Loose cannons

February 19, 1992
Issue 

Consumer guide

Public Citizen, the US public interest group associated with Ralph Nader, recently estimated that the newly released Lamborghini Diablo is the world's top fuel-wasting car. In a survey of 900 vehicles, the 12 cylinder job managed six kilometres per litre on the open road and 3.9 km in the city. Each of the devils will produce around 97 tonnes of carbon dioxide in its lifetime. Other high-rating guzzlers were Rolls Royce, Bentley, Ferrari and Aston Martin.

Liberal

"There will be a military coup here ... The army's role will be to save the fatherland ... I will come to power ... We don't have, and never will have, a Commonwealth of Independent States. Boris Yeltsin is occupying my place only temporarily. I have already won." — Vladimir Zhirinovsky, chairman of the Russian Liberal Democratic Party.

Whereas Labor promises

"They perceived the Greens to be threatening their job prospects, and the Greens do threaten jobs." — Former Tasmanian premier Michael Field, whose policies helped to produce mass unemployment and a record low vote for Labor in the February 1 state election.

They think

"The tests do not indicate any association between these silicone materials and cancer or diseases of the immune system." — From Dow Corning Corp documents revealing that the company knew by the mid-'70s that its breast implants broke and leaked inside women's bodies. Dow Corning also makes agent orange.

Free world

"You can't help but notice that many of these people are poor and black." — US criminal justice specialist Professor Mark Moore on the results a survey by a research group, Sentencing Project, which found that the USA imprisons a larger proportion of its population than any other country. The group estimates there are 1.1 million people in US prisons, about 500,000 of them black men.

Free market

"For 38 years I worked as a civilian pilot. I helped to open up the oilfields of Siberia. I used to be able to smoke, to have a drink on days off, to eat well. Now I get a pension of 342 roubles, and I can barely afford a pound of meat a month." — A participant in the recent mass protest against the Russian government of Boris Yeltsin.

Give us your tired, your poor ...

"There is not one single documented case of a repatriated d or targeted after their return." — US secretary of state James Baker shortly before United Nations officials released testimony of a reign of terror in Haiti from more than 40 refugees who had fled again after being sent back by US warships.

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