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The Katrina anniversary; Who's for free speech?
Tweet Share on Facebook August 29, 2006 CommentThe Katrina anniversary
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Multicultural folly; Income inequality
Tweet Share on Facebook August 28, 2006 CommentIf 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:
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For God's sake
Tweet Share on Facebook August 25, 2006 Comment (1)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.
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The path to 9/11
Tweet Share on Facebook August 24, 2006 Comment (20)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.
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My latest column
Tweet Share on Facebook August 24, 2006 Comment (22)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.
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The educational marketplace
Tweet Share on Facebook August 24, 2006 Comment (16)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.
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A Bush uptick?
Tweet Share on Facebook August 23, 2006 CommentThe 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.
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British psephology; Newly created seats
Tweet Share on Facebook August 23, 2006 CommentThe latest Guardian poll shows the Conservatives ahead of Labor by a 40 percent to 30 margin, with 22 percent for the Liberal Democrats. British politics is back to normal: From the 1960s to the 1990s the party in power trailed in the polls most of the time, as I have previously noted. Here's one prediction...
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Missing news from Mexico
Tweet Share on Facebook August 23, 2006 Comment (1)I missed the apprehension of Mexican drug lord Javier Arellano-Felix by the U.S. Coast Guard last week. (August 16 item) A Mexican political scientist asked me a reasonable question when I confessed I had not heard of this important development: Why does the American news media devote so much more attention to the arrest of the alleged killer of JonBenet Ramsey and so little to the apprehension of a major Mexican drug lord? I suppose our news media have reason to believe that their audiences are interested in the Ramsey murder. And for television it's a natural, with all those pictures of the adorable little girl in fancy outfits. But still--enough!
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Judge Silberman's response to David Brock's book
Tweet Share on Facebook August 18, 2006 Comment (3)Judge Laurence Silberman, whom I admired long before I met him, has told me that he was perturbed to find, as a latecomer to Google, that charges against him made in certain passages of David Brock's book Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative had wide circulation in the search engine, while Robert Novak's column rebutting Brock has vanished. He provided me with his own account, as follows:
