j jackson, editor-at-large
(nope. they haven't caught me yet.)
SHREDDING THE PATRIOT ACT "Two 13-year-old Beaver County students...allegedly had oral sex in plain view of others during a [school] bus ride..." [PghChannel] {Oh, man, was I born a generation too soon, or what?)
BIG BROTHER'S BIG BROTHER? The "Future looks bright for those interested in a life of unemployment, experts say. In Backatcha, Ga., 37 of the town's 38 retail outlets, factories and fast-food establishments have laid off their entire workforce, leaving only one small convenience store to meet the growing local demand for generic beer, sleeping pills and ammunition." [Salon] {So, what else could you possibly need in these hard times?}
OO-OOO THAT SMELL "Denizens of Naples, Italy, are fed up with their smelly city. Two weeks ago, dumps started overflowing and other areas refused to take the garbage. 'The stink was brutal. Flies all over the place. There were mice,' said a grocer. Locals donned surgical masks, schools closed down and vandals set brimming bins on fire. Enraged Neapolitans put their bodies before trucks trying to pour overflowing garbage into an unsanitary dump. The city has since cleared most of the stench and trucks have transported garbage to other Italian regions. Still, the mayor applauds citizens' indignation: 'I'd prefer a city that reacts too much to one that doesn't respond at all.' " [Wired News] {Yeah, and maybe the citizens would prefer a mayor who reacts so that they don't have to.}
THE TALKING TEENAGE CELLPHONE BLUES "Next time a teenager says, 'Mom, if I don't have a phone ... I'm going to be a nobody,' they are being serious," a recent study reveals. Wired News reports that "...teens who don't have cell phones are socially cut off from their cell-phone-savvy peers." And "Cell-phone-toting teenagers only talk to people who have the devices." {So, the next time your teen says this to you, you say "Listen. These are not the kind of people I feel that you should be associating with. If that is the kind of company you want to keep, do it when you're eighteen and working and can afford your own cell phone, and until then, find some genuine friends.}
TURN ON, TUNE IN, DROP DEAD Can a psychedelic drug such as LSD actually be good for you? [MSNBC] {Timothy Leary's dead. But the controversy he started isn't.}
SCARY HILLARY
"DUDE, THAT PHONE IS DOPE"
THE ISSUE OF PUBLIC OPINION "The Forest Service wants to make it official policy to ignore comments from our DEN and other e-activist networks. The agency has stated it will pay less attention to form email comments, such as those sent through DEN, on its national forest regulation rewrite, and that it won't accept such comments at all on the final 15-year plans for managing each national forest. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth told the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News that it 'just distorts the picture to accept all the opinions of concerned citizens on these important plans,' and that he doesn't like it that public opinion 'always ends up becoming an issue.' " [from Defenders of Wildlife Newsletter] {Yeah. I mean, what's so important about public opinion, anyway?}
I BET YOU CAN'T STOP GAMBLING "William J. Bennett has made millions lecturing people on morality--and blown it on gambling." [Wash Monthly]
"Conservative activist Bill Bennett has wagered millions in Las Vegas and Atlantic City casinos during the past decade" [Newsweek] {If people don't realize by now that lecturing moralists engage in their activities as a cover-up or stop-gap against their own inherent weakness, then we're not so intelligent a species as we want to think we are.} |
Copyright (c) 2002
