More tragic math
I had planned to post something about 'The Rights of the Accused' but it'll have to wait. I just read that the casualty count from the tsunami passed 125,000 and I wanted to try to put a number like that in perspective. Here goes:
Imagine, if the terrorists had managed to pull off one World-Trade-Center-caliber attack in ALL of the 50 states simultaneously. The total number of casualties would be around 130,000 (not counting rescue personnel).
Together, the two atomic bombs that we dropped on Japan killed around 115,000 people (in the immediate blasts).
Now, this Tsunami is already in this neighborhood and who knows where the number will stand tomorrow.
According to the BBC, there have only been 4 natural disaster that were more lethal in the last 500 years!
1976 Earthquake in Tangshan, China, kills 242,000
1970 Cyclone in Bangladesh kills 500,000
1887 China's Yellow River breaks its banks in Huayan Kou killing 900,000
1556 Earthquake in China's Shanxi and Henan provinces kills 830,000
As Chuck already said...the U.S. govt's pledge stands at $35m.
For those of you whinny liberals who think that that isn't a lot of money, I'd like to point out that it 3.5 times MORE than what Cameron Diaz made for her week's worth of work providing the voice-over for Princess Fiona in Shrek 2! And that was a funny flick.
Imagine, if the terrorists had managed to pull off one World-Trade-Center-caliber attack in ALL of the 50 states simultaneously. The total number of casualties would be around 130,000 (not counting rescue personnel).
Together, the two atomic bombs that we dropped on Japan killed around 115,000 people (in the immediate blasts).
Now, this Tsunami is already in this neighborhood and who knows where the number will stand tomorrow.
According to the BBC, there have only been 4 natural disaster that were more lethal in the last 500 years!
1976 Earthquake in Tangshan, China, kills 242,000
1970 Cyclone in Bangladesh kills 500,000
1887 China's Yellow River breaks its banks in Huayan Kou killing 900,000
1556 Earthquake in China's Shanxi and Henan provinces kills 830,000
As Chuck already said...the U.S. govt's pledge stands at $35m.
For those of you whinny liberals who think that that isn't a lot of money, I'd like to point out that it 3.5 times MORE than what Cameron Diaz made for her week's worth of work providing the voice-over for Princess Fiona in Shrek 2! And that was a funny flick.
By Robert - 12/30/2004
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home