AMPTP President Nick Counter's Picket Sign Popularity At All-Time HIgh [Hollywood Signagewatch]
No, this WGA picketer's sign (click the photo to enlarge) probably won't help to elevate the level of discourse in the already-ugly war of words raging between the writers and studios, but it may finally force AMPTP bogeyman Nick Counter to address some of the rapidly proliferating rumors concerning him on his organization's website:
"SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT...As the WGA knows and its own records will attest, I possess no supernatural powers to command coyotes, transform into mist, or feed upon the dreams of sleeping children. Additionally, my giant raven is merely a pet, and not a viable form of late-night locomotion. As the the WGA knows and its own records will attest, I am not a 'weiner,' as spuriously claimed by a horny TV doctor the Guild has intimidated into slandering me. And, at this time, I am not going to dignify the disgusting accusations of flatulence-devouring with a response. If the writers were truly serious about a deal, they'd redirect some of the energy they expend scribbling caricatures of me on picket signs into begging the Companies to returning to the bargaining table with renewed vigor."
Earlier this month, crushing rains left 20 people dead and over 20,000 stranded when overwhelming rainfall left five feet of standing water in the low-lying areas. This is on top of already taxed landscapes that flooded when melting Himalayan glaciers burst the 200 rivers that web across the country last year. Bangladesh under water is seeming like a real and permanent possibility.
The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — whose claims are usually conservative — said that Bangladesh is heading to lose 17 percent of its land and 30 percent of its food production by 2050. That's like California and New York drowning, and the whole Midwest ceasing production of food.
If this happens, more than 20 million Bangladeshis will be without a patch of land to stand on. Though hardship in the country isn't entirely recent: since 1971, Bangladesh has endured over 200 disasters that have left a total of 500,000 dead and affected a total of 500 million people.
And I haven't even said anything about the plague of rats that's consuming all of their food. A plague of rats. I wish, wish there was more room for stories like this in the general consciousness — shouldn't we be hearing about this every night? Not to dwell on the gloomy, but just knowing about this makes the answer to this question pretty clear to me.
Reuters - The Polish prosecutor's office is
investigating allegations that there was a CIA prison in Poland
where al Qaeda suspects were questioned and guards might have
used methods close to torture, the prime minister's top adviser
said on Friday.
