Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Bullshit of the day

One of my favorite political authors of late has an article about trade and i cant help but mention a line he quotes. The line was written by nicholas kristoff for the new york times. 

"But while it shocks Americans to hear it, the central challenge in the poorest countries is not that sweatshops exploit too many people, but that they don't exploit enough..."
 "Yet sweatshops are only a symptom of poverty, not a cause, and banning them closes off one route out of poverty..."
"When I defend sweatshops, people always ask me: But would you want to work in a sweatshop? No, of course not. But I would want even less to pull a rickshaw. In the hierarchy of jobs in poor countries, sweltering at a sewing machine isn't the bottom."

Wow. This is not made up. This goes in my hall of fame of stupid things to say. Also in that hall of fame.

Barbara Bush talking about Hurricane Katrina and all the people who fled their homes and were huddling in the super-dome, " they never had it so good,"

And lets not forget the ruling government of Sudan who bombed tribal villages to clear the land for oil drilling companies and tried to explain the high level of tribes fleeing their homes, when they said "No No No, they are not fleeing bombs, they are nomads, who naturally move around" 
Sure they are.

And most recently when George W Bush was asked about regrets during his administration, and he mentioned the Iraq war and how he regretted that they didn't find weapons of mass destruction. NO regrets about all the destruction they caused to a nation that never threatened nor attacked us. No regret about all the US soldiers dead and wounded for basically no real reason. No regrets about lying to get us into the war. He just regretted that they didn't find the things that didn't exist, that would have made his fabrications true. Ya mean we couldn't find those things we made up? shoot.

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