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Just caught a network news segment on how the Chicago government schools – at the alleged urging of parents – are teaching kids there CHINESE, a language having 3 gazillion unique GRAPHIC – as opposed to our 26 alphabetical – characters and 4 or so basic SOUNDS! They claim they’re doing this so our kids can COMPETE with the Chinese – most of whom are busy learning a much easier language: ENGLISH!! I think teaching American kids Chinese is wonderful. These kids will then be able to explain why they are ignorant of biology, physics, math, basic science, etc. –...

London: Four months ago, a 20 year old man – dressed neatly in an expensive suit , but soaking wet – was found wandering on a beach by police. He refused to speak, so police took him to a mental health unit for evaluation. During his evaluation , he was given a piece of paper and a pen – and promptly drew a sketch of a concert – style piano. Someone decided to let him sit at a piano in the hospital chapel, and-according to one of the psychiatrists , he gave a brilliant concert recital. Dubbed “ The Piano...

Horsefeathers has refrained from commenting on Cindy Sheehan on grounds that psychopathology is best dealt with in the privacy of the consultation room, and that deranged individuals should be quietly led to treatment, not encouraged to dramatize their delusional ideas for the evening newscast. One doesn’t require the 70+ years of combined clinical experience we possess to note the detachment from reality this woman exhibits. Her obvious rage at her son, her trashing of his life, her paranoid fantasies about the 'neocons' and Israel, her Bush hatred, her self inflation, her weird affect, the strange smile as she articulates barnyard...

FREDDIE MAC, STANDARD FEDERAL BANK ANNOUNCE NEW ISLAMIC HOME FINANCING INITIATIVE FOR MICHIGAN FAMILIES Freddie Mac’s Summer of Homeownership to Help More Observant Muslims McLean, VA - Freddie Mac announced today a new initiative designed to help Muslims living in Michigan become homeowners while observing traditional Islamic restrictions on paying interest on mortgages and other types of debt. Developed with Standard Federal Bank and Detroit-based United Mortgage of America, the new initiative enables prospective homeowners to enter into long-term lease-purchase arrangements that permit them to later sell the house and profit from any home price appreciation. Freddie Mac has agreed...

THE high court ruled today doctors do have the power to withdraw food and drink from terminally ill patients - even if it is against their wishes. The General Medical Council (GMC) was appealing against a previous ruling that gave Lesley Burke - who suffers from a degenerative brain condition - the right to insist on nutrition during the final stages of his illness... The appeal judges were told {that]a patient did not have the right to demand any particular form of treatment... Joyce Robins, co-director of human rights campaign group Patient Concern, said the decision was a disappointment. She...

FRONT PAGE STORY - 23/04/2005Abortion referendum approvedAbortions up to the tenth week of pregnancy were approved late Wednesday afternoon by the Portuguese Parliament. But the country’s lawmakers also decided that for the law decree proposal to come into force, a referendum on the matter would have to be held.While voting went as planned for the majority centre-left Socialists (PS), internal squabbling within the ruling party saw at least forty MP’s call for a revision to the party’s law proposal.These ‘dissident’ MP’s, which make up a third of the party’s parliamentary seats, presented a declaration saying that while they were in...

St. Paul - A man who allegedly put a 13-year-old girl in a dog kennel for days at a time, hit her, read her diary, and strip searched her, was charged this week with unreasonable restraint of a child. Eric Bare, 42, of St. Paul, admitted to child protection workers that he did lock the teenager in the kennel on two different occasions, once for three consecutive days, and once for seven consecutive days. Bare said that he "fixed up the kennel nice" and that it was "a suitable temporary living arrangement." Bare is not the girl's father, but she...

A WOMAN who at 67 became the oldest person known to have given birth was today said to be doing well, while her surviving daughter was in good heath. The Romanian gave birth to twin girls at Bucharest's Giulesti Hospital, but one of the babies died soon afterwards. Adriana Iliescu, a retired university professor, had undergone fertility treatment for nine years before succeeding in becoming pregnant. Her doctor, Bogdan Marinescu, said: "Mother and child are well and we hope the development of the child will continue normally." Realitatea TV reported the death of one of the twins and said the...

One important lesson learned during this past election year is that the American people want a return to basic American values, and an end to vicious, Michael Moore-style politics. Certainly the last thing Americans want is yet another year of incessant, baseless, and venomous attacks.But if liberal special-interest groups in Washington have their way, more vicious politics is exactly what the American people will get, particularly in the likely event of a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court.The American people want judges and justices on the bench who will dutifully interpret the law — distinguished legal minds and devoted...

