How do most professors spend their summers, holidays from teaching, and retirements?
You see, Michel, professors have three responsibilities: teaching, research, and service. Most of us at research universities teach anywhere from four to six courses per year; usually three classes in each of the fall and winter semesters but sometimes also during the summer semester. And of course many who teach at community colleges or institutions without a research emphasis teach many more courses. The ratio of preparation to class contact time is 2 or 3 to 1 on average, which means that for every hour we spend in the classroom, we spend two to three hours preparing beforehand. In addition, we have frequent communications with our students outside of class through after-lecture discussions, office appointments, or by phone and e-mail. As well, we spend many, many hours evaluating and judging the fine work of our students. Indeed, although most of us absolutely love teaching and the idea that we might make an impact on our students’ lives, the hours and hours on end of marking is demanding. So that means that, when we teach three three-hour classes in one semester, we are indeed in the classroom for nine hours per week, but we are also investing another 18 to 27 hours in preparation and additional hours interacting with students and grading course assignments.
Céleste Brotheridge and Raymond Lee, "4 Months of Holidays? Not Quite!" Inside Higher Ed, August 9, 2007 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2007/08/09/brotheridge 
Jensen Comment
I might add this is a lot like retired professors spend their time if they can't break old habits. I'm finding research to be an occupational hazard.

We ultimately get satisfaction from our relations with family and friends, the love we give or receive, the meaning we find in work, service, religion or hobbies.
Robert J. Samuelson, "The Bliss We Can't Buy For better or worse, there are limits to re-engineering the human spirit.," Newsweek, July 11, 2007 --- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19709408/site/newsweek/page/0/

Historian Professor Dyhouse shows that students have always gained different advantages from their degrees depending on their gender and background. Since they were first admitted to universities in the late 19th century, women have benefited less in straight economic terms from their degrees than men, but have still considered the experience "a gift beyond price". Professor Dyhouse's study, which is published on the History and Policy website, traces the history of university funding from grants to top-up fees. She shows how the university experience has changed over the past century; one hundred years ago the 'typical' student was a full-time male undergraduate, now female part-time students are more representative.
"History shows degrees are worth more than a bigger pay packet:  Ten years after the Dearing Report, which paved the way for tuition fees, a new University of Sussex study challenges the current 'market place' approach to higher education policy," PhysOrg, August 6, 2007 --- http://physorg.com/news105630476.html

Since its founding in 1969, the NAEP has become something of an annual exercise in American educational masochism. Last year, only 54% of students met NAEP's "basic" standard--the equivalent of a passing grade--on the science test. The previous year tested history; a mere 47% passed. But when knowledge of economics was tested this year, well, let's just say the supply curve shifted. NAEP reported this week that 79% of twelfth graders passed this first-ever national economics test. Holy Hayek. The exam, taken by a representative sample of twelfth graders at public and private high schools, tested students on micro- and macroeconomic principles and international trade. What, for example, is the effect of breaking down trade barriers between countries? A majority correctly said that goods would become less expensive. They chose this over "the quality of goods available would decrease." Maybe John Edwards should hire more teenagers for his Presidential campaign.
"The Kids Are All Right:  Economic literacy test: High school seniors beat Congress," The Wall Street Journal, August 10, 2007 --- http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110010453 
"High School Students Find Economics Hard," NPR, August 9, 2007 --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12623062

"They'll find their way back to the middle. And if they don't, they won't win." So says a blunt Harold Ford Jr., chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, of his party's current crop of presidential candidates. The question is just how many would-be Democratic presidents recognize the wisdom of his words.
Kimberly A. Strassel, "Democratic Dustup: The far left isn't the path to a governing majority.," The Wall Street Journal, August 10, 2007 --- http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/kstrasselpw/?id=110010454
Jensen Comment
In the primary, all Democratic candidates will stay closer to the far left progressives on wire taps, abortion, increased taxes for poverty elimination, health care, gay rights, immigration amnesty, and surrendering in Iraq. It's more likely that eventual winner of the primary will find her/his way "back to the middle" when running against the GOP candidate in November, 2008. Most all political candidates expound political promises that blow like feathers in the winds of change. The GOP winning candidate also moves more toward the middle before major election, especially on issues like abortion rights since a majority of voters favors abortion including voters that've not read Freakonomics. By November 2008 it will be pretty hard to distinguish between the two major contenders except on looks. The pack of losers along the way were probably too steadfast in their convictions or too obvious in their lack of convictions such as when attending church and teaching Sunday school only before elections.

