Except for the fact that Confucius was one of the most intelligent men to have ever walked the earth, I could have converted this story into another of my
GRIM MOMENTS IN MARKETING! 
Chinese education is re-introducing Confucius as a method of combating Western influence in the country.
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Nevertheless, I can still go with the flow…
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Please […]

TPM Muckraker reports the speech in which Senator Gordon Smith, (R-OR) said the Iraq War policy is “absurd” and “may be criminal.”
Please find the story, speech and video links here.

 I don’t the think the difference between Brit and Yank questioners is the fact that the British don’t stand to address the president. It’s that they don’t kneel. Except for a few obvious exceptions, the U.S. White House press corps seems overly frightened of losing access.
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‘Testy Bush promises new policy - and victory
Bristles at reporter […]

 “Straight Talk” John McCain must want everyone
to know he has learned that smear tactics work.
Please read the Raw Story piece about Johnny’s choice for his Campaign Manager, Terry Nelson, who helped produce the famous “Where the White Women At!” racist ad against Tennessee’s Harold Ford. That was just his latest known project. He’s been involved […]

 The Steuben Glass gallery on 5th Avenue has always been one of my favored destinations, but one of their online ads this morning rattled me. I don’t like mice because they remind me of rats. The only mouse for whom I had a grudging respect was MIGHTY and even then–his priggishness was often too annoying […]

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is beginning to show a dark side after the Iraq Study Group’s contention that he had better step up efforts to control the violence.
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Please find the Washington Post link here.
Images: Photo Credit: Prime Minister’s Office Via Getty Images via Washington Post; (Denny’s logo) (onion rings) (menu) dennys.com; (album) spaceage.streetnine.com

I guess the Tigers run to the World Series
after a decade of bad play meant little.
If I were a Tigers’ fan,I would feel somewhat over-looked.
Yahoo Sprots.com Poll at 11:57 p.m. December 6, 2006
What was the story of the year in MLB?
Baseball gets tougher on steroids
Japan wins inaugural World Baseball Classic
Yankees’ five-game sweep of Red […]

 Tell Luke ta git ova heah look at ‘iss pitcher  ovva ray them flyboys gonna use tah break up Eye-rack-ee crowds.
It’ll burn ‘em good, but won’t kill ‘em!”

The United States Air Force is calling it the Active Denial System (ADS) which will cause crowds to start running from, the heat generated by the Good-Bye machine.
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Please set aside some time to read this book because the policy change will be accompanied by “How could we have known?” lingo. 
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Image: from Barnes & Noble.com

 As long as Jen and Vince didn’t try to stop Gates, travel by car in Baghdad, eat a couple of soft tacos, watch a London soccer match and buy non-refundable tickets to Cape Canaveral; they’ll hopefully get through this.
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As of 9:19 a.m. EST • Panel: Try diplomacy in Iraq, then leave
• Gates appears headed for […]

 I found it very touching to see Bush 41 become
emotional speaking of his son, but…
“(AP) Former President George H.W. Bush broke down in tears as he cited his son, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, as an example of leadership.
Mr. Bush was addressing lawmakers, his son Gov. Jeb Bush’s top administrators, and Florida state workers gathered in […]

 Will Christian Bale reprieve his character for Chinese Pyscho?
Metrosexuals snap up cosmetics in China
Tue Dec 5, 8:20 AM ET
BEIJING, Dec 5 (Reuters Life!) - Urban Chinese men spend 8.6 minutes a day gazing at themselves in the mirror and shell out 80 yuan ($10) a month on beauty products, Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday, […]

If the reader wonders about my post on Haley Barbour’s work to destroy Mississippi’s anti-smoking campaign, look at the 49th ranked state.
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Table 4 - 2006 Overall America’s Health Rankings
1 Minnesota 21.2
2 Vermont 20.5
3 New Hampshire 18.9
4 Hawaii 17.9 If that bounty hunter family moves to Detroit, the state goes up 8 percentage points.
5 Connecticut […]

When will the story of people sickened on cruise ships stop being news? 
During the 1970s, the National Lampoon fixated on bus plunges
as newspaper column filler despite the fact that people died.
The past ten years have seen NFL player assaults, stolen computer personnel files and relatively outrageous celebrity behaviors as occurring so often as to be […]

Arianna Huffington wrote:
“I’ve got some earth-shattering news to report from The New York Times: Hillary Clinton is thinking of running for president.
Okay, take a breath, because that’s not all. Apparently, according to the super-secret sources of Serious Political Reporter Patrick Healy, she’s even been having meetings with other Democrats to discuss her run.
Yes, that […]

take Crocker with you. If you need it, call for back up.” 
“December 3, 2006
U.S. Report Finds Fault in Training of Afghan Police
By JAMES GLANZ and DAVID ROHDE
Five years after the fall of the Taliban, a joint report by the Pentagon and the State Department has found that the American-trained police force in Afghanistan is largely […]

 For all his bluster, Donnie seems to have come to his senses
earlier in the conflict than had Bobby Mac for Vietnam.
“Oct. 16, 2003
TO: Gen. Dick Myers
Paul Wolfowitz
Gen. Pete Pace
Doug Feith
FROM: Donald Rumsfeld
SUBJECT: Global War on Terrorism
The questions I posed to combatant commanders this week were: Are we winning or losing the Global War on Terror? […]

While we’re on the subject of fanaticism, how about this? 
Apparently, Richard Leakey went ape over this!!
‘Scientist Fights Church Effort to Hide Museum’s Pre-Human Fossils
By Kendrick Frazier
posted: 03 December 2006
10:46 am ET
Famed paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey is giving no quarter to powerful evangelical church leaders who are pressing Kenya’s national museum to relegate to a back room […]

Mr. Prager’s fears about using the Koran instead of the Bible certainly awakens a twisted kinship with the Taliban who could not abide having the almost two millennium-old, large statues of the Buddha within Afghanistan’s border. What in heaven’s name would Mr. Prager think if the U.S. Department of the Interior wanted to retrofit […]

Someone is going to swear upon a book which isn’t the Bible?
Mr. Prager calls the Koran the “Bible of Islam.” So, does that mean those sweatshirts which proclaim “HARVARD–THE MICHIGAN OF THE EAST” are correct? Maybe Representative-elect Keith Ellison would not have caused such a stir if he had used any of the following […]

“Illegal Immigration Hardliner Mitt Romney Hires Undocumented Workers To Tend His Lawn
The Boston Globe reports today that for the past decade, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) has employed a landscaping company that relies heavily on undocumented Guatemalan immigrants. The company, Community Lawn Service with a Heart, also tended to the lawn at Romney’s son’s house.”
When […]

Dan Froomkin
Washington Post
Media Briefing
December 1, 2006
Will v. Webb
George F. Will’s Washington Post opinion column yesterday, accusing newly elected Virginia Senator Jim Webb of acting like a “boor” when he didn’t respond warmly to Bush’s question about his son, a Marine in Iraq, has inspired furious response in the blogosphere and among washingtonpost.com readers, who have […]