Right Action

I haven’t said much here about the goings on in Myanmar, formerly Burma. However, I and the rest of the Central Sanity crew have brought up several stories over the course of the last week. For those unfamiliar with the situation, here’s a very very short version: peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations against the military government have been led by thousands of Buddhist monks, accompanied by Buddhist nuns and ordinary citizens; the government warned there would be repercussions if demonstrations did not stop; they made good on their threats, resulting in deaths, locked monasteries (with the troublesome monks inside), and cutting off the internet. The international community has responded with, well, idle threats to cut off trade and investment in the country.

Today’s dose of Burma is to let you know about some people who are truly on top of the situation there. First, the always-brilliant Dave Johnson is involved in the Burma NewsLadder, an aggregator of current stories. Also, MahaBarbara of the Mahablog has been giving regular updates with commentary, and somehow finds time to write about other things. Both MoveOn and Avaaz.org have petitions in support of the people and monks of Myanmar. I leave you with two political cartoons, one from Robert Arial and one from Ann Telnaes. I love her clean lines and minimalist style, to say nothing of her wit!

In closing: 10 least healthy salads; why the heck did The Gap even have personal information about prospective employees on a laptop computer which was easily stolen?; the problem with early childhood education in a nutshell; always pay attention to the news late on a Friday afternoon, because you never know when a real bombshell will be dropped; after everything we’ve found out about Blackwater, does anybody at all think it’s a good idea to involve them in the Drug War, really?; and h/t to Fark, a list of historical cats.