there's an op-ed piece in today's {Sunday Feb. 18, 2001's) L.A. TIMES by
Edwin Black indicating that Thomas J. Watson of IBM supplied punch-card
technology (crude computing capacity) to the Nazis to help them do the
information-processing tasks needed to organize the massive slaughter of
Jews (and I presume, other pariah groups) after 1939. He's the author of a
new book, "IBM and the Holocaust" (Crown).
On a lighter note, I saw an "action figure" (doll) at Toys 'R' Us for Janis
Joplin. Today, I saw an ad for a collectible doll of Twiggy, the 1960s-era
anorexic fashion model. Also, I hear today on the radio (Harry Shearer's
"Le Show") that "action figures" are being issued representing characters
from the Quentin Tarantino's bloody action movie, "Reservoir Dogs." As
Harry notes, we should expect dolls to made soon of Jeffrey Dahmer.
(Is "anorexic fashion model" redundant?)
Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~JDevine
