Mickey Z

Cool Observer

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Thursday, November 03, 2005

Breaking news: The Gitmo Diet, WMD finally found, Americans spend, Joe's essay, and Dear Abbie

When asked about the prisoner hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay, Ronald Dumsfeld explained, “There are a number of people who go on a diet where they don’t eat for a period and then go off of it at some point. And then they rotate and other people do that.”
Full story: http://tinyurl.com/cmn9f
(Thanks, JOS)

At long last...WMD:
http://tinyurl.com/7h7uk

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In case you missed it on the comment board yesterday: Our very own Expendable Joe from Oregon just got an essay posted several places on the Web.

Cheers, Joe...

Some select lines (courtesy of Keir):

“We’re all ordinary people, and we are our only hope.”

“We do not need to ask permission to live like sane, reasonable,
thoughtful, compassionate human beings.”

“Whatever must be done, we can do it ourselves. We do not need them; we
need each other.”

To read Joe’s article, please click here:
http://tinyurl.com/b4oax

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How many shopping days do we really have left?

Years ago, when they opened the South Street Seaport Museum in NYC, the museum director defended the blatant commercialism of this new tourist trap. He said: “Shopping is the chief cultural activity in the United States.”

At one of my favorite blogs, “Living on Less” (http://livingonless.journalspace.com), this fundamental question was asked and answered:

What’s wrong with buying stuff?

1. Most Americans are deeply in debt, and that debt costs hundreds if not thousands of dollars a year in interest, so very often buying something nonessential does not mean spending a surplus, but actually spending more than one has, and sinking oneself deeper and deeper into a hole as a result.

2. Because the U.S. has very little in the way of a social safety net, it’s very important—and often impossible—to have savings set aside so that one will not be totally screwed if something happens, like an unexpected illness. A significant proportion of all personal bankruptcies in the US are due to medical bills. And bankruptcy has become much more of a minefield only very recently.

3. Spending money (on consumer goods and services produced en masse) enriches corporations. Corporations have an enormous influence on the political process and are the primary reason why public money is not spent on needed social programs or foreign aid, but on tax breaks for corporations and the rich, and on wars fought for economic gain and empire-building.

For those who just cannot resist the urge to consume, I do have a shopping tip: This holiday season, there’s a place you can go to buy goods handmade by children from all over the Third World. Perhaps you’ve heard of it? It’s called Niketown.

(insert rimshot here)