The United States spent about $1.9 million on dozens of quick projects aimed at boosting the Fatah party’s image before this week’s Palestinian elections, The New York Times reported. Didn’t work; Hamas cleaned up at the polls. Perhaps that was because, in addition to its despicable terrorist actions, Hamas has gained public loyalty over the years by helping fund social-service projects that the corrupt Fatah government ignored. And a rush of last-minute public relations projects wasn’t enough to overcome years of governmental neglect and incompetence.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Oprah Winfrey was right this week to apologize for suggesting that it didn’t matter whether James Frey’s memoir “A Million Little Pieces” was strictly truthful or not. The publisher, Random House, is also furiously backpedaling, but only after Oprah called it on the carpet.
Turns out Frey embellished or made up several dramatic scenes and events. As a result, his book no longer has much credibility, although it still reportedly is selling well — as fiction?
When people read “nonfiction,” they should have confidence the events and details related are what actually happened, as best the author can determine.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
The odds that gambling will expand in Kansas were bad to begin with, given how competing interests tend to cancel one another out in Topeka. Those odds just got worse, though, with declarations by Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, that they’ll work against the efforts to get federal approval for off-reservation tribal casinos in Kansas. One such casino has been variously proposed for Park City, Harvey County and Sumner County. Others have been in the works for Wyandotte and Cherokee counties. But it’s highly unlikely that Interior Secretary Gale Norton would OK any off-reservation casino against the wishes of the state’s congressional delegation. “I think it’s in significant jeopardy,” Matt All, chief counsel to Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, told Associated Press after hearing from Tiahrt and Brownback. That’s more bad news for Kansans who’d like to gamble closer to home — good news for Oklahoma and northeast Kansas tribal casinos.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
While doctors are worrying about America’s growing obesity problems, economists are taking a different view. “The obesity problem is really a side effect of things that are good for the economy,” Tomas J. Philipson, an economics professor at the University of Chicago, told The Washington Post. “But we would rather take improvements in technology and agriculture than go back to the way we lived in the 1950s when everyone was thin. Nobody wants to sweat at work for 10 hours a day and be poor. Yes, you’re obese, but you have a life that is much more comfortable.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
