“My father was paid a fee for me, and I was brought down with 40 other children.”
- Brian Merlos
- Brian Merlos
- Brian Merlos
Quotes of the week
– A 10-year-old boy, who works in a factory in India that produces Gap Inc. products, on how his employer’s bought him as slave labor
“If I were one of the people who started the fires, I would not sleep soundly right now, because we’re right behind you.”
– Arnold Schwarzenegger saying that the Californian authorities are following leads to find arsonists responsible for the forest fires that ravaged the state.
“I’m so excited. Cristina is going to pull us out of poverty!”
– Maria Isabel Francia, an Argentinian street merchant, expressing her joy about the election of Argentina’s first woman president, Cristina Fernandez
Youtube video of the week
Anchorwoman’s dubious slip
In a live take from a Channel 7 news report, an anchorwoman tells viewers that after the break she’ll be interviewing a man who climbed the tallest mountain in the world. But that’s not all! Putting a finger up in the get-ready-for-this fashion, she announces the disability that was astoundingly overcome, “But he’s GAY!”
The slightly ruffled anchorwoman corrects herself, however, revealing that she meant to say blind, not gay. What was on the anchorwoman’s mind when she made the slip? How did she connect blindness and gayness? Will she ever work in television news again? Who’s to say?
Hopefully the channel will run another news segment with interviews from other gay people who can do all sorts of things like run for public office, read books and brush their teeth.
– Lisa Haidostian
See this and other YouTube videos of the week at youtube.com/user/michigandaily
Theme party suggestion
Costume party – Duh.
Throwing this party? Let us know. TheStatement@umich.edu
Wikipedia article of the week
Captain Paul Watson
Paul Watson is the founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and is a significant, albeit controversial, figure in the environmental movement and the movement for animal rights.
Sea Shepherd has established itself as one of the more controversial environmental groups, known for provocative direct action tactics in addition to more conventional protests. These tactics have included, at times, ramming whaling ships at sea, and the scuttling of two ships in an Icelandic harbor.
Paul Watson has been denounced as an ecoterrorist. Some former colleagues in Greenpeace have likewise distanced themselves from him. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Jim Bohlen, one of the founders of Greenpeace, said: “I’ve known the guy [Watson] for 15 years, and he’s absolutely insane, out of his mind.”
Thus far, all attempts at prosecuting Watson for his activities with Sea Shepherd have failed. Watson himself defends his actions as falling within international law and Sea Shepherd’s right to enforce maritime regulations against illegal whalers and sealers. Watson claims to have been told to leave Iceland after having turned himself in to the Icelandic police after disabling two ships in harbor.
Talking points
Three things you can talk about this week:
1. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus
2. Nicolas Sarkozy on the rebound
3. Robert Goulet
And three things you can’t:
1. “The Darjeeling Limited”
2. Fake press conferences
3. Housing for next year
By the numbers
1,400: Number of paranormal investigation teams in the United Kingdom
300: Number of allegedly haunted houses in Scotland
1897: Year a home-decor magazine wrote, “To be the owner of a haunted house is, as all the world knows, the high ambition of everyone who has at last succeeded in establishing a name”