In China, officials called for the evacuation of 80,000 people in the path of potential floodwaters building up behind a fragile dam created during the earthquake: Officials in China rush to evacuate 80,000. While soldiers carve a channel to try to drain away the threat, emergency workers are trying to rapidly evacuate the area, taking the number of people moved out of the threatened valley to almost 160,000, from more than 30 townships.
The number of deaths from the quake has climbed further toward an expected toll of 80,000 or more. The Cabinet said Tuesday that 67,183 people were confirmed killed and 20,790 were still missing.
Meanwhile, in the United States, some people are using the quake disaster as an opportunity to demonstrate their supreme stupidity. A couple of weeks back, Shanghaiist wrote about the extremist crazies at GodHatesFags.com, the official website of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. The "church" has apparently issued a press release thanking God "for the Great Killer Earthquake that He sent to kill thousands of stiffhearted Chinese rebels against God." Sick.
In addition, Westboro claim their prayer "is for many more earthquakes to kill many more thousands of impudent and ungrateful Chinese." Obviously, this is a play for more publicity, and sadly, these people are only further fueled by negative reactions redirected against them. Personally, I'm praying for God to send a perfectly placed lightning bolt to 3701 SW 12th in Topeka.
In other news of stupidity, while on the red carpet at Cannes (where all sage wisdom should be dispensed), Sharon Stone recently described the earthquake in China as "karma": China quake karma, says Sharon Stone. She suggested that the quake that killed 80,000 was karmic payback for "the way the Chinese are treating the Tibetans." Basically, the Chinese were "not nice" and thus "bad things" happened to them. My friends, these are the words of a fool.
I've also been told that Whoopi Goldberg made similar comments last week on The View, attributing the earthquake to "karma," and that China was getting what was due to them. It's ridiculous. I didn't see the remarks in question, but if anyone can track a clip from The View (5/19/08), I'll post it here.
UPDATE: Sharon Stone is now facing a boycott of her films in China for her ridiculous "karma" remarks: Chinese cinema to ban Sharon Stone. The founder of one of China's biggest urban cinema chains, UME Cineplex, said his company would not show Sharon Stone's films. UME has branches in Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Hangzhou and Guangzhou, China's biggest urban movie markets. I have to wonder... how many people in China were actually interested in seeing a Sharon Stone movie in the first place?
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