What, you use plastic bags, you Nazi sympathizer you?
Having your heart in the right place is a nice quality. But it often makes for bad public policy, and in the case of Baltimore City Councilman James Kraft, D-1, the practice of putting his emotions first seems to have displaced his head.
Geez. I already knew many in the press were in bed with politicians, so I didn't really need to hear this:
WINDSOR, N.J. (CBS) ? The sputtering economy has caused an increase in prices of many staples including gasoline, rice, ice cream, even beer. Now some lawmakers in New Jersey are considering taking food taxes a step further and install a proverbial "sin" tax on fast food.
I don't believe in miracles, but, damn::
SUFFOLK, Va. - It was a scene of haphazard destruction that stretched for 25 miles: Row upon row of homes reduced to sprays of splintered lumber, shopping centers stripped to bare metal, parking lots turned into junk yards.
And yet no one died.
"The only thing I can say is we were watched over and blessed," Fire Chief Mark Outlaw said.
Eventually, everything will be reduced to a number. Researchers have come up with something called the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, which attempts to measure the nation's general welfare "much like the Dow Jones Industrial Average portrays the health of the stock market." The index classifies people as "thriving" (49 percent of Americans), "struggling" (47 percent) or "suffering" (4 percent). And get this:
Bad trip, man:
GENEVA (AP) — Albert Hofmann, the father of the mind-altering drug LSD whose medical discovery grew into a notorious "problem child," died Tuesday. He was 102.
After an alcohol-fueled "embarrassment" at least year's prom, Whiting High School students may face breath tests at prom Friday.
Whiting School Board members voted unanimously Monday night to authorize breath tests at school functions. The measure allows sobriety tests at a slate of school functions, but prom was clearly the board's concern.
There are two church-state issues that can be in conflict: 1. Freedom of religion requires government to keep its distance and let people worship the way their conscienses dictate. 2. But religion can't give cover to practices that are clearly against the law of the land. It can be tricky to determine when the behavior is so unacceptable that the state is justified in stepping in. Remember the Santeria members who got in trouble for killing chickens because it violated laws against "animal sacrifices"?
Every time a school district decides to adopt a school-uniform policy, there is a story quoting somebody or other worrying about how it will affect all the poor people. A couple of years ago, I made the gentle point that even poor parents have to buy clothes for their kids, and uniforms are not usually designed to be extravagant. A school board member merely starts with that observation and then unloads:
The idea isn't new one. The oil crisis of the 1970s prompted some employers to switch to a four-day work week, but the idea never took hold nationally.
These days, though, energy and congestion issues may give the concept more traction. Several petition drives for a shortened work week are now circulating on the Internet.
