What was the Houston Police department thinking when it arrested 300 people, some of whom were simply trying to get a chili dog at James Coney Island? Read Roma Khanna’s article in the Houston Chronicle. I have no personal knowledge of this area on Saturday night. There may be severe problems in this area that…
Op-Ed Blog
Ashcroft’s Constitution
The Houston Chronicle published a great editorial Sunday regarding the overzealous John Ashcroft’s plans to run roughshod over the constitution to pursue “enemy combatants”. The Chronicle doesn’t provide editorial content on-line, unfortunately. Even to a lay person, Ashcroft’s proposals are extreme and clearly infringe on the constitutional rights of American citizens. Nonetheless, it has fallen…
Brazil and the IMF
Brazil is going to get a big infusion of American support via the IMF during the next year. Read the IMF news release. An NPR report on the subject left little doubt the Brazilians feel economic policy strings attached to the loans are unfair, apparently feeling they are entitled to borrow another $30 billion dollars…
Culture Shock
Morning Edition on NPR had an interesting story regarding the town of Fremont, CA today. Unfortunately, NPR doesn’t offer free links to their material. So read the original story in the Mercury News for background. Indian immigrants were upset because the city council denied them a permit to hold a festival drawing attendance twice the…
Cheaper, Slower Broadband
Broadband access to the Internet may be getting cheaper, but at a price: speed. Read the CNN.com article. As the article says, e-mail users will be happy with this speed, as will most casual web surfers, for now. ‘Throttling’ bandwidth also helps ISPs manage their networks my reducing stress on the system. But I’ll never…
More Fighting in Israel
Just yesterday I wondered if the combatants have had enough of fighting. It seems the answer is ‘No’. Read ‘Violence threatens Mideast deal’ on MSNBC.com
Kudos for Judo Students
Some Floridia judo students did the LAPD a favor recently by apprehending a car-jacker. Read about it at CNN.com I love this! Great job, guys and gals. And I love the quote from the LAPD at the end: “Our department does not condone or recommend that people do that in a carjacking because you never…
A Small Step for Peace
Israel has finally agreed to a partial pullback from its confrontational tactics in Palestine. Read about it on MSNBC.com But terrorist factions with in the Palestinian power structure oppose refuse to honor the agreement. Much like the militants in the IRA, they fear losing power. Will they ever realize enough is enough?
Air Marshals, like Teachers?
Federal air marshalls are supposed to be a key part of defending airways against terrorists. But is the program being administered reasonably? Read the story on MSNBC.com One cannot help but ponder the parallels to another important profession: teaching. A critical shortage of teachers was caused by poor pay and bad working conditions. At the…
Elvis Lives
The ghost of Elvis Presly will not die. Read the Houston Chronicle article. I like an Elvis moment as much as the next person, but to me no one proves that being the first is the way to go more than Elvis. Best musician of all time? Not even close. As big a mark as…