Stump Lane
in the dirt since history began

As President, would you sign into law an outright ban on the import of any product made with child labor or sweatshop labor? If so, what have you done to champion this cause in your current capacity?

[Prior question for the candidates here.]

Just to beat the dead horse which is the subject of the only post to grace the pages of Stump Lane in over a fortnight, here is a Saturday morning visual aid:

Positive, (or negative,) feedback loop.

It all depends upon which set of assumptions one assumes. No right. No wrong. Only opinion. And point-of-view.

Right?

This is a panel from today’s Doonesbury comic (click the image for to read the rest,) in which, White House Press person Dana Perino is grilled on OFFAL‘s awareness of the issues of global climate change.

It tracks pretty well with an interview on today’s Democracy Now! program, on the implications of climate change, during which, was played a recording of White House Press person Dana Perino being grilled on the Administration’s manipulation of testimony on possible effects of global climate change on public health. It’s a somewhat lengthy quote, but I’ve boldened my favorite parts for you.:

DANA PERINO: As I understand it, in the draft there was broad characterizations about climate change science that didn’t align with the IPCC. And we have experts and scientists across this administration that can take a look at that testimony and say, “This is an error” or “This doesn’t make sense.” And so, the decision on behalf of CDC was to focus that testimony on public health benefits. There are public health benefits to climate change, as well, but both benefits and concerns that somebody like a Dr. Gerberding, who is the expert in the field, could address. And so, that’s the testimony that she provided yesterday.

REPORTER: Is it typical for the White House to cut that much of an administration official’s prepared –

DANA PERINO: You know, I don’t look at — what I can tell you, it is typical for us to review testimony that comes across. And I think that when you have an issue as large as climate change and as complicated — and the White House reaches out to all sorts of scientists across the administration when it comes to climate change — if they have concerns that the IPCC document, which we agreed to its conclusions on, does not align with the testimony, that the prudent thing to do is to move forward, to have her testimony — and remember, we only suggest the edits.

REPORTER: There’s another CDC official saying that the testimony was “eviscerated,” which is pretty — I guess, accusing the White House of playing very heavy hands.

DANA PERINO: I understand what they’re accusing us of, but I can — I just reject it. And I will tell you that, again, we believe climate change is real; we believe that humans are largely responsible; we are working on a way to solve the problem. And in the meantime, we are working with experts like Julie Gerberding to figure out what are going to be the health benefits and the health concerns of climate change, of which there are many. And she testified fully on it yesterday.

I. Can’t. Fucking. Wait. For the public health benefits of global climate change.

People never freeze to death in the future, it’s so warm!

It’s a brilliant marketing ploy. Lot’s of deadly things have been marketed for their health benefits. Cigarettes, even. People eat that shit up!

Can it be argued that self-destructive addictive pathology itself benefits health? I’ll bet it can!

Hat-tip to Philosoraptor, Winston Smith on the Washington Post article linked above.

Still no Friday semi-random music. There’s always living in the past, though.

Here’s a Bonus Awesome Video, nonetheless. “Buena Vista Social Club” with Ry Cooder — Chan Chan:

Sometimes, I could listen to that forever.

As President, would you extradite George Bush or other high-level officials of the current administration to face charges of torture, violation of human rights, or war crimes before an international crimes court?