This is one of the many bad habits picked up from too close an association with Calvinism – the BBC magazine reports: A little dash of panic

American public information films weren’t like the British ones. They were scary, for starters.

It was in postwar Britain and the US that public information films truly came into their own. In the wake of morale-boosting incitements to help the war effort came movie shorts designed to educate young people on the perils of everything from hot pans on stoves to the terrors of “reefer madness”.

But a search through the archives shows there was a marked difference in approach on either side of the Atlantic.

Yes, never rely on information when you can terrorize people.

Rook at Rook’s Rant is celebrating his fifth … oh, blogiversary™.  He also biking again just to be annoying.

Income has been a bit odd since coming back from the vet’s.

The lead story at CNN is this Time magazine article: Is it Time to Invade Burma?

My short answer: No! [These people are barking at the moon insane.]

But the article contains a possible solution:

…

So what other options exist? Retired General William Nash of the Council on Foreign Relations says the U.S. should first pressure China to use its influence over the junta to get them to open up and then supply support to the Thai and Indonesian militaries to carry out relief missions. “We can pay for it — we can provide repair parts to the Indonesians so they can get their Air Force up. We can lend the them two C-130s and let them paint the Indonesian flag on them,” Nash says. “We have to get the stuff to people who can deliver it and who the Burmese government will accept, even if takes an extra day or two and even if it’s not as efficient as the good old U.S. military.” …

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As I predicted the Associated Press is now reporting U.N. aid used by junta for propaganda exercise

YANGON, Myanmar – Myanmar’s military regime distributed international aid Saturday but plastered the boxes with the names of top generals in an apparent effort to turn the relief effort for last week’s devastating cyclone into a propaganda exercise.

The United Nations sent in three more planes and several trucks loaded with aid, though the junta took over its first two shipments. The government agreed to let a U.S. cargo plane bring in supplies Monday, but foreign disaster experts were still being barred entry.

State-run television continuously ran images of top generals — including the junta leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe — handing out boxes of aid to survivors at elaborate ceremonies.

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