The Kensington Review

30 March 2005

Latest Commentary:

Ex-Diplomats Urge Senate to Reject Bolton as UN Ambassador -- When President Bush decided his man at the UN should be John R. Bolton, many took this as a snub to the UN and America's allies. A noted unilateralist and neo-con, future Ambassador Bolton's nomination largely split the Senate along party lines. However, the Senate is a political body composed of members who largely understand little if anything of international politics. More troubling is the opinion expressed by 59 former US diplomats who sent Senator Richard Lugar (R- IN) a letter in his capacity as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Their operative sentence read, "We urge you to reject that nomination."

Iraqi Parliament Still Can't Pick a Government -- The "watershed" elections in Iraq were two months ago. Election officials announced the results February 14. And after weeks of arguing, negotiating and deal-making, there is still no democratically elected government in place. Yesterday, the Prime Minister walked out of Parliament, the acting speaker threw out the media declaring the meeting would continue in secret, and the session ended without a government to receive an up or down vote. Democracy is a messy thing, and there is no reason to believe that the Iraqis won't be able to work out their difference eventually. However, the lesson for the world is not a new one. Elections do not solve the problems of a society; they merely offer a mechanism for establishing the relative power of competing interests.

Hasbro Offers New Star Wars Toy: An Empty Box -- Long, long ago, in a marketing department far, far away, a company named Kenner picked up the license for toys tied-in to the film "Star Wars." In 1977, no one knew how strong The Force would be in this franchise. Soon, though, Kenner discovered it had a hit on its hands, and it had no time to produce stuff to sell. In a stroke of marketing desperation/genius, the company shipped empty boxes that contained a voucher for action figures when they were available. Thus, many got their hands on Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, R2D2 and Chewbacca. Hasbro bought Kenner in 1992, and thanks to some fine institutional marketing memory, it seems a few lucky kids will once again be able to buy a Star Wars empty box.

Americans Don't Get Enough Sleep -- The National Sleep Foundation, as part of National Sleep Awareness Week, has put out its 2005 Sleep Awareness Poll. Coinciding with "Insomnia Awareness Day" today, the report finds that most Americans have sleep difficulties. Since experts say the adult human organism needs 7-9 hours of sleep out of every 24, a national average of 6.9 hours suggests a large portion of the population isn't well-rested in the morning. And that causes accidents, lost productivity, damaged relationships and other problems.

© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review , J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

Google

Comprehensive Media Web Directory

WWW Kensington Review

Search:
Keywords:






Links

Contact us

Back Issues