OK, at least one more for the week. I may not have time to do one tomorrow; I have some important ADCO deadlines coming up:
- Florida Pastor Cancels Plans to Burn Quran (WSJ) — “Mr. Jones said he decided to cancel his protest because the leader of a planned Islamic Center near ground zero has agreed to move its controversial location…” Huh?
- Economist’s views on Muslims spark controversy in Germany (WashPost) — Just so you know we’re not alone with this kind of bad craziness here. A member of the Central Bank is worried that the master race is being dragged down by Muslims.
- US losing war in Afghanistan: Taliban leader (AFP) — The enemy unveils a new tactic: Trash-talking. They don’t realize they’re playing to our strength. Still, we might have to dig deep into our strategic arsenal and bring Muhammad Ali out of retirement to counter this.
- Appeals Court Ends Ban on Stem Cell Financing, for Now (NYT) — That pretty much says it: “For now.”
- Haley’s Family’s Business Also Penalized for Late Taxes (AP) — And the trend of revelations continue, revealing Nikki Haley’s putative strengths to be liabilities.
- ‘You lie!’ windfall for Wilson, Miller (thestate.com) — Yup, it was a year ago today that two things happened: A right-wing star was born, and it was guaranteed that no strong candidate would emerge to oppose him, as huge amounts of cash flowed to Rob Miller — and then to Joe himself.
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Apparently the Florida kook was also going to burn the Talmud as well. Prolly from BBC news, I read it.
Here’s my lede story: Traffic deaths in 2009 at lowest level since 1950. I wonder why good news doesn’t sell.
Here’s another story that’s getting very little press coverage. I found (excerpt) this in the Sydney Morning Herald:
‘Kill team’ kept civilian body parts as trophies Simon Mann HERALD CORRESPONDENT
September 10, 2010
WASHINGTON: Five US soldiers deliberately killed Afghan civilians with grenades, before photographing the corpses and keeping body parts as trophies, according to Pentagon investigators.
@ bud– I wonder how much cash-for-clunkers helped replace said clunkers with vehicles with modern safety equipment. I do know tighter drunk-driving laws and better liquor law enforcement reduces traffic fatalities fairly linearly. If we could ban cellphone use while driving–ALL cellphone use, we might really get somewhere.
Kathryn, good point about the clunkers program. I doubt it contributed much to the decline but maybe did help a bit.
The increased alcohol enforcement also helped some but the biggest factor in the decline was the poor state of the economy. Not sure why, but the unemployment rate correlates remarkably well with the number of traffic deaths. That’s been true for decades.
The article here is of interest, but the cartoon on the right side of it (nothing to do with the content of the article) should be published all over the country.
@ bud– I remember driving in central Columbia in the late summer/early fall of 2008, when gas prices went through the roof and the economy circled the bowl. It was a ghost town.
I’m guessing folks drink more cheaply at home when they are broke, or worried about being broke….