Schools not getting job done

This is just sad.

"'No state requires its graduates to take the courses that reflect the real-world demands of work and postsecondary education,' said the report released last week. 'Too many American youth leave high school with a diploma in hand but largely unprepared for the opportunities and challenges that await them in college and the workplace.'"

The Tree!

This is the tree that we use every Christmas! 

The Bird!

The company that I work for has a tradition of giving each employee either a turkey or a ham at Christmas. This is a picture of the smoked turkey that I got, this year. Yay! 

Court Says Disputed Votes Can Be Counted

"The Washington state Supreme Court has ruled in favor of state Democrats. It ruled that King County should include hundreds of disputed ballots in its hand recount for the governor's race."

Why?

Bank's account closings eyed

"After three years as an AmSouth Bank customer, Imad Aleithawe got a one-page form letter telling him his account had been closed.

The bank refuses to explain why, citing confidentiality and a broadly written customer agreement allowing accounts to be shut down at any time, 'for any reason.'"

House arrest: Pro and "con"

"'Why even send them to prison?' asked Robert Owens of Greenville, who raised questions in 1996 about association spending after he'd raised thousands for the burn center. 'It's a slap in the face of those who entrusted the system to prosecute and make sure the man is paying for his crime. Instead, he's home watching TV. There are patients staying longer in the burn center than he was in prison.'"

Hard work wins -- still

"A 1994 Times-Mirror Center survey showed that fewer blacks earning more than $50,000 a year believe 'everyone has the power to succeed' in America, than do low-income whites. 'Social programs' like AFDC and food stamps -- government programs designed to 'uplift' the inner city -- create dependency, lessen initiative and harm the very people the do-gooders want to help. During a 1977 Senate hearing on the impact of government programs on neighborhoods, liberal Sen. William Proxmire, D-Wisc., told a witness, 'You would probably have better neighborhoods today if there had been no federal programs at all!'"

Condi's First Test: The Oil-for-Food Scandal

"Although the Iraqi elections on January 30 will top her incoming agenda, the first real indicator of Condi Rice's tenure as Secretary of State will be how she handles something most in her new department would rather ignore: the United Nations' oil-for-food scandal."

The New And Improved Racism

"Still furious about the election, liberals are lashing out at blacks. First it was Condoleezza Rice. But calling a Ph.D. who advised a sitting president during war 'Aunt Jemima' apparently hasn't satiated the Democrats' rage. Even the racist cartoons didn't help.

So this week, they've turned with a vengeance to Clarence Thomas. Only the Democrats would try to distract from their racist attacks on one black Republican by leveling racist attacks against a different black Republican. If Democrats don't nip this in the bud, soon former Klanner and Democratic Sen. Bob Byrd will be their spokesman."

Famous Atheist Now Believes in God

"A British philosophy professor who has been a leading champion of atheism for more than a half-century has changed his mind. He now believes in God more or less based on scientific evidence, and says so on a video released Thursday.

At age 81, after decades of insisting belief is a mistake, Antony Flew has concluded that some sort of intelligence or first cause must have created the universe. A super-intelligence is the only good explanation for the origin of life and the complexity of nature, Flew said in a telephone interview from England."

French Judge: ATMs Help Finance Militants

"Radical Islamic cells in Europe are using an ingenious way to finance terror networks that's virtually impossible to trace: withdrawing hundreds of thousands of dollars a month from cash machines with fake credit cards, according to France's top anti-terrorism judge."

One-time radical drops teaching plans

"A former leftist radical who spent 16 years in prison for possessing explosives has withdrawn from teaching a college seminar after her hiring sparked protests.

Susan Rosenberg made her decision because it was in the best interest of all parties, Hamilton College officials said Wednesday.

In response to her hiring, prospective students withdrew applications and donors rescinded hundreds of thousands of dollars in pledges, school officials said."

Marine 'hostage' to be charged with desertion

"A U.S. Marine who disappeared in Iraq and then showed up in a purported hostage video before later appearing as a free man in Lebanon, is being charged with desertion, Pentagon officials said Thursday."

NAACP Head Mfume Didn't Retire, He Was Booted Out

Don’t believe the well scripted press conference where former President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Kweisi Mfume, announced his resignation. Mfume did not resign from the nation’s oldest and most prestigious civil rights organization. He was kicked out, following a long simmering feud with NAACP Chairman Julian Bond.

Politicians want to raise our taxes, again!

"In 1969, when the average Mississippi worker brought home $46 a week, the $5 it took to register a car title was a 10-percent bite out of that weekly paycheck.

Today, the average worker brings home $448 a week. And the car title fee? The same $5, or less than 1 percent of a week's pay.

'It's unbelievable,' said state House Appropriations Committee Chairman Johnny Stringer, D-Montrose. 'The car title fee hasn't been raised in 35 years. It costs the state money every time we issue one.'"

What's unbelievable is the fact that lawmakers seem more inclined to raise taxes, rather than to cut unnecessary expenses.