The importance of word choice

In a story from Reuters today, China voiced its reservations about the recent ICC decision to charge the president of Sudan with genocide.

I'll leave aside for a moment whether China might be better off, considering its own record and behavior in the arena of human rights and treatment of its citizens, just staying very, very quiet on this particular matter; instead I will simply highlight a small piece of the statement released by the Chinese Foreign Ministry:

They expressed "grave concern" about the charges of genocide.

Just take a second and read that again, it should come to you.

Grave concern. About genocide.

The only response I could think of was to wonder: what if they needed to take a stronger position?

Would they express "mass grave" concerns?

Note to the Chinese Foreign Ministry: in future press releases, avoid referring to the ICC as a regulating "body," and if you have reservations about the fairness of any upcoming prosecution, do not under any circumstances say that you fear that President al-Bashir is going to get "bulldozed."

And get an editor. Like, right now.

Thursday = Friday

Based on a couple of conversations last night, I offer the following:

First, "Everyone's a Little bit Racist," from the Broadway show Avenue Q. If you're not familiar with it, it's a great show. I'm not necessarily a huge fan of showtunes in general, but I have the soundtrack for this and love it. With song titles like this one, "The Internet is for Porn," and "It Sucks to be Me," you really just can't go wrong. Plus, it's R-rated puppets. 'Nuff said.

(I couldn't find a decent clip of the actual show, so I picked this one for the irony of putting a song about racism against Star Wars footage, after the flak that George took over Jar-Jar and some of his characters.)



And second, a truly honest R&B song. Just because.



Have a great weekend, kids.