I have to laugh at this story -- because it brings to mind a discussion I had in my classroom a couple of years ago.

A Greek court has been asked to draw the line between the natives of the Aegean Sea island of Lesbos and the world's gay women.

Three islanders from Lesbos — home of the ancient poet Sappho, who praised love between women — have taken a gay rights group to court for using the word lesbian in its name.

One of the plaintiffs said Wednesday that the name of the association, Homosexual and Lesbian Community of Greece, "insults the identity" of the people of Lesbos, who are also known as Lesbians.

"My sister can't say she is a Lesbian," said Dimitris Lambrou. "Our geographical designation has been usurped by certain ladies who have no connection whatsoever with Lesbos," he said.

The three plaintiffs are seeking to have the group barred from using "lesbian" in its name and filed a lawsuit on April 10. The other two plaintiffs are women.

We'll refrain from jokes about Lambrou being a male Lesbian (I vaguely to recall a Limbaugh caller over 15 years ago claiming to be a "male lesbian") and simply note that this lawsuit seems pretty frivolous to me.

But as I said, it does bring back memories of a classroom discussion a couple of years ago.

As do most world history texts, ours mentions Sappho of Lesbos as one of the great writers of Greek antiquity. One openly lesbian 10th grader immediately made the connection between "Lesbos" and "lesbian" and raised the point. The sort of banter one would imagine among 15-16 year old students ran for about 20-30 seconds until I could tamp it down, at which point I answered her question by noting that "Lesbian" would be the term used to describe anyone of either gender and any sexual orientation if they were from Lesbos -- and that in the ancient world the island was noted for its fine "Lesbian" wine and other products. So despite my assessment of the merits of the lawsuit, a part of me is glad to see the people of the island seeking to reclaim their right to the word.

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But apparently not enough to even consider the possibility that it might be a hate crime.

A north London man is to appear in court charged with assault after two Orthodox Jews were stabbed in two random street attacks.

Mohamed Jama Ahmed, 37, of North Circular Road, will appear at Hendon Magistrates` Court charged with two counts of grievous bodily harm.

The two victims, both men, were attacked within minutes of each other on Friday evening, but police say the incidents are not being treated as hate crimes.

I guess that when a member of the Religion of Peace commits a couple of violent assaults upon a couple of Jews on a city street for no apparent reason, there is no basis for treating the matter as a hate crime.

After all, we never hear violent anti-Semitic rhetoric out of Muslim communities here in the western world.

And Muslims rarely if ever engage in random violent attacks against innocent Jews just going about their daily lives anywhere in the world.

So it mustnÂ’t be a hate crime.

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And IÂ’m not just asking an idle question.

The bruised economy limped through the first quarter, growing at just a 0.6 percent pace as housing and credit problems forced people and businesses alike to hunker down.

The country's economic growth during January through March was the same as in the final three months of last year, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. The statistic did not meet what economists consider the classic definition of a recession, which is a retraction of the economy. This means that although the economy is stuck in a rut, it is still managing to grow, even if modestly.

Many analysts were predicting that the gross domestic product (GDP) would weaken a bit more—to a pace of just 0.5 percent—in the first quarter. Earlier this year, some economists thought the economy would actually lurch into reverse during the opening quarter. Now, they say they believe that will likely happen during the current April-to-June period.

"The economy is weak but not collapsing," said Lynn Reaser, chief economist at Bank of America's Investment Strategies Group. "A recession can't be ruled out, although the stars are not lined up at this point to definitively say one way or the other."

Which makes us wonder – liberals have been telling us for months that we are in the throes of a recession. Economists, however, find that not to be the case and question if we are actually entering one. Could the recessionary claims all be partisan smoke designed to obscure the weakness of the Democrats running for the presidency and Congress? Are the Democrats willing to trash America’s economy – like they trash our military and the war effort – in order to improve their chances of electoral victory?