Casey Sheehan's Gravesite --- http://www.snopes.com/politics/war/sheehangrave.asp

2006 Pork Buster Hall of Shame Award Winners --- http://porkbusters.org/hall_of_shame.php
And the top winner is a Byrd from West Virginia

The Slick Political Schip:  Keel Haul the Poor Old Folks
Health Care for "Children":  Transfer Payments from Very Poor Old People to Poor and Not-So-Poor Children Up to Age 25
Congress has left town for August, thank heavens, but not before passing bills that set up some important debates for the autumn. One of the biggest ought to be over the plans to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program (Schip), which is a dress rehearsal for the health-care fight in 2008. Schip was supposed to help children from low-income families, but Democrats are now using the program to expand government control of health care and undermine private insurance. To see this plan in action, look no further than the 465-page Schip revelation that Democrats muscled through the House last week . . . The House bill will eliminate $50 billion in Medicare Advantage funding over the next five years and $157 billion through 2017. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the funding cutbacks will likely result in three million people losing their Advantage coverage, and the rest facing reduced benefits and higher out-of-pocket costs. Politically, it's ironic that Democrats are funding "free" health care for the middle class by dinging poor seniors, who will have no other options besides normal Medicare and all of its gaps. The seniors probably have another word for it.
"The Schip Revelation." The Wall Street Journal, August 9, 2007; Page A12 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118662306308792513.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep

. . . terrorist actions are often embedded in extremist movements. It's not just monetary poverty. It's a loss of dignity, a sense of humiliation and alienation and a feeling you have no options . . . We need to create alternative pathways for them and a future so that people can see a way out.
Stuart Hart, "Cornell Professor Builds on His Base," Business Week, August 1, 2007 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/aug2007/bs2007081_830078.htm?link_position=link5

Cambridge University Press Asks Book on Saudi Financing of Terror to Be Returned from Libraries
The Saudis' efforts to keep a veil of secrecy over their support for al Qaeda and Hamas got a shot in the arm last week, as a British publisher opted to suppress a controversial book on the financing of terror. Facing the mere threat of a lawsuit from Saudi billionaire Khalid bin Mahfouz, Cambridge University Press agreed to pulp all the unsold copies of "Alms of Jihad: Charity and Terrorism in the Islamic World," issue a public apology to Mahfouz and pay his legal expenses and substantial undisclosed damages. The prestigious publisher - the world's oldest publishing house - had carefully vetted the book before publishing it last year. Yet now it has asked more than 200 libraries worldwide to pull the work off their shelves. Bin Mahfouz never sued the authors, J. Millard Burr and Robert O. Collins, both U.S. citizens, who had provided their publisher with all the sources to back their allegations that bin Mahfouz, his family and his former bank, the National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia, funded Hamas and al Qaeda. Yet Cambridge University Press still caved - and even asked the authors to join its apology to bin Mahfouz. (They rightly refused.)
Rachel Ehrenfeld, "Saudis Sue for Secrecy," Email Message from Naomi Ragen [nragen@netvision.net.il] , August 8, 2007
Jensen Comment
If this was a Harry Potter book, it would be widely distributed on the Internet before the publisher could recall all the copies.

When Dying is a Gift
The late Rev. Jerry Falwell, who founded Liberty University, took out life insurance policies that left the university $29 million, a little more than the university’s debt, The Lynchburg News & Advance reported.
Inside Higher Ed, August 13, 2007 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/08/13/qt

In a recently released scientific survey of 1,269 faculty members across 712 different colleges and universities, 53 percent of respondents admitted to harboring unfavorable feelings toward evangelicals.
World Magazine, August 18, 2007 --- http://www.worldmag.com/articles/13235
Jensen Comment
I thought it would've been more like 99%. The article calls them bigots, but in academe the reasons are much more complicated than bigotry. Even faculty who are faithful Christians have unfavorable feelings toward many evangelicals in part because of the dogma about needing to be Christian to be saved in an afterlife.

