May
30
2006

URLs du Jour

2006-05-30

  • There ain't no social problem that nanny-staters and earnest do-gooders can't make worse. The latest data point comes from an unlikely source: a New York Times article from Harriet Brown, discussing ham-handed (heh!) attempts by public schools to make their students more svelte. Only problem is that many such efforts are (at best) ineffective and based on shaky science. In some cases, they probably make things worse: "A recent Internet discussion board among families with anorexic and bulimic children identified middle school health classes, which focus on weight, as the No. 1 trigger for their teenagers' disorders."

    (Via Prof Althouse.)

  • In serendipitous fashion, Jonathan Adler at Volokh points to a Philadelphia Inquirer story where a Greenpeace fact sheet was released containing the (verbatim) sentence:
    In the twenty years since the Chernobyl tragedy, the world's worst nuclear accident, there have been nearly [FILL IN ALARMIST AND ARMAGEDDONIST FACTOID HERE].
    A Greenpeace spokesmodel, apparently called in to fill the "humorless stereotype" role, followed up with the comment: "Given the seriousness of the issue at hand, I don't even think it's funny."

  • Fortunately, Al Gore remembers to fill in the blanks in his alarmist and armageddonist rhetoric. Over in BBC-land, he's quoted:
    But Mr Gore, fresh from an appearance at the Cannes film festival, delivered a starker message that the world was now facing a "danger which could bring the end of civilisation."
    (Via Drudge.)


Last Modified 2006-06-02 9:28 PM EDT