| The Kensington Review |
25 September 2006 |
| Latest Commentary: | Volume V, Number 114 |
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US Literacy Program Plagued by Mismanagement -- The Bush administration has made literacy a top priority in America’s schools. Credit either Laura Bush, ex-librarian, or the slightly dyslexic president himself, but this journal couldn’t agree more with the goals. A literate society is simple preferable to an illiterate one. So, one is aggrieved by the administration’s internal audit of the Reading First program which says the project is mismanaged and rife with conflicts of interest. A billion dollars is a terrible thing to waste.
Iraqis Cut Deal on Postponing Federalism -- The Iraqi constitution is a federal one that allows three or more provinces to form a semi-autonomous region. This scares the Sunnis who will face an all-but-independent Kurdistan and a 9-province Shi’ite bloc, with a rump for the Sunnis under which lies almost no oil at all. Naturally, the Sunnis have threatened to boycott parliament over this, and yesterday, the other ethnic groups through their political parties agreed to put it all off for a couple of years. HP Tries to Sneak out Resignation News Friday Afternoon -- When the new broke that investigators looking for the source of boardroom leaks at Hewlett-Packard had tried to secure information by impersonating others, Patricia C. Dunn should not only have resigned as chair of the board, but she should have quit altogether. For reasons known only to the board members, she stayed on until Friday afternoon. Then at 4:25 pm Eastern time, Businesswire ran the release announcing she was out all the way. Friday afternoon releases used to be for burying the news, but in the age of the internet, that doesn’t happen anymore. HP just looked sneaky as well as stupid doing it, betting no one would notice as the Jewish New Year began at sunset. “Flyboys” Doesn’t Quite Crash -- “Flyboys” is a World War I fighter pilot movie based on the Lafayette Escadrille, a bunch of Americans who decided to fly for France while the Americans sat out the first half of the war. While there hasn’t been a definitive study of the squadron, there are a great many legends. This film tries to do a great deal, and in the end, can only be recommended as an action adventure, not as a serious cinematic work detailing the life of the men who flew in it. © 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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