The essence of mathematics resides in its freedom.
Georg Cantor --- Click Here

Increasingly, doctors are refusing to see new Medicare patients. A recent AMA survey found that 60% of responding doctors said they would stop accepting new Medicare patients if the 10% cut is imposed. Even if that figure is inflated by currently angry doctors, it could represent a significant decrease in seniors' access to care. The situation is worse under Medicaid. It reimburses even less than Medicare, which will lead to more and more access problems for the elderly and the poor. It can also lead to doctors trying to see ever more patients in a given time period in order to keep the income from falling. Less time for each patient reduces the quality of care. Because politicians want to keep health-care spending as low as possible, they have very little incentive to raise those reimbursement rates. Much easier to rail against "greedy physicians" or use them as pawns when they want to pass other pieces of legislation. You can expect even more political maneuvering if health-care "reform" gives the government increased control over prices and spending. Either the market will set prices based on supply and demand, or the government will set prices based on budget priorities and bureaucrats' best guess at what specific goods and services should cost. That process may undermine the access to and quality of care, but at least government-run health care advocates can claim it keeps costs down.
Merrill Matthews, "Cost Control for Dummies,"  The Wall Street Journal, August 15, 2007; Page A12 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118714325206398102.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep

American women have gotten fatter as it has become more socially acceptable to carry a few extra pounds, according to a new study (by Professor Frank Heiland at Florida State University).
PhysOrg, August 6, 2007 --- http://physorg.com/news105624363.html

Social networks that influence eating and leisure activities has been recently suggested as a further factor in the spread of obesity. An article in the July 26 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine ("The Spread of Obesity in a Large Social Network Over 32 Years") analyzed the famous Framingham Heart Study for any evidence of social influences on obesity. This Study has followed about 5000 individuals and their children and grandchildren since 1948, with questionnaires on health, weight, friends, marital status, and many other variables. The recent exploration of these data between 1971-2003 for obesity social influences finds that a person becomes fatter when his or her friends, spouse, or siblings become fatter. The authors are aware that this does not necessarily mean causation from weight gain by friends and family to weight gain by this person. They probe further by adjusting for past weight, by looking at the timing of weight increases, by seeing if weight changes of neighbors are correlated (they are not), and develop a few other tests.
Gary Becker (Nobel Laureate), "Social Causes of the Obesity 'Epidemic'," The Becker-Posner Blog, August 5, 2007 ---
http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/

In a heterogeneous society, practice tends to be normative. That is why homosexual activists greatly exaggerate the prevalence of homosexuality--asserting, on the basis of a misreading of Kinsey's famous studies, that 10 percent of the population is homosexual, whereas the true figure is probably at most 2 percent. The more homosexuals there are, the stronger their claim to be normal, a claim that would fail in a society that had a strict moral code condemning homosexuality. Similarly, the more fat people there are, the more being fat is seen as normal. A half century ago, when obesity and overweight were relatively rare in this country, fat people were regularly ridiculed by entertainers, and this ridicule helped to keep people thin. As more and more people become fat, fatness becomes more normal-seeming, and the ridicule ceases (though another factor is the march of "political correctness," which discourages criticism of people's weaknesses).
Richard Posner (famous economist), "Social Causes of the Obesity 'Epidemic'," The Becker-Posner Blog, August 5, 2007 ---
http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/

In an unexpected development in the early 1990s, the absolute number of science and engineering (S&E) articles published by U.S.-based authors in the world's major peer-reviewed journals plateaued. This was a change from a rise in the number of publications over at least the two preceding decades. With some variation, this trend occurred across different categories of institutions, different institutional sectors, and different fields of research. It occurred despite continued increases in resource inputs, such as funds and personnel, that support research and development (R&D).
"Flattening of the U.S. Output of Scientific Articles: 1988–2003," The University of Illinois Blog Issues in Scholarly Communication, August 6, 2007 --- http://www.library.uiuc.edu/blog/scholcomm/
As reported in the Aug. 3 Science, a recent NSF analysis of U.S. scientific publishing output during the time period 1988-2003 shows that the number of articles produced has remained fairly constant in all areas of science.
The cause of this flattening remains a mystery --- Several hypotheses from the Science article

It’s not every office name change that sets off a national debate, but the University of Michigan’s Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Affairs has done just that with its recent announcement that it was starting a lengthy and multi-staged process of rethinking its name. Among those far from Ann Arbor who have weighed in: Dan Savage, the sex advice columnist, who fears that “process queens are running amuck;” Andrew Sullivan, the neocon columnist, who says he supports campus gay groups but “the p.c. (read that "politically correct) crapola gets you down;”
Inside Higher Ed, August 7, 2007 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/08/07/qt

