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May Marty Peretz’ tongue cleave to the roof of his mouth.
Archive for the ‘Disasters’ Category
August 24th, 2010
Category: Disasters, Science and its methods
550 million eggs recalled for possible [sic] salmonella contamination will be destroyed. 150 [fixed 24/VII/10] million Pakistanis are sitting under tarpaulins in the mud with no food. Eggs are halal. Irradiation, FDA approved since 2000, would make them perfectly safe to eat and storable without refrigeration. Just sayin’…
January 19th, 2010
I’m not sure what Andy is disagreeing with me about; while the good news from Chiaromonte is nice to hear, it isn’t overwhelming (60% of families with cars and telephones, in the early 90s?). But the important thing is that the crushing poverty, stasis, and fatalism that bound the community until so recently was only [...]
January 18th, 2010
Category: Disasters, Economics, Haiti, Organizing, Political Science, Politics and Leadership, Post-disaster reflections
Haiti is not doomed. To the extent that Haitian culture inhibits prosperity, Haitians will do as people in that condition always have: they will work around their culture—or leave it, and benefit their home countries no less by doing that.
January 18th, 2010
Category: Disasters, Organizing, Political Science, Politics and Leadership, Post-disaster reflections
I’ve been waiting for this story ever since the earthquake. It turns out the rich folks up on the hill are pretty much OK, and they are being protected from looters as always by the police who have been invisible to date down among the poor. Haiti is a society operating under rules called amoral [...]
August 30th, 2009
Once again, southern California is prey to wildfires, an environmental hazard that has become commonplace as the earth has heated up. But I’m sure it’s just a coincidence.
April 19th, 2009
…went in dumb, come out dumb too.” LSU is doing its best to make Randy Newman right about this, with a remarkably ham-handed firing to shut up one of its most distinguished faculty (more here). Apparently, like so much of Louisiana, they would rather have a nice steady flow of federal money coming into the [...]
