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November 30, 2005
proud to be a san diegan
My very own Representative, Randy "Duke" Cunningham, resigned from the House yesterday. Apparently he'd accepted millions of dollars in bribes from defense contractors, including but not limited to yachts, mansions, and a Rolls Royce.
His daughter, a year older than me, went to my high school and handed me an award once. Go Falcons!
Here's Randy "Duke" looking all penitent:
And just because I love maps, here's a map of my district, which has been lovingly gerrymandered to include all the most boring, suburban parts of San Diego County:
Posted by onion slayer at 10:53 AM | Comments (0)
November 29, 2005
numbers
A non-exhaustive list of man-made disasters in the 20th century, in descending order of death toll:
World War II (1939-1945) - 55 million
Hitler - 15.5 million directly, not counting all European WWII casualties
Japan - maybe 6 million directly, not counting all Pacific WWII casualties
Stalin - 4 million
Rumania - 484,000
Mussolini - 224,250 all told; 250 Italians
Mao's regime (1949-1975) - 40 million
Stalin's regime (1924-1953) - 20 million
World War I (1914-1918) - 15 million
Russian Civil War (1917-1922) - 9 million
Leopold's Congo (1886-1908) - 8 million
Congo (1998-present) - 3.8 million
Nationalist China (1928-1937) - 3.1 million
Korean War (1950-1953) - 2.8 million
Chinese Civil War (1945-1949) - 2.5 million
Postwar purge of Germans from E. Europe (1945-1947) - 2.1 million
Sudan (1983-present) - 1.9 million
Afghanistan (1979-2001) - 1.8 million
Khmer Rouge (1975-1978) - 1.7 million
Vietnam War, American phase (1965-1973) - 1.7 million
Armenian massacres (1915-1923) - 1.5 million
Ethiopia (1962-1992) - 1.4 million
Bangladesh (1971) - 1.25 million
Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) - 1 million
Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) - 1 million
Nigeria (1966-1970) - 1 million
Rwandan genocide (1994) - 800,000 deaths of all causes
Tibet/China (1950-present) - 600,000
Franco (1936-1975) - 465,000
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Large-scale deaths before the twentieth century:
Mongols in 13th century - 40 million (?)
Native Americans, killed by Europeans, all told - 20-40 million (?)
An Lushan Revolt and Civil War in China, 750-763 - 36 million
Establishment of Qing Dynasty in China, 1618-1644 - 25 million
Taiping Rebellion, China (1850-1864) - 20 million
Tamerlane, Central Asia (1369-1405) - 17 million
Thirty Years War (1618-1648) - 7 million
American Civil War (1861-1865) - 620,000
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Other killers:
Flu (1918-1919) - 21 million
AIDS (1981-1998) - 11.7 million
(Most of these numbers were taken from this website.)
Posted by onion slayer at 10:06 AM | Comments (4)
November 04, 2005
gross
How did I only just now find out that I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby is the author of a quasi-pornographic novel? And that the novel includes the line,
"He asked if they should fuck the deer"?
Apparently he spent twenty years writing The Apprentice, which was released in 2002. It seems to have gotten decent reviews. Weird.
(Read the New Yorker article here.)
Posted by onion slayer at 03:27 PM | Comments (1)
November 02, 2005
propaganda
Today I wrote an "opinion essay" for third graders. The topic? Why I Think Onions Are Disgusting. Thusly I will change the world.
Posted by onion slayer at 02:49 PM | Comments (1)