Fairweather

He was kidnapped under a scheme sanctioned by Hamas. He is not a prisoner of war. You may be confusing this soldier with the two Israeli soldiers kidnapped (and still held)by Hezbollah a short time later--the event that ultimately led to the Israel-Hezbollah war.

Carter should lose his passport. He is giving his (undeserved) legitimacy to a group of murdering thugs. How did Hamas respond to Israel's withdrawal from Gaza? Anybody??

I'm not sure that the case can be made against consenting adults who want to practice polygamy. What about an unmarried man who fathers children with multiple women? His acts remain "legal" because he hasn't married any of his defacto harem? On a separate note, I would like to congratulate the State of Texas in regard to their handling of this delicate issue. If I recall, Bill Clinton and Janet Reno had a different way of protecting children...

I'm sure the NCCC will be lobbying to permanently close this popular access road. It's been one of their objectives since their founding. Be on the lookout. I smell envirolawyers.

Lemme guess: You work on her staff or for her campaign? The "mom in tennis shoes" is, by all accounts, a mental lightweight. I'm no lover of Democrats, but at least Maria Cantwell actually works hard to represent her state in Washington D.C. I'm not sure exactly what the vacuous Ms. Murray does.

Her performance should be measured as inversely proportional to the time required to complete the task. 15 minutes? She must be dragging teeth.

Adopt the model that seems to work in community colleges. No WEA membership or teaching certificate required. While I'm not a teacher, I am a parent--and a student. I'm sure you'll find flaws in what I came up with, but I didn't want your challenge to be met with only silence, so I anxiously await your flame. Here goes... 1.) You'll have to be prepared to kiss some administration ass. Just like folks do in the private sector. Not pretty, I know. 2.) You'll have to gain the respect of your colleagues. They know who's teaching and who's sucking public teat. Their opinions should be part of your weighted eval/merit increase. 3.) Respect of your students. Even hard-ass teachers garner the respect of the students they instruct. Again; some very lightly weighted input on your evaluation would be appropriate. 4.) Standardized tests have to play at least a part. Might not be totally fair. Too bad. (If my district's sales performance is down through no fault of my own; economic downturn, idiotic corporate pricing mandates, competitive disadvantage, etc ...it's still my fault. That's just the way it is.) 5.) Balanced against standardized tests should be some sort of scheme whereby a teacher who demonstrates the capacity to help a student find his/her niche is doubly rewarded. This would probably be somewhat subjective, but it could be done. Maybe each teacher could be quietly and randomly assigned 'project children' through which his performance could be measured. 6.) Abandon the goal of college for all. Bring back vocational/trade school track. Our current system is pushing kids who aren't college material (yet) right out the door. 7.) Restore discipline. Give teachers reasonable immunity from legal and administrative retribution when they take measures to maintain order in their classrooms--including corporal punishment. 8.) Incentives for the recruitment of more male teachers. I don't know what the stats are, but I suspect many boys with "issues" at school already have more than enough female role models in their lives. 9.) Pay educators who teach inside their credentials more $$ (ie: math teachers have a BS/MS Math, history teachers have a BA/MA history, etc...). 10.) Cut admin pay and staff levels. Immediately. Put the money and the bodies into the classrooms. 11.) You will never get the parent(s) of non-performing students to provide meaningful help at home. They are either not academically capable of doing so, working two jobs to pay rent, or just don't care. There is likely a genetic component involved as well. ...Or just maybe, Johnny's hormone-addled brain will finally fire up when he's twenty four and he will go on to do great things. Seriously. 12.) Pay scale for post-union era teachers? Just off the top of my head: $28,000 for probation/no exp/(or shitty ones). $100,000 for outstanding.

I am curious how teachers fighting for more pay makes the school system worse or un-good? I work for an increase every year, and I do not see a connection between that and the organization I work for needing to be "fixed". i would also ask, given that i'm in a union you dislike, despite its stated top priority being the welfare of students, how exactly do you think my organization is an absolute roadblock to your solutions? Your union prevents good teaches from being properly compensated and ensures that bad teachers are paid too much--or kept on. There's a system that exists called merit pay--and it seems to work for the rest of the world.

Yea - but he later felt bad about what he did. ...And Karl Rove was loyal to the end.

you're right! there's only one cause worth lining our kids up in the street for! Pulling the nazi card is beneath you. You've been hanging around that idiot too much. Besides, we smacked those guys down pretty hard if I recall...

...and Republicans are hardly The Barron Vladimir Harkonnen either...

he is a world leader, he is a major figure in world events that directly impact the usa, the religion he represents is poorly understand by americans and thus seeing him speak on it is educational from a social-studies perspective, his is not an evangelical faith nor is his visit to make converts or really even talk about buddhism at all. i'd have the pope into my class as a guest speaker if i could and i hate fucking catholics. You're missing the point. Mister Llama is the appointed leader of a religion that used to run a country that was no more moral or democratic than the one that annexed it. The issue--for someone consistent with their beliefs--should be separation of church and state. Just because someone is preaching peace and love doesn't mean the state should line our kids up for a parade.

Classic mindless femlib response.

Democrat pacifism will allow the Fremen to spread jihad around the universe. The Sardukar should have crushed them when they had the chance.

...So busing pupils en mas to see pope Benedict XXX would be OK too?

Dirty Muslims.

Where is the outrage from the left? This is a clear violation of their core beliefs.

Who killed the Kennedys? After all, it was you and me.

Why are public school children being bussed by the thousands to a religious event?

THE SPICE MUST FLOW, bitch!

Yes. It is.

...and if USFS was actually maintaining the roads instead of letting them fall into such disrepair that they can send invitations the local enviros to attend obscure and inconvenient "public hearings" that determine a gate needs to go up ten or 20 miles back.

Yes, of course. That goes without saying, Ivan. But if your intel is bad and you attack the pool before the bikini-clad hotties have adjourned to the women's locker room, don't you risk interrupting their post-swim poolside frolic and, even worse, any chance you may have had to witness lesbean debauchery?

Thanks for offering, but I'm afraid the pronounced frontal rim and sheer girth of my glans would destroy your uvula.

I would contact GBNP folks by phone. I've read that Lake Crillon drains out (into the Fairweather Fault!) from time-to-time, so you may want to check the status there since, I believe, it is where you would land. The Alaska Geographic series has some good 20 year old pics of the approach taken from an area called "Grassy Ridge" just west of North Crillon Glacier. I have a 1934 National Geographic Magazine with Washburn's ascent in it, but it sounds like you got it right from the source. The area is overdue for its 35 year mega-quake, and riding a glacier that sits atop one of the biggest cracks on the planet would be a bad place to be when it happens. I do have a really cool Austin Post picture of the unclimbed (still?) North Ridge of Crillon. Approach from Glacier Bay - extreme climbing. I'll scan and send if you like since I'll never be doing it.