mass murder = fun for the whole family

In what seems to me to be one of the most bizarre things I've ever heard about Australia - and I've heard a lot - the New York Times is reporting an organized genocide in the northeast region. Of toads.

Now, cane toads are quite a nuisance, apparently, to the farmers and inhabitants of northern Queensland, being poisonous, chomping on all other wildlife, spreading salmonella, and being generally annoying, but gathering hundreds of people, children as well, together for a mass hunting of toads as entertainment is just plain weird.

Today's article quotes a city councilman as saying, "To see the look on the faces of the kids as we were handling and weighing the toads and then euthanizing them was just..." As he breathes a sigh of contentment.

The neighbors in five communities got together with picnic lunches for the event, called Toad Day Out, and in the dead of night, collected the toads, "which the rules stated must be captured alive and unharmed -- [and ] were brought to collection points and examined... The creatures were then killed, either by freezing or by being placed in plastic bags filled with carbon dioxide."

I understand that toads can be annoying, but here's the worst part: "The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has applauded the effort."

Could this be any more ridiculous? This is a fifth of a country, nay, a CONTINENT, waging war on... not terrorists, (no Al-Qaeda in Australia), not banks or investment firms (apparently their economy is fine), not even drug lords (no borders to smuggle heroin across)... No, Australia is at war with TOADS.

And its not the army waging this war, oh no. It's the kids! Yes, lets get all the children together and teach them a hands-on lesson about life and death. They shall hunt the toads together and then watch us kill them and then celebrate by getting drunk. Yay! Fun!

WTF.

Curtain closes on Eastern Europe

After a long, hard struggle against a bitter economy, the governments of Eastern Europe have finally figured out how to beat the downturn of their countries' wee economic systems and come out on top: Quit.

In Latvia, Hungary, and now the Czech Republic, Presidents and Prime Ministers alike have thrown up their hands and said, "Screw it. Someone else give it a try."

Earlier this week, the Czech Prime Minister, Mirek Topolanek, lost a vote of no-confidence in Parliament and then announced on Thursday that he had officially resigned. While the crumbling of the Czech government has never really mattered to anyone before, Topolanek is currently the President of the European Union, a post that he was supposed to hold until his six-month term was up in June. There hasn't really been any official talk of whether or not Topolanek will maintain the Presidency or if someone else will take over, shortening the Czech Republic's turn at the wheel.

In Hungary, a similar situation occurred last week when Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany also announced that he would be stepping down after securing a 25 billion euro rescue from the IMF to keep the country from collapsing completely. Now, the Socialists and the Free Democrats (who are also socialists) will convene to pick a new leader, who, hopefully won't run off with that $25 billion like the past couple governments... Hungarians are fabulous embezzlers.

Latvia, whose government collapsed after Prime Minister Godmanis resigned amid riots and protests last month, has also received a hefty amount of aid from the IMF, the first of the Eastern European countries to do so, followed closely by Hungary and now Romania, which also received 20 billion euros from the IMF.

What I don't understand is why all of these guys can't just sit and do their jobs... Eastern European countries are not the only ones suffering in this ridiculous economic depression - and you don't see Brown or Sarkozy quitting either. Does it surprise these PMs that their countries may be slightly worse-off than their western counterparts? Seriously, Hungarians can't even let go of Communism for six months without electing socialists or communists back into office because they don't trust democracy and even before the depression, the inflation in Hungary was worse than its been in almost twenty years. So why would these guys resign? Isn't this what they signed up for?

When you become the PM of a former Soviet satellite state, you sign up for trouble. There's always something with these countries and its going to be at least another twenty years before they're caught up with the rest of the western world in terms of economics and politics... we already knew this. They already knew this. So why quit? Come on guys! Get back on the horse! You've seen worse!

Economy, shmonomy. At least there aren't Soviet tanks in Heroes Square anymore, right? Right. So, a message to the remaining PMs of the Eastern Block: stick it out and stop being such scaredy cats - you've been through worse.

Chavez: shut up.

