At least they know what they need

Just came across a job ad for a candidate with "High level written and oral commmunication skills" (sic).

*adolescent snicker*

Body count in Iraq

The School of Medicine at Al Mustansiriya University in Baghdad, Iraq, and The Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University--in cooperation with MIT's Center for International Studies--have released a report on the under-examined question of civilian deaths in Iraq since the U.S. invasion in March 2003. Its central conclusion, based on a population-based survey conducted at some risk by a team of Iraqi and American public health researchers, is that approximately 600,000 people have died violently above the normal mortality rate. Including non-violent deaths that are nevertheless linked to the war, the total is estimated to be more than 650,000.

( Read more... )

I was on holiday when North Korea underlined the success of George W's efforts in protecting us all from nucular weapons, and most of what I'd say on that has already been said by others; North Korea was always going to be a difficult situation to handle, and I can't honestly say what would have been the best thing to do about it, but he seems to have been too busy flying turkeys into Iraq to even look for a solution in Korea.

Choice, orientation, etc etc

I chose to ignore the 'post this if you believe in gay rights, ignore it if you don't' meme because I'm not much on feel-good back-patting, even when it isn't accompanied by blackmail or trying to represent a whole cluster of issues as a single Boolean variable.

(Frankly, if you've been reading this journal for any length of time, you probably already have a fair idea where I stand on many of those issues. And if you don't, you're very welcome to ask, and I'll probably tell you. If you want to know what the people around you think on an issue like this and you're waiting for a meme to tell you, you're a loony.)

But silverblue has made some good comments on related issues, and I'm always up for blathering on about stuff ;-)

( Orientation, choice, National Coming Out Day etc etc. )