Day: July 12, 2002

Found this one in my log:
Neat. Here’s the description of the polar bear from the site:
The polar bear is a mighty hunter of seals idiotarians. The most carnivorous of the bears, it is also the most patient. They will sit near a seal blow-hole apologist editorial board for hours, waiting, until the animal idiotarian “wisdom” surfaces. When it does, it is all over for the seal idiotarianism. One powerful blow from a forepaw devastatingly logical (and pithy) argument brings a swift meal victory for the bear and a swifter death for the seal idiotarianism of the day.
I, well, paraphrased a bit…

Janes pokes fun at Sesame Street’s announcement that they will be adding a HIV-positive muppet to the famous cast:
Seasme(sic) Street is introducing a HIV+ woman character to its cast named “Krack Whore”. My sources tell me she will be discovered living in a dumpster not far from Oscar the Grouch’s and will pass on useful information to children such as which condoms can be recycled, how to identify which cops will cut you slack for favours, how to make a shiv from a coat hanger and a discarded broom handle, and how to find the best needle exchange program in the neighbourhood.
This is all very ha-ha-look-at-the-silly-liberals, until you notice that the character is being introduced only on the South African version of the program, where nearly 12% of the population is infected.
I think you can make legitimate arguments pro- and anti- this move, but personally, I don’t think it deserves mockery. But hey, maybe I’ve just got a deficent sense of humor when it comes to a continent where millions of people will die if they don’t get better education on what they’re doing wrong.
Addendum: I’d be less grumpy about this if I didn’t also see outfits like MSNBC making their Question of the Day “SHOULD KIDS LEARN ABOUT HIV ON SESAME STREET?” without bothering to provide any mention that the kids in question are South African kids.
Strong work, guys; hope you get some nice sensational reactions. Shame about the whole misleading the public you’re supposed to be informing thing, but hey, win some, lose some.
Correction Mmmm. Waiter! One order of crow, please. Moe of Occam’s toothbrush correctly points out that the stories do in fact say discussions are underway for bringing the character to other countries, including the U.S. I could have sworn I read the opposite this morning, but clearly I was hallucinating.
As they say in the pro business, “TTLB apologies for the error.” My bad.

The beat goes on: Now Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is actually admitting that maybe Ayatollah Taheri had a point about the whole corruption thing:
The Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has said he agrees with some of the strong criticism made by a prominent religious leader who resigned earlier this week…
Ayatollah Jalaluddin Taheri resigned on Tuesday, denouncing the way Iran was being run and creating a political storm.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council later banned the country’s media from reporting reaction to Ayatollah Taheri’s comments.
But in a letter – broadcast repeatedly on state radio – Ayatollah Khamenei told Ayatollah Taheri that he supported some of the strong criticism of the regime.
He also appealed for calm and accepted the resignation of the prayer leader in the central city of Isfahan.
“I also have been saying for several years that we have to mobilise all possible means to fight poverty and corruption,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.
He also addressed other matters raised by the cleric, such as creating jobs for the young.
But he warned: “Any unjust criticism encourages enemies and counter-revolutionaries who benefit from the support of the United States and Israel”.
That’s the BBC, of course. (Hello, CNN? MSNBC? NYT? WaPO? ANYBODY? )
I’d expect to see some high-profile house cleaning soon; bigwigs getting fired and the like. The interesting question will be whether they’ll toss out some token actually corrupt mullahs or whether they’ll just use this as an excuse to further purge the government of reformist elements.
Update: Aziz Poonawalla is skeptical that Khameini truly has the best interests of his citizens in mind. So am I, if I didn’t make it clear enough.

Cool. Dean has got the scoop on the schema of the law… it’s in XML!