22. august 2003

A good word from the right "We take very seriously the separation of church and state. The Founders didn't just casually adopt that idea. They knew full well the danger of mixing religion with the power of the state. 9/11 was, after all, a faith-based initiative. I think the Bush administration's efforts to fund successful religious charities is both unconstitutional and a subversive to that success. As for the Alabama situation, the federal court that ruled the display of the 10 Commandments had to be removed from a government building was on solid constitutional grounds." (Edward H. Crane, founder and president of the Cato Institute) 8:20:01 PM    comment []  trackback []

Pentagon: soldiers safe The two soldiers that an Iraqi group claimed to hold as hostages are safe and were never captured, according to the US military. One of the soldiers had lost his ID when he was imjured by a land mine, and is being treated in hospital. 6:34:37 PM    comment []  trackback []

British judgment may ban begging The Manchester County Court has banned a drug addict from begging, a move which may move city councils across the UK to use injunctions to ban public begging. 9:33:50 AM    comment []  trackback []

These people will teach the next generation It has been cause of some concern here in Norway that the teacher colleges generally have the lowest grade entry levels, which essentially means that everybody who passed high school can become a teacher. Especially in mathematics, the knowledge level of future teachers is alarmingly poor. This was confirmed in a recent test, which demonstrated that percentages especially confuses the students. Here is the first quiz: On a school there are 135 girls and 115 boys. How many per cent of the students are girls? Two thirds of the students failed this question. The second was actually considered a difficult question: When selling goods in Norway, typically 23 % sales tax is added. How many per cent of the price we pay is sales tax? Here, 95 % failed. Math was certainly not my strongest subject, but these questions were both very trivial for college level students. I am quite disillusioned. (From a Norwegian article in Dagbladet. Answer upside down near the bottom of that page, if you have to check) 6:58:12 AM    comment []  trackback []

UN bombing in Baghdad may have been inside job US officials investigating the bomb attack on UN headquarters in Baghdad are investigating two UN security guards. Supposedly,  the Iraqi security guards worked for Saddam's secret services before the war, yet were still employed by the UN afterwards. If the UN really were relying on Saddam Hussein's men to guard their headquarters, they certainly have no business complaining to the US about the lack of security, and we surely should never trust the UN with the security of Iraq! 5:04:31 AM    comment []  trackback []

Is nothing sacred? I've been a bit slow on blogging the last two days since I have been devouring Neil Gaiman's American Gods. Gaiman is an author who can make his dead characters seem more alive than most authors can do with their live ones, and the gods more human than many real people. 3:11:57 AM    comment []  trackback []

Truce? Most international media leads with Middle East news today. After the IDF killed Hamas-leader Ismail Abu Shanab the militants have said they will end the truce. Of course, there never was a truce, as the bus bombing in Jerusalem made very clear. So what is there to lose? Hamas and Islamic Jihad must be destroyed before there is any chance of a lasting peace deal. 2:09:38 AM    comment []  trackback []

© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.09.2003; 14:09:15.