Here are some excerpts from the December issue of Harper’s Index (not yet online):
• Number of San Francisco homes on sale in September that were affordable on the average local teacher’s salary: 1
• Factor by which the extent f marine protected aras has increase since 2003: 8.25
• Percentage of world’s oceans that remains unprotected: 96
• Number of species that scientists have named after Barack Obama: 7
• After the four previous U.S. presidents combined: 2
• Portion of Americans who have worked as independent contractors who would not do so again: 2/3
• Number of U.S. states where it is legal to sentence a minor to life in prison without parole: 31
• Last year in which U.S. support for the death penalty was less than 50 percent: 1971
• Number of countries that the United States bombed over a three-day period in September: 6
• Percentage of direct military aid that will go to Israel next year: 54
• Percentage of uses on Polygamy.com, a website that facilitates polygamous marriage, who are women: 55
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At Daily Kos on this date in 2002—Army fires gay Arab linguists:
How can the US make any credible claims that it is fighting the terrorist threat with all available means when this sort of crap happens?
Nine Army linguists, including six trained to speak Arabic, have been dismissed from the military because they are gay.
The soldiers' dismissals come at a time when the military is facing a critical shortage of translators and interpreters for the war on terrorism.
[...]
The government has aggressively recruited Arabic speakers since the Sept. 11 attacks.
"We face a drastic shortage of linguists, and the direct impact of Arabic speakers is a particular problem," said Donald R. Hamilton, who documented the need for more linguists in a report to Congress as part of the National Commission on Terrorism.
Crazy.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: We’re making progress in getting our feet back under us. Armando joins Greg Dworkin (and host David Waldman) in sorting through the weekend’s top stories, what happened last week, what it means, what it doesn’t, and what comes next.
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