5 Years In Iraq
Yesterday marked the fifth anniversary or the war in Iraq. I've read a lot of stuff but Lindsay Campbell at moblogic.tv said it best and provides some interesting facts and figures:
James’ Last Path
To get an idea of the path James took to try and find help for his family, take a look at this site that has some images taken from Google Earth that traces the path he took. The terrain look rough by itself in summer when these images were taken but imagine the area with a foot and a half of snow.
All Men Are Dangerous.
Frances Kemp booked an aisle seat on a recent British Airways (BA) flight because she had a bad leg that required extra space. Her 76-year-old husband Michael occupied the middle seat. A nine-year-old girl took the window position.
When a stewardess asked Frances to switch seats with her husband, she declined. The stewardess explained that the seating arrangement breached the airline's child-welfare regulations and moved the child.
Michael is a retired journalist with no criminal record; he made no contact physical or verbal with the girl; no complaint or request to move was received; the child's mother was elsewhere on the plane. The girl's welfare was deemed to be in peril solely because Michael was male.
BA has openly joined the ranks of airlines such as Air New Zealand and Qantas that view all men as a danger to children. It is difficult to know how many other airliners share this policy as it is rarely announced and can be enforced invisibly when seats are booked.
Indeed, BA itself has been quietly instituting the policy since at least 2001 when another 'seat rearrangement' drew attention. In answering a complaint from the humiliated man, BA explained, "We introduced the policy . . . in response to customers asking us to make sure their children are not seated next to men. We were responding to a fear of sexual assaults."
Source Article: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,231238,00.html
This reminds me of a personal experience I had during my first quarter at Ohio State University. Late during that quarter, my guidance counselor required me to select my intended major for the upcoming year (I enrolled in Summer to get a head start) and I had written down elementary education. A few days later, I received a note requesting that I skip math class and proceed directly to her office where I was told that men had no business in elementary education and that she would not sponsor that major. I tried to ask why but she wouldn't discuss it and told me to return to class. I thought about fighting it but decided it was not worth the fight and I filled out a new form with "Business Administration" as my declared major.
Heh. Good thing though as I've made 6 times what I would have made if I had ended up teaching elementary ed. How soon though until more companies adopt this policy? To me, this is just like the airlines banning all liquids because of a supposed terror plot involving liquids. Will my son (supposing I have one) be able to work with females or attend school with girls he doesn't know?
Fastow Gets 6 Years
Former Enron Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow was sentenced to 6 years in Federal prison today after initially agreeing to serve 10. Fastow sought and received leniency after his supporters, including the Federal Prosecutors said he was a transformed man and was invlauable to the investigation.
the judge said he deserved a lighter sentence because Fastow has been persecuted after Enron's failure and because his family has suffered enough. Fastow's wife already has served a year for her role in the scandal.
"Prosecution is necessary, but persecution was not," U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt said. "These factors call for mercy."
This is a timely story because I just finished reading Kurt Eichenwald's The Conspiracy of Fools which was one of the best stories I have ever read, fiction or non-fiction. The story was written incredibly well with amazing attention to detail. It's a fascinating, fascinating story that you will be glued to for days (it's a bit long).
After reading Conspiracy of Fools and seeing Alex Gibney's Enron, The Smartest Guys In The Room, I truly believe that these guys didn't set out to explicity break the law. They started out with small mistakes initiated by incredibly incompetent executive management and then were tempted to add to their fortunes and cover up their past sins. If you enjoyed Barbarians at the Gate (the true story of the RJR Nabisco LBO) or has an interest in how large corporations function at the top, I highly recommend this. There's also an audio version which is narrated very well but if you go that route, spring for the unabridged version.
The Oil Crisis? It’s Just Begun…
Check out this story in the Seattle Times. It's not the typical "why your gas costs so much," but rather a very scary editorial on oil consumption in the U.S. One of the best articles I've read on the web in a while.