Great additional commentary on the non-recessionary recession at Don Surber, Right on the Left Coast and Blogs for Victory.

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Well, consumer confidence is down -- in large part because of a decrease in housing prices.

Much of the damage has stemmed from a slump in the housing market, where prices are nearly 15 percent off their high in July 2006.

In the 12 months ended in February, the Case-Shiller home price index, which measures the value of single-family homes in 10 major metropolitan regions, fell 13.6 percent, the biggest decline since records began in 1987. A broader 20-city index dropped 12.7 percent.

Of course, there is a reason that we have seen housing prices drop so precipitously -- the last several years have been a part of what analysts were calling a housing bubble. You know, as in the prices of residential real estate was significantly inflated beyond its actual value. And I certainly recall experts saying that in some metropolitan areas we were seeing prices exceed the real value of the property, and the ability of many consumers to afford to make real estate purchases. Not only that, but we were assured that we were headed for a fall wehn the bubble burst.

Well, folks, the bubble has burst. We have experienced what on the stock market is euphemistically called "a correction".

In other words, housing prices are adjusting to a more realistic level, below the highly speculative levels that they reached in the recent past.

Am I saying that the current situation in the housing market is a good one? Not necessarily. But it is interesting to note that the drop in home prices will put a house within the reach of folks who one year ago could not afford to buy one a year ago. These individuals, who acted responsibly and lived within their means, will now be able to make the purchase that they deferred as out of their price range. Shouldn't we be celebrating these responsible purchasers rather than rewarding the irresponsible ones who exceeded their means by giving them a government mandated (and maybe financed) bail-out?

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That is the question that readily springs to mind as we learn about record fines for a Houston slumlord.

A landlord whose north Houston apartment complex was closed by city inspectors over unsafe conditions last year has paid a $100,000 fine, officials said Thursday.

The one-time owner of the Carter's Grove Apartments at 3405 North Shepherd, identified as Samuel Pinter of New York, settled more than 240 Municipal Court citations as a deadline approached last week.

Chief Prosecutor Randy Zamora said the fine was the largest against a single defendant in recent memory. The deal came after negotiations with Pinter's attorney.

"When you've got someone who is truly ignoring the laws of the city of Houston, and he is one of the worst of the worst, that's when we do everything we can to make them comply or suffer the penalty," he said.

Pinter and his attorney, Brian Cweren of Houston, could not be reached for comment Thursday. A spokesman for Pinter previously had blamed the city's enforcement on "gentrification" in the neighborhood, where new homes have sprouted up nearby.

Pinter's complex, which recently was sold to a Phoenix company that rehabilitates troubled properties, had so many unresolved electrical, plumbing and nuisance violations that city officials took the unprecedented step last year of closing the property and helping residents move.

Gee -- sounds just like the sort of problems we've seen at the multiple properties owned by Democrat State Representative Hubert Vo. Will the city of Houston be as diligent in prosecuting Vo for the multiple violations on his properties -- especially after he attempted to use his official position to intimidate those charged with enforcing the housing code? Or will Vo's political clout be sufficient to keep him from court?

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You know, that the Maliki government is a failure which has failed to make any concrete steps towards reconciliation.

After all, the Democrats and the press keep telling us those things -- they must be true, right? Why on earth would the Sunnis throw their lot in with such a failed government?

IraqÂ’s largest Sunni bloc has agreed to return to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-MalikiÂ’s cabinet after a boycott that lasted nearly a year, several Sunni leaders said on Thursday, citing a recently passed amnesty law and the Maliki governmentÂ’s crackdown on Shiite militias as reasons for the move.

* * *

“Our conditions were very clear, and the government achieved some of them,” said Adnan al-Duleimi, the head of Tawafiq, the largest Sunni bloc in the government. Mr. Duleimi said the achievements included “the general amnesty, chasing down the militias and disbanding them and curbing the outlaws.”

