Cockeyed.com Presents: At least I wasn't watching Blind Date! A list of causes

I get letters from herbalife distributors urging me to do something more productive with my time than expose their company history and sales techniques. This makes me mad, but it has also made me consider all the things a person could do to make the world a better place. Some causes are more important than others, and there sure are a lot of them.

I've put them in order of what I consider to be most important to least important:

Special thanks to Jon Holen for his help tracking down websites for all of these causes.

1. Preventing the nuclear destruction of humanity (http://www.stopthebombs.org/links/)
2. Fighting torture (http://www.stoptorture.org)
3. Fighting starvation among children (http://www.heifer.org/end_hunger/)
4. Fighting starvation among adults (http://www.thehungersite.com/)
5. Preventing murder of children (http://www.infanticide.org/)
6. Fighting cancer (skin, breast, colon, lung, oral, testicular) (http://www.cancer.org)
7. Fighting diabetes (http://www.diabetes.org)
8. Fighting blindness (http://combatblindness.org)
9. Fighting heart disease (http://www.amhrt.org)
10. Fighting AIDS (http://unaids.org)
11. Preventing epidemics (http://www.cdc.gov)
12. Fighting suicide (http://www.afsp.org)
13. Fighting violent crime (http://www.sportinsociety.org/mvp.html)
14. Fighting rape/sexual abuse (http://www.safersociety.org/index.html)
15. Preventing birth defects (http://www.teratology.org/)
16. Fighting female genital mutilation (http://www.who.int/frh-whd/FGM/)
17. Fighting male genital mutilation (http://www.noharmm.org/muted6.htm)
18. Preventing child abuse/cruelty (http://child-abuse.com)
19. Preventing child injury from accidents (http://www.bish.tv/iscaip/)
20. Providing for landmine removal (http://www.halotrust.org/)
21. Preventing stock-market manipulation (http://www.sec.gov)
22. Fighting drunk driving (http://www.centurycouncil.org/)
23. Fighting racism (http://www.internationalanswer.org/)
24. Fighting organized crime (http://www.undcp.org/odccp/organized_crime.html)
25. Fighting polio (http://www.polioeradication.org/)
26. Fighting sickle-cell anemia (http://www.ascaa.org/)
27. Fighting tuberculosis (http://www.who.int/gtb/)
28. Fighting osteoporosis (http://www.fore.org)
29. Fighting stroke (http://www.strokeassociation.org/)
30. Fighting non-forest fires (http://www.iaff.org/)
31. Fighting trauma (http://home.ezonline.net/~atspa/)
32. Preventing non-violent crime (http://www.surreycrime.bc.ca/)
33. Fighting pollution (http://www.cleanairprogress.org/)
34. Promoting equal rights for women (http://now.org/)
35. Fighting Lou Gehrig's disease (www.cwfo.org)
36. Fighting Parkinson's disease (http://www.parkinson.org/)
37. Preventing fatal accidents (http://safetylit.org/)
38. Converting everyone to your religion / belief system (http://www.8ung.at/pledgealliance/howto.htm)
39. Preventing smoking (http://www.quitnet.com)
40. Preventing injury (http://depts.washington.edu/hiprc/)
41. Fighting alcoholism (http://www.aa.org/)
42. Fighting eating disorders (http://www.eatingdisordersprogram.com/link2.cfm)
43. Fighting hemochromatosis (http://www.americanhs.org/)
44. Fighting animal vivisection (http://www.nzavs.org.nz/)
45. Fighting animal cruelty (http://www.ddfl.org/index.htm) and zillions of others
46. Keeping kids in school (http://www.networkforgood.org/topics/education/inschool/ )
47. Fighting tooth decay/promoting oral hygiene (http://www.ada.org)
48. Protecting really cute endangered species (http://www.tesf.org)
49. Protecting the human rights of prisoners
50. Protecting not-so-cute endangered species (http://www.worldwildlife.org/oceans/oceans.cfm)
51. Fighting forest fires (http://www.smokeybear.com/)
52. Preventing homelessness (http://www.welfareinfo.org/preventinghomelessnessresource.htm)
53. Fighting wildlife damage (http://wildlifedamage.unl.edu/)
54. Making life more tolerable for underprivileged youth (http://bgca.com/)
55. Fighting insurance fraud (http://www.insurancefraud.org/)
56. Preventing tobacco induced diseases (http://members.aol.com/ptidsociety/home/)
57. Fighting herbalife (http://www.vandruff.com/mlm.html)
58. Fighting head lice (http://www.headliceinfo.com)
59. Fighting poaching (http://www.clede.com/Articles/Police/poaching.htm)
60. Providing equal access to people with disabilities (http://www.rnib.org.uk/campaign/drc.htm)
61. Fighting prostitution (http://www.angelfire.com/rebellion/idnp/)
62. Promoting adult literacy (http://www.reading.org/)
63. Fostering better relationships between parents and children (http://www.ispcc.ie)
64. "Freeing" Tibet (http://www.savetibet.org; http://www.freetibet.org)
65. Swaying kids from drug-dependent lifestyles (http://ehrweb.aaas.org/~sbf/5g.htm)
66. Prevention of solvent and volatile substance abuse (http://www.re-solv.org)
67. Providing eyeglasses to people with poor vision (http://www.lenscrafters.com/gos.html)
68. Fighting telemarketing (http://www.dianamey.com/)
69. Prevention and mitigation of natural hazards (http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/seg/hazard/resource/soc/prof_haz.html)
70. Fighting handicap parking space abuse (http://www.ci.portage.in.us/police/handicap_parking.htm)
71. Fighting unsolicited email (http://www.moneychimp.com/features/spam.htm)
72. Fighting farmed Atlantic Salmon in the Pacific (http://www.raincoastresearch.org/salmon-farming.htm)
73. Promoting electric cars (http://www.nrel.gov)
74. Preventing wild animal attacks (http://www.dailystarnews.com/magazine/2002/09/03/health.htm)
75. Preventing dog bites (http://www.hsus.org/ace/11858)
76. Preventing cargo theft (http://www.asisonline.org/)
77. Preventing accidental sharps injuries (http://www.isips.org/)
78. Fighting drug-related recreation (http://www.drugsalvage.org/) _interesting that this is a scientology site_)
79. Fighting leaf-blowers(http://www.nonoise.org/quietnet/cqs/leafblow.htm#conseq)
80. Preventing machinery failure (http://www.mfpt.org)
81. Making life more tolerable for chemically sensitive people (http://www.communitiesbychoice.org/)
82. Protecting kids from exposure to bad language (http://www.cep.org/index.html)

I hope that reading this long list doesn't discourage anyone...it is supposed to be inspiring. If you think of any others that belong on this list, or if you know of a television show that is even less valuable than Blind Date, please drop me a note.

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The Weight of Clothing