ob-scen-i-ty

[First attempt to post this went bad somehow. Here's the whole
thing. -- Kendall ]

                                 ob-scen-i-ty
                                       
   by [2]Kendall Clark
   
   A screed about evil shit (more about [3]evil shit; more by [4]Kendall
   Clark)
   2001-08-16 13:19:49
   
ob·scen·i·ty
n. pl. ob·scen·i·ties
   1. The state or quality of being obscene.
   2. Indecency, lewdness, or offensiveness in behavior, expression, or appeara
nce.
   3. Something, such as a word, act, or expression, that is indecent or lewd.
   4. Something that is offensive or repulsive to the senses.
                      _______________________________
   
   But White House spokesman Ari Fleischer was adamant today when asked
   whether the president would ask Americans to stop using so much
   energy. "That's a big 'no,'" Fleischer said. "The president believes
   that it's an American way of life, that it should be the goal of
   policy-makers to protect the American way of life. The American way of
   life is a blessed one." The president, he said, considers Americans'
   heavy use of energy a "reflection of the strength of our economy, of
   the way of life that the American people have come to enjoy."
                      _______________________________
   
     * Half the world -- nearly three billion people -- live on less than
       two dollars a day.
     * The Gross Domestic Product of the poorest 48 nations (i.e. a
       quarter of the world's countries) is less than the wealth of the
       world's three richest people combined.
     * Nearly a billion people will enter the 21st century unable to read
       a book or sign their names.
     * Less than one per cent of what the world spends every year on
       weapons would be needed to put every child into school by the year
       2000.
     * 51 of the world's 100 hundred largest economies are corporations.
     * The wealthiest nation on Earth has the widest gap between rich and
       poor of any industrialised nation.
     * According to the 1998 Human Developement Report, 20% of the
       population in the developed nations, consume 86% of the worlds
       goods.
                      _______________________________
   
   The fate of the more vulnerable offers a sharp measure of the distance
   from here to something that might be called "civilization." While I am
   speaking, 1000 children will die from easily preventable disease, and
   almost twice that many women will die or suffer serious disability in
   pregnancy or childbirth for lack of simple remedies and care. UNICEF
   estimates that to overcome such tragedies, and to ensure universal
   access to basic social services, would require a quarter of the annual
   military expenditures of the "developing countries," about 10% of U.S.
   military spending. -- Noam Chomsky, University of Cape Town, May 1997
                      _______________________________
   
   ".... the right of our manifest destiny to over spread and to possess
   the whole of the [globe] which Providence has given us for the
   development of the great experiment of [multinational corporate profit
   extraction] and [unsustainable non-]development of [everyone who isn't
   White] entrusted to us. It is right such as that of the tree to the
   space of air and the earth suitable for the full expansion of its
   principle and destiny of growth" -- John L. O'Sullivan (updated)
                      _______________________________
   
   How long? Not long, because no lie can live forever.
   How long? Not long, because you still reap what you sow.
   How long? Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long but
   it bends toward justice.
   How long? Not long, 'cause mine eyes have seen the glory...
   -- Martin Luther King, Jr
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Visit the [6]Monkeyfist archives or make a [7]donation to Iraqi
   Sanctions Aid.

References

   1. http://monkeyfist.com/
   2. mailto:kendall-4GNy1lrxftmrG/[email protected]&Subject=ob-scen-i-ty
   3. http://monkeyfist.com/category/evil+shit/brief/plain
   4. http://monkeyfist.com/author/KendallClark
   5. http://monkeyfist.com/articles/773/plain
   6. http://monkeyfist.com/archive/
   7. http://monkeyfist.com/swag/