Learning from Bangladesh?
laxpat.blogspot.com

Ask Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus. He knows how to give a hand up -- not a hand out:

"So at the risk of sounding presumptuous: What can the U.S. learn from Bangladesh about post-disaster economic recovery? Like many other countries, even Bangladeshis were quick with a handout after Katrina, giving the U.S. $1 million for the victims. But Americans might be surprised to learn that one of our most successful tools for rebuilding businesses is not government handouts, but rather, small loans packaged with practical business and social advice."

If, like me, you are sick of our government’s policy of bailing out anyone and everyone when a disaster happens and hearing endless complaints from the recipients of these handouts for being too little, too late, you will find his suggestion appealing. Too bad our politicians wouldn’t dream of handing out our money in a more responsible way.

Where is the shame?
fetchingjen.blogspot.com

The "freckle-faced 14-year-old" high school freshman who posted a "Kill Bush" cartoon on her MySpace page, just won’t go away and feel shame in private. In fact, no one in her family seems to feel shame.

Because she and her parents think that what she did didn’t warrant the Secret Service visit to her school, nor their stern lecture to her about her MySpace group called "Let’s Stab Bush" and threats made to the President. ...

Wilson was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing ... and that’s the first mistake the Secret Service made. Cleared of any wrongdoing? She threatened the President of the United States with a cartoon drawing on the internet, and it is not funny.

Her parents are upset with the Secret Service and not their daughter? Unbelievable!

Last evening her father was interviewed by a local news station. He was upset that the Secret Service went to her school and made an example of her. He should write them a thank-you note for doing his job for him. And then he said that Julia is worried that this may hurt her chances of getting into Cambridge someday. Heavens, we wouldn’t want Julia’s threat to the President to actually have consequences. ...

Dissent is healthy and allowed in America. None of us like all of our Presidents or elected officials, but to state your President should be killed is poisonous and treasonous. ...

Land Park, I love you!
sacramento.metblogs.com

And not just for your beautiful trees and expensive homes. You really have put Sacramento on the map. The political news map, that is.

Who among us doesn’t know who Steve Pearcy is? Why, he’s the Cindy Sheehan of our time ... Land Park is becoming the new Berkeley, anyway. Radical.

As for the latest on Land Park’s Julia Wilson, I am of two minds when I read her story. Straight A student or not, as a parent, I would have gone to the school and taken her out of class myself in order to avoid embarrassment ... and risk. We’re talking Secret Service here, not Joe Bozo security guard coming to your house asking to speak with your child. Julia’s mother shows her gumption in trying to put them off.

On the other hand, if the Secret Service is investigating cases like this seriously, then -- wow, they may be making lots of other mistakes. ... Not to mention that the MySpace site in question has been down since summer. ...

All of this brings me back to parenting these days ... I think it’s GREAT that young people are taking a stand, and that the young Miss Wilson is speaking her mind... On the other hand, why didn’t her parents know what she was doing on MySpace?

Lessons from Muslim taxi drivers
sacramentooutlook.blogspot.com

Understandably, those troubled by the contemporary Muslim world point to the amount of gratuitous violence emanating from it and the apparent absence of Muslim anger against it. ...

Some recent news items from Britain, Australia and the United States, however, suggest that we can make a more accurate assessment of contemporary Islam by looking beyond Islamic terror and beyond the lack of Muslim opposition to it.

I am referring to news reports not about Muslim terrorists but about the far more mundane group of religious Muslims who happen to be taxi drivers.In Britain and Australia, Muslim taxi drivers refuse to pick up passengers who have a dog with them -- even when the passenger is blind and the dog is a Seeing Eye dog. Nearly all religious Muslims believe that Islam forbids them to come into contact with dogs. ... And in Minneapolis, Minn., Muslim taxi drivers, who make up a significant percentage of taxi drivers in that city, refuse to pick up passengers who have a bottle of wine or other alcoholic beverage with them.

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