(Insert Bitter Cackle)

I don't know what it is, perhaps the non-contribution of my newly-disable ankle, but I've found many a news-item of the type that trip my bitterly evil sense of humour. O, how many times I have cackled at the pathetic irony of all the do-gooders out there! If there's one thing we can learn from the "Limp Bizkits" that the kids seems so fond of, it's that life consists of an insufferable series of tragedies, even in the most affable conditions! Here follow a few examples of humorous irony involving human suffering.
First, I'm certain that all of my readers are familiar with the silly wristbands sold for a variety of charitable purposes. Doubly so for my university friends, as certain parties that shall not be named were hocking those odious oversized rubber bands constantly. The theme seems to be that if one buys these devices, you get to save the world by giving everyone a puppy and, more importantly, gain recognition from your peers as a busily charitable soul! After all, there's no point in contributing if you get no recognition. Charity isn't being nice, nor is it a necessary act.
Any-way, my erstwhile colleague Dr. Fujiyama has been keeping busy on the subject of the Tsunami Bracelets and the Aid Programme in general. As he's found and posted on the subject in his posts on 23 and 31 May. He's found that nothing is being done with the money thanks to the bureaucracy in the afflicted areas. It seems the efforts of overly-optimistic western do-gooders are on the ropes again.
And I've found the knockout punch. It seems that these same wrist-bands are made using slave labour in China! Making the irony too much to bear, the number one seller is "Make Poverty History!" Ho-ho! Chalk one up for the "irascible human nature" crowd.
Another delicious irony is that the progressive nation of Sweden has shut down its last nuclear reactor in typical welfare-state style- two years late and twenty-five years after it was banned. The delicious irony here is that, in the same article, we learn that 80% of Swedes want to keep nuclear power, as it has enabled them to keep their virtually spotless emissions record. Their only other recourse are fossil fuels and the token wind-farms that destroy even more pristine Swedish country-side.
It seems that the decision to ban nuclear energy was taken in 1980, during the height of anti-nuclear hysteria, brought on by the over-blown Three Mile Island incident and an awful Jane Fonda movie that's as scientifically accurate as "The Core" (the title comes from the fear characters have of the reactor melting through the Earth's crust and dropping all the way to China). Has that bawdy wench done anything positive for humanity?
The more didactic amongst my reader(s) might ask what the lesson of this post is. The answer would go along the lines of "don't trust popular causes supported by actors and other assorted half-witted elites because in the end they do more harm than good." The trite campaign to end poverty ends up excaberating it, and the scientifically illiterate fear of nuclear power ends up guaranteeing a future of pollution and ravaged country-side.