The recently passed amnesty law has already led to the release of many Sunni prisoners, encouraging Sunni parties that the government is serious about enforcing it. And the attacks on Shiite militias have apparently begun to assuage longstanding complaints that only Sunni groups blamed for the insurgency have been the targets of American and Iraqi security forces.

So let's get this straight -- from the point of view of the Iraqis (who are the folks who really count), the Maliki government is making great strides towards uniting the country and accomplishing important goals necessary to heal the wounds left by the Hussein years. What a different picture from what the forces of defeat in this country tell us. Could it be that, unlike the Left and the Media (two ways of saying the same thing, I know), the Iraqi people want victory over terrorism and a stable, democratic government in Iraq?

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This is simply incredible.

Whether he was up to no good or simply desperate to play BrickBreaker, a Mexican press attache was caught on camera by Secret Service pocketing several White House BlackBerries during a recent meeting in New Orleans, FOX News has learned.

Sources with knowledge of the incident said the official, whose first name is Rafael, took six or seven of the handheld devices from a table outside a special room in the hotel where the Mexican delegation was meeting with President Bush.

Everyone entering the room was required to leave their cell phones, BlackBerries and other such devices on the table, a commonplace practice when high-level meetings are held. American officials discovered their missing belongings when they were leaving the session.

It didn't take long before Secret Service officials reviewed videotape taken by a surveillance camera and found footage showing "Rafael" absconding with the BlackBerries.

Sources said "Rafael" made it all the way to the airport, where the Mexican president was preparing to leave New Orleans, before Secret Service officers caught up with him. He was forced to return the BlackBerries.

Sources said the man claimed to have taken the devices accidentally. The sources said they believe no further actions were taken against him by American authorities, though it is unclear what disciplinary measures, if any, await him in Mexico.

What seems to have been discounted here is the possibility that this was actually a case of espionage. After all, during the Cold War, "press attache" often meant "CIA operative" in countries behind the Iron Curtain. I suppose that they could have been seeking classified information of some sort.

I'm curious -- did "Rafael" have time to do a data dump of the information from the Blackberries? And whose devices did he steal? Many more questions than answers.

UPDATE: More info from Malkin. The thief/spy is Quintero Curiel -- and he claimed diplomatic immunity and was allowed to leave the country despite his crimes. Why hasn't the US media done more with this story? Afraid of the patriotic reaction of real Americans, and afraid to offend the undocumented ones?

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This is what showed up in the headline.

Fish Tales: Former President George H.W. Bush Catches a Mammoth in the Keys

Given that mammoth have been extinct for a few millennia, I was curious, so I dropped by for a quick look -- especially since the Florida Keys doesn't have a climate conducive to mammoth, either.

Here’s the ACTUAL story – with a picture.

Former President George H. W. Bush caught a mammoth tarpon Saturday while fishing off the Florida Keys near Islamorada, Fla., according to the Florida Keys News Agency.

Bush chose to release the giant with an estimated weight of around 135 pounds -- the largest tarpon the 84-year-old ex-president has ever caught, the agency reported.

I don’t know about you, but somehow the story doesn’t seem so interesting when you drop the word “tarpon” from the headline.

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I was completely unaware of this event over the weekend.

Having read about it, I have three observations to make.

1) Nazis and white supremacists are scum, and merit nothing but contempt from decent Americans of every political stripe.

2) Even when they are more or less on the right side of an issue, it is incumbent upon decent Americans to denounce and repudiate them.

3) The greater danger to American freedom comes not from such scum, but instead from ignorant Americans willing to limit their rights under the Constitution.

A march by a busload of neo-Nazi activists on Constitution Avenue yesterday wreaked havoc on a balmy afternoon in the capital, bringing traffic to a halt, filling the streets with hundreds of police and provoking an ugly confrontation on the sidelines that resulted in at least three arrests.

