Mar. 31 - Schwarzenegger takes sexual harassment course.

Now men need to take courses to learn how to be sexually harassing?

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Mar. 30 - Good op-ed piece by educator Marlene Heath in the NY Times about the success of holding students back until they have achieved the aims of each grade (you know, like being able to read) and how holding them back to get the basics allows them to succeed as they continue their education. (A Failure Policy That Succeeds.) more...

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Mar. 30 - A welcome new addition to the They Who Serve blogroll: Thomas, Home of the Green Baron, is posted in Korea.

Thomas tells a bit about himself and please note his Canadian Connection and cat named Attila!

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1 Thanks for adding me. I plan to enjoy the blogosphere BTW, I'l be flying into Toronto enroute to Corner Brook.

Posted by: Green Baron at March 30, 2004 06:28 PM (dRpZT)

2 Wonderful! Let me know when.

Posted by: Debbye at March 30, 2004 09:34 PM (yQTW5)

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Mar. 29 - Murdoc tells us How to escape from a mountain lion.

He's also got the latest on military vehicle equipment and he is talking ammunition with Airborne Combat Engineer.

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Mar. 29 - America, stand up and salute 14-year old Laura Elfman, the young American student living in Canada who was booed while carrying her country's flag in Montreal last week.

Some of us were pretty het up about that incident, but there was probably another feeling inside, one we didn't talk about, and Laura did exactly what we knew she'd do once we realized this was the second year this had happened to her yet she was carrying Old Glory again.

"Try it again, because you will feel better. It makes you feel strong," she said.

[...]

Laura, who doesn't follow politics, acknowledged that last year she ran off the stage in tears.

But contrary to news reports, this year: "I stood up for myself" and in no way left the stage crying, she said.

"I said, 'Hi, my name is Laura,' and when people were booing, I was talking over them (into the microphone), and I said, 'and I'm very, very proud to be holding the United States of America flag.' "

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Mar. 25 - There are a number of links to note:

The most important is the website for the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. The archives for prior hearings and commission findings are here; the latest full transcripts are from January, 2004, and the ones from March should soon be available.

However, the agenda, witness list and prepared statements from this week's session are available here (the statements are in .pdf format.) more...

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Mar. 24 - I had never heard of Pvt. Dwayne Turner until I read this. Now I don't think I'll ever forget him.

Honour those who serve.

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Mar. 23 - I've been watching the hearings of the independent commission of Sept. 11 on CNN, and it is frustrating. Did the administration under FDR have to face a similar inquiry about lapses of failure after Pearl Habour? (That is strictly a rhetorical question, okay?)

There is so astounding a lack of common sense and humility in these proceedings that it begs the questions Are you more interested in winning this war or this election? In what way does what did or did not happen before Sept. 11 actually pertain to the post-Sept. 11 period? more...

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Mar. 23 - Op-ed in the NY Times today about the Pledge of Allegiance case which will be argued before the Supreme Court tomorrow One Nation, Enriched by Biblical Wisdom. Using the book "A Stone of Hope" by David L. Chappell, Brooks explores the religious nature inherent in that movement as embodied by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and draws an interesting conclusion:

Chappell argues that the civil rights movement was not a political movement with a religious element. It was a religious movement with a political element.

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Mar. 22 - Lileks is angry today and when when he rolls, it's all to the good.

BUT the guy with the sign isn't (strictly speaking) a traitor. He's a lot of things including an idiot, a maroon, a 33rd degree moonbat, and a few more things but there are real traitors in the US and I don't want that word diluted to include the oh-so-very-clever nut fringe less we forget those who have actively collaborated with our enemies to destroy us.

UPDATE Mar. 23 - 01:07: Robert over at ExPat Yank argues for the need for a third term which can define someone like the nut in the photo.

Murdoc points that this sign is treasonous (and for the record, troops to Vietnam were deployed by air, not by sea.)

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Mar. 3 - 3 California voters OK Schwarzenegger's budget rescue approving Propositions 57 and 58 and defeating Propositions 55 and 56.

Proposition 56 proposed that budgets be passed by a 55% majority in the legislature and was an attempt to water down the state law (enacted by earlier passage of Proposition 13) which requires that budgets be passed by a 2/3 majority. It was defeated with 64% of the voters voting against the measure.

Proposition 55 was a school bonds bill and, according to CNN, was trailing with 48% approval. more...

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Mar. 2 - The people have spoken: Killington residents vote to secede from Vermont:

Town officials said about two-thirds of the 200 to 300 people who attended the town meeting supported secession.

There were some other places voting today but I'm holding out until I hear the results from California (no, not the Dem primaries, the propositions!)

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Mar. 2 - Canada assailed for failing to step in and save Aristide. Indeed. Who might fall next if Canada doesn't take a firmer line and flex soft diplomatic muscles for all they're worth - Mugabe? Chavez? the Iranian Council of Guardians? Shame! Blame France Canada? No, because PM Martin thinks that the rebels should consider sharing power with Aristide (because that has worked so well in Ivory Coast?)

Blacks angered by gays' metaphors:

"We find the gay community's attempt to tie their pursuit of special rights based on their behavior to the civil rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s abhorrent," Bishop Andrew Merritt of Straight Gate Ministries and several other Detroit pastors said recently in a statement supporting traditional marriage. "Being black is not a lifestyle choice." more...

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Mar. 2 - This is disturbing: Catholic Group Is Told to Pay for Birth Control by the California State Supreme Court.

The ruling has sweeping implications for religion-based nonprofit organizations and hospitals throughout the state and could influence decisions made in at least 20 other states that have similar laws requiring employers to provide contraception as part of employee health coverage, legal experts said. A similar case, brought by Catholic and Protestant organizations, is winding its way through the New York courts. more...

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Mar. 2 - Why I still take the NY Times seriously: this editorial which supports the No Child Left Behind program (Rescuing Education Reform) and, although taking some sideways shots at the Bush administration, calls upon Democrats to recognize that the positions taken by the NEA (National Education Association) are not supportable:

Democratic legislators are also fearful of the National Education Association, the country's largest and most powerful teachers' union. The union has a history of vigorously resisting standards-based change and is dead set against making teachers subject to federally dictated qualification and performance standards. While Mr. Paige made an egregious error in referring to the union as a "terrorist organization," the N.E.A. has not served the cause of quality education well in this fight, particularly when it attempts to turn suburban parents against the new law.

Instead of pandering to the law's opponents, whoever wins the Democratic nomination needs to seize what may be the country's last opportunity to achieve basic fairness in public education. That means standing up to wavering Democrats who are eager for a chance to jump ship.

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Mar. 1 - First and second in a series of excerpts in Rumsfeld's War, a book about US Sec. of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, courtesy of the Washington Times. more...

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