The United Nations has accorded Yasser Arafat honors as a head of state, holding a tribute in the General Assembly and flying the flag at half staff. Secretary-General Kofi Annan led the tribute. The hour-long General Assembly tribute featured eulogies from ambassadors representing each of the world's regions, as well as Islamic and Arab groups. Such tributes are usually reserved for sitting heads of state. Secretary-General Kofi Annan described Mr. Arafat as one of those few leaders instantly recognizable by people around the world. He said Mr. Arafat's signing of the 1993 Oslo Accords was a giant step in realizing...

  Election madness Tony Blankley (archive)  October 20, 2004 | Print | Send  It's getting to that point in the campaign when more than everything that needed to be said has been said. Rhetorical exaggerations being judged insufficient, straight out lies now fill the airwaves. Did you know that John Kerry led a platoon of Vietcong out of Cambodia in a bloody attack on a Marine base in Da Nang? Did you know that George Bush blew up a squad of Texas Air National Guard planes during his only day on the job? And, of course, both candidates are rumored...

When term papers get graded this school year, many students who turn in sloppy work won't be seeing red. An increasingly popular grading theory insists red ink is stressful and demoralizes students, while purple, the preferred color, has a more calming effect. "I never use red to grade papers because it stands out like, 'Oh, here's what you did wrong.' " said Melanie Irvine, a third-grade teacher at Pacific Rim Elementary in Carlsbad. "Purple is a more approachable color." Irvine said that in elementary schools, it's unnecessary to point out every error. Instead, a teacher should find a more delicate...

Smoking marijuana, the federal government constantly reminds us, is dangerous in every way. It impairs cognitive functioning, makes you high, and, because it’s smoked, is a demon in a bong hit—and so on. A counterargument is that pot has helped thousands of cancer and AIDS patients, for example, contend with side effects of their illnesses and treatments. There is also evidence that marijuana works for some psychiatric disorders as well, principally depression and bipolar disorder. Among some people, pot is jokingly referred to as “green Prozac.” The problem is you can’t legally take a toke for psychiatric diagnoses. “I think...

THEY were known as South Africa’s "Bonnie and Clyde" after a 17-day killing and robbing spree in 1983.She, the then beautiful 19-year-old blonde Charmaine Phillips, testified that she killed one of her robbery victims, who had been tied to a tree, simply because she was irritated by her "babbling on". In court she was like a wildcat, hissing and clawing at anyone who came near her. When a photographer walked close to the dock to speak to her, she leant forward as though to whisper in his ear, but suddenly pursed her lips and spat directly in his face. She...

Judge let pregnant woman stay in U.S. By DONALD BRADLEY The Kansas City Star Abortion opponents got a surprise when federal Judge Scott O. Wright refused to deport a pregnant Raymore woman last month. He was talking their talk. Wright ruled that the government could not send Myrna Dick back to Mexico, because her unborn child was an American citizen with constitutional rights. As such, the baby was entitled to stay in the country. Anti-abortion forces have been using a similar argument since the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision legalized abortion in 1973: A fetus is a human...

"I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it."And there you have it - the beginning of the end. Clark did it. Dean did it. Kerry will eventually do it - it's just a matter of time.

I need help being able to access realtime scores online during March Madness. My anal employer is rationing out access to sports-related internet sites... 60 minutes per day. Is there any way to backdoor this? (Perhaps the major sports sites should take this into consideration during March Madness.)

North Korea reports on its national evening TV news from Pyongyang 23 November(with the usual vitriol and staged excitement), that they have now tabulated the number of honorable titles of respect assigned to the 'Great Leader' dictator Kim Jong-il.The North Korean male TV reporter emotionally announces these have been flooding in "from all over the world." They are such titles of respect and endearment as: "The Undefeated General", and "Wise Man Born of Heaven", and "Teacher of Philosophies", "Son of the Sun", etc. etc. etc., ad nauseum....Please don't take my word for it. VIEW THE BRIEF STREAMING VIDEOS HERE:Cut...

The madness of Kim Jong Il (part two) Saddam has gone, Iran has blinked, and now only North Korea retains its status as number-one enemy in the axis of evil. But little is known of this great dictatorship apart from the fact that Kim Jong Il has presided over the systematic starvation of millions of his people. And that he now has the bomb... A special report by Philip Gourevitch The horrible weirdness of North Korea makes the place easier to parody than to make sense of, and it is folly to make too much sense of it. For anyone...

France voices objections to placing Hamas and Islamic Jihad on the European Union's list of terror organizations, ynet reported Monday. Diplomatic advisor to President Chirac, Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, is quoted to have said to the Israeli ambassador in France, Nissim Zvilli, that there is no proof that these two organizations are terror groups. "If we find that Hamas and Islamic Jihad are indeed terror groups opposed to peace, we may have to change the EU's stand," said Gordo. "However, we must not limit ourselves to one, clear cut, position." Over the weekend, Zvilli met with Gordo, said to be Chirac's right-hand...