About 30 marchers from the Michigan-based National Socialist Movement, waving red swastika flags and shouting "Sieg Heil," emerged about 2:30 p.m. from a bus one block from the White House and strode toward the Capitol, flanked by thick cordons of police who walked the route in riot gear and hundreds of officers on horseback, bicycles and motorcycles.

The marchers said their purpose was to denounce illegal immigration and to offer white Americans an alternative to the two-party political system. Many wore black storm trooper uniforms, boots and armbands.

The march itself was peaceful, and U.S. Park Police said the organizers had a permit. But the atmosphere was tense, and before the event started, a clash broke out between march supporters and local demonstrators who came to condemn the message.

I hate to say it, but according to this report the scumbags behaved better than their opponents. After all, it wasn’t the racist scum who engaged in violence – they engaged in political speech (though political speech of the most repulsive kind). And while I understand the impulse to kick the living dog crap out of anyone sporting a swastika (or a hammer and sickle, for that matter), everything they did was within the law and protected by the First Amendment.

Unfortunately, this march has harmed a good cause. Illegal immigration is a problem in this country, and we need to deal with it by acting to limit illegal access to this country, sanction employers, and deport aliens who are here illegally. But let me speak clearly – if the only way to accomplish those ends were to accept the assistance of scum like the National Socialist (bowel) Movement, I’d prefer that our country were overrun with undocumented border jumpers. Secure borders are important – but stopping the ideological heirs of Hitler from gaining any legitimacy is more important.

But most disturbing are some quotes from the opponents of the wannabe stormtroopers.

"People marching in brown shirts and swastikas is a tool of intimidation and terrorism. We came out here to oppose them so they won't feel they can do it safely," said Dan Peterson, 23, a D.C. resident who was arrested.

No, it is not a tool of intimidation or terrorism. It is free speech, pure and simple, guaranteed by the Constitution. Indeed, Mr. Peterson, your actions are much more reminiscent of the terrorist intimidation tactics of the Nazis than anything these mental defectives said or did.

Or this observer.

"I support the right to free speech, but when it disrupts the city this much and costs this much, there have to be limits," said John Thiry, 38, from Lancaster, Pa.

I’m curious – would Thiry have applied this same reasoning to many of the great marches of the past? You know, Dr. King’s March on Washington, for example? Does Thiry believe that threats of violent opposition to First Amendment protected activity should be used to limit unpopular speech through a heckler’s veto?

Scum like the National Socialist (bowel) Movement are not a threat to liberty in our society. They are rightly held in contempt by the overwhelming majority of Americans. It is instead those who consider it their patriotic duty to silence such folks who are the greater threat to liberty – for with every restriction on political speech, no matter how disgusting the speech limited, the rights of every other American are equally limited.

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At least with regards to those who international law has long defined as "enemies of all humanity".

ON April 11, French commandos went in with guns blazing and captured a gang of pirates who days earlier had hijacked a luxury cruise ship, the Ponant, and held the crew for ransom. This was the French solution to a crime wave that has threatened international shipping off Somalia; those of us who have been on the business end of a pirateÂ’s gun can only applaud their action.

The British government on the other hand, to the incredulity of many in the maritime industry, has taken a curiously pathetic approach to piracy. While the French were flying six of the captured pirates to Paris to face trial, the British Foreign Office issued a directive to the once vaunted Royal Navy not to detain any pirates, because doing so could violate their human rights. British warships patrolling the pirate-infested waters off Somalia were advised that captured pirates could claim asylum in Britain and that those who were returned to Somalia faced beheading for murder or a hand chopped off for theft under Islamic law.

Excuse me! Piracy has been recognized as beyond the bounds of civilized behavior for millennia. No less than Julius Caesar led an expedition against pirates in his youth, punishing those captured as the criminals that they were -- and which their professional descendants remain. Indeed, traditional international law allows for nations to track down pirates anywhere and to dispense justice in a summary fashion -- tough more contemporary views require trial in regular courts rather than drumhead courts marital.