Recent campus incidents have highlighted the importance of effective communication among administrators, faculty, and staff, as well as between campus representatives and students, families, and surrounding communities. Some commentators have argued that these incidents prove the need to amend the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, the federal statute known as FERPA that protects student privacy, in order to permit greater disclosure of information about troubled students. Actually, the current law works well, but colleges and universities need to better understand what that law really provides — and each institution needs to develop an internal consensus on how to approach the policy choices FERPA allows it to make . . . In some circumstances, FERPA has been invoked as the reason not to share student information, when in reality the law would permit disclosure but the interests of student development and autonomy weigh against it. For example, FERPA permits but does not require colleges and universities to notify a student’s parents of certain drug and alcohol violations of the institution’s disciplinary code. Many institutions do not notify parents of every incident involving a minor illegally in possession of alcohol, choosing instead to begin with an educational intervention to assist the student in making better choices, and only notify parents in cases of repeated, serious, or dangerous violations.
Nancy E. Tribbensee and Steven J. McDonald, "FERPA Allows More Than You May Realize," Inside Higher Ed, August 7, 2007 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2007/08/07/ferpa

The ruble got no respect. During the cold war, it symbolized the backward Soviet economy. After the U.S.S.R. collapsed, it was an avatar of instability. Even plumbers in Moscow often preferred to be paid in bottles of vodka rather than rubles — the bottles did not lose their value. No more. Lifted by high oil prices and a wave of foreign investment, the once humble ruble is showing its muscle, and fueling a consumer boom. After gaining 20 percent in value against the dollar in the last few years, the ruble is even starting to displace the greenback as Russians’ currency of choice for both saving and spending.
Andrew E. Kramer, "The Almighty Ruble," The New York Times, August 6, 2007 --- Click Here

Police identified a man as a suspect in a rape after he used the cell phone he stole from the victim to send a photo of himself to her friend, authorities said. The armed man raped the 23-year-old woman in a park (in California) on May 20 and stole cell phones from her and two of her friends, sheriff's Detective Bob Thacker said Tuesday. Weeks later, the woman received an e-mail from a friend asking why she had sent a photograph of an unknown man from her cell phone, officials said. The photo showed a man in a white T-shirt standing in front of a house. "We couldn't believe that he sent a picture of himself to one of her contacts. I don't know if he knew he did it, but we can only assume it was an accident," Thacker said. "That was kind of a big break in the case for us."
"Rape suspect nabbed after he sends his photo from victim's cell," Houston Chronicle, August 8, 2007 --- http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/bizarre/5038907.html

YouTube Video Helps Catch Thief --- http://physorg.com/news105945032.html

We have now developed an urban badlands which is national and troubling because of the incredible numbers of people who are murdered or suffer the physical and psychological effects of violent crime. Our presidential candidates are quick on the draw when asked about the war on terror or homeland security, but the American people have not heard a peep from them about the concrete killing fields of our cities.
Stanley Crouch, "Pols are tiptoeing around killing fields," New York Daily News, August 13, 2007 --- Click Here

It's very promising technology," says Davitt McAteer, a former official with the Mine Safety and Health Administration
"Could Robots Replace Humans in Mines?" by Eric Weiner, NPR, August 9, 2007 ---
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12637032 

If you were a terrorist, how would you attack? That's the question posed by a blogger from the New York Times on Wednesday. Steven D. Levitt is soliciting terrorism worst-case scenarios in a posting on the paper's Freakonomics blog.
"New York Times Blogger Solicits Terrorism-Attack Ideas," Fox News, August 9, 2007 --- http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,292689,00.html
Jensen Comment
I can't believe the NYT would publish answers to this stupid query.
You can read the blog at http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/08/if-you-were-a-terrorist-how-would-you-attack/

A concert to save the planet... reminds me of a band concert after dinner on the Titanic.
Author Unknown