President Obama is many things, but a "poor ignoramus"? I seriously doubt it. Unfortunately, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez thinks so, having said, "He [Obama] goes and accuses me of exporting terrorism: the least I can say is that he's a poor ignoramus; he should read and study a little to understand reality," yesterday on his weekly TV address.

This is just the latest in ridiculous things that Chavez has said about US Presidents, but somehow it never gets old. Yes, Chavez has become a socialist dictator, having abolished term limits for the presidency, stolen acres upon acres of land from his citizens, and forced state-ownership of homes with more than five rooms. However, you really have to admire this guy's spunk.

Chavez hates the American "Empire," we get it... but Obama an ignoramus? I don't even know where to go with this. Perhaps if Chavez wants to be taken seriously, he should just stop talking all together.

t-shirt bullshit

Seriously, wtf? Ok, I know that Israelis are pissed off. I am too, don't get me wrong. 6,000 years of oppression is a lot to deal with, I get it. But Israel has consistently put out the message that just because everyone around them are anti-Semitic and want to push them into the sea by suicide bombing, Jewish people shouldn't sink to that level.

Well, I ask you: who's level is this?? If you can't see the shirt in the picture, it reads, "1 shot, 2 kills" and the illustration is of a pregnant woman in a veil... obviously a Muslim Palestinian.

The article at Haaretz that accompanies this image tells of IDF soldiers who visit a t-shirt shop in Tel Aviv that does personalized clothing. Many soldiers get the names and numbers of their battalions to symbolize the end of their tours of duty, which is innocent enough. But a number of others have come in to print t-shirts with blatantly racist and thoroughly disturbing images like the one above.

To me, this hits home. Really hard. These asshole soldiers are making it really, really difficult for me to have any respect at all for the IDF. I know that not every soldier out there is like this. I know that the media sometimes blows these kinds of things out of proportion... but this? I mean, if even just ten soldiers are wearing t-shirts like that around Tel Aviv, there's a problem.

I was raised to love Israel. I was raised to think that it was the home of my fathers, the land of milk and honey, and that we should do anything we could do defend it. But I always just assumed that in defending Israel, we were also defending Judaism... and this is so not Jewish. Thou shalt not kill. Or, for all those really hard core interpreters, thou shalt not murder. Either way, what is shooting a pregnant woman? It is murder. It is cold-blooded, evil, unforgiving murder.

With this most recent upset in Israel, the IDF may have won the battle of Gaza, but with that half-step forward of completely disproportionate response, the state of Israel and all Jewish people who have supported this campaign have taken ten huge steps back. Who can blame Palestinians these days for not wanting to have peace talks? Who can blame them for digging their heels in?

I wouldn't want to negotiate with people who want to murder my pregnant mother/sister/daughter either.

It didn't use to be this bad... or maybe I wasn't paying attention. I don't know. But either way, Israel needs to get back on track. Back to living up to Judaism, back to the name "chosen people," and they need to start being peaceful and apologetic. Just because a lot of Palestinians want death to Jews, it doesn't mean that Jewish people need to say the same. We shouldn't be like that. There's never going to be peace if someone doesn't stand for peace... And I was taught that Judaism stood for peace.

Shame on these soldiers, they should not be able to call themselves Jewish.

poop on the pope

From YouTube's "Amazing Athiest." 

This is kind of offensive at the beginning... but he has a point. Thanks Jason.

news round-up + a healthy dose of sarcasm

Yesterday, President Obama released a video message to the people of Iran asking for a renewed conversation between the US and Iran and calling for "practical steps," not just empty words. Obama said that his administration wants to work toward "a future with renewed exchanges among our people and greater opportunities for partnership and commerce." The video can be viewed here, on The White House Blog. Next step: hookahs in the WH.

Haaretz released more accounts from IDF soldiers involved in Operation Cast Lead. Israel maintains that their army operates under the highest of ethical codes. Gaza still rebuilding. 

The African Union, France and the US have all condemned Madagascar's shift in power, which is now being seen as a military coup around the world. French President Sarkozy said that the situation was "not positive" and the US cut call non-humanitarian aid. Countries in southern Africa have said that they will not recognize new President Rajoelina who is set to be inaugurated tomorrow. Duh... the whole thing was ridiculous in the first place.

In Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Taliban continues to target police, civilians and NATO by blowing shit up. NATO has said that 4,000 more troops are needed to secure the presidential elections in Afghanistan, which most people are sure will be rigged. It probably will be - but by NATO, not Afghan citizens.  

Austrian rapist and murderer, Josef Fritzl,  who kept his daughter prisoner in a basement and fathered her seven children, killing one of them, pled guilty this week and received a life sentence, causing Austrians to rejoice. I think this is one of the most compelling reasons for having a death penalty, which I'm actually against, but not for this guy. 

Also, as if the world wasn't weird enough, pink elephants actually exist now. 

angry?? you're damn straight

This week, GlobalPost guest writer Susan E. Reed wrote a piece about the lack of civil unrest in the US despite the bad economy, a president who seemingly hasn't delivered, and job loss in the hundred thousands. Well, while the uproar is just getting started in France, Russia and the UK, where unionized workers are demanding restitution from their governments, here in America, I think we're at a loss about what to do.

The thing is, in the States, we were so excited to see the change that Obama promised us during the campaign that now, as things are only getting steadily worse, not only are our hopes that a fresh breeze was about to sweep through Washington dashed, but also our (make no mistake, its there) boiling anger doesn't have an outlet.

It seems unfair for us to blame Obama, after all he's only been in office a couple months... and with so many other places to lay down furious anger (AIG, Countrywide, Madoff, Congress, G.W. Bush, whatever else), Americans simply can't point just one finger and take to the streets. In fact, I don't think that humans possess enough fingers to point at the problems in this country that have contributed to the mess we're in now.

Reed makes a good point, though. Banding together to unite against a common "enemy" for the benefit of the greater good is a lesson that goes well beyond history and even into lore (see 300)(kidding). Seriously, though, that idea has been known to work - and well.

But I think that while in Ireland, which is a much smaller country, lets not forget this, where "100,000 people ... marched through Dublin to protest proposed wage cuts," there aren't 100,000 people in the same place with the same problems here. While wage cuts may be the most important thing to one person, losing a house might be the biggest for another.

According to Reuters columnist Bernd Debusmann, "in February alone, an average of 23,000 people a day lost their jobs" and there are apparently "tent cities" popping up all over the country, filled with refugees of the mortgage war.

I know that personally, job loss and houses aren't on the top of the list for college kids, the best known protesters this country has besides the original Revolutionaries, its the exorbitant amount of loans coming our way in a couple of years. And then we look at our contemporaries in Europe who get scholarships and go to college practically for free for better educations. Why? Why is education so expensive if everyone goes to college now?

So what do we choose? What is it that we should band together to protest? I have no idea.

I don't think other Americans do either.

IDF Gets Probed

Haaretz published an expose today in which IDF soldiers from the Yitzak Rabin course for military training spoke out against Israel's most recent war in Gaza, saying that they were told to target civilians and "intentionally destroyed their property."

Stories from the soldiers about sharpshooters mistakenly killing women and children and another from a squad leader regarding the murder of an elderly woman who was walking down a street have prompted the IDF to order a probe into the soldiers' allegations.

After a few months of reports from Gaza through blogs, pictures, articles and international outrage, this is really exactly what Israel needs to do to maintain any respect the world has left for them. Everyone, except the IDF, apparently, knew exactly what was going on in Gaza and thank god someone finally stood up and said to Israel, "this was wrong."

According to the reports, the IDF brigades in Gaza would "write 'death to the Arabs' on the walls, ... take family pictures and spit on them, just because [they] can," as well as complaining about changed orders by saying things like, "we should kill everyone there [in the center of Gaza]. Everyone there is a terrorist."

Actually, not everyone in Gaza is a terrorist. During the IDF's foray into the territory, over a million civilians were stuck right in the middle of the fighting, were pushed out of their homes, watched as their families were murdered, and starved for food, water and medical supplies that Israel wouldn't allow across the border.

