| Latest Commentary: | Volume VI, Number 107 |
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Bush Sneaks into Iraq-Nam to Begin Petraeus Report Spin -- Next week, on the sixth anniversary of the Al-Qaeda murders in Manhattan, Virginia and Pennsylvania, General David Petraeus will issue his report on the results of the American military surge in Iraq-Nam. Shortly thereafter, the White House will demand that Congress approve the $50 billion it has requested in emergency war funding. The official line will be that the surge needs another six months or so to build on its success, and after that, American troops might be allowed to start withdrawing. Re-runs of “Gilligan’s Island” have more suspense than the script the White House is following here.
Ex IRA Boss, UVF Killer Bring Iraq-Namese Shi’ites and Sunnis Together -- While the American media covered President Bush’s pre-Petraeus Report trip to American-held Iraq-Nam, a rather odd four-day conference in Finland came up with a 12-point plan for peace in Mesopotamia. Sunnis and Shi’ites agreed to further talks, and most notable among the western attendees were ex-IRA boss Martin McGuinness and hunger striker Leo Green along with Billy Hutchinson, a former senior member of the Ulster Volunteer Force who served a lengthy prison sentence for murder, and Democratic Unionist politico Jeffrey Donaldson. If politics makes strange bedfellows, diplomacy goes even further. US Workers are Most Productive in the World -- The headline is misleading, but that’s what the US media have decided in their misreading of an International Labor Organization report on worker productivity. The AP wrote, “American workers stay longer in the office, at the factory or on the farm than their counterparts in Europe and most other rich nations, and they produce more per person over the year.” Of course, on an hourly basis, the Norwegians are tops. They just like to take time off as well. Rockers Tend to Expire Prematurely -- A new paper published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health says that pop music as a career can shorten one’s life. Buddy Holly, Gene Vincent, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Mama Cass Elliot, Marc Bolan, John Lennon, Sid Vicious, Kurt Cobain and Joe Strummer all passed on before their actuarially anticipated date. The study said, “In the music industry, factors such as stress, changes from popularity to obscurity, and exposure to environments where alcohol and drugs are easily available, can all contribute to substance use as well as other self-destructive behaviors.” The world needed a quantitative study to show this? © Copyright 2007 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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