"This is one of the strongest of scientific consensus views in the history of science," Gore said. "We live in a world where what used to be called propaganda now has a major role to play in shaping public opinion." After the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, made up of the world's top climate scientists, released a report in February that warned that the cause of global warming is "very likely" man-made, "the deniers offered a bounty of $10,000 for each article disputing the consensus that people could crank out and get published somewhere," Gore said. "They're trying to manipulate opinion and they are taking us for fools," he said. He said Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest publicly traded oil company, is one of the major fuel companies involved in attempting to mislead the public about global warming.
Gillian Wong, "Gore: Polluters Manipulate Climate Info," PhysOrg, August 7, 2007 --- http://physorg.com/news105695111.html
Jensen Comment
In the public dispute of Al Gore versus Industry and Cows (that emit more carbon into the atmosphere than anything else), it's a shame that this has become a blame game dispute. The question should be what can be done now without starving half the people of the world in the process? Both sides seem to agree that short term curtailment of man-made air pollution will have negligible impact on reversing global warming. Drastic and costly measures are indeed controversial and probably will not have a huge reversal effect. However, small steps such as trying less polluting forms of energy and less polluting vehicles should be seen as reasonable and hopeful for harming the planet less and less. Any sudden reversal of global warming, however, will probably only happen if caused by natural events such as sun-blocking volcanic eruptions or huge asteroid collision debris.

UAW (U.S automobile) workers get a better deal not only than Japanese workers, but other American workers as well.
Shikha Dalmia, "The UAW's Health-Care Dreams Union has best health care in the world, wants better," Reason Magazine, August 3, 2007 --- http://www.reason.com/news/show/121746.html
Jensen Comment
I was not aware of such surprising details about the health insurance program in Japan. It's no wonder Japanese industries compete so well in U.S. markets until U.S. companies like GM, Ford, and Chrysler manage to pawn off health care costs to taxpayers.

The lawsuit (filed by the Southern Poverty Law Firm) contends that the plaintiffs were hired out of Mexico on an H-2A visa to work in the tomato fields. The plaintiffs allege the defendants did not pay them the prevailing wage for migrant workers – $8.01 in 2007 and $7.58 in 2006. Their suit covers a time period of 2002 – 2007. They further allege their employers did not reimburse them for travel, visa and other hiring fees. The local (Monticello, Arkansas) health department provides "free" (free to the non-citizens but not to the American migrants) medical care to the families of the migrant workers, who pick up the voter registration cards on the waiting room tables as they leave. It’s important to note here that it is against the law to vote if one is not a citizen. At the local revenue office, the workers bring interpreters and their recent electric bills to obtain a driver’s license or other identification. Even though it is well known that many crimes and worrisome events, including the purchase of handguns, can be completed by illegals who obtain such licenses – the 9/11 terrorists had tens of driver’s licenses among them – this practice continues unabated. The weekly county newspaper's "Arrest Report" is filled with migrant workers arrested for drunk driving, driving without a license or insurance, disorderly conduct and other crimes. This is not a surprise, as violent crime and drug distribution and possession is prevalent among illegal aliens, so over 25% of today's federal prison population is comprised of illegals.
Renee Taylor , "Watching America Slip Away," Family Security Matters, August 10, 2007 --- http://familysecuritymatters.org/homeland.php?id=1233021

Last September, not long after the Israeli-Hezbollah war, South Africa's minister of intelligence, Ronnie Kasrils, praised the Islamist group committed to Israel's destruction. The Iran News Agency, albeit prone to exaggeration, reported that Mr. Kasrils "lauded [the] great victories of the Lebanese Hezbollah against the Zionist forces" and "stressed that the successful Lebanese resistance proved the vulnerability of the Israeli army." . . . Postapartheid South Africa's easy relationship with dictatorships, it should be noted, is not a new development. Until very recently, however, it has largely been overlooked by the media. This oversight is likely due to the fact that, much like its out-of-control crime rate, any bad news about South Africa is viewed as a blemish on the popular and self-comforting narrative surrounding the country's emergence from apartheid. Indeed, that a country scarred by so many years of violent racial segregation could transform itself into a fully functioning democracy with a robust economy while simultaneously avoiding the wide-scale racial bloodbath feared by many is nothing short of miraculous. But judging by its international relations, South Africa--by far the most politically stable, economically productive and militarily powerful country in sub-Saharan Africa--appears to be moving into the camp of the anti-Western powers, a loose but increasingly worrisome consortium not unlike the Cold War-era Non-Aligned Movement. Drawing heavily upon its history as a liberation movement, the African National Congress cloaks itself in a shroud of moral absolutism that not so subtly implicates its critics as racists, Western stooges, or apologists for apartheid.
James Kirchick, "South Africa's Betrayal Postapartheid Pretoria has become the free world's leading coddler of dictators," The Wall Street Journal, August 8, 2007 --- http://www.opinionjournal.com/federation/feature/?id=110010440

