Daily Archives: Oct. 8, 2005

Can Salman Rushdie and the religious right agree on something?

Oct. 8, 200512:07 a.m.

I doubt that too many Christian fundamentalists are big fans of author Salman Rushdie. In his speech Friday at the University of Kansas, he warned that religious extremism and the dangers it poses are not just Islamic problems.
“I believe we have some problems right here,” he said.
On Kansas’ ongoing evolution/creation debate, he said:
“I never had any doubts about evolution theory. I gather there are parts of Kansas where the big bang did not take place.”
But members of the religious right might be surprised to find they agree with Rushdie on one subject.
“Do not start me on ‘The Da Vinci Code,’ ” he said. “A novel so bad that it gives bad novels a bad name.”
Posted by Melissa Cooley

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under Uncategorized | Comments (38)

Corkins cashes in

Oct. 8, 200512:05 a.m.

Kansas’ new education commissioner, Bob Corkins, will make a cool $140,000 per year. As the Lawrence Journal-World noted, that’s $36,300 more than Kathleen Sebelius makes yearly as governor of Kansas, and it appears to be well over $100,000 more than he made as director of two one-person conservative think tanks. State Board of Education chairman Steve Abrams said he offered Corkins $140,000 because that’s what former Education Commissioner Andy Tompkins was paid. But Tompkins was actually qualified.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under Uncategorized | Comments (137)

All that’s missing is the lamppost

Oct. 8, 200512:03 a.m.

Everybody knows what politicians do for a living, but few are willing to be as frank about it as Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Fla. According to The Hill newspaper, Brown-Waite once identified herself to a man on an airplane as “a hooker — I have to go up to total strangers, ask them for money and get them to expect me to be there when they need me. What does that sound like to you?” And what does that make a pol’s pol like Tom DeLay?
Posted by Rhonda Holman

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under Uncategorized | Comments (13)

Queue up for WSU cash

Oct. 8, 200512:01 a.m.

OK, so maybe it’s more of a bribe than a scholarship. Whatever Wichita State University wants to call it, each grant drawn down from a $750,000 pool by qualified local students during the 2006-07 school year surely will encourage some students to attend WSU who otherwise wouldn’t. With its enrollment down for a third year, and other regents institutions’ enrollments up, WSU needs to be thinking creatively about recruitment. Besides, those who stay here for college may decide to stay here for good, and Wichita’s future work force will need them.
Posted by Rhonda Holman

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under Uncategorized | Comments (13)