Matt Welch throws out a challenge to react to Geov Parrish’s assertion that the amount of money being contributed to the families of the heroes and victims of 9/11 is “obscene — they don’t need any more.” I’ve actually been meaning to do the math. Correct me if I’m wrong (there’s a reason I’m a writer, not an MBA) but if you take $1 billion — which is what the total should be if the Red Cross were not misappropriating funds and contributors’ good intentions by funneling money to buying new phones for themselves — and divide that total by 5,000 — the still-accepted number of deaths — you get $200,000 per family. Obscene? Only to an unemployed Afghan, perhaps. That would not pay for one college education. That would not compensate for one year’s income — let alone a long career ahead — for the young and talented victims of this mass murder. Double it or say I’m off a zero and it’s $2 million; still nothing compared to a life. Parrish, whoever you are: Sod off.You give your money to whatever hackneyed cause you want. I will give mine where I give it every year and I will now give it here.
I’ve also been wondering: Will the families of the victims of the anthrax attacks receive any of this generosity? I vote yes.
– Telegraph: We prepared for a full invasion.
– British Muslims who fight vs. Britain face charges of treason.
– And I thought Nixon’s enemies list was bad; here’s the Taliban’s hit list.
– OK, let’s stop with the columnists telling us all just to calm down about this anthrax “scare” because only a relatively few people have died — there is no such thing as only a “few!” Now one poor person who hasn nothing to do with the post office in New Jersey has it. And one poor person with no apparent connection in New York has it. This is a biowar attack on us!
– Howard Stern said that what shook him about Ashcroft’s omnibus warning was that Ashcroft looked shaken.
– As Churchill said…
– War criminal re war criminal: Milosevic.
– U.S. warns Afghanis “not to confuse food parcels with cluster bombs.”
