needs your support

If the anniversary of you-know-what makes you want to do something to help, here's your chance. Two Xavier University professors have taken on the challenge of raising $1 million by the end of the year for a public library to be opened in Mid City. To induce people to contribute, they are letting contributors vote on whether they must give up drinking for 2007. That's democracy—I mean boozocracy—in action.

As of just now (8/27/06, 3:27 p.m.), they've raised $844, which leaves them $999,156 shy of their goal. Fortunately, there's plenty of time left before the end of the year. So wherever you're sitting, stand up for boozocracy (figuratively I mean—no need to get up from your chair), cast your vote, and help the New Orleans Public Library system. (Via Your Right-Hand Thief.)

Net neutrality outlined

Steve Minor, proprietor of the SW Virginia Law Blog, has posted a comprehensive outline on net neutrality, in eight parts:

1. What is net neutrality?
2. Strange bedfellows (who's for it; who's against it)
3. What the FCC is doing and isn't doing
4. What Congress has been doing and hasn't been doing
5. On doing nothing (If it ain't broke, don't fix it)
6. On doing something
7. On doing something else
8. Conclusion

End game in Darfur

This story by Eric Reeves paints a grim picture. Here's the skinny:

• The African Union has proven unable to stop the genocide.
• The Khartoum government will probably never consent to a UN peacekeeping force.

The only way to stop the genocide is military intervention. The alternative is to allow what is described below (quoting Reeves) to continue:

This is the final stage in Khartoum’s genocidal campaign in Darfur. It occurs against a backdrop of extraordinary suffering and continually declining humanitarian access and resources. In July the UN’s World Food Program was unable to reach almost 500,000 people in need of food relief. More broadly, Annabi stressed in his briefing of the Security Council that:

"humanitarian organizations now have full access to only slightly more than fifty percent of the 3.6 million civilians affected by the conflict [again, there are an additional 350,000 conflict-affected persons in eastern Chad—ER]. If conditions deteriorate further, many humanitarian organizations may be forced to completely withdraw from North Darfur, where more than 1.2 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance." (Paragraph 4)

Cholera is poised to explode if water sanitation or supplies deteriorate further. A shocking nine humanitarian aid workers were killed in July. Khartoum continues its policy of systematically obstructing and harassing humanitarian workers and operations. We should remember that in June Khartoum "punished" the UN for moving rebel leader and humanitarian coordinator Suleiman Jamous by shutting down all UN operations in Darfur except those of UNICEF and WFP; the same threat still looms for some other "provocation." Rape has recently soared in the area of the giant Kalma camp south of Nyala, a terrible reality unto itself and a telling barometer of insecurity. Malnutrition rates are rising rapidly. Humanitarian resources and funding are declining just as rapidly. Some 50,000 civilians have been displaced in recent weeks (UN Integrated Regional Information Networks [dateline: Nairobi], August 24, 2006). And the full brunt of renewed violence has yet to be felt, though it is only a matter of days—weeks at most—before this changes.

If under these circumstances the international community is unwilling even to threaten non-consensual intervention to protect civilians and humanitarians in Darfur, then Khartoum may rightly, in full throat, exult in its savage triumph. It is a triumph that has been long in coming; one that might have been stopped with sufficient will at any point; but one that is now terribly close to culmination.

(via Coalition for Darfur.)

Reuben Friedman's 2006 Tulane football predictions

Last year, due to Hurricane Katrina, Tulane's football team was forced to play all its games on the road. This year the Green Wave returns to its Dome Home. Also returning this year are Reuben Friedman's Tulane football predictions. Reuben is very knowledgeable about college football generally, and may be the one most knowledgeable about Tulane football lore. To download Reuben's 2006 predictions, click below on your preferred format.

PDF

Word

Spin

Here's a little quiz. Two newspapers, the the New York Times and the Washington Times, wrote stories about the same Pew Forum study. Here are the leads: see if you can match lead to newspaper:

1. Few see Democrats as friendly to religion
   Liberal or progressive Christians, who make up 34 percent of the population, are disunified on key issues, and only one out of four Americans considers the Democratic Party friendly to religion, a Pew poll shows.

2. In Poll, G.O.P. Slips as a Friend of Religion
   A new poll shows that fewer Americans view the Republican Party as "friendly to religion" than a year ago, with the decline particularly steep among Catholics and white evangelical Protestants — constituencies at the core of the Republicans’ conservative Christian voting bloc.

Stumped? Didn't think so. For more on this topic, read Terry Mattingly's analysis at Get Religion. (via dotCommonweal.)