Boots

Manolo says, it is Monday, and you are not at at your desk slaving away.

You are not at your desk for the very good reason that you have become that most pitiable of peoples, the business traveler; the pilgrim of commerce, outbound to your corporation’s North-East-Central regional office in the beautiful, lakeside vacation city of Erie, Pennsylvania! (Just like Lake Como, only with more soot!)

But before you can do your business and then retire for the evening to enjoy the homey comforts of the Airport Suites Inn, (Ice! Free waffles! The coffeemaker in the bathroom!) you must first do battle with the American air transportation system.

(Read the full post about ‘Lilly Pulitzer for the Monday’…)

Ouch.

Two practical jokers are behind bars for setting their passed-out drinking buddy’s crotch ablaze while boozing in Grover Beach. Matthew Craig Pillers and Jack Brent Nicholas Keiffer pleaded no contest to a felony great bodily injury charge.

Prosecutors say the 22-year-old Pillers, a parolee, was sentenced to two years in prison and the 19-year-old Keiffer got 45 days in San Luis Obispo County jail.

Elliot Tuleja was passed out when the men poured cologne on the man’s groin and set him on fire on Jan. 18. Tuleja had second-degree burns on his testicles.

WEAC has released it’s legislative agenda.  Here’s what they want for voucher schools.

WEAC supports legislation to hold private and religious voucher schools to the same standards as public schools, including:

- Minimum hours of instruction.
- Licensure of all instructional staff.
- Background checks on teachers.
- Grade advancement, high school graduation, attendance and parental involvement requirements and standards.
- Administration of required state standardized tests and testing required under the so-called “No Child Left Behind” law, including public reporting requirements.

(Read the full post about ‘WEAC’s 2009-2010 Legislative Agenda’…)

What the hell…

A West Bend woman gave birth while camping in Fond du Lac County, but that wasn’t the biggest surprise.

The woman claimed she didn’t know she was pregnant!

The baby girl was born in a restroom.

The mother is in her mid-20s.

The Global Warming crowd is all in a tizzy over this, but you have to love the reasoning on which the decision was based.

The Broadcasting Code requires Channel 4 to show “due impartiality” on “matters of major political and industrial controversy and major matters relating to current public policy”. 

Human hands are driving climate change, Ofcom acknowledges

The last segment of the programme, dealing with the politics of climate change, broke this obligation, Ofcom judged, and did not reflect a range of views, as required under the code.

But the main portion of the film, on climate science, did not breach these rules.

(Read the full post about ‘Anti-Global Warming Documentary Did not Mislead’…)

We don’t have the readership of the New York Times, but B&S is proud to carry Senator McCain’s column.

In January 2007, when General David Petraeus took command in Iraq, he called the situation “hard” but not “hopeless.” Today, 18 months later, violence has fallen by up to 80% to the lowest levels in four years, and Sunni and Shiite terrorists are reeling from a string of defeats. The situation now is full of hope, but considerable hard work remains to consolidate our fragile gains.

Progress has been due primarily to an increase in the number of troops and a change in their strategy.

(Read the full post about ‘Senator McCain’s Rejected Column’…)

The Math Wars rage on.

Yes, Morey teaches her son, who’ll enter fifth grade in the fall, how to divide the old-fashioned way—you know, with descending columns of numbers, subtracting all the way down. It’s a formula that works, and she finds it quick, reliable, even soothing. So, she says, does her son.

But in his fourth-grade class, long division wasn’t on the agenda. As many parents across the country know, this and some other familiar formulas have been supplanted in an increasing number of schools by concept-based curricula aiming to teach the ideas behind mathematics rather than rote procedures.

[…]

Morey, on the other hand, feels no guilt.

(Read the full post about ‘Math Wars’…)

Well.

Maliki: As soon as possible, as far as we’re concerned. U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes.

Sean Hackbarth at The American Mind has these thoughts.

First, realize Maliki sees Obama as the Presidential front runner. It’s rational not to rock the boat. Second, Iraq and the U.S. wouldn’t be in this situation if it weren’t for the surge that quelled violence.

[…]

On the surge Sen. John McCain had the superior judgment over the less-experienced Obama.

(Read the full post about ‘Maliki OK With Obama’s Plan to Pull Out’…)

Typical.

The political vision of a summer gas tax holiday died a quick death in Congress, losing to a view that federal excise taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel will have to go up if they go anywhere.

Despite calls from the presidential campaign trail for a Memorial Day-to-Labor Day tax freeze, lawmakers quickly concluded — with a prod from the construction industry — that having $9 billion less to spend on highways could create a pre-election specter of thousands of lost jobs.

(Read the full post about ‘Congress Discusses Increasing Gas Tax’…)

That’s ok, Scott.  There is still absolutely no politcal progress in Iraq.  Just ignore this.

Iraq’s largest Sunni Arab bloc rejoined the Cabinet Saturday after a year-long boycott.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki speaks during a recent press conference in Baghdad.

Saleem Abdullah, a spokesman for the Iraqi Accord Front bloc, said the parliament voted overwhelmingly Saturday to appoint six members of his bloc to Cabinet posts, including one as deputy prime minister.

(Read the full post about ‘Sunni Arab Bloc Rejoined the Iraqi Cabinet’…)