Entries for August 2006

The Katrina anniversary

If you want to understand what's wrong with the multicultural policies Britain has been following for decades now, read this Sunday Telegraph story about Ray Honeyford, the headmaster of an English school with mostly Pakistani students who was sacked 22 years ago for writing an article attacking multiculturalism. As the article notes, Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly, a New Labor paragon, delivered a speech last week questioning multiculturalism. Among other things, she asked:

Alaska's Gov. Frank Murkowski has been denied renomination in this week's primary. He won only 19 percent of the votes cast for Republican candidates; Wasilla Mayor Sarah Palin won 51 percent and John Binkley 30 percent.

Last night I attended a screening of the first half of The Path to 9/11 a film that will be broadcast by ABC in two three-hour segments on September 10 and 11. Two and one-half hours is a long time to sit still watching a film, but this one was gripping and tension-filled and visually dazzling.

Here is my Creators Syndicate column for this week, which one frequent E-mail correspondent described as "stunning" and "a little Ann Coultery" and another described as "terrific." You might want to, in the old phrase, read the whole thing. I report and you decide.

Fascinating article in yesterday's Washington Post by Lori Montgomery and my longtime friend Jay Mathews, headlined "The Future of D.C. Public Schools: Traditional or Charter Education?" Charter schools are public schools that are run autonomously by private groups, free from the bureaucratic rules and procedures that govern public schools. As Montgomery and Mathews point out, limited test results suggest that D.C. charter schools perform better than public schools but well below national averages. Over the past decade 12 charter schools have been closed for various reasons; two more are scheduled to open in the coming school year. Charter school students are chosen by lottery from applicants, of whom there apparently are always more than the places to be filled; many public schools, in contrast, attract fewer kids than they can hold.

The first arrests and disclosure of the London bomb plot were news in this country on the morning of August 10, two days after Sen. Joe Lieberman lost the Democratic primary to Ned Lamont. I speculated on Fox News that the London plot may have reminded voters that we are really threatened by vicious terrorists and that that may prompt them to be more supportive of George W. Bush and his fellow Republicans. Now we have some polls that tend to support that view.