Random

• Washington Post/MSNBC: Piecing together Lynch’s body, story — Details reveal Pfc. Lynch — who is still hospitalized — suffered massive injuries in crash An incredible account of the full story on Jessica Lynch’s capture and rescue. There are still many unresolved questions but one thing is clear… those Iraqi doctors and nurses who cared for her under such horrible conditions are the reason she is alive today.
• MSNBC: Secrecy shielding detainees upheld — Court says administration need not identify foreigners it holds
• Washington Post/MSNBC: Iraqi man hid 22 years in a wall — Hussein foe holed up in secret compartment
• MSNBC: Microsoft files 15 spam lawsuits — Firm alleges defendants sent 2 billion unsolicited e-mails
• KFCCruelty.com – a muckracking campaign by PETA against Kentucky Fried Chicken. — While I don’t agree with their response (veganism) I do think we need to put preasure on KFC to change their chicken raising practices. I believe all animals (even those we eat) should be treated with respect and kindness. KFC (and the rest of the corporate Chicken industry) should do better than this.
• Here are some staggering statistics from the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association
  In 1920. 1 in every 7 farmers was Black.
  
  In 1982, 1 in every 67 farmers was Black.
  
  In 1910, black farmers owned 15.6 million acres of farm land nationally.
  
  In 1982 Black farmers owned 3.1 million acres of farm land nationally.
  
  Between 1920 and 1992 the number of black farmers in the U.S. declined from 925,710 to 18.816 or by 98 percent.
  
  In 1984 and 1985, the USDA lent $1.3 billion to farmers nationwide to buy land. Of the almost 16,000 farmers who received those funds, only 209 were Black.
  
  Almost half of all black-operated farms are smaller than 50 acres.
  
  In the late 1980’s, there were less than 200 African-American farmers in the United States under the age of 25.
• The New Statesman (UK): The banality of the good — Ignore the sceptics: the real Europe is foreign-language schools in Oxford and flights to Rome for £4.99. And it is deeply Americanised. By Timothy Garton Ash
• Guardian (UK) Museum gets back looted vase (from 3200 BCE)

  Also, why didn’t this make the US news… The Guardian (UK): Bush’s cultural aides quit over sack of Baghdad’s treasures