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Daily Archives: March 24, 2006
District needs clearer Taser policy
March 24, 20061:20 p.m.
The Wichita school district needs to work with the Wichita Police Department on a policy restricting the use of Tasers in schools. Tasers can be dangerous and potentially deadly, so they shouldn’t be used on children except in extreme situations, such as a brawl or when a student has a knife. Based on initial reports, the use of a Taser on a 15-year-old student at Wichita North High School last week doesn’t meet this standard. The district also should report to parents and the public when a Taser is used, which it didn’t do in this case.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Thank goodness peacemakers are safe
March 24, 200612:11 a.m.
Three members of Christian Peacemaker Teams being held hostage in Iraq were found and freed Thursday. Thank goodness. The murdered body of a fourth member, Tom Fox, was found earlier this month. Conservative columnist Cal Thomas angered many Eagle readers last week with a column criticizing the Christian Peacemaker Teams’ theology and politics. He argued that “peace happens when evil is vanquished.” Several area Mennonite pastors responded, including Martin Troyer. He wrote in Wednesday’s Eagle: “Peace is not a byproduct of war, as Thomas said. Rather, it is a strategy in and of itself. It is a lifestyle that demands us to live today what we want to see in our world tomorrow. It is the way that Jesus, the Prince of Peace, lived.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Is the Bush administration a Congress batterer?
March 24, 200612:09 a.m.
Was the parting of congressional Republicans with President Bush on the Dubai ports deal the result of “battered-Congress syndrome”? That’s what congressional scholar Norman J. Ornstein has termed the recent surfacing of suppressed GOP anger. The publicly unified Republican Congress of the past few years may have been hiding divisions and feelings of being underappreciated and bullied by the administration, this Washington Post article says. Many in Congress now feel their support of the White House agenda — which included Social Security reform, the Medicare prescription drug plan and No Child Left Behind — came at a cost. It will be interesting to see if the White House responds to calls to shake up its staff to ease the tension.
Posted by Melissa Cooley
What happens in Vegas should happen in Kansas?
March 24, 200612:05 a.m.
Gambling looks pretty dead under the dome at the moment, with Senate leaders’ preferred bill having failed in that chamber last week. But William N. Thompson, a professor of public administration at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, gave senators some things to think about in testimony Tuesday, as he recommended allowing tribal-owned casinos in border communities to maximize state revenue and minimize negative social effects.
“Slot machines do not attract visitors,” he said.
And this: “Get it out of your mind that you don’t want to be Las Vegas. If you’re going to have casinos, you want to be like Las Vegas . . . hotel rooms, top quality dining . . . entertainment every day. Do you want a Bellagio or a filling station with a bunch of (slot) machines?”
At the moment, of course, Kansas lawmakers want neither.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Our soldiers died for this?
March 24, 200612:03 a.m.
An Afghan judge is resisting international pressure to dismiss the case against Abdul Rahman (in photo), a 41-year-old man facing the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity. Rahman, who converted 15 years ago, has been described by prosecutors as a “microbe.” The Bush administration is lobbying hard on his behalf. And President Bush noted Wednesday that persecuting converts is “not the universal application of the values that I talked about.” But it is part of the values of the hard-liners who control the courts in Afghanistan and other countries among U.S. allies.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Dubious, bogus and utterly phony headlines
March 24, 200612:01 a.m.
The following satirical headlines come from the Web site borowitzreport.com:
CHENEY INVITES HELEN THOMAS ON HUNTING TRIP; Effort to Reach Out to White House Press Corps, Observers Say
U.S. CONFUSES INSURGENTS WITH PRESCRIPTION DRUG PLAN; Military Launches ‘Operation Incomprehensible Program’ Across Iraq
INTERIOR SECRETARY QUITS, CITES ‘NO MORE ENVIRONMENT LEFT TO WRECK’; Norton Declares Mission Accomplished
PRESIDENT OF IRAN IS A ‘TOTAL WHACK JOB,’ SAYS KIM JONG IL; Recent Comments Make Iranian Seem Like Madman, Madman Says
AVIAN FLU NOW MORE POPULAR THAN BUSH; Bird Pandemic Surges Ahead of President in Latest Poll
KEN LAY CLAIMS COCONUT FELL ON HEAD, CAUSING AMNESIA; Controversial ‘Gilligan Defense’ Makes Debut at Enron Trial
BAGHDAD BOB NAMED PENTAGON SPOKESMAN; Stunning Comeback for Former Iraqi Information Minister
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
