Archives for September 2006

BBC Obit… Steve Irwin Read more.

With all of the fanfare in the west this week over the long-awaited sightings of Tom Cruise’s baby girl, chances are that many of you missed the good news of the historic birth on Wednesday of Japanese Princess Kiko’s baby boy. Any Japanese patriot will tell you, however, that our obsession with celebrity babies pales… Read more.

Intensifying labor strife, political infighting and budgetary pressures are threatening to chip away at the domestic support of Bolivian President Evo Morales, who took office in January promising to nationalize the natural gas industry and to achieve social equality for the country’s indigenous majority. [Aug. 31 The Washington Post on Morales’s inability to fund his… Read more.

The crooks code of ethics holds that there’s no honor among thieves. But it says nothing about thieves coveting royal titles. Therefore, former Hollinger CEO Conrad Black can be forgiven for feeling as entitled to a royal title as he was to his corporate loot. (Never mind that this merely earned him the unwitting moniker… Read more.

At the risk of raining a little on Andre Agassi’s retirement parade, I feel constrained to express what will probably be the only published criticism of his deification, which began with an unprecedented 8-minute standing ovation at the US Open on Sunday. Because, even though he seemed to grow as a human being with every… Read more.

Click here to read a little about this holiday that is fast losing all meaning for American laborers…. Happy Labor Day Read more.

Comair Flight 5191…. Read more.

On Thursday, Iran met the UN’s deadline to halt its nuclear program by reiterating that no country (the U.S.) or international organization (the UN) has the right or nerve to stop it from completing its nuclear mission. And, alas, their defiance in this respect is not only reasonable but also quite sustainable.After all, for many… Read more.

In this celebrity-obsessed world, where people will go to incomprehensible lengths to claim their 15 minutes of fame (think John Mark Karr), I always find it refreshing to read about people who are entitled to be celebrated but shun the acclaim. Unfortunately, grasping at celebrity has reached such cognitive dissonance (effectively creating a new ethical… Read more.