NEA/Sex Issues

NEA/Sex Issues

Look, if two people want to have consensual sex, I have no problem with that. (Don't go crazy looking for ways to "straw man" that statement, ok folks?) I don't even have a problem with it if they want to have that sex in their place of business. Offices etc. see it happen all the time. But when that place of business is a school while students were (probably) in the building, now I have a problem. If the man has judgment that bad, what else might he make poor decisions concerning?

The Rutland Herald Online - NEA board member had license suspended

MONTPELIER — A Vermont teacher recently elected to the executive board of the nation’s largest teachers union had his license suspended earlier this year for having sex with a colleague in his classroom.

However, officials with the National Education Association said Wayne Nadeau’s disciplinary problems are behind him and won’t affect his ability to serve in a leadership role.

“It’s a personal matter and we don’t think it will impinge on his ability to serve as an executive committee member,” said NEA spokeswoman Kathleen Lyons. “Having an affair is not a disqualification, and I know it’s something he regrets. He’s been disciplined; the matter is closed.”

Medicare Reform Issues

Medicare Reform Issues

The Crucial Elements of an Acceptable Medicare Bill _

In all probability this legislation, if enacted, will be the last opportunity to address the shortcomings of the Medicare program. Soon the aging baby-boom generation will make it politically impossible to enact serious reforms to deal with the program's staggering liabilities.

This political fact means that this Congress must face up to the task of legislating real reform, modernizing the program, and taking sound and decisive steps to eliminate new unfunded liabilities. Simply adding a new benefit and sharply increasing the unfunded burden being passed on to future generations would be unconscionable.

Ahh, the Sweet Smell of Legalism

Ahh, the Sweet Smell of Legalism

Kid genius just can't get ahead

Angela Lipsman is a really smart kid, but a really, really dumb rule is keeping the 15-year-old from getting a college degree.

Angela, who skipped high school and went straight to college last year, has earned her associate's degree and is on her way to a bachelor's - but she can't have the sheepskins because she never got a high school diploma.

Even worse, the gifted girl's proud dad is being investigated by child protective services for alleged educational neglect - for letting his daughter go to college.

Ann Coulter on Ashcroft and Liberty

Ann Coulter on Ashcroft and Liberty

Ann Coulter: Taking liberties

Based on the wails from our stellar crop of Democratic presidential candidates, you would think every Muslim in the country is cowering in fear of a pogrom-oriented attorney general. Meanwhile, the left's principal evidence of a civil-rights crisis in America consists of a one-week detention of eight Egyptian immigrants – one in flight school, no less – after the ex-wife of one of the men tipped off the FBI to a possible terrorist plot in the making.

Gun Control Issues

Gun Control Issues

U.N. seeking global gun control?

A U.N. group is working toward establishment of an international system to register and regulate civilian possession of firearms, according to a former congressman.

The ultimate aim of many members of the conference on small arms is to outlaw personal ownership of guns altogether, said Georgia Republican Bob Barr . . . .

GAME: Guess the President . . . .

GAME: Guess the President . . . .

DÉJÀ VU IN D.C.

THE liberation of millions goes ignored.

Democrats attack the Republican president over a continuing conflict, insisting it cannot be won, as they position themselves for upcoming elections.

The president acts vigorously in response to a threat to our national survival - exacerbated by the fecklessness and timidity of his predecessor in office. His critics are outraged and unforgiving.

A retired general is one of the contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination, although the Army realizes it's winning and continues to support the president.

Continental European powers, especially France, tacitly back Washington's enemies, jockeying for financial advantage - even approaching open support for the enemy's leader.

But Will There Be a Law Regarding Elderly Drivers

But Will There Be a Law Regarding Elderly Drivers?

Heck no! They are too powerful a voting block to ever let something like yearly checkups be put in place. It would political suicide for a pol to try for it.

Look, it doesn't matter why it happened. Stroke. Heart attack. Spite. Whatever. Just as we are beginning to understand that handing a license to a 16 year old is crazy and we are starting to make them go through more and more hoops to prove they are ready, we need to address the fact that some, not all, elderly people are still driving WELL past their ability to do so safely.

8 Die as Car Slams Into Calif. Farmers Market

SANTA MONICA, Calif., July 16 -- Eight people were killed and 40 others were injured today when an elderly motorist apparently driving at high speed slammed through a crowded curbside farmers market in the heart of this seaside city.

Waaah! Dress Code at Vatican

Waaah! Dress Code at Vatican

Geez, how whiny can some people get? "Damn! I can't believe the Vatican is making me cover my shoulders and legs before I enter St. Peter's Basilica! Waah!" Get a grip folks. #1 - 90's ain't all that hot. #2 - If you have to fit dress code to get into a swank restaurant or a nice club, don't you think you could show some respect in the freakin' Vatican? Where's the news story about how they don't let you were flip-flops into the Great Mosque in Mecca?

Tourists Hot Over Vatican Dress Code

“I am born naked and the church wants me to be wearing pants,” Danish tourist Kenneth Bergen, 53, proclaimed to a throng of would-be visitors who had been turned back. Bergen had just bought a pair of paper pants.

Enforcement of the dress turns into a battle each summer, but the verbal skirmishes have been heightened this July because Rome has been in the grips of a relentless heat wave.

For weeks, temperatures have reached into the 90 degrees Fahrenheit each day . . . .

Adios Ari

Adios Ari

Yahoo! News - Fleischer Spars With Press on Last DayFleischer Spars With Press on Last Day

WASHINGTON - White House press secretary Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) spent his last day at the lectern Monday as if it were any other day - sparring with reporters.

