Kumbaya Alert!
From the NY Times, Lesson Plans for Sept. 11 Offer a Study in Discord:

The anniversary of Sept. 11 has set off the latest skirmish in the classroom culture wars.

On one side are school districts, universities and organizations across the country that have produced lesson plans for the day that try to teach everything from what snacks to eat for mental health to the traditions of Islam.

Snacks for mental health?

On the other side are those, mostly conservatives, who say these plans spend too much time talking about feelings and not enough time teaching history and civics if they teach anything at all. They say the lessons are too focused on teaching tolerance and are unwilling to cast judgment or assign blame. In bending over backward to help students understand the ideology behind the attacks, they say, educators have gone so far as to be unpatriotic.

More by following the link, but for a Times story, it gives an amazing amount of ink to the non-touchy feely side. On the other hand, it makes you wonder where all the wussies came from.

Jeffrey Mirel, a professor of educational studies at the University of Michigan, noted that as the nation approached World War II, the N.E.A. produced a book starkly critical of those who would become the United States' enemies, calling them "ruthless men of force who care nothing for civil liberties and who mock all appeals to humanity."

Now, Professor Mirel said, "there's a great deal of reticence among teachers to make a value judgment, to adopt a stance they feel would be perceived as arrogant or absolute."

"The irony is," he said, "what the Islamic terrorists accuse us of is arrogance, yet here's a country that is so reticent to say our form of government is better than the kinds of autocratic, intolerant governments that they support."

Who Let 'em Out of School?
From the groves of academe comes Adult 'Bad' Behavior May Encourage Teen Sex - Study. Uh oh! Hanky panky leads to hanky panky? Not quite:

Parents who smoke and drink and otherwise fail to take care of their health are influencing their children to do likewise--but they may also be somehow giving them the nod to have sex, researchers said on Friday.

Teen-agers whose parents smoked were about 50 percent more likely to have had sex by the time they were 15, the researchers reported.

"Adolescents whose parents engage in risky behavior, especially smoking, are especially likely to be sexually active," Esther Wilder of Lehman College in New York and Toni Terling Watt of Southwest Texas State University wrote in their report.

Repeat after me, students: Correlation is not Causation.

Oh wait, they may have a clue:

"This is not to say that parents who smoke are causing their children to become sexually active," Wilder said in a telephone interview.

"You'd want to go in and see what is going on in these households. It may have to do with things such as parents who are smoking are not eating as healthy and it might be they might not be doing other things. Who knows what all the mechanisms are? I suspect they are very complex."

In other words, they have no idea what is really going on. Thanks for the insight, pal. One wonders whether they corrected for socioeconomic status which is probably both highly correlated and arguably causative, but it's too much trouble to bother with the pseudoscientists. More blather by following the link, but don't forget, buckle up for paternity safety:

Wilder and Watt found that boys were more likely to have sex if their parents failed to use seatbelts--but not girls.

Newsroom Hijinks!
Thanks to Andrea Harris for the link to Prof. Bunyip who once again has his way with the Australian newshawks:

Breathless Reporterette: Hey, chief, have I got a scoop! The Earth is in peril and we're all going to die.

Weary Editor: Great Caesar's ghost! (Thinks: I made this woman a senior writer. Doesn't she know that means minimal output is expected -- and appreciated.)

More goodness by following the link.

Wingnut Alert!
More on the wingnut march at the Earth Summit, in Long live bin Laden:

It is not clear what Osama bin Laden has to do with sustainable development, but there were certainly a number of his supporters in one of the marches on the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg on Saturday.

Muslim protesters under the banner of the Palestinian Solidarity Committee made up a major block at the rear of the civil society march that began at Alexandra Stadium north of the city.

Among the chants of "Free, free Palestine" there were also shouts of "Viva bin Laden" and "Phanzi (down with) George Bush".

One man wore a T-hirt saying "Long live Osama bin Laden".

As the marchers passed a row of black policemen on the outskirts of the Alexandra township one man called out "Viva Osama, comrades. You suffered under apartheid, but you are our brothers".

Said another marcher, Imran Abrahams of Cape Town, "The people love Bin Laden, the poor people of South Africa. He's been deprived of his money, they froze his money, so he can't give to the poor now."

He said Bin Laden was seen as a hero even though the US branded him as a sponsor of terrorism after the September 11 attacks.

"The poor people of South Africa, they actually like America because America's responsible for a lot of atrocities around the world.

"So, when the bombing happened it was a joy to the people. But in the other sense it wasn't Bin Laden that did the bombing."

Typos courtesy of News24. Irrationality courtesy of the marchers.

I wonder if there are any spare daisycutters?

