We May Have Pat Robertson, but Islam Has Its Own Buffoons, Too

First off, this is not a joke...though it is funny in its own way. See why this Saudi cleric thinks Mickey Mouse should be exterminated (90 seconds):



And from much more liberal Kuwait, we learn the danger of massage parlors and hair salons. Notice the undocumented statistics and the utter ignorance ("Do women get massages, too?). This one will take you almost 6 minutes, but you'll be riveted:

News You May Have Missed: 737 Lands on Mumbai Sidewalk

An earlier blog referenced the precarious commute to work in Mumbai, India. Now, it appears that even airplanes get stuck in Mumbai's famed traffic. Read this linked article for details.

My favorite part of the article is where it says, "No one is clear about its owner, its destination and the reason why it is parked there but the young ones are having a field day. Not only them, but some homeless men even found the cargo hold of the plane good enough to be used as a makeshift kitchen. And some even strung a clothesline where the plane's wings once were."

Walt Disney may think it's a small world, after all, but some parts of it are clearly very, very different.

(The BBC's version of the story is here. It's best if you read the quotes with your "Indian accent.")

The Fattest Nation on Earth

A couple weeks ago, I was in Orlando on business. I stayed in an expensive hotel on Disney property and took our business partners to dinner at an even more expensive Disney hotel. At both these hotels, we had occasion to visit the pool areas.

You know how in the movies, everyone by the pool is beautiful? How the men are gorgeous and the women are muscular? Well, real life at Disney is nothing like that. Poolside at Disney looks more like a convention of pears, grapes, and eggplants, but nobody's wearing a costume. Makes you wish they were.

No wonder people go to the Internet when they want to see beautiful people.

The Wall Street Journal recently quoted World Health Organization statistics, which show the following estimated obesity rates for people aged 15 years and over ("obese" = BMI >30):

• Japan 1.6%
• China 1.7%
• France 7.2%
• Germany 20.7%
• U.K. 22.9%
• U.S. 39.2% We're #1! We're #1!

American dominance is always comforting, but aside from American superiority, what conclusions can we draw from these statistics?

• Speaking English makes you fat. It's probably because of all the lazy vowels (which, in the U.S., are worst in the South, and that's where the fattest people are).


• Speaking Asian languages makes you skinny, because it takes a lot of energy to speak such difficult languages.
  

You can't really disagree with this. Statistics don't lie.