Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has been making the rounds lately, saying that the United States deserves poor marks for how it is waging the "battle of ideas" with extremist groups like al-Qaida.
"If I were grading, I would say we probably deserve a D or a D-plus as a country," said Rumsfeld. Of course, he went on to blame the media and Congress.
Last we checked, Rumsfeld was one of the government officials most responsible for articulating America’s foreign policy. Given his abysmal grade on this and many other goals, why is he still on the job?
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Leonard Sax, a family physician and psychologist, wrote an op-ed piece in The Washington Post responding to the movie "Failure to Launch." The premise of the film, that a 26-year-old man is content to live in his parents’ house without any career plans, isn’t just Hollywood fiction; it is a growing trend among young men. "This phenomenon cuts across all demographics," Sax wrote. "You’ll find it in families both rich and poor; black, white, Asian and Hispanic; urban, suburban and rural. According to the Census Bureau, fully one-third of young men ages 22 to 34 are still living at home with their parents — a roughly 100 percent increase in the past 20 years. No such change has occurred with regard to young women. Why?"
Sax doesn’t haven’t any clear answers but suggests these possibilities: "Maybe the problem has to do with the way the school curriculum has changed. Maybe it has to do with environmental toxins that affect boys differently than girls (not as crazy an idea as it sounds). Maybe it has to do with changes in the work force, with fewer blue-collar jobs and more emphasis on the service industry. Maybe it’s some combination of all of the above, or other factors we haven’t yet identified."
Got any theories?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Two recent studies ordered by the Legislature have concluded that public schools are significantly underfunded. So what is the response of Sen. Kay O’Connor, R-Olathe? Blame the schools. "There is an element of greed in our public school leadership," she said Thursday. "Are they teaching the greed to our children? I believe they are." Actually, schools don’t have time to teach kids to be greedy because they are so busy trying to comply with all the unfunded testing mandates.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
As reported in two compelling columns by The Eagle’s Mark McCormick, the details of the recent death of 41-year-old inmate Alexis McCullough at the Wichita Work Release Facility were appalling. Inmate or not, McCullough clearly was suffering and needed help. The disciplinary action and words of apology offered Friday by Kansas Secretary of Corrections Roger Werholtz were apt, as he said, "for the role some of our staff may have played in the failure to provide timely access to appropriate medical care. There is no acceptable explanation for what occurred."
Posted by Rhonda Holman
