December 15, 2000

Michael, Tiger, and Osama

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Afghanistan’s rigid Islamic laws may not allow its citizens a whole lot of sartorial expression, but the country has spawned one snazzy fashion original: Osama bin Laden T-shirts, complete with a pirated Nike logo.

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12/9 – Biodiversity buys the farm What the connection is between one of the world’s most notorious terrorists and one of the world’s most famous corporate brands isn’t exactly clear — as ABCNEWS.COM reports, none of the $2 shirts urge wearers to “Just Bomb It.” They are, however, emblazoned with an eye-catching AK-47. No comment at press time from fellow Nike shills Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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