That the British have now adopted a policy of letting pirates go rather than risk nonsensical claims for asylum being granted under the nations absurdly liberal asylum laws is a sign of how far down the pike the Brits have gone in terms of coddling foreign criminals. Indeed, the concern that Muslim pirates might face penalties under Muslim laws in their Muslim country of origin seems equally absurd -- especially as powerful figures in Britain suggest that incorporation of sharia law into the UK legal system would be a positive step.

Who would have ever believed it -- the French are standing tough and the UK is waving the white flag in the war on piracy!

AND SPEAKING OF PIRATES AND THE LAW...

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Shhhhhh!

Don't tell the Democrats. It might upset their entire worldview.

CD shops sell love songs again. Some women emerge from their homes without veils, and alcohol sellers are coming out of hiding in the southern city of Basra — where religious vigilantes have long enforced strict Islamic codes.

The changes in recent weeks mark a surprising show of government sway — at least for now — after an Iraqi-led military crackdown that was plagued by desertions, ragged planning and ended in a virtual stalemate with Shiite militias in Iraq's second-largest city.

But it's unclear whether the new tone in parts of Basra represents a permanent tilt toward the Iraqi government or just a temporary retreat of Shiite hard-liners challenging the current Baghdad leadership.

During five days of heavy fighting last month, Iraqi troops struggled against militiamen, particularly the Mahdi Army loyal to anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The military was plagued by desertions and poor organization — and, in the end, the offensive was inconclusive with Iran helping mediate a truce.

Still, the crackdown appears to have succeeded in giving some sense of government control in Basra.

In other words, as expected, the surge and subsequent efforts of the Iraqi government and military have been a success. Now I'll admit that the Democrats have to continue to hope and pray for more setbacks and the ultimate defeat of American and its Iraqi allies if they are to win in November -- but this is good news for the rest of America, and for Iraq.

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Finding that in my email inbox would freak me out.

But it really happened on Capitol Hill recently.

At 4:15 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon, Lee Pitts, the spokesman for Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), saw an unusual e-mail message pop up on the corner of his computer screen: “Please call 911 for me,” the subject line said.

Less than an hour earlier, Herman Wang had been transcribing interviews in the Washington bureau of the Chattanooga Times Free Press — which happens to be on the second floor of his house, since Wang is the Washington bureau of the Chattanooga Times Free Press. Wearing headphones and re-listening to Tennessee pols speculate on whom they would prefer as vice presidential candidates, Wang didn’t hear his basement door kicked in. He did hear, however, a man’s footsteps on the stairs.

Wang met the intruder in the hallway. “I’m just looking for — ” said the man, who didn’t finish the sentence but instead rushed at Wang and beat him in the face as the reporter tried to defend himself.

* * *

Wang crawled to the master bedroom, hid behind the bed and tried to think of who might have a BlackBerry on hand. The obvious answer: a Hill staffer like Pitts.

“I was just robbed at home by two burglars,” reads the e-mail Wang got off. “Laptop, phones and wallet all taken. They missed my wife's laptop. I dont' [sic] know if they're still around the house. Please call 911 and ask them to send police.”

“Calling now,” wrote Pitts at 4:16 p.m., a minute after Wang’s e-mail came in.

“Thanks, I am in upstairs bedroom,” Wang wrote at 4:18.

If you read one story today that isn't "hard news", this is the one you should look at. it is a great story of kindness and decency -- and reminds us that some things transcend rivalries and adversarial relationships.

A hearty "attaboy" to Lee Pitts -- and best wishes to Herman Wang.

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Because France doesn't have any real problems -- like rioting Muslim youth -- for the government to deal with.

The French parliament's lower house adopted a groundbreaking bill Tuesday that would make it illegal for anyone — including fashion magazines, advertisers and Web sites — to publicly incite extreme thinness.

The National Assembly approved the bill in a series of votes Tuesday, after the legislation won unanimous support from the ruling conservative UMP party. It goes to the Senate in the coming weeks.