So, the situation now, seems like its moving in the right direction, yeah? People are standing up, telling it how it is, and now there's going to be an investigation that will most likely unearth some pretty serious crimes against humanity. However, the powers that be are insistent that nothing at all like what the soldiers are saying happened in Gaza. Officers said that they "had not encountered evidence of incidents of the type the soldiers described." And Ehud Barak, Israeli Defense Minister and former Prime Minister said to Israel Radio, "We have the most moral army in the world... I say to you that from the chief of staff down to the last soldier, the most moral army in the world stands to take orders from the government of Israel."

Right. Because the most moral army in the world kills 400 children in under a month.

vatican't

The Catholic Church doesn't like sex. Never has, never will, whatever. Still, the Church does proclaim that it likes to, you know, save lives, do good deeds, and help people. Good for them.

Well, the Pope, in his second really bad move in as many months, has now come out with a new nugget of God's love and is insisting that condoms don't do anything to stop the spread of AIDS and HIV... in fact, they "increase the problem."

In an article today, Reuters quoted Pope B as saying so yesterday while in... you guessed it! AFRICA. Like the people of Africa need the Pope telling them that condoms don't do anything just after all the ruckus in South Africa where a public official said essentially the same thing.

There have been so many studies that show that condoms don't increase sexual activity and that they do, in fact, do a lot to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS and other STDs that its basic, common knowledge at this point - kind of like the Earth being round. Or gravity.

The worst thing, though, is that in a society where prostitution, polygamy, and rape are all just as common as AIDS, I can't understand why anyone, even the Pope, would tell people not to wear condoms! Even if AIDS wasn't the issue, simple gonorrhea is still a pain in the ass and people are going to have extramarital sex anyway, so why not just throw condoms at them?!

These little rubber lifesavers (that come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and flavors - something for everyone!) aren't going to increase sexual activity in a place where its already a rampant problem and they aren't going to hurt people who already have HIV/AIDS by keeping them from spreading their virus throughout a continent, that according to Reuters, has two-thirds of the world's HIV/AIDS infections already.

Come on, you're the POPE for christsake. Do something good for humanity and tell people to WEAR A CONDOM.

MAD-agascar

In what is to most people an extremely bizarre turn of events, the President of Madagascar, the wee island off the Eastern coast of Africa, succumbed to the Mayor of Antananarivo (try saying that ten times really fast) who a couple months ago announced that he was the head of a new government in the country, held a rally with only a couple hundred people in attendance, and essentially began an extremely random coup d'etat... considering the country is democratic.

According to the New York Times, the Mayor (now President) Andry Rajoelina, is a former DJ and is actually too young to be the president in terms of constitutionality.

Now, really... this is a guy who became the mayor of the capital city in this country two years ago, decided he didn't like the democratically elected president, who actually was elected twice (in 2001 and 2006), called him a dictator and jabbed at him enough times that the president actually stepped down and let some dude take over.

Can you imagine the possibilities?? What if I got a tank and rolled into the City Hall parking lot right now and announced that I was the new... whatever. I would be taken to a mental hospital, most likely. But, this is America, of course, no coups allowed. But what about in more unstable countries like those in Eastern Europe and South America.

What if this became a world-wide trend and people all over the place started overthrowing their governments simply because they weren't perfect?

On one hand, you know, cool. Why shouldn't people demand everything they want from their governments? And certainly the only way to change things is to get involved yourself, right? It sounds like a decent plan. But, on the other hand, wtf? What Rajoelina did was essentially an act of anarchy, not democracy. Personally, I think the whole thing was an incredible over-reaction because of a personal vendetta against the sitting president. I mean, come on! Rajoelina was the black horse mayoral candidate when he was elected, so why not just run in the next presidential election? And by all means, organize rallies and ride on tanks if you think that's going to make your point, but isn't just announcing that you're the new president kind of out of whack?

It is. It's crazy. And somewhat amazing, considering he got away with it.

Honestly, I guess this former President Ravalomanana (again, try to say that ten times) sort of deserved what he got, though. He must've been a pussy anyway to step down and hand his country over to a guy with a megaphone.