Feh!

L'Affaire Strauss-Kahn

From The New Yorker.

The Crisis in a Nutshell: “A Rutting Chimpanzee”

Posted by Will Oremus

 

 















A digest of last week’s prophetic and interpretive thought

• “Yes, I love women…. So what?” —Dominique Strauss-Kahn, on April 28th
• “The defendant restrained a hotel employee inside of his room. He sexually assaulted her and attempted to forcibly rape her.” —New York prosecutor John McConnell
• “The news last night from New York sounds like a thunderbolt. I myself, like everyone, am totally astounded.” —French Socialist leader Martine Aubry
• “It’s humiliating for the I.M.F. and humiliating for our country.” —Bernard Debré, a French politician from President Sarkozy’s party
• “I do not believe the accusations against my husband, not for one second.” —Anne Sinclair, Strauss-Kahn’s wife
• “I am convinced it is an international conspiracy.” —Michelle Sabban, a Paris regional councillor
• “Nothing in the world can justify a man being thus thrown to the dogs.” —Philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy
• “If the whole situation isn’t exposed for being a political set-up in the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours, Monsieur Strauss-Kahn’s political career is finished.” —Stéphane Rozès, a French polling expert
• “Everyone in the Paris political village knew of Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s pathologic relations with women.” —Marine Le Pen, a right-wing French presidential candidate
• “We all know that he’s rather ‘vigorous,’ if I may say so, but that he’d let himself get caught up in something like this is simply bewildering.” —Christine Boutin, the leader of France’s Christian Democratic Party
• “He was a rutting chimpanzee.” —Tristane Banon, a French journalist who has come forward to accuse Strauss-Kahn of sexually assaulting her nine years ago
• “This comes at just the worst possible time for Europe.” —Eswar Prasad, an international-economics professor at Cornell University
• “This should not impact on the programs for Greece and Ireland or the decisions about Portugal.” —Amadeu Altafaj, a spokesman for the European Commission
• “We believe there is a very, very defensible case.” —Benjamin Brafman, Strauss-Kahn’s attorney

Coming and going

Tisbury, Massachusetts

6:30 AM

10 billion people

  When I was born there were about 2.5 billion people, including 100 million in the United States.  Today our planet has nearly 7 billion people and 311 million Americans.  By 2100, experts predict a global population of 9.3 billion, including 478 million in the United States.

I just read the book The View from Lazy Point - A Natural Year in an Unnatural World by Carl Safina. There's still some hope but I can't imagine the way out.

In a May 3 press release, the United Nation reports:

"The current world population of close to 7 billion is projected to reach 10.1 billion in the next ninety years, reaching 9.3 billion by the middle of this century, according to the medium variant of the 2010 Revision of World Population Prospects, the official United Nations population projections prepared by the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, which is being launched today. Much of this increase is projected to come from the high-fertility countries, which comprise 39 countries in Africa, nine in Asia, six in Oceania and four in Latin America.

"Small variations in fertility can produce major differences in the size of populations over the long run. The high projection variant, whose fertility is just half a child above that in the medium variant, produces a world population of 10.6 billion in 2050 and 15.8 billion in 2100. The low variant, whose fertility remains half a child below that of the medium, produces a population that reaches 8.1 billion in 2050 and declines towards the second half of this century to reach 6.2 billion in 2100. For long-term trends the medium variant is taken as reference.

"The medium-variant projection for 2050 is more certain than for 2100 because people who will be 40 years and older in 2050 are already born. According to the medium variant, it will take 13 years to add the eighth billion, 18 years to add the ninth billion and 40 years to reach the tenth billion. According to the high variant, an additional billion would be added every 10 or 11 years for the rest of this century."

Geronimo!

Madison Avenue deathploitation . . .

Time's Red X

Hitler got Time Magazine's first red X in 1945, followed by Hussein in 2003 and al-Zarqawi in 2006.

Now it's bin Laden's turn.

As seen from Times Square.

Justice

Keith Urbahn, chief of staff to former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, broke the news on the killing of Osama bin Laden.  Well done President Obama.



"Justice has been done."