Teachers' Lounge

Robbing Peter to pay... Peter

The idea of so small a bump doesn't even meet the suggestions of the only two outside advisers who promoted the idea of a surge of as many as 50,000 additional U.S. troops for at least 18 months - neo-conservative think tanker Fred Kagan and retired Army Gen. Jack Keane. It doesn't come close to the 100,000 more troops that Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona - who hopes to be his party's nominee for president in 2008 - has advocated, nor does it satisfy the majority of Americans who no longer have any trust in Bush's conduct of the Iraq war or those like-minded voters who turned Congress over to the Democrats in the November mid-term elections.

What on earth is this president thinking?

Another Flight from Reality

Night of the living dead soldiers

From the BBC...

US Army urges dead to re-enlist

The US Army is to apologise to the families of officers killed or wounded in action who were sent letters urging them to return to active duty.

The letters were sent to more than 5,100 Army officers listed as recently having left the military.

But this figure included about 75 officers killed in action and about 200 wounded in action.

More than 3,000 members of the US military have died in Iraq since the war began.

Casualties have also been suffered in Afghanistan since the US invasion.

"Army personnel officials are contacting those officers' families now to personally apologise for erroneously sending the letters," the army said in a statement.

It said the database normally used for such correspondence with former officers had been "thoroughly reviewed" to remove the names of dead and wounded soldiers.

"But an earlier list was used inadvertently for the December mailings," it added.

A tip from InformationWeek Daily

Need help with some of those techie toy thingies you bought at Christmas? Information Week Daily suggests you hop on over to techlore where you'll find a "lengthy rundown of support information and contacts for consumer electronics companies from Advent to Zenith."

It can't happen here... TMOI

Or can it?

Of Blackwater and Brownshirts

Stuck in the middle with you...

Christian right Christian left

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Currently re-reading A Canticle for Leibowitz

Study guide here

Latest posts from Riverbend

It all started when I listened to this NPR broadcast on Sept. 18, 2003.

I wanted to learn more, so I visited Where is Raed? When I got to the middle of the page, I read this brief entry.

Wednesday, August 20, 2003 ::

RIVERBEND has started a weblog
Baghdad Burning

:: salam 7:52 PM [+] ::

I followed the link, which led me to her blog.

In this post she expresses astonishment at the number of e-mails she received.

Setting the Record Straight illustrates her honesty amidst the chaos and confusion caused by the war. The hardening of her heart was yet to come.

It was about this time that I e-mailed Riverbend. I was astounded when she replied. We exchanged a few e-mail letters, which I shared with my 7th grade social studies class at Hatch Middle School. Every morning they would ask, "Did Riverbend write you yet?"

Her blog entries were later published.

I've e-mailed Riverbend several times the past couple years. She has never replied. There are many possible reasons for her silence, upon which I will not speculate. What saddens me is to witness the hardening of her heart as events grind her down, as exemplified in this post entered on July 11, 2006.

I understand, but, still, it saddens me.

Here are Riverbend's latest posts -

End of Another Year...

A Lynching...

These days, whenever I write about this young Iraqi woman, whom I consider a friend, I try to remember to post this picture. This is the image of her that I keep in my heart.

Well, it ain't Superman cause he's dead!

This NPR report on a UFO sighting and a possible federal cover-up caught my ear last night.

The incident occurred November 7, but didn't make the news until yesterday. Read the Chicago Tribune story here.

The National UFO Reporting Center believes a cover-up may be in progress. (For an exhaustive listing of old and classic sightings, as well as up-to-date reports, try UFO Evidence. You'll find the Nov. 7 incident here. Another site to check out is UFO Maps.)

Personally, I think Carl Jung was on to something in his analysis of UFOs.

Meanwhile, it appears that the term UFO, which stands for Unidentified Flying Object (replacing the classic Flying Saucer of the 1950s and 60s), is about to be replaced with Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP), according to the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena.

Ultimate is not a word

The Top Words of 2006

Top Politically inCorrect Words for 2006

Foreign Policy: The Top Ten Stories You Missed

Project Censored Media Democracy in Action

Top Ten Happy Stories of 2006

The Onion

Top Ten Photos of 2006 From National Graphic

TIME: The Best Photos of the Year 2006

Top Ten Cryptozoo Mystery Pix 2006

Dr. Toy's 100 Best Children's Products of 2006

Best and Worst Children's Christmas Toys

Top Ten Space Science Photos

Top News Photos of 2006

The 10 Best Books of 2006 - New York Times

Top Ten Idiots of 2006

The Top Liberal Basher on the Internet

Ms. Nasty - My Pick for Top Liberal Basher on the Internet

TNR Top 10

The Top 10 Conservative Idiots

Stupid Liberal Quote Quiz

Top Ten Stupid Bush Quotes

Top 10 Web Fads

The 10 Best Fake Movie Trailers

Best Albums of 2006

The Overlooked 11 of 2006

TIME: Best Inventions of 2006

Favorite Fiction and Poetry of 2006 - Los Angeles Times

Best of 2006: Surfing the Net with Kids

Best Recipes of 2006 - The Seattle Times

Best Nonfiction 2006 - Christian Science Monitor

Slate's Best Books of 2006

Best Trailers of 2006

The Best Video Games of 2006 - GeekZine

The Best Video Games of 2006 - Metacritic

The Best Video Games in the History of Humanity

CrunchGear's Best of 2006

Top 10 Google Searches 2006

Top 10 Scams of 2006

The Best of Blogs

The 2006 Weblog Awards

The Webby Awards

Lists with a Twist for 2006

The Best of 'The Best of 2006'

Famous last words - Hey, watch this!

The children's poet laureate

The Washington Post goes out to play with children's poet Jack Prelutsky.

"...charged rhetoric by principled people"

I don't claim to be one of those "principled people," though I have produced my fair share of "charged rhetoric" against President Bush. By nature I'm a bit of a rabble rowser. I strongly believe the President should be impeached, the sooner the better. For the good of our country. For the good of the planet.

If you favor impeachment, you really must read Impeachment: A Note of Caution. Joel Wendland states it simply and honestly. "...the movement for impeachment has yet to be effectively built." Wendland then reviews the book ""Impeach the President - The Case Against Bush and Cheney." (Here's the book's blog.)

Common sense regarding the impeachment issue has long been in short supply. Wendland goes a long way in rectifying that situation.