Volume 2 Issue 66

May 5, 2003

Jackpot!

Looting comes to the UN, hoards of new Edwards photos, and what Bill Bennett does after work

To start with the best quote from the weekend's Dem debate - "It's like when Jim Jones feeds you the Kool Aid. It tastes good, but it will kill ya."
- Al Sharpton on George W. Bush's tax cut plan

Had a surprise meeting today at work, so no big rant, but a good topic to start off on nonetheless is the drinking age. In an interesting development, the Washington Post published an op-ed Sunday arguing that the drinking age in the US should be lowered. I've always been an advocate of this, and Mr. Reid sets out some good arguments -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8079-2003May2.html

Of course, in lowering the drinking age, we must also crack down harder on drunk drivers, which NJ is trying to do, but may not happen. Um...I don't think the drunk tank violates any big civil liberties -
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/states/new_jer sey/5776168.htm

Onto the rest of the insanity...

More looting...at the UN: Think looting only happens in civilized countries? After the food service workers at the UN went on strike Friday, a riot ensued, with UN workers looting clean all of the complexes cafeterias and restaurants, even removing the china and silverware, not to mention the bar. And yes, this is in New York -
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,449436,00.html

The Decay of Civil Society: Is our civil society deteriorating? The latest evidence that it is centers on small towns and rural areas, where local elected positions often go unfilled because no one can afford to take the job, or no one cares. Is this the future of America?
http://www.tribune-democrat.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=7909187&BRD=2332&PAG=461&dept_id=484742&rfi=6

Do the Russians know the secret to rebuilding Iraq? For all of the flak Russia has gotten for its handling of the Chechnya situation, what isn't as well known is that Russia has actually built a stable, secular Muslim state in one of their regions -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/04/weekinreview/04KELL.html

Welcome Home: A NJ Pow got his parade yesterday -
http://www.courierpostonline.com/news/southjersey/m050503a.h tm

Unknown: Jessica Lynch apparently can't remember the details of her captivity -
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,85936,00.html

This is only a drill: A huge Homeland Security drill is planned for mid-May -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13847-2003May4.html

Back to the Future? As discussions over civil liberties and the right to dissent abound today, the Senate will declassify thousands of secret transcripts from the McCarthy hearings of the 1950's -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16301-2003May5.html

Now Campaign Finance is even more screwed up: A Federal court Friday struck down parts of the new McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance law. While the decision will be appealed to the Supreme Court, folks are trying to figure out what the rules are now -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7839-2003May2.html

Look Who's Running for President: Post-mortem on what was apparently a dull debate -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/05/politics/campaigns/05MEMO. html?pagewanted=all&position ar

Bill Sletan draws his conclusions -
http://slate.msn.com/id/2082523/

And the campaigns weigh in -
http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/US/notepad_main1 .html

Bad John Edwards Photo of the Day: But an active weekend of campaigning has given me tons of new Edwards photos to feature over the next few weeks...here we go!

Yes, John, you told me you like coffee. Now please calm down or I'll poke you in the eye.

Do our suburbs make us fat? There is increasing evidence that the way our towns are laid out is causing people to gain weight -
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-8/1052134288207000.xml

More Trouble in Space? The three astronauts who were stranded on the space station after the Columbia disaster returned to Earth over the weekend, but not until their Soyuz spacecraft malfunctioned on re-entry, causing fears that another disaster had occurred -
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-669727,00.html

US officials are investigating as well -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13742-2003May4.html

Charter School Backlash: Following up on Friday's discussion of charter schools, there was a good article this weekend about how charter's are facing a suburban backlash. Of course, this isn't as much the charter school's fault as it is rich suburban districts trying to fix problems they don't have through expensive solutions designed for the inner cities -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/03/education/03CHAR.html

And while were on the education topic...the Philadelphia school district is a tad embarrassed after discovering one of the teachers it hired is a convicted felon who served time...but some asking why people should care -
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/5778485.htm

Keeping the Concorde airborne: Virgin Group owner Richard Branson wants to keep the Concorde flying for his airline -
http://www.thisislondon.com/news/articles/PA_NEWPOLITICSConc ordeconcordem?source

And the government may be interested -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3001411.stm

Big Brother Cometh: Apparently the District of Columbia has moved toward a defacto policy of requiring visitors to register with police, though this program was actually well intentioned -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13806-2003May4.html

Nature takes an icon: New Hampshire's famed "Old Man of the Mountain", a rock formation formed thousands of years ago, fell over the weekend in a landslide -
http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_show.html?article=208 23
http://www.theunionleader.com/oldman_show.html?article=20849

The New Hampshire paper has a special section -
http://www.theunionleader.com/oldman.html

Praise the Lord and Pass the Poker Chips: One of America's biggest moralists is a high stakes gambler -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/03/national/03GAMB.html

But a higher authority has intervened and declared Bennett will be visiting the casino's no more...his wife -
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2003-05-04-bennett-usat_x.htm

Mike Kinsley explains why Bennett's gambling should discredit him, even though he thinks there's nothing wrong with the act himself -
http://slate.msn.com/id/2082526/

From Worst to First? When NJ ditches it's circa 1960's style drivers licenses for digital ones later this year, they may actually have the most secure license in the nation -
http://www.southjerseynews.com/issues/may/m050403zz.htm

What a different life: Does Britain's Prince William want to move to America for graduate school? Doing so would be a break from tradition, where royals usually join the military after college. There have also been rumors of his romantic involvement with a female roommate. Apparently, he rents a place off campus with one other guy and 2 girls...can you imagine mentioning to your parents that you're going to live with the future King of England? Oh, and check out what apparently is William's favorite pick up line -
http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/news/page.cfm?objectid=12 919648&method=full&siteid=106694&headline=WILLS%3A%20MY%20AMERICAN%20DREAM