| The Kensington Review |
19 July 2006 |
| Latest Commentary: | Volume V, Number 85 |
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Senate Stem Cell Bill Part of Empty Charade -- The Senate yesterday passed legislation liberalizing Embryonic Stem Cell (ESC) research. The House has already passed an identical bill, so it will go straight to the White House. The administration has said that, sometime today, the president will issue the first veto of his 6-year long presidency. Two other bills on the same subject, frivolous to the point of irrelevance, will get his signature. All of this is a tightly choreographed charade designed to let Senators and Congressman say they are working on ESC research while talking out of both sides of their mouths.
Israeli Ground Forces Enter Lebanon, But Can They Leave? -- The media announced last night that the Israeli Defense Forces have sent ground troops into Lebanon in pursuit of Hezbollah guerrillas. This follows reports that IDF soldiers have also entered a refugee camp in Gaza. The need for ground forces is clear to anyone who understands the limits of airpower (in other words, those outside the US government). Hezbollah can only be broken on the ground. Once the IDF achieves that, however, it can only exit Lebanon by leaving the very same kind of vacuum that allowed Hezbollah to achieve a state-within-a-state in the first place, or worse. Congressman Offers Bill to Abolish the Penny -- Congressman Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) unveiled a bill yesterday to get rid of the US one-cent piece, often but inaccurately called the “penny.” The ideal bribe for 3-year-olds and the value of most people’s thoughts, the one-cent bit is now merely inconvenient thanks to inflation. Penny candy now costs 25 cents, and even making a penny costs more than a hundredth part of a dollar. Congressman Kolbe believes its time to admit the penny’s day has come and gone, and so it has. Fundamentalist Religious Schools Lag Behind Public Schools in Math -- One of the big selling points in sending one’s children to private school in the US is a perception that they will learn better there. A report from the US Department of Education issued last Friday, however, casts some doubt on that idea. The study found that kids at public schools do as well or better than private schools generally, and that students at fundamentalist Christian schools actually lag in math. © Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux. |
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