from BARDO

The stars are in our belly; the Milky Way our umbilicus.

Is it a consolation that the stuff of which we’re made

is star-stuff too?


– That wherever you go you can never fully disappear –

dispersal only: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen.


Tree, rain, coal, glow-worm, horse, gnat, rock.


Roselle Angwin

Monday, 30 January 2017

a perspective: figures on US deaths

Someone drew my attention to this tweet (or retweet, I'm not sure) by Kim Kardashian, posted in The Guardian over the weekend. (https://twitter.com/KimKardashian/status/825580660337283073)

So I'm taking a break from Lost Species (more coming later today or tomorrow) because I feel I can't not post this (you might have already seen it). It gives a very different perspective on issues like Islam from Trump's, or even our collective, assumptions.


Here are some rather astonishing numbers for the causes of deaths in the States (sources quoted on the original tweet):

Number of Americans killed annually (averaged out over 10 years) by:

Islamic jihadist immigrants: 2
Far-right-wing terrorists: 5
All Islamic jihadist terrorists (inc. US citizens): 9
Armed toddlers (yes really): 21
Lightning: 31
Lawnmowers: 69
Being hit by a bus: 264
Falling out of bed: 737

Being shot by another American: 11,737.

So should I conclude (in order of severity from lowest risk to highest) that:

Islamists need to be banned as they're Islamists
The far right needs to be banned as it's the far right
Toddlers need to be banned as they're dangerous when put in charge of a gun
Extreme or even not-so-extreme natural phenomena need to be banned as they can't be trusted
Lawnmowers need to be banned as lethal weapons
Buses need to be banned as they're bigger than humans and their vision's not good
Beds need to be banned unless they're caged so we can't fall out
Americans need to be banned because they're Americans

I assume the rest of Americans die in other ways, so maybe:
Life needs to be banned as we'll die from it.




















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