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Album Reviews
Submitted by Doug Allen on Tue, 2003-08-26 22:04It's been a rather slow summer on the music-buying end for me, but I did come across a few CDs that piqued my interest. Read more »
School officials live it up on taxpayers' dime
Submitted by Doug Allen on Sun, 2003-08-24 12:19Here's an example of how public school funding is being utilized. Public school officials from Oakland County, in southeast Michigan, played golf, ate at fancy restaurants, stayed at 5-star resorts, bought expensive gifts, and partook in other questionable purchases while attending 'workshops' and 'conferences' at the taxpayers’ expense. In addition, one person went on a sight-seeing trip to Europe and labeled it an educational tour. Read more »
Weekly Newsblotter
Submitted by Doug Allen on Tue, 2003-08-19 18:08Random thoughts on random newsbits so far this week...
* Don’t Mess With Texas. The state is the only state in the country that has its own self-sufficient and isolated power grid. Their power is also highly efficient and less expensive than the national average. Read more »
Wordly view of blackouts
Submitted by Doug Allen on Tue, 2003-08-19 17:49The largest blackout in history came and went in a few of America’s major cities with no significant increase in looting or crime. If fact, the number of arrests made in New York were somewhat lower than the department records on a normal evening. No doubt the international media and intellectuals are disappointed by the (lack of) news. Read more »
Gasoline price controls and the blackout
Submitted by Doug Allen on Sun, 2003-08-17 10:30Thursday's blackout created a similar scene across the Detroit area Friday, as small gas stations in small outlying towns not affected by the blackout were inundated with fuel-seekers. Considering I was one of the unfortunate with only 1/4 tank left when the lights went out, I decided to take the half-hour drive and join the 1.5 hour line to wait for fuel Friday. I only needed enough to last a day ... basically, to stop by the grocery store in the area, pick up a few things, and head back home. Read more »
Technology and business opportunity meet in Zanzibar
Submitted by Doug Allen on Wed, 2003-08-13 16:35The benefits of free-market economics makes its presence felt in the most far-reaching corners of the globe, raising the standard of living and providing local economic growth. Read more »
Weekly 'quick hits'
Submitted by Doug Allen on Wed, 2003-08-13 16:32Random thoughts from random newsbits seen in the news...
* A school district in Michigan is planning to charge a $35 activity fee to all students to help pay for extracurricular clubs and activities. The state education board is questioning the move, claiming that those who choose not to participate in the activities are unfairly being forced to pay. The irony here is rather amusing. Read more »
Jonah on Berkeley
Submitted by Doug Allen on Sun, 2003-08-10 12:09Jonah Goldberg presents his counterpoint on the Berkeley (surprise, surprise) study on people who call themselves "conservatives". After all, the Berkeley elite actually believes Hitler, der F?hrer of the National Socialist (a.k.a. Nazi) party, and Mussolini were conservatives.
Europeans in heat
Submitted by Doug Allen on Sun, 2003-08-10 11:36This has been quite a summer in Europe, with scorching triple-digit temperatures in Spain and Portugal, and 90s widespread as far north as central England. European media has taken the initiative of blaming environmental change as the culprit, announcing that "global warming is now a fact of life".
If the current weather continues, France's Liberation warns, "it means that it's not a heatwave, but climate change".
Beware of the PC threat
Submitted by Doug Allen on Tue, 2003-08-05 17:21I'm a little late to the party, as the following column by Danny Brooks is from June. Brooks, a North Carolina libertarian, makes a scathing attack on political correctness gone wild, and claims it to be a threat to core American values. Read more »
Attack of the Kodak
Submitted by Doug Allen on Wed, 2003-07-30 20:56Reading up on the latest advisory of possible Al Qaeda airline hijackings by the end of summer, I came across this description of how the hijackers may plot to pull off another 9-11... Read more »
Affirmative interviewing
Submitted by Doug Allen on Wed, 2003-07-30 20:50Last year the Detroit Lions pro football team fired old coach Marty Mornhinweg, and hired Steve Mariucci as the new head coach. The NFL slapped a $200,000 fine on Detroit President Matt Millen for not interviewing a minority candidate. Incidentally, Millen offered to interview five African-American candidates - all of whom turned down the interview offer because they figured the job was already locked up by Mariucci. Detroit Lions owner William Clay Ford Sr. Read more »
Airline workers strike over ID card
Submitted by Doug Allen on Wed, 2003-07-23 23:05Heathrow Airport continues to move along sluggishly as British Airways workers striked last week. Why? Management issued ID swipe-cards to be used when entering and leaving work shifts. Apparently, the union is angry that management (i.e. those doling out the paychecks) want their workers to be accountable for the length of time on the job.
Expensive federal matchmaker
Submitted by Doug Allen on Tue, 2003-07-22 23:28The Bush Administration is pushing to spend $300 million to persude welfare recipients to get married.
Korean Teachers Union revising history
Submitted by Doug Allen on Tue, 2003-07-22 23:24Using Iraq as the convenient springboard, The Korea Teachers and Educational Workers Union are devoting more time incorporating their anti-American doctrine into daily work lessons across a myriad of South Korea public schools, thus probably limiting time to supposedly unimportant topics such as math, science, etc. Read more »