February 2007 Archives

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From a recent UNICEF study: An Overview of Child Well-Being in Rich Countries

The United Kingdom and the United States find themselves in the bottom third of the rankings for five of the six dimensions reviewed.

Among the most appaling statistics is how low the US ranks in infant mortality. This while spending significantly more of its Gross Domestic Product on health care:

Health spending as percent of GDP, 2004:

United States: 15.2%
Switzerland: 11.5%
Cambodia: 10.9%
Canada: 9.9%
Japan: 7.9%
Mexico: 6.2%
Africa: 6.1%
China: 5.6%
Russia: 5.6%
India: 4.8%
Pakistan: 2.4%
Congo: 2.0%

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This is on Salon's front page. In the article itself they change the word "uppity" to "smug".

This is really shameful.

Update - at about 8 PM they changed "uppity" to "smug" on the home page.

Columnist Molly Ivins died this week at 62 of breast cancer.

Dahlia Lithwick, herself a very good columnist on legal matters, writes a great remembrance of Ivins in her What I learned from Molly Ivins and therin relays a illustrative Ivins bon mot:

Ivins once described her job as "to provide regular instruction in the science of how to keep laughing, even though you've considered all the facts"

… which helps me put into perspective my last post on the anger I feel about Bush.

I'll miss having the opportunity to read Molly Ivins' work and I will endeavor to keep laughing.