|
|
Currently no members online:)
You are an anonymous user. You can register for free by clicking here |
We have 30 guests online !
|
|
|
|
|
Theories: Life conversion factor |
Posted by
Rogue on Friday, January 14, 2005 - 05:03 PM PST
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/1/1/214659/5097
(The above link is a discussion of the U.S. flag being flown at half-mast for a full month for Ronald Wilson Reagan's death, and roughly a week for the tsunami victims)
To make this easier to understand for myself and others, I have developed a handy conversion factor for the relative worth of white and brown lives.
First, take the distance in miles between the U.S. border and the tragedy in question, in this case approximately 12000, and divide it by 12, the number of Jesus' disciples, to get 1000.
You then square this number to get a million and divide the number of actual casualties, which for the recent tsunami is approximately 155000. This gives us .155 months of flag-at-half-staff, or 4.65 days.
This conversion factor is measured in the unit "Reagans" and was based on the 30 days given to Ronald Reagan versus the five days given to the tsunami victims. Thus, the amount in Reagans is inversely proportionate to distance from the U.S. border with adjustments made for the colour of the victims i.e. Australians would rate higher than Japanese or Indonesians despite their greater distance from the U.S. border. For 155000 casualties to rate 1 Reagan, or a full month of lowered flags, it would have to occur within 5000 miles of the border and it would also help if the victims were either caucasian or economically useful.
Note that ordinary white citizens of the U.S. can and do die daily, often during heroic deeds, but even they do not rate 1/30 of a Reagan because they do not meet the criteria of being Republican AND excessively wealthy. Richard Nixon normally would have been afforded this honour, but he got reduced to .25 Reagans for being a member of a terrorist organisation...extra credit to anyone who knows which organisation.
|
|
| |
|
|
This article has not been rated
|
|
|
|
|
|
Life conversion factor | Login/Create an account | 9 Comments |
| Comments are owned by the poster. We aren't responsible for their content. |
Re: Life conversion factor
by W0rmW00d (allchaka@hotmail.com)
on Jan 14, 2005 - 06:30 PM
(User info | Send a Message)
|
Was it the US government of the Nixon era?
|
Catastrophes
by Monolycus on Jan 14, 2005 - 08:27 PM
(User info | Send a Message)
|
I think the world pretty much has our number by now regarding what we think a life's worth. In order to "justify" our stinginess with tsunami relief efforts, I have seen arguments that God the Irritable and Almighty is smiting "unbelievers" for not grovelling through more hymns to His Majesty (the most notable example of this came from Ohio-based Women Influencing the Nation spokesidiot Jennifer Giroux). This does, of course, imply that God is none too fond of retirees in Florida and California whose populations are still digging themselves out from under His wrath, but since these are primarily American heathens, and many of them are white English speakers, it doesn't get brought up very much.
I've also seen an argument that we should not send aid to tsunami victims because they "had it coming to them" for living in such a geologically unstable place as, say, southern Asia and should all have moved somewhere safer such as, say, Ohio (parts of which are also receiving federal aid right now and have been gained national disaster status as of the past two weeks for flooding). http://www.opinioneditorials.com/guestcontributors/nsalvato_20050111.html Of course, I like this explanation, and will bring it up every time the subject of the $12 billion dollars given to Florida last year after their hurricane season ended comes up. How dare those godless retirees continue to live there??
But even when we are not blaming the victims of the tsunami (which is, appropriately, an anagram for "I am nuts" in light of some of this talk), we are reminding everyone how slobberingly grateful they should be for any crumb the United States gives to them and how mentally unbalanced they are for expecting us to be even a little humanitarian in the first place. http://www.bushcountry.org/news/columnists/ra-hawkins/c_011005_rahawkins_tsunami.htm
That we say these kinds of things should not in the least make it look as though we are self-serving xenophobes who only care about ourselves. The rest of the world are simply small-minded for taking it that way. We can't give out money to everyone who might be hurt or sick or dying or the unfortunate victim of not being rich and powerful. We have very expensive unwinnable wars to be waging with that money! We also have a sitting President who needs a gaudy and extravagant $40 million re-inaugural ball! Won't SOMEBODY please come to HIS aid??? http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6822858/
So, to take our mind of the depressing subject of poor, brown-skinned drains on our resources, I am recommending that we can all pitch in and give our money to what we in the USA call "worthwhile lives". Please help George out by buying a ticket to his re-inaugual jam-bo-ree for only $175-$250 a pop. http://www.freerepublic.com/w2ball/
Let it be on your own conscience, then. If you don't help a poor, down-on-his-luck Emperor to get the pony ride that he deserves... who will?
|
Re: Nitpick Away!
by Xaoswolf (xaoswolfathotmaildotcom)
on Jan 18, 2005 - 09:30 PM
(User info | Send a Message)
http://the_xaoswolf.1up.com
|
second story wouldn't come up.
And the first is only about one private groups plans. It's a religious organization, so sure it's going to have a religious motive.
Also, you had commented how the survivors don't care about the respect being given to the dead. I was simply saying that when it comes to respecting the dead, the living don't really matter. And speaking of the living, isn't the USA, along with many other nations, supplying aid to the people who have been harmed by the quake?
|
|
|