Tax Lawyer's Blog

I don’t know if it’s more shocking that a U.S. Congressman suggested that a BP executive kill himself or that the Congressman who suggested it wasn’t Alan Grayson.

Here’s the story from the New York Post:

BP’s top US executive should take the honorable way out of the Gulf oil disaster — and commit ritual suicide, a congressman told him yesterday.

Lamar McKay, head of BP America, came under withering fire on Capitol Hill from angry legislators, including Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), who called on him to resign.

But Vietnamese-born Rep. Joseph Cao (R-La.) had another idea.

“Well, in the Asian culture we do things differently,” he told McKay. “During the samurai days, we’d just give you a knife and ask you to commit hara-kiri.” 

If Cao is so gung ho ( (工合) about adhering to the customs of Asian culture, why doesn’t he climb into the cockpit of a single engine plane and kamikaze (神風) himself into the middle of the oil spill. Yet another bum that needs to get the boot.¹

Footnotes:

¹  Mr. Cao is either oblivious to the following facts about suicide or he simply doesn’t give a shit (やべ):

• 1.3% of all deaths are from suicide.
• On average, one suicide occurs every 16 minutes.
• Suicide is the eleventh leading cause of death for all Americans.
• Suicide is the third leading cause of death for young people aged 15-24 year olds.
  (1st = accidents, 2nd = homicide)
• Suicide is the second leading cause of death for 25-34 year olds.
• Suicide is the second leading cause of death among college students.
• More males die from suicide than females.
  (4 male deaths by suicide for each female death by suicide.)
• More people die from suicide than from homicide.
  (Suicide ranks as the 11th leading cause of death; Homicide ranks 13th.)
• There were over 800,000 suicide attempts in 2005.

Bookmark & Share: