5/31/05, Headlines more Outrageous than Mine, D.O.E. criticism, CAFTA

Unfortunately, I didn't think you had to reapply to maintain your old job at the Emerald, so alas, I ended up accidentally losing it. That said, if anyone wants to syndicate me... promise I can be controversial ;)

Headlines More Outrageus than Mine: They do exist. (Many cribbed from WSJ.com's Opinion Journal email)

"Study Links Plastics to Small Genitals." http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,157882,00.html

"Army Wants Soldiers to Get Used to Guns" http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/11776292.htm

"Cinematic Necessity of WWII" http://www.thesimon.com/magazine/articles/old_issues/0016_cinematic_necessity_world_war_ii.html

"Compliments make a woman feel better, study concludes"
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/nation/11767628.htm

"Russian Official: Terror Suspected in Crashes" http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,130103,00.html

"Congo volcano eruption will hurt wildlife-experts" http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/14113/story.htm

"Oregon School Bans Hugs" http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/1404333/posts

Other collections of dumb headlines: http://giggle.ultimate-results.net/headlines.php, http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/002478.html, http://omega13a.ultimate-results.net/modules.php?name=Dumb_Headlines

Proposed College Student Database by the Department of Education
Because I really want my grades, class choices, etc. easily handled by a department that is less than competent. And, apparently, open to other governmental bodies that might want to stop terrorism. Something tells me the title of some curses at U of O would change really fast...

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/27/politics/27privacy.html?oref=login

It's especially disturbing given that the department of education is communist. http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=41802, http://www.pbs.org/newshour/backgrounders/department_of_education.html

It's also expensive and inefficient. That I can believe. http://www.cato.org/pubs/handbook/hb105-11.html
https://www.cato.org/research/articles/gryphon-040211.html

I've heard accusations about the missing $6 billion from a conseravtive friend. Or more, depending on which websites you listen to.
http://freerepublic.com/forum/a3b209eb64855.htm
http://www.usasurvival.org/ck03082001.html
http://www.aim.org/media_monitor/A997_0_2_0_C/

My friend also told me that States weren't using their federal money. I thought he was being fallacious.
http://www.mackinac.org/pubs/mer/article.asp?ID=6726
http://edworkforce.house.gov/press/press109/first/02feb/unspent020705.htm

Regardless of the database, it does seem that something in American education needs to change. I wish I knew how to fix things. Throwing money at a system doesn't work, throwing more tests at the system doesn't work... I think the real solution might be more involvement by the parents, or making work as a teacher more attractive/more competitive, but I'm not sure how much you can do. I think it might just be something about the psychology right now.

Personally, I think I wuld have scored higher on many tests if there'd been more gifted/talented programs. Most of the time in class I hid behind my desk and read books because the teachers talked about things I already knew about. For me, public school was day care and a place to hone my social skills (not that it did much good in that respect >_<) The New York Times Likes Free Trade
NYT editorial supports CAFTA...I'm looking out the window for the flying pigs.
http://nytimes.com/2005/05/31/opinion/31tue2.html

Others, not so much.
http://www.stopcafta.org/article.php?list=type&type=2
http://www.alternet.org/story/22114/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11310-2005Mar29.html

More Endorsements:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11310-2005Mar29.html
http://waysandmeans.house.gov/media/pdf/trade/cafta/editorials/wsj.pdf

General bullet points good and bad:
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8AEABU80.htm?campaign_id=apn_home_down

The person sitting next to me just picked up my New York Times and fled. Guess he doesn't know they're free outside.

5/29/05 Gender-neutral pronouns, Hassan al-Nuaimi, Michael Moore Treason Petition,

Definition of Gender
I'm looking for a mysterious website that I read about that is supposed to contain 150 different words to define gender. If anyone finds it, leave a comment, sil vous plait.

For writers who wish to employ words that are epicene:
http://www.aetherlumina.com/gnp/
Everything you ever wanted to know about gender neutral pronouns. Has an interesting bibliography.

A list of epicine words
http://www2.english.uiuc.edu/baron/essays/epicene.htm
Includes Klingon.

Eulogy for Hassan al-Nuaimi

"Let's not keep silent. Let our voices rise high to speak of our commitment to peace for all times to come and let us tell those who live in darkness, who are the enemies of light ... This is where we stand."

-King Hussein of Jordan's Eulogy for Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin

Torture is not just in Gitmo
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/27/international/middleeast/27sectarian.html?8bl
It's a bad way to go. I hope the violence ends soon. It seems all so pointless.

Same al-Nuaimi? If so, I bet there are rumors of U.S. assasination.
http://www.cnu.edu/studlife/captains/Bin/04/Issue15/News/WNiraqelections.html

Petition to Prosecute Michael Moore for Treason
Some people are drafting a petition to Attorney General Gonzales in hopes of getting Michael Moore charged with treason. Because the fairest justice can only be achieved by nationwide votes...
http://www.conservativepetitions.com/petitions.php?id=277
You know Michael Moore wants you to sign it.

10 Years Ago Today: May 29, 1995
Denis Rodman poses on the cover of Sports Illustrated with a parrot...
http://dynamic.si.cnn.com/si_online/covers/issues/1995/0529.html
...in a leopard print chair. Does he ever look in the mirror and laugh his teeth off?

5/28/05 Partisanship, Togo, & Proliferation.

Partisanship
In the future, I wouldn't be at all surprised if news media stations were rated with "Partisan Alert Levels", color-coded just like the terror system. I would rate myself somewhere between orange and yellow.

I'm beginning to like David Brooks more and more. I didn't used to. either i'm getting more conservative, or he's getting more liberal. There was a really great quotation from his recent essay, "A Natural Alliance" (NYT, 5/26/05). It generally reveals my feelings about the tendancy of our media to get sidetracked on dumb tangents and empty projects with the only goal being to socre political points. David Brooks: "...liberals and conservatives can go on bashing each other for being godless hedonists and primitive theocrats, or they can set those differences off to one side and work together to help the needy."

I'd rather see the latter. We are a nation who seems to be violently partisan but violently afraid of being partisan. For example, our news media seems somewhat reluctant to say why liberals oppose nominees like Bill Pryor to the bench, but are perfectly willing to air conservative accusations that blame everything on religion. It annoys me to no end.

I find myself falling in love with people like Voinovich. His emotional appeal against Bolton touched even my cynical heart, despite the fact I don't think that his appointment matters as much as the Dems think it does. His tender words are the kind that go beyond politics to truth. (Highlights here.) http://www.townhall.com/news/politics/200505/POL20050526a.shtml

Unfortunately, not everyone loves a man who's not afraid to cry for his country. Read and be sickened at the insults to a passionate and dedicated person who I hope will continue to have our prayers and support. http://mensnewsdaily.com/blog/malven/2005/05/bolton-debate-reid-lies-voinovich.html and http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/editorial/24446.htm

Ten years ago today: The Associations of the Togolese Diaspora formed the Network of the Togolese Diaspora for the Democracy (DIASTODE). This organization of Togolese outside of the nation of Togo itself pushes for a more humane Togo. Unfortunately the elections in this small African country that nobody has heard of are far from free and democratic.

CIA Factbook entry on Togo
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/to.html

The DIASTODE homepage
http://www.diastode.org/about.html

Articles about Togo's recent unrest:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L28712350.htm
http://www.reuters.co.za/locales/c_newsArticle.jsp;:42982714:d0f6a88906c4b1f?type=topNews&localeKey=en_ZA&storyID=8632583

Togo and Sanctions:
http://english.people.com.cn/200505/28/eng20050528_187209.html
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/world/11757043.htm

Child Trafficking in Togo
http://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/2005-05-25-voa54.cfm

Articles of Interest

Nuclear Proliferation Map
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/international/proliferation/map_flash.html
This PBS site features a flash map charting the chronology of nuclear proliferation from 1945 onward and has country profiles of nuclear achievement (from Algeria to Yugoslavia). It also has quick and dirty summaries of international treaties and types of atomic weapons. Very informative.

IAEA Failing
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/international/proliferation/diplomacy.html
Some interesting notes on the IAEA's "carrot and stick" approach to nuclear weapons and also some of its politics. Again, authored by PBS/Newshour with Jim Lehrer.

NPT Meeting Ends in Disaster
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20050527-065122-7167r.htm
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/581039.html
Everyone blames everyone else for the way the committee meeting fell apart. Observe, all those who trumpet the perfect morality of a multilateral approach-- this is just one more example of why the UN will never work the way many anti-war doves think it will.

Correction

I meant the countdown in Ten Reasons Not to Kill Bush to go from 10-1, not 1-10. Actually, the reasons are arbitrarily numbered. I didn't mean to give heightened preference to any of the reasons, but many readers took my choice to list morality last as some kind of Bush burn. On my PERSONAL list (since this isn't my personal list, it's just A LIST) not to kill the President, it would probably be #1 because I don't like assasinating other leaders, having seen the results in Latin America.

EDIT: Second correction: America is already pulling our troops out of Saudi Arabia. Oops.

5/27/05 Judicial Nominees, Unsafe Abortion, Darth Vader Strikes Again

Links on News I find interesting:

Judicial Nominees
http://www.independentjudiciary.com/index.cfm
An excellent collection of criticisms for Bush's current crop of nominees, including links to editorials of many major newspapers. Please ask your senators to vote down judicial extremists, like William Pryor, who equates homosexuality to bestiality and necrophilia, and Myers, who have very little judicial experience and has been rebuffed many times by his own department.

Unsafe Abortion Statistics
http://www.who.int/reproductive-health/publications/MSM_97_16/MSM_97_16_table_of_contents_en.html
The World Health Organization states that worldwide, 78,000 women die yearly from unsafe abortions. The Global Gag rule is a travesty.

Of Interest
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/news/052205_ap_ns_robbery.html
Darth Vader is evil onscreen and off.

Mission Statement

Welcome to Jennifer McBride's political blog. Watch this space for articles of interest and any comments I have on current issues.

Basil the Killer Sheep is a truly, deadly beast. It's strange how the most innocent looking beings end up being the most dangerous.