Stopped by Taco John’s. It appears they have a new mascot, a nameless sombrero-donned monkey. I couldn’t help but think of Taco Bell’s ridiculously successful, much-maligned chihuahua mascot of a few years ago. TB eventually dropped the dog partially over complaints from some members of the hispanic community that the chihuahua–whose catchphrase was a heavily accented “Yo quiero Taco Bell”–was a racial stereotype. Taco John’s, obviously wanting to avoid such a charge, chose…a monkey. The black guy behind the counter, noticing me staring at the monkey, said with a grin, “Isn’t he cute?”

I couldn’t help but wonder how cute he would find le monkey if it were being used to sell, say, fried chicken, with a word balloon coming out of his mouth saying, “Come ‘n’ git yo’self some Kentucky Friiiiied Chick’n!” No doubt something would be said about that! How about a chihuahua selling fried chicken? That would probably be ok, if a bit odd (though no more odd than using a monkey to hawk tacos). I guess it all comes down to context. Associating a monkey with tacos does not invoke the racial stereotype that would come from associating a monkey with fried chicken or watermelon. A chihuahua is a stereotype when it is associated with tacos, but not fried chicken. So, in a nutshell: chihuahua + tacos = bad, monkey + tacos = good, monkey + fried chicken = bad, chihuahua + fried chicken = good. However, one constant exists across all examples: food from any of those places = bad.

This is just about the coolest burial method I’ve seen. The body is placed in a biodegradable “coccoon”, in the fetal position, and buried. A tree is planted over the coccoon as a living memorial. One is reminded of the Peruvian mummies, placed in the fetal position within woven reed sacks. Given the proper conditions, the Italian “capsul mundi” could result in similar mummies for future generations to find.

Annoyingly, the page loads about as slowly as one of their trees grows.

Nipped from bOINGbOING.

Why isn’t any of this in the American papers? I suppose it’s easier to believe that we are undertaking some sort of noble mission when one doesn’t have to look at the product of our work and the streets slick with blood. Does anyone truly believe that Iraq is now a sovereign country when the American military rules the streets? Seeing this sort of thing sickens me. We’ve got a bunch of machine-gun wielding, scared, inexperienced kids in the middle of chaos, and their instinct is to shoot at anything that moves. The people in that picture looks like they’re just teenagers. I don’t see any weapons. Their clothes look like they might have come from J.C. Penny’s. At least 47 more civilians dead this morning because of another car bomb. Our government says we won’t leave Iraq until we’ve established “security”. Don’t they understand that our presence is why these civilian massacres are taking place? We’ve done whatever it was we came to do. It’s time for us to get out so the people of that country can go back to living instead of just surviving.