"If I could live my life all over again, I would do something completely different," she says half seriously, relaxing on a black leather divan in a living space sprinkled with rugs and contemporary art. "I would focus so immediately on what interests me that I think I wouldn't have room for children. When you have a fascinating life, you don't need children," says Corinne Maier, author of the French best seller Hello Laziness.Come to think of it, if her parents hadn't had children, she wouldn't have this problem either.
Carol Muller, Editor "Best on the Web Today," Opinion Journal Newsletter, August 9, 2007

Lieutenant Eli Kahn, 23, led a unit of elite paratrooper commandos advancing against heavily defended Hizbullah positions in the Lebanese town of Maroun al-Ras in the early days of the fighting. The Israelis, hoping to knock out Katyusha rockets that had already taken a bloody toll on civilian targets, drew unexpectedly intense fire from the enemy and sustained heavy casualties. While tending to one of his wounded paratroopers, Lt. Kahn saw a terrorist run toward them and throw a grenade that landed at their feet. Rather than jumping out of the way and abandoning his comrade to certain death, Lt. Kahn immediately picked up the grenade and threw it directly back at the Hizbullah fighter, killing the terrorist and turning the tide of battle. For his leadership and quick thinking, he received the Medal of Valor – Israel’s equivalent of America’s Medal of Honor.
Michael Medved , "The Hidden Basis For Hostility To Israel And America," Jewish Press, August 8, 2007 --- http://www.jewishpress.com/page.do/22955/The_Hidden_Basis_For_Hostility_To_Israel_And_America.html 

The historical record makes clear that Arab fury against Jews in the Middle East bears no connection to any occupation policy or to the plight of refugees, since this murderous rage claimed countless victims long before Israel occupied a single square inch or territory and before a single Palestinian had fled his home. A brief history of the early conflict (published by the indispensable Israel Pocket Library) offers a necessary reminder of Palestinian terrorism as long ago as 1929. In that year, the bitterly anti-Semitic Grand Mufti of Jerusalem (who later traveled to Berlin and spent most of the war years at Hitler’s side) claimed that the largely unarmed and loosely organized Jewish community harbored secret “designs” on Muslim holy places, and launched bloody attacks on the Jews of Jerusalem.
Michael Medved , "The Hidden Basis For Hostility To Israel And America," Jewish Press, August 8, 2007 --- http://www.jewishpress.com/page.do/22955/The_Hidden_Basis_For_Hostility_To_Israel_And_America.html 

Kidnappers attempting to evade capture in Iraq have hit on a new, risk-free method of collecting ransom payments: the homing pigeon. Iraqi police say they have recorded repeated instances of kidnappers leaving homing pigeons on the doorsteps of their victim's homes, with instructions for the families to attach cash to the birds' legs. The pigeons then deliver the ransom to the gangs' hideouts. Pigeon-keeping is a popular hobby in Iraq, and enthusiasts there say that some of the stronger birds can carry weights of up to 2½ ounces on each leg. One family attached $10,000 in $100 notes to the legs of five homing pigeons, which they found in a cage left on their doorstep.
Aqeel Hussein, "Kidnappers use pigeons to collect ransoms," London Telegraph, August 8, 2007 ---
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/05/wirq205.xml

The no. 2 Democrat in the Senate — the assistant majority leader, Richard Durbin of Illinois — is conceding that the surge of American troops has led to military progress in Iraq. His comments make him the second Democratic leader in 10 days to make comments that could open the door for the majority party in Congress to pivot away from its insistence on a deadline for an American retreat. Speaking to CNN yesterday while visiting Baghdad, Mr. Durbin said, "We found that today as we went to a forward base in an area that, in the fifth year of...
Eli Lake, "A Ranking Senate Democrat Concedes Surge Is Working," The New York Sun, August 9, 2007 --- http://www.nysun.com/article/60135
Jensen Comment
Hell will freeze over before Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the embittered John Murtha would utter such blasphemy.

Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, responded to a question by CNN's congressional correspondent Dana Bash of whether he would believe General David Petraeus if he reported that the "so-called surge" is working: REID: No, I don't believe him . . .
P.J. Gladnick, "Surge Derangement Syndrome Grips MSM and Liberals," Newsbusters, August 10, 2007 ---
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/p-j-gladnick/2007/08/10/surge-derangement-syndrome-grips-msm-liberals
Jensen Comment
Senator Reid is in denial and feels that any successes in Iraq are bad timing for politics and his surrender plan.

