Wishful Thinking

In a shocking reversal of Policy, President George Bush announced today that he is revising his policies on Iraq and education.

Bush announced today that he will set up benchmarks for the War in Iraq and has set a deadline for these benchmarks to be met. If these benchmarks have not been met by that date, the war will be closed down. Bush has also announced that he will not provide funding for this innitiative which he calls "No War Left Behind."

Bush has also announced a new "War on Ignorance" and has vowed to add 1 trillion dollars to help fund schools, pay teachers, and add new educational initiatives. Bush has vowed that he will not abandon this effort until every child in America learns to read. He calls this initiative "Operation Education is Freedom."

Just Asking

According to the Bush administration, schools should be judged by the students performance. Schools and adminstrators should have benchmarks that they have to meet and if they fail ... the school will be closed down.

BUT

When discussing the situation in Iraq, setting up benchmarks is akin to setting up for failure and closing down the war is a sign of defeat.

Why, oh why does no one care that we are being fed billious crapola?

<< Queenie's Daughter puts her head in her hands, closes her eyes and sighs ... >>>

Oldie but Goodie - Cat takes bus to fish shop...

We caught this story last week but let it pass without comment. Until today. We were inspired by our visiting whale to add a light and fun story as an antidote to the sadness of the rest of the news.
Seems that this cat takes the bus a few times a week and always gets on and off at the same stops! The cat is said to be a perfect passenger except for the fact that s/he doesn't pay - one commentor noted that perhaps the funny feline had a "bus paws." A "bus paws" hee hee hee ... that's so bad it is good.
Happy Wednesday!

A Whale goes in Brooklyn

We live by the seaside in what has been described as "a quaintly rundown harbor community." In our hood you can see some pretty strange sights but very rarely do you get to see this: a minke whale lost in the Gowanus Canal!
We wish our visitor the best and hope that he makes it back to the open ocean no worse for the wear.

Sellafield kept body parts of dead workers

We are up early with a touch of can'tsleepitis and we stumbled upon this horrifying story while checking out the Brit morning news:

"The government will announce an independent inquiry today into claims that body parts of workers who died in suspicious circumstances at Sellafield and other nuclear plants were secretly taken for medical examination without their families' consent for more than 30 years."

from The Guardian by Michael White Wednesday April 18, 2007

eww eww eww eww eww.

Today we are all Hokies...

Our heart goes out to all of those who have been affected by the killings at VA Tech.

We cannot help but ask ourselves why and to wonder what we can do to put an end to violence.

Fire Don Imus

It is time for all people to stand up and let it be known it is NOT okay to run around screeching words of hate.
Don Imus is a paid wordsmith and is therefore to be judged by his words.
His words were unacceptable and wrong.
And it is not the first time.
It is time for people to be held accountable for their actions and their words-
and firing Don Imus is a good start.

** Update: Imus was fired. Good. The market worked. We want to make it very clear that we are all in favor of free speech and we are against any kind of censorship. Firing the I-man wasn't censorship ... it was a business decision. That's the thing about free speech. You can say what ever you want to but the public doen't have to buy it.

We don't need laws to protect us from things we dont like ... we have the power to turn off, tune out, or in this case run out the things that we think are worthless. Imus deserved to be fired. Why? Not because he was crass and bullyish and pompous but for the very simple reason that he picked on a bunch of little girls who never did him any harm. He broke the cardinal rule of the school yard and when the going got tough it was IMUS who was whining like a baby.

I am sure that Imus will get another show and that's fine. But he deserved the smack down ... he was getting too big for his britches...he was getting sloppy and that was his wake up call.

Do we believe that we should now jump on the Sharpton bandwagon and start reforming media through censorship and a self serving "clean-up" crusade? Of course not. But we should fire those who show themselves to be dangerously incompetent.
Imus was a good start ... George Bush is a great next step.

Notes from the road...

Dawn points, and another day
Prepares for heat and silence. Out at sea the dawn wind
Wrinkles and slides. I am here
Or there, or elsewhere. In my beginning.

east coker
t.s. eliot