What business is GM in? Good try but wrong. Since 2002, GM’s major source of income has been selling loans and insurance.****SBC just bought AT&T and changed its name to?…This time you’re right. To AT&T, naturally.The explanation – name recognition.****A dip into an India chat site. I looked at 747 items. About 650 called up…
Monthly Archives: October 2005
17,000 Children Killed
The full extent of the October 8 earthquake in Pakistan is only now coming into the statistical light. The light is blinding. UNICEF says 17,000 children died when their 6700 schools collapsed. 55,000 others were killed. 78,000 injured and 3 million left homeless. Some useful UNICEF contacts: USA 1 800 UNICEF …
He Knows Which Way The Wind Blows
Sometime thinker and always Dem Party Leader, Harry Reid calls for the resignation of Karl Rove. Reid says he is "disappointed in the performance of Bush and Cheney." I am glad to hear it. As a so-called Democrat, his own performance has not been sterling.
“I tried to stop the war”
Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi now says he desperately tried to persuade Bush and Blair from attacking Iraq. He even enlisted the aid of Gaddafi in his futile arguments. This is very interesting news because in March, 2003, he told Parliament that the use of force against Iraq was legitimate and Italy could not abandon the…
China to challenge Germany, Japan and the U.S. in Auto Production
Right now. China ranks as the 4th largest manufacturer of autos but by 2020 will be an easy first. It will also be the greatest oil importer other than the U.S. We are talking about 270 million tons of oil. Autos will become a major part of Gross Domestic Product whereas it is now only…
You Gotta Love It
Meredydd Hughes will become Britain’s top traffic officer sometime this week. He plans a crackdown on tailgaters and drug drivers. He wants lots more hidden cameras to catch the bad guys. Oh, yes, the good man was twice convicted last year of speeding.
Malawi Corruption – As Always
Yeterday, we reported on an aid package Australia is gifting to Malawi. Why? What does it hope to accomplish? The U.S. and Denmark are finished trying to help this corrupt land, so what is Australia up to? Father Edward Masauko, a Roman Catholic priest, says the only choice people in Malawi have when they go…
Some idiosyncratic thoughts on the next Supreme Court Justice
Soon the liberal press will be joining the lberal members of Congress in condemning George Bush’s nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. They are wasting their breath. They will not be able to beat him down on legal qualifications as they did with Harriet. The problem with Alito is his judicial philosophy. He…
What Really Triggered the War in Iraq?
A 3-part investigative story in the Italian La Repubblica reported in the San Francisco Chronicle tells a tale of high intrigue, forged documents and an embassy break-in. According to La Repubblica, a free-lance spy fabricated a tale of the so-called purchase by Iraq of uranium in Niger. The information was then passed on through the…
“That’s what makes horse racing – a difference of opinion”
U.S. military authorities claim one of its aircraft made a precision strike on an al Qaeda house in western Iraq, making sure to avoid civilian casualties. A local hospital in the village reports 40 dead, including women and children.
Trick or Treat
No Halloween candy for sex offenders. The evil-doers will not be allowed to be at anyone’s home during the trick and treat holiday. No costumes, masks or visits to a mall. They cannot turn on their porch lights to seduce little candy gobblers. The beneficiaries of all this security live in Henrico County that I…
A Selection of Best Articles in Today’s Newspapers
Syria accuses U.S. of launching lethal raids over its borders. (In U.K.’s Telegraph.) From the London Times comes a story about bomb blasts in Delhi leaving 50 dead. It’s always a happy day when there is good news from Africa. Kenya Sports is loaded today with the happy news of national successes but Ireland beat…
Lance Armstrong, Cancer, and Laptops
If you read this blog then probably you don’t give a hoot about what Lance Armstrong thinks about anything – even bicycles. Still, the FDA wants to scrutinize the effect of celebrity testimonials for the medicines people want. Lance is one prominent person the FDA is curious about and Dorothy Hammil is another. Remember her…
Three Articles – Two Views
We suggest you click on the link to today’s NY Times, go the editorial page and read the articles by Rich and Kristoff attacking the Vice-President. Then read David Brooks for a defense.
Are Christians being attacked in Indonesia?
Was it just a case of random violence or are we witnessing a new outbreak of religious war between Muslims and Christians as occurred between 1999 and 2002? A group of high school girls were attacked and beheaded as they were taking a walk. The story from Seattlepi says the heads were found far from…
HE HATES YOU AND EVERYONE ELSE
This guy hates EVERYBODY. An article without merit but it shocks for all the hatred it expresses. The author begins by saying we live in a twisted world. Read and be amazed.
Tidbits
Why does half of America not believe in evolution? An overlooked partial explanation is that scientists call it "the theory of evolution". People wrongly take that to mean "hypothesis" or "conjecture", not realizing that in science "theory" has a technical meaning.****George Bush calls for more refineries to help solve the oil shortage. Quaint, considering we…
Merry Old England – Blair’s Thugs?
From the World Socialist Web Site (www.wsws.org) comes this account of police doings in the U.K. Harry Stanley was shot by two policemen in 1999 and now, after several inquests, in which they were exonerated, High Court Judge Leveson has ruled no more appeals by the widow. Any pressure? Well, 130 police officers threatened to…
I.R.S. Statistics
From 2002 to 2003, the after-tax income of the richest 1% of Americans rose 8.5% or about $49,000 each. The bottom 75% had a slight fall. For example, the middle fifth lost $300. 14,000 complex changes to the tax code have been made since 1986. You can’t figure these out, but if you have money…
No more Mr. Role Model
The Commissioner of the National Basketball Association, David Stern, wants his millionaire athletes to look like Gucci models. In fact, he insists on it. Players can no longer wear ornate neck chains on their way to the basketball arenas. They must wear neat, well-pressed trousers and buttoned shirts. Dark glasses worn indoors are now a…
…but I Wouldn’t Want To Live There
Modifying an old saying, these are the cities of which one might say "A great place to work but I wouldn’t want to live there." People now living in suburbs flock to these places during the day, swelling them to overbloat and return to their sanctuaries in the evening. The percentages indicate how much…
Tsunami disaster not close to being over
There is an old WW II song with the line "Lets remember Pearl Harbor" as we do the Alamo". Ala…what? I fear that the greatest disaster of our time is already being marginalized by local ones but let us try to remember that the tsunami in Indonesia killed hundreds of thousands, will soon push 600,000…
CIA WORLD FACTBOOK STATISTICS
Percentage of children living in poverty Finland 3.4% Sweden 3.6% Norway 3.6% Switzerland 6.8% France 7.3% Germany 12.8% Poland 14.5% Italy 15.7% U.K. 16.2% United States 21.7% Source: Christian Science Monitor and CIA Factbook
He’s Entitled
If, like me, your net worth is under $5 billion you may be a little envious of the guy. Now Bill Gates has come up with a new idea guaranteed to widen the gap between you and him: a 3D vision of the future. Say what you will about this aspect of the man, the…
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