The L.A. Times has morphed Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama's over-the-top campaign rhetoric that he would attack Pakistan into "suggestions by U.S. politicians that American forces unilaterally strike" that country. But, no where did the story mention Obama, nor that no Administration officials are advocating such a move. How is it that Obama's absurd gaffe has suddenly become a U.S. political policy that the Pakistanis fear is impossible to know, but the way the L.A.Times wrote the story, one would cast blame on the Bush Administration instead of Obama for this slight to Musharraf and the Pakistani government.
Warner Todd Huston, "LAT: 'Suggestions by U.S. Politicians' That Pakistan Be Attacked Has No Mention of Obama," Newsbusters, August 10, 2007 --- Click Here
Jensen Comment
I watched Secretary of State Rice last Sunday on television emphatically stress that since 9/11 Pakistan has been our ally in the fight against terror and that President Bush has never considered military strikes against this nation controlling nuclear bombs and missiles. The highly biased Los Angeles Times made an outright lie to discredit the Bush Administration and to take the heat off presidential hopeful Barach Obama's foreign policy gaffe  --- http://www.latimes.com/services/site/premium/access-registered.intercept

A year later after six weeks of bloody battle, Hezbollah is celebrating the anniversary of what it calls, "the Divine Victory (over Israel)." A new Hezbollah exhibit commemorating the conflict has been erected near the Shia movement's headquarters in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Ivan Watson, "Hezbollah Commemorates Costly 'Divine Victory'," NPR, August 14, 2007 ---
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12777097
Jensen Comment
Hezbollah fighters minimized their own losses by hiding behind civilian shields and firing rockets from civilian apartment complexes. If there was any "divine victory" it was a cowardly victory. But then it's never clear what makes it a Hezbollah victory? Perhaps it was a victory to keep the bloodshed going for six weeks against an Israeli army accustomed to winning wars in a matter of days. I keep thinking of the Black Knight in Monty Python's Holy Grail --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Knight_(Monty_Python).

Iraq's most senior Sunni politician issued a desperate appeal Sunday for Arab nations to help stop what he called an "unprecedented genocide campaign" by Shiite militias armed, trained and controlled by Iran. The U.S. military reported five American soldiers were killed, apparently lured into an al-Qaida trap. Adnan al-Dulaimi said "Persians" and "Safawis," Sunni terms for Iranian Shiites, were on the brink of total control in Baghdad and soon would threaten Sunni Arab regimes which predominate in the Mideast. "It is a war that has started in Baghdad and they will not stop there but will expand it to all...
Steven R. Hurst, "Iraqi Sunni Claims 'Genocide Campaign'," Las Vegas Sun, August 12, 2007 ---
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-me/2007/aug/12/081208577.html

Sunni politicians have left the Iraqi government, calling it too sectarian. Many Shiites are gone, too. This week, the Iraqi government called a meeting to bring together various factions — with mixed success at best.
"Iraqi Politics in Tatters, One Month Before Report," NPR, August 15, 2007 --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12800966

A New Tune for Iraq (video about press coverage) ---
http://online.wsj.com/public/page/8_0004.html?bcpid=86195573&bclid=212338097&bctid=1140731233

Iran and Iraq signed an agreement to build pipelines for the transfer of Iraqi crude oil and oil products, the state-run Iran news network Saturday quoted the oil ministry as announcing. The 32-inch (81-centimetre) pipeline will bring crude from the southern Iraqi port of Basra to the southwestern Iranian port of Abadan. There will be a separately 16-inch one for oil products. Under the deal, Iran would buy 100,000 barrels of Iraqi crude to be refined in the southern port of Bandar Abbas, then sell the product back to Iraq. The accord would have no upper limit...
"Iran, Iraq sign oil pipeline deal," Yahoo News, August 11, 2007 --- http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070811/wl_mideast_afp/iraniraqeconomyoil_070811095132

"You Worry Me," An Undetermined Urban Legend --- http://www.snopes.com/rumors/soapbox/worryme.asp

 

PowerPoint Slide One-Liner Rephrasing by Bob Jensen

"Here's looking at this confusing slide." (Humphrey Bogart in "Casablanca" – 1942)

"How does a girl like you pass this course?" (Cary Grant in "North by Northwest" – 1959)