All Right!
Bruce Anderson has thoughtful commentary on Iraq in the Spectator (UK), Say no to the nay-sayers. The best line is (link via InstaPundit):

There is a constant interplay of co-operation between London and Washington; the SIS and the CIA are virtually functioning as one body. Recently, one British visitor was chatting to CIA Director George Tenet about the Europeans' role. "I'll tell you exactly what the President said the other day on that very subject," said Mr Tenet. "He said, 'I don't give a shit what the Europeans think.' "

Bubba Goes to the Fair!
Check out this photo of Bubba and the Witch at the NY State Fair. No word on which category of the livestock judging they were competing in.

And yes, Bubba didn't just feed his face and catch up on his bedtime reading. His whine included

A U.S. attack on Iraq could give Saddam Hussein ( news - web sites) an excuse to use weapons of mass destruction against the United States and its allies, former U.S. President Bill Clinton said.

Clinton said Friday that the current administration should move cautiously on Iraq and urged President George W. Bush to listen to Congress and the American public.

"Looking at it from the outside, it seems to me we have maximum incentive now for him not to use these weapons and not to give them to anybody. Because he knows all of America is ready to go after him, and would if he did that," Clinton said at the New York State Fair after speaking at a luncheon hosted by his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton

Clueless as ever, eh Bubba (AKA the Scourge of Terrorists)? Apparently he hasn't noticed that the "Peace in our time" gambit has not proved overly successful.

Good Riddance
Stefan Sharansky weighs in on Palestinian joke, Ray Hanania. The AP story is the "Opening act for comedian Jackie Mason canceled because he is Palestinian", but the real story should be "Jackie Mason refuses to share stage with apologist for terror organizations".

Common Sense From The North Woods
From Charlie Weaver, State commissioner of public safety and director of Minnesota's Office of Homeland Security, in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

Two recent commentaries in the Star Tribune ("Driver's license restrictions won't fix inept immigration laws," by Reva Rasmussen, Aug. 8; "Myths of driver's licenses and terrorism," by Steven Foldes, Aug. 10) criticized our department's recent actions linking the expiration of a person's driver's license with the expiration of that person's legal status in this country.

Unfortunately, the commentators' lack of regard for the facts do a disservice to public discussion of this issue. Let me set the record straight.

Our recent rule changes accomplished two important goals. First, they make it easier for law enforcement officials to identify people who are in this country illegally. This change had strong support from a bipartisan majority of Minnesota legislators as well as the state's top law enforcement organizations.

Second, the rule changes ensure the integrity of our state's driver's license -- Minnesota's most important identity document. It is ironic that on the same day one of the opposing commentaries was printed, a front-page story in this paper identified fraudulent use of Minnesota's driver's license as creating serious problems for both retailers and law enforcement officials throughout Minnesota.

The changes, authorized by the state's top administrative law judge, are founded on the basic premise that it doesn't make sense to give a four-year driver's license to someone who can legally be in this country only a few weeks.

Makes sense to me. Dare I ask why the whiners are upset?

Foldes argues that our rule changes somehow amount to profiling. This inflammatory word is often tossed about by those who possess neither the facts nor the law to support their position. Since when is merely enforcing the law -- particularly immigration law -- considered profiling? Does Foldes really want police to pick and choose which laws they decide to enforce? Equal application of the law is core to our democracy and is a fundamental principle we will not sacrifice on the altar of political correctness.

...

I am unwilling to delay reforms that will protect the lives of Minnesotans in the hope that terrorists will wait patiently while we debate these proposals. Remember, just a year ago Zacarias Moussaoui, who recently admitted that he was part of the Al-Qaida terrorist network, was taking flight lessons in Eagan.

Amen, brother.

No Surprise
The BBC is running with Hijack suspect 'had US embassy target':

A man arrested in Sweden on suspicion he was about to hijack a plane, was planning to crash the aircraft into a US embassy in Europe, according to a Reuters report.
Swedish intelligence sources told the news agency that the 29-year-old Swedish man may have been working with others on the plan.

Police are looking for four more men, including an explosives expert.

A military intelligence source told Reuters: "We know for sure that the plan was to crash the plane into a US embassy in Europe."

The suspected would-be hijacker is still being questioned in Sweden after trying to board a flight for Stansted in the UK.

The hijacker is a "Swedish citizen of Tunisian origin". Nice. A self-inflicted fifth column.

Someone Call the Orkin Man
It's protest march day for the junketeers in Johannesburg and there are two marches to choose from: radical and wingnut. The wingnuts started first (an hour late) and are whining about everyone from the South African government rightwards (quite a swath). Some of the cockroaches had pro-Osama and Saddam placards and banners.

Over at the merely radical march, it's an anti-Israel fun fest, with SA President Mbeki rallying the unwashed with "a strong call for a free Palestine and an end to the US blockade of Cuba".

Meanwhile, back at the Summit, Bobby Mugabe arrived. I hope the fancy shoppes in Sandton are ready for some power shopping!