Actually, children in China ain't doin' so hot either.
According to an article in Le Monde yesterday, the number of deformed babies born in China has risen 40% since 2001 in heavy industrial areas. Nationwide, 105 out of every 1,000 babies is born with a birth defect for a total of 1.2 million babies per year, or one every thirty seconds.
People are living too long in the developed world. I say more lead in the toys, and let's bring back lead face paint. It killed the Roman ruling class quite nicely.
Slog is just turning into an inventory of things we should be afraid of. Toys, pit bulls, straight parents, Christians, carcinogenic guts. Taken individually, I understand each of them, but together it's just a weird litany of fear over here.
Sorry, this isn't related to the post, but did you all know that Powell's bookstore's store cat, Fup, has died? She was 19 years old and an icon. I don't know if any of you ever met her or heard of her adventures in the newsletters. Well, just wanted to share the news from down south. For more info. click this link: http://www.powells.com/blog/?p=2568
I hope you don't mind me sharing.
Hit the breaks, Dan! A cat is dead!
@ #3:
And Republicans.
Don't forget the Republicans.
I did not intend to kill Fup.
My husband was was trying to put out the fire he started on my mothers dead body and it make me want to vomit but I was wearing lead soaked fake teeth at the time and the puke was stuck in my mouth so it couldn't possibly have been my fault that I strangled the cat.
China's manufacturers aren't necessarily more unscrupulous than their U.S. counterparts, they just get caught more often.
Don't blame China alone. Point the fingers to the relentless pursuit of lower prices demanded by the consumers and retailers. You think "cheap" stuff made in China will be any safer were they made in another third world countries where many environmental and labor regulations are lax or next to none?
@3 don't forget concrete...scaaary concrete.
I'm so horny for Fup right now.
Dan, if China wanted to target athletes from other countries for 2008, they would be exporting lead-poisoned condoms, not children toys.
THIS is why I don't dress up for Halloween. Sweet Moses.
a US company contracted with the Chinese one to create those teeth. If the contract didn't specifically exclude lead, then no one's to blame in China. just another day at the office in global capitalism.
i can't wait for Peak Oil to end shipments of utter shite from Asia.
@7 - The talent coordinator for Ellen Degeneres would like to speak with you on line 1....
@3 - The Slog crew does indeed seem a bit, um, overexcitable these days. I wonder if they're going to get all freaked out next summer when headlines will start routinely popping up in the news about shark attacks at beaches, as they do pretty much every summer in recent years. OMG SHARKS!!!!!!!!!!!11111
Of course China is trying to kill us all. Why wouldn't they? Make a mint selling us poisoned products, take over our national economy, ... who needs nukes? They're probably really happy about Fup too. And my pet mouse that died last week. Meanwhile we spend our brazilians on a pointless patch of desert in the middle east.....China=Some smart little devils.
@16,
Nah. It's too cold to swim in the ocean up here. Seattlites are safe from sharks. Now brain-eating bacteria in ponds and lakes, that's another story.
Is everything in China made of lead? Lead seems to have more uses than Arm and Hammer baking soda.
@ 8: What US counterparts? Are there any US manufacturers left?
Fuck, I didn't notice till I was done eating them, but my smoked oysters were 'farmed raised' and otherwise made by Pacific Friend in China. Is there such a thing as Lead Fever? Fuck China. Oh, and please don't call in G-Dub's loan.
Cats shouldn't be in bookstores. Cats STINK, and many people are allergic. I can't go in Twice Sold Tales because of the catshit-and-fur smell.
People that are allergic to cats are crybabies and don't deserve to enter bookstores that are nice enough to have kitties.
@23: I agree! heh. Cats rock! And they don't smell like catshit and fur!
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