"Up here on PowerPoint Mountain, due process is a bullet point." (John Wayne in "The Green Berets" – 1968)

"You've got to ask yourself one question: Do I know the answer? Well, do ya punk?" (Clint Eastwood in "Dirty Harry lecturing in the Accounting Systems Course Scene" – 1971)

"I spent my whole life trying not to pee on my shoelaces. Students in class can dribble that way. But not instructors up front." (Marlon Brando in "The Yellowed Laces" – 1972)

"I don't want to flunk everyone." (Al Pacino in "The God Father 2 Managerial Accounting Course Scene" – 1974)

"You talkin' instead of listenin' to me?" (Robert De Niro in "Taxi Driver's Accounting Theory Course Scene" – 1976)

"Flunkin'' ain't much of a future, boy." (Clint Eastwood in "The Outlaw Josey Wales" – 1976)

"With a little luck, the network will sneak me the answer." (Sigourney Weaver in "Alien" – 1979 – after drawing a blank on her take home test)

"Why, you stuck up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerd-accountant!" (Carrie Fisher in "Star Wars: The Sarbanes-Oxley Law Strikes Back" – 1980)

"Go ahead, make my day." (Clint Eastwood in "Sudden Impact" – 1983) (This line could be given just after calling on a student to answer a question posed on a PowerPoint slide.)

"I'll be back" (Arnold Schwarzenegger in "The Terminator" – 1984) (This line would be written on the back of report cards for students having to repeat a course the following semester).

"He's dead tired." (Arnold Schwarzenegger in "Commando" – 1985 – while looking at a hung over student passed out in class)

"You're the ignoramus. I'm the cure." (Sylvester Stallone in "Cobra" – 1986)

"A hundred million students in the world and I gotta teach one with a brain smaller than my pinkie." (Bruce Willis in "Die Hard" – 1988 – after killing and stealing the shoes of a terrorist)

"This test question is like a like a bad penny, It'll always turn up." (Harrison Ford in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" – 1989)

"After I walk out the door, you can examine the last bullet point. Take at least an hour." (Mel Gibson in "Lethal Weapon 2" – 1989).

"I crap bigger than you. My PowerPoint slides for this course prove it!" (Jack Palance in "City Slickers" –1991)

"Hasta la answer, baby!" (Arnold Schwarzenegger in "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" – 1991)

"Why Johnny Ringo, you look like somebody just posted the course grades over your grave." (Val Kilmer in "Tombstone" – 1993)

"Before class begins, your instructor must stand at the podium, bring forth his first PowerPoint slide, put his head between his legs, and kiss his own arse." (Mel Gibson in "Braveheart" – 1995)

"Before this course is over, I'm going to kill you with my bad jokes." (Mel Gibson in "The Patriot" – 2000)

"I just put a stamp on your blue book and sent it off to Hell. Now we'll see if it has a chance." (Tom Cruise in "Mission Impossible 2" – 2000)

"Who's your flunk out now?" (Angelina Jolie in "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" – 2005 – After she hits Brad Pitt's character with her A-grade term paper and moons him)

A few favorite lines from Chuck Norris movies:

"My kind of trouble doesn't take vacations. I'm still trying to get tenure." ("Lone Wolf McQuade" – 1983)

"If I want your opinion, I'll send you an email." ("Code of Silence" – 1985)

"If you don't pay attention, I'm going to hit you with so much homework, you're going to beg on your knees to pass." ("Invasion USA" – 1985)

"Sleep tight, sucker." ("The Delta Force" – 1986 – after walking over to a dozing student)

 

Many (movie) one-liners are bad, if treasured, puns (Arnold put his stamp on "You're fired" long before Donald did). Others display a wit that we might grudgingly concede ("Barbeque, huh? How do you like your ribs?"). The one-liner is also remarkably versatile. It spans the grandiose ("I'm going to show you God does exist"; "I'm your worst nightmare") to the minimalist ("Get off my plane"; "Whoah"). It ranges from the functional ("Dead or alive, you're coming with me") to the iconic ("Go ahead … make my day"). And while some are uninspired ("It's time to die"), others are absurd ("I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass—and I'm all out of bubble gum"), self-referential ("No sequel for you"), and sardonic ("Go ahead … I don't shop here").
Eric Lichtenfeld, "Yippee-Ki-Yay ... The greatest one-liner in movie history," Slate, June 28, 2007 --- http://slate.com/id/2168927/