Fashion industry experts said that, if passed, the law would be the strongest of its kind anywhere. Leaders in French couture are opposed to the idea of legal boundaries on beauty standards

Now I'll grant that I prefer my women with a little meat on their bones rather than bird-boned with ribs sticking out like a Darfur refugee or concentration camp survivor (which describes most fashion models). But that isn't a matter for the government to legislate on. And if the legislative branch has time to debate such a measure, it is time for them to go into recess until serious problems face France for them to deal with.

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Coming soon to America?

SUPERMARKET giant Tesco was slammed yesterday for selling a padded plunge bra for girls as young as SEVEN.

The £4 “bust-booster” is being sold alongside vests in the seven to eight-year-old age range.

Fashion lecturer David Morris attacked the bra as “salacious”.

He said: “I can imagine women being upset about their daughters buying these ‘pocket money bras’ without their mums knowing.

“The bra is modelled on a plunge style — it has a very low bridge connecting the cups. It means the shape and position is lower to expose the breast tissue.”

Parent and teacher groups called for the Cherokee range to be removed from the shelves.

What does a seven-year-old need with a low-cut, padded push-up bra? These are children, for God's sake! Do we really need to be sexualizing them any more than has already been done?

Let's be honest -- padded bras, push-up bras, and low-cut bras are all designed with one purpose in mind, the enhancement of sex appeal. When a 27-year-old woman wears such things, that is an adult choice. When a 17-year-old comes to my class in them, I'm troubled by the message it sends. But when folks are now pushing this stuff into second and third grade, society has descended into a deeper moral abyss than I had imagined.

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This is an interesting preview of the papal visit, which will mark the second time a pope has visited the White House. Two of the firsts are rather interesting.

The leader of the world's 1 billion Roman Catholics has been to the White House only once in history. That changes this week, and President Bush is pulling out all the stops: driving out to a suburban military base to meet Pope Benedict XVI's plane, bringing a giant audience to the South Lawn and hosting a fancy East Room dinner.

These are all firsts.

Bush has never before given a visiting leader the honor of picking him up at the airport. In fact, no president has done so at Andrews Air Force Base, the typical landing spot for modern leaders.

A crowd of up to 12,000 is due at the White House on Wednesday morning for the pope's official, pomp-filled arrival ceremony. It will feature the U.S. and Holy See anthems, a 21-gun salute, and the U.S. Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps. Both men will make remarks before their Oval Office meeting and a send-off for his popemobile down Pennsylvania Avenue.

The White House crowd will be the largest of Bush's presidency. It even beats the audience last spring for Queen Elizabeth II, which numbered about 7,000.

Interesting so far, but what about the third? Well, this one is sort of weird.

The evening festivities will mark the first time the Bushes have put on a high-profile meal in honor of someone who isn't even a guest. Wednesday is the pontiff's 81st birthday, and the menu celebrates his German heritage with Bavarian-style food.

But Benedict's prayer service that evening with U.S. bishops at a famed Washington basilica preclude him from coming to the dinner, according to the White House. Catholic leaders will be there instead.

Am I the only one struck by the absurdity of having a big gathering to honor a man who will be across town at another event? Why schedule what ought to be a state dinner when the other head of state can't be there? Whose goofy idea was that?

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Why would any person with a lick of sense support the implementation of this program?

After all, it is designed to cost the taxpayer more money, slow down construction projects, and likely result in shoddier work.

Mayor Daley's plan to bolster minority participation by changing the way the city awards construction contracts got the go-ahead from a City Council committee Tuesday despite concerns it could increase costs and slow the building process.

Ald. Ginger Rugai (19th) told Chief Procurement Officer Montel Gayles she has waited "an inordinate amount of time" -- seven years and counting -- to get a new fire station in her Far Southwest Side ward.

"Hopefully, the contract changes you're recommending don't delay projects" any further, Rugai said during a Budget Committee hearing.

