School Daze

One thing I'm good at is complaining. After visiting private high-schools this
weekend I was getting ready to gripe about the cost, but really, the one we
like best isn't the most expensive, and plus, we only have one kid to send, wow,
don't know how some people do it, sending several at a time, oh yeah, and
there's this:

VATICAN CITY -- "Barbaric." That's what the Vatican calls the beheading of three Indonesian schoolgirls who were attacked over the weekend as they walked to their Christian high school.
The head of one of the girls was left outside a newly built Christian church.
The attacks occurred on the Indonesian island where around 1,000 people have been killed in Muslim-Christian violence.

Kind of makes whining about expenses a lame pursuit. At least my kid will
come home each day with all her parts. [btw... it says 1000 dead in Muslim-Christian
violence. I wonder how many victims were Muslim?]

George

From the Report on the Manipulation of the Oil-for-Food Programme (27 October 2005):

V. OTHER POLITICAL BENEFICIARIES
A. GEORGE GALLOWAY
The Government of Iraq did not give preference to companies based in the United Kingdom in
determining oil allocations under the Programme. Nonetheless, a total of over 18 million barrels
of oil were allocated either directly in the name of George Galloway, a member of the British
Parliament, or in the name of one of his associates, Fawaz Abdullah Zureikat (“Fawaz Zureikat”),
to support Mr. Galloway’s campaign against the sanctions. Mr. Zureikat was a prominent
Jordanian businessman. Mr. Zureikat received commissions for handling the sale of
approximately 11 million barrels that were allocated in Mr. Galloway’s name.
Both Mr. Galloway and Mr. Zureikat have denied that Mr. Galloway was involved in obtaining
the oil allocations or receiving any proceeds from the oil sales. Each of them has acknowledged,
however, that Mr. Zureikat made large donations to the Mariam Appeal, a United Kingdom-based
campaign for the lifting of sanctions against Iraq. Mr. Galloway was the founder of this
organization. Mr. Galloway has denied that he was aware of the source of Mr. Zureikat’s
donations. According to Iraqi officials, another oil beneficiary, Burhan Al-Chalabi, also received
an allocation intended to benefit the Mariam Appeal. A portion of the profits from this allocation
was deposited into an account of Mr. Galloway’s wife, Amineh Naji Daoud Abu Zayyad, who
was also involved with the Mariam Appeal.

Alcohol

Here's a probably all too common video of what happens when
foolish young men get together with alcohol and a zippo. Turn down the
sound a little, some college boys scream like little girls when they catch fire.

Hitch

From Slate, no really:

Christopher Hitchens writes, "I added that I wanted no further contact with Galloway
until I could have the opportunity of reviewing his prison diaries."

Har, hurry the day.

Feel the Burn

I'm in favor of any exercise that begins with, "ok, lay on a comfortable surface"

UN Covering for the Bad Actors

From the Times Online (UK):

UN office doctored report on murder of Hariri
From James Bone in New York and Nicholas Blanford in Beirut

THE United Nations withheld some of the most damaging allegations against Syria in its report on the murder of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese Prime Minister, it emerged yesterday.
The names of the brother of Bashar al-Assad, President of Syria, and other members of his inner circle, were dropped from the report that was sent to the Security Council.

The confidential changes were revealed by an extraordinary computer gaffe because an electronic version distributed by UN officials on Thursday night allowed recipients to track editing changes.

The mistaken release of the unedited report added further support to the published conclusion that Syria was behind Mr Hariri’s assassination in a bomb blast on Valentine’s Day in Beirut. The murder of Mr Hariri touched off an international outcry and hastened Syria’s departure from Lebanon in April after a 29-year pervasive military presence.

Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, described the report’s findings as “deeply troubling”. Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, said: “It is an unpleasant story which the international community will take very seriously indeed.”

But the furore over the doctoring of the report threatened to overshadow its damaging findings. It raised questions about political interference by Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary- General, who had promised not to make any changes in the report.

Yet more evidence that the UN needs to be rebuilt from the ground up.

Florida

Looks like it's all happening pretty much south of my people. Keep your
heads down everyone.

Joan

Don't know why but Joan Rivers never much appealed to me. Maybe it's
that hoarse voice, or just her style. But good for her, for not getting PC
steamrolled. She stuck to her guns, good for her.

Which One to Pick?

I can't believe we're trying to pick a high school already. I swear it was just last
week I was taking the kid's picture and I had to put pillows on either side of
her to keep her from falling over. And it seems like yesterday she would stand
on tip-toe to see if she could reach the light switch yet. What the hell has
happened to time? My year in eighth grade took decades to get through. Hers
is racing past in a blur.
Anyway, what is this pick-a-high-school stuff? When I was a kid, there was one
high school and you went to it. It didn't matter if there was a fire breathing
bully, it didn't matter if you'd already ruined all four years with a never to be forgotten
zipper down in the first week. You went.
But I guess the old one-school option at least exempted you from all the
indecision and worry that the kid is going through now. Which one to choose?
The one with the drug problem, or clique central? And yikes, the bus rides can be
brutal in this area.
Ah well. Maybe a clear choice will jump out at us. I'd like a school that offers lots
of after school activities, angels in the hall, and constant monitoring of the boys.
It wouldn't hurt to have good teachers either.

Traffic

Do you ever feel good because it's other people who are stuck in traffic?
I almost headed north this morning, and I *would* have if I didn't have a
mountain of paperwork calling my name. Anyway, I just missed this:

BALTIMORE - Authorities closed one of two highway tunnels carrying traffic under Baltimore's harbor for nearly two hours Tuesday and partially shut the other because of a threat to detonate vehicles full of explosives inside the tubes.

The Baltimore Harbor Tunnel was closed and the Fort McHenry Tunnel was reduced to one lane of traffic in each direction, said Lt. Col. David Franklin of the Maryland Transportation Authority Police. The closures began about 11:30 a.m. and officers began reopening the tubes about 1:15 p.m.

"The safe thing right now is to allow these tunnels to reopen," said Chief Gary McLhinney of the transportation authority police.

Whew.