Warmonger Gone

Robert Strange McNamara, the former secretary of defense whose record as a leading executive of industry and a chieftain of foreign financial aid was all but erased from public memory by his reputation as the primary architect of U.S. involvement in the war in Vietnam, died early this morning at age 93.
McNamara was secretary of defense during the presidencies of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Baines Johnson. In that capacity he directed a U.S. military buildup in Southeast Asia during the critical early years of a Vietnamese conflict that escalated into one of the most divisive and bitter wars in U.S. history. When the war was over, 58,000 Americans were dead and the national social fabric had been torn asunder.
Washington Post obit HERE

Freedom, Martyrdom and the Snuff Film

The death of a young woman on the streets of Tehran is caught on camera and viewed by millions. But should we be watching?
You tick the box saying you are over 18. You notice the warning that the material you are about to see could be upsetting. But nothing can prepare you for the horrible immediacy of watching a young woman die, as Neda Soltan does on YouTube.
The bloodied face of Neda – already called the Angel of Freedom – will be the image that lingers of the Iran uprising, just as the naked, napalmed girl running down the road has come to encapsulate the Vietnam war.
more HERE

Planet Girth

Looking for inspiration to lose weight?
It may be worth taking a look at the results of a report in latest issue of the International Journal of Epidemiology.
The study concludes that being overweight or obese “should be recognized as an environmental problem” because of its contribution to climate change from additional food and transport emissions.
The study found that a lean population, such as the Vietnamese, consume about 20 percent less food and produce fewer greenhouse gases than a population in a country like the United States, where about 40 percent of people are obese.
more HERE

Related:
Too Much Sex Leads to Global Warming

The Breast Drivers

HANOI, Vietnam — Faced with mounting public criticism, Vietnam's Health Ministry suspended a widely ridiculed plan to ban short, thin and small-chested drivers.
The ministry had recommended that people whose chests measure less than 28 inches be prohibited from driving motorbikes.
blurb HERE