Ald. Bernard Stone (50th) said the decision to break up contracts into "bite-sized chunks" that minority businesses can more easily swallow could "make it more costly" and "harder for management to monitor."

* * *

Instead of hiring an architect to design a project, then awarding the construction contract to the lowest bidder, City Hall would do it all in one fell swoop. A request for proposals would be issued and price would not be the only factor. Selection would be based on qualifications and levels of participation by minorities and women.

Don’t you love that part that says “price would not be the only factor”? That is Chigagoese for “The city will pay the contractors more so the right pols will get their kickbacks.” And rather than getting the best for the least, what we’ll see Chicago get is a rainbow coalition of contractors – and the taxpayer get the shaft.

Reminds me of the court ruling 25 years ago in the Chicago area in which a judge actually held that holding minority contractors to the same performance standards was a violation of the Constitution because such businesses cannot perform at the same level of quality as those owned by white men. Fortunately, a higher court struck that one down – and hopefully another will declare this blatant racial and gender-based favoritism to be unconstitutional – and a violation of the fiduciary duty of elected officials to taxpayers.

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We have, after all, heard alarmist predictions each year since 2005. Neither of those predictions has panned out. I'll remain a skeptic on this one.

The noted Colorado State University forecast team expects an above-average Atlantic hurricane season and may raise its prediction of 13 tropical storms and seven hurricanes when it updates its outlook next week, the team's founder Bill Gray said Wednesday.

La Nina cool-water conditions in the Pacific and higher sea surface temperatures in the eastern Atlantic are contributing to enhanced conditions for hurricane activity, Gray told Reuters at the U.S. National Hurricane Conference.

"We're expecting an above average season," Gray said. "The big question we have is, are we going to raise the numbers from our December forecast? We might."

This is the same "noted forecast team" that has made the alarmist predictions each of the last two years -- and which under-predicted 2005. It strikes me that they are noted because the are great at hyping themselves, not because they are accurate.

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Why is there even a question about charges in this case?

The 12-year-old boy had finished his homework and was playing a video game when he heard his mother cry out. Rushing to her aid, he found her on the kitchen floor, straddled by a fellow resident of their Prince George's County boarding house, the man's hands wrapped tightly around her neck, the boy said yesterday.

"I kept saying, 'Stop! Stop! Stop!' " the boy said, describing the events of Monday night. "But he just ignored me. He didn't stop. He just kept hurting her."

The boy said he grabbed a knife and swung, slashing 64-year-old Salomon Noubissie across the neck and opening an artery. Noubissie was fatally wounded.
The mother, Cheryl Stamp, said she did not immediately understand what had happened. "What did you do?" she said she asked her son.

"He didn't say anything," she said. "But I knew when I looked in his eyes. I said, 'Oh, Lord.' "

The shocking thing is that the cops are still trying to decide whether or not to file charges against this young hero. What is a person to do in that situation, especially when that person is a 12-year-old? Grab the nearest available weapon and use it to defend the victim of the attack, thatÂ’s what!

Sadly, though, this story strikes way too close to home for me.

My first year of teaching here in Houston, I gave a writing assignment to my English students on the topic “A Moment That Changed My Life”. I was stunned the next day when a polite young man turned in a paper entitled “The Night I Killed A Man”, all about his having stabbed and killed a man who had broken into his house and was beating up his father, who had gone downstairs to check on a noise.

That afternoon I went to my principal to show her the paper and express my rather serious concern over what I had read. Was the boy mentally disturbed and in need of psychological help? Was the story true, and did I need to inform the police? It was then I was told that this student had, in fact done exactly what was described in the paper a few months before – and that he was attending our school because of threats against his life by some of the dead robber’s associates.