Fleischer on this day, as on so many before, would defend President Bush (news - web sites) against a crowd of aggressive interrogators.
Reporters applauded Bush's top spokesman as he entered the White House briefing room for the last time. Then they grilled him for nearly an hour on Bush's disputed claim that Iraq (news - web sites) had tried to obtain uranium from Africa for use in nuclear weapons.

Nevada Supreme Court Goes Nuts - II

Nevada Supreme Court Goes Nuts - II

A great commentary on the Nevada Supreme Court's ordering a tax increase. Read on.

Nevada's Judicial Dice-Throwers

In a state that has given us the quickie divorce, legalized prostitution and gambling, you'd think it would be hard to raise eyebrows. But compared to their Supreme Court, Nevada's sin industries are looking downright respectable. In a landmark 6-to-1 ruling Thursday, Nevada's justices came up with a real doozy: Essentially they ordered state legislators to violate the state constitution they have sworn to uphold.

That's the real meaning of their ruling that a Nevada constitutional amendment requiring a two-thirds majority in both state houses for any tax hike was trumped by another constitutional requirement that the state fund public education. The dubious reasoning here was that while the education requirement was 'substantive' and 'specific,' the supermajority requirement for a tax increase was merely 'procedural' and 'general.'

Wall Street Issues

Wall Street Issues

Wall Street shows best results since '99 - The Washington Times

Investors are smiling for the first time in years when opening their financial statements this month, thanks to the best stock market performance since 1999.

'This was a nice quarter for me. I'm hoping this is just the beginning,' said Justin McCarthy, a lobbyist who has invested about 60 percent of his portfolio in health care. His latest statement showed the first encouraging results in three years.

Tax Cut Media Portrayal Issues

Tax Cut Media Portrayal Issues

The ABCs of tax cuts - The Washington Times

After the federal income tax withholding schedules were adjusted July 1 to account for part of President Bush's $350 billion tax-relief stimulus package, it took all of a week for Peter Jennings and his ABC News comrade Dean Reynolds to tell viewers just how miserly the tax cuts supposedly would be for the middle class. It was an exercise in agitprop that would have made Soviet apparatchiks proud.

JunkScience on DDT

JunkScience on DDT

An older column from Steven Milloy's JunkScience.com debunking the Rachel-Carson-inspired ban of DDT. Read on.

FOXNews.com

June 30, 1972 is a date that lives in junk science infamy. That’s when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency banned the insecticide DDT. The ban survives 30 years later, even as it has helped kill millions of people, mostly children.

CSPI Honors "Scientist"

CSPI Honors "Scientist"

Integrity in Science Award Is Neither

But I had to chuckle when I saw that one of the conference speakers is the University of Pittsburgh’s Herbert Needleman. Not only will Needleman be presenting a talk entitled, “Poisoning our minds: Industry attempts to silence the science of childhood lead poisoning,” but he will be receiving the inaugural “CSPI Award for Integrity in Science in honor of Rachel Carson.”

Oh my. Where to start? Well, I’ll leave Rachel Carson alone since she’s been debunked many times in this column. CSPI has been addressed in earlier columns on Olestra, Quorn, French fries and potato chips, soda, and pizza, to name a few.

That leaves Needleman, who gained national attention in 1979 with a study claiming that children’s exposure to low levels of lead harmed their intelligence and behavior. Needleman testified before Congress, and consulted for federal agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Environmental Protection Agency.

Belgium to Scrap War Crimes Law (washingtonpost.com)

Bad Belgian Law Lifted

In a move that echoed many conservative pundits from ten years ago, the decade-old Belgian war crimes law was scrapped.

Belgium to Scrap War Crimes Law (washingtonpost.com)

BRUSSELS, July 12 -- Belgian officials said today that they will scrap a controversial war crimes law under which cases have been launched against President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

The Belgian prime minister, Guy Verhofstadt, said the move by his new government was aimed at preventing abuses of the law. 'I think we have definitely solved this question,' he said, hours after his government was sworn in by King Albert II.

The 1993 law gave Belgium jurisdiction over war criminals regardless of where their alleged crimes occurred. Human rights organizations hailed the law as a novel weapon that would put dictators and despots everywhere on notice, but critics, including members of the Belgian government, warned that it interfered with Belgium's foreign relations and could bring on a flurry of cases filed mainly for political reasons.

AIDS in Africa Issues

AIDS in Africa Issues

African countries spurn free Aids drug

Only two African countries have over the past three years taken up an offer by a German pharmaceuticals company to make free donations of an important Aids prevention drug to poor countries.

Boehringer Ingelheim said that only Uganda and Botswana had taken delivery of supplies of nevirapine, the drug it offers free for use in preventing mothers from infecting their babies with HIV/Aids.

Freedom of Expression - Palestinian Style

Freedom of Expression - Palestinian Style

Mob attacks pollsters who found few Palestinians want their old homes in what is now Israel

A mob of about 100 Palestinian refugees stormed the office of a Ramallah polling organisation yesterday to stop it publishing a survey showing that five times as many refugees would prefer to settle permanently in a Palestinian state than return to their old homes in what is now Israel.

The protesters pelted Khalil Shikaki, the director of the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research, with eggs, smashed computers and assaulted the nine staff members on duty. A female worker was treated in hospital for her injuries. 'This is a message for everyone not to tamper with our rights,' one of the rioters said.