The horsemen are getting closer...

Frank Sinatra sang "It Was a Very Good Year". He certainly wasn't singing about 2004. The worst natural disaster in recent world history has just occurred with the tsunami eminating from Sumatra. I am deeply saddened by the recent events and cannot begin to fathom the scale of it. Recent reports show that as many as 58,000 people may already be dead. They predict that at least as many will die from disease and that there are at least 200,000 more injured. I offer my sincerest condolences to all that have been affected by this gigantic tragedy. Most of the deaths have been reported in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Myanmar, the Maldives, Kenya, and elsewhere. Please consider donating anything you can to any of the fine relief agencies. Here is a link to a site that has direct links to many relief agencies directly involved with the current tsunami.

www.networkforgood.org/topics/international/earthquake/tsunami122604.aspx

Please give as much as you can to your agency of choice. The scale of this recent tragedy is incomprensible. I've been watching various news reports and everything I see shocks the hell out of me. Most of the reporting has been pretty good, but I don't need to know about the celebrities on holiday and how they hurt their foot.

2004 has been a pretty shitty year. It's been okay on a personal front, but national and international news stories just keep reminding me of what a shitty state the world is in. Blue state blues, Iraq, North Korea, Ukrainian presidential candidate poisoning, locusts, Echo Boomers, the killer tsunami, etc... We'd better do something to make a difference in this miserable world. Please give generously to aid the survivors of the tsunami and also to all of your other favorite charities before your holiday spirit runs dry.

Peace,
Jason