I got to know this student quite well during that year. He was haunted by what he had done, even though he knew that using that butcher knife to protect his father was exactly the right thing to do. I’ve lost tack of him over the years, but I still remember him expressing his amazement with how fragile life was and how he was bothered by the fact that there was nothing he could ever do to undo the taking of a life, no matter how justified it was. It serves as one more reminder that we teachers learn from our students every bit as much as they learn from us – and sometimes even more.

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Not good news for the local community, where the main drag is NASA Parkway and many employers are somehow related to Johnson Space Center.

As many as 2,300 people, most of them contractors, could lose their jobs at Johnson Space Center as the shuttle fleet nears retirement in two years, NASA officials predicted Tuesday.

In the first report of its kind to Congress about the expected drawdown in the space agency's work force, the officials said the reductions would come mostly from the ranks of contractors. The number of permanent civil servants would essentially remain flat.

The officials did not predict the timing of the cuts across the space agency but said that they may begin near the end of the current fiscal year, which ends in September. Between 5,800 and 7,300 workers throughout the agency would lose their jobs over the next three years.

The losses at the space agency's Clear Lake complex could amount to as few as 400 jobs through 2011 if work quickly picks up on the Constellation program, the initiative to build a successor to the shuttle for missions to the moon and Mars. That would depend on an increase in congressional funding and support by the next president.

Of course, this number does not include the possibility of retirements offsetting some of the job losses.

This really is a concern around here. Many friends from church, as well as at least one local political blogger, are NASA employees. I've got friends working on the Constellation program, helping to prepare the next generation spacecraft. Moving the Ares program to the Marshall Space Center in Huntsville could mean transfers for some of them, assuming their positions are not eliminated. Will they be back, or will the jobs permanently shift to Alabama?

But there will be AT LEAST a five-year gap in manned space flight following the shuttle's retirement. I agree with Nick Lampson on this one. We need to shorten that gap -- both for economic reasons and for scientific ones.

Posted by: Greg at 10:26 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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Is it the fault of the oil company executives who control the companies? Or the Congress, which is responsible for passing and changing the tax code?

Lawmakers grilled executives from the world's five largest publicly traded oil companies Tuesday, criticizing them for taking tax subsidies and not investing in renewable resources amid record prices for oil and gasoline.

"Americans are hoping that the top executives from the five largest oil companies will tell us that these soaring gas prices are just part of some elaborate hoax," said Ed Markey, D-Mass, chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. "Unfortunately, it's not a joke."

Markey slammed executives from Exxon Mobil (XOM, Fortune 500), Royal Dutch Shell (RDSA), BP (BP), Chevron (CVX, Fortune 500), and ConocoPhillips (COP, Fortune 500) for their opposition to eliminating about $18 billion in tax breaks over a ten year period amid record profits for the industry.

"Last year these companies alone made over $123 billion in profit," said Markey. "What is the oil industry doing with all this profit? Unfortunately, it goes as much to financial engineering as to renewable engineering."

Some members of Congress want to take away the tax breaks. That is their prerogative. Of course, that may very well increase consumer prices as the oil companies pass the increased tax burden along to the consumers in the form of higher prices – just as they have passed the increased cost of a barrel of crude oil along to the consumer.

After all – these executives have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders to manage their money in the most prudent manner. That includes taking tax breaks authorized by the tax code – or pricing products accordingly if their tax burden increases.

There is, however, one option that none of these lawmakers have suggested for lowering gas prices – doing away with the 18.4 cent a gallon federal gas tax. Not that such a thing would ever be considered while the Democrats control congress.

Interestingly enough, CNN sticks this little tidbit, similar to something I posted some time ago, near the end of the article.

The industry has argued they need to be big to compete with large state-owned oil companies from places like Russia and China. They also say that while the raw numbers are high, their profit margin - at around 9 percent - is roughly in line with other industries.

Is it truly the contention of these members of Congress that a 9% profit is extortionate? Will we next see laws setting a maximum permitted return on investment -- AKA profit -- for American companies?

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Posted by: Greg at 12:18 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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