The number first appeared in headlines earlier this year: Nearly one in four of all prisoners worldwide is incarcerated in America. It was just the latest such statistic. Today, one in nine African American men between the ages of 20 and 34 is locked up. In 1970, our prisons held fewer than 200,000 people; now that number exceeds 1.5 million, and when you add in local jails, it's 2.3 million—1 in 100 American adults.
There are many people behind bars who you would not want as yourneighbor, but in our hunger for justice we have lost perspective. Wetreat 10-year sentences like they're nothing, like that's a softpenalty, when in much of the rest of the world a decade behind barswould be considered extraordinarily severe. This is what separates usfrom other industrialized countries: It's not just that we send so manypeople to prison, but that we keep them there for so long and send themback so often. Eight years ago, we surpassed Russia to claim thedubious distinction of having the world's highest rate of incarceration; today we're still No. 1.
The Edinburgh Dungeon said the one-day event is in revenge for the Battle of Falkirk, fought 710 years ago July 21st, at which more than 2,000 Scots were slaughtered by the Auld Enemy.I wonder how they'll welcome Iraqi visitors. After all, those haggis munchers, Blair and Brown, are responsible for the slaughter of a damn sight more than 2,000.
English visitors will only be allowed entry if they sign a scroll swearing allegiance to Scotland, while those from other countries will be encouraged to bring in items deemed 'typically English’ to be smashed.
The attraction, which is visited by 200,000 people per year insisted the measures were a fitting tribute to the Scots soldiers who were killed and their leader, William Wallace.
A householder who took photographs of hooded teenagers as evidence of their anti-social behaviour says he was told he was breaking the law after they called the police.
David Green, 64, and his neighbours had been plagued by the youths from a nearby comprehensive school for months, and was advised by their headmaster to identify them so action could be taken.But when Mr Green left his £1million London flat to take photographs of the gang, who were aged around 17, he said one threatened to kill him while another called the police on his mobile.
And he claimed that a Police Community Support Officer sent to the scene promptly issued a warning that taking pictures of youths without permission was illegal, and could lead to a charge of assault.
Berea College, founded 150 years ago to educate freed slaves and “poor white mountaineers,” accepts only applicants from low-income families, and it charges no tuition fees.
“You can literally come to Berea with nothing but what you can carry, and graduate debt free,” said Joseph P. Bagnoli Jr., the associate provost for enrollment management. “We call it the best education money can’t buy.”
Actually, what buys that education is Berea’s $1.1 billion endowment, which puts the college among the nation’s wealthiest. But unlike most well-endowed colleges, Berea has no football team, coed dorms, hot tubs or climbing walls. Instead, it has a no-frills budget, with food from the college farm, handmade furniture from the college crafts workshops, and 10-hour-a-week campus jobs for every student.
You know how Israel and its supporters are always playing some card or other. You know, for the establishment of Israel itself by way of an ethnic cleansing campaign there's the holocaust card, for any criticism of Israel, there's the antisemitism card, for the killing of children there's the blood libel card, for boycott, divestment and sanctions there's the nazi boycott of Jewish shops card and so on. Well, now they're playing the card card.
JOLLY ROGER - Disappearing Palestine
A family arrived and said they had papers
to prove that his house was theirs,
-No, no said the man, my people have always lived here
My father, grandfather -and look in the garden,
my great grandfather planted that.
-No, no said the family, look at the documents.
There was a stack of them
-Where do I start? said the man,
-No need to read the beginning they said,
Turn to the page marked 'Promised Land'.
-Are they legal? he said, who wrote them?
-God, they said, God wrote them, look,
here come His tanks.
Michael Rosen
Some key findings from the The Measure of America:
* The U.S. ranks #24 among the 30 most affluent countries in life expectancy - yet spends more on health care than any other nation.
* One American dies every 90 seconds from obesity-related health problems.
* Fourteen percent of the population - some 30 million Americans - lacks the literacy skills to perform simple, everyday tasks like understanding newspaper articles and instruction manuals.
* Educational expenditures vary significantly by state; New Jersey and New York spend around $14,000 per pupil, Utah spends less than $6,000 per pupil.
* African American students are three times more likely than whites to be placed in special education programs, and only half as likely to be placed in gifted programs.
* The top 1 percent of U.S. households possesses a full third of America’s wealth.
Government ministers would not have the skills or background to run a private company, a new survey suggests.Via DK
A questionnaire of chief executives at the UK's top 100 companies pours cold water on government claims of successful management.
Ben Farrugia, policy analyst at the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "Comparison with the most successful business leaders in the country reveals that the people running public services lack appropriate experience, have near impossible tasks to do and are never in their job for long enough to engage properly with their departments."
