The Weekly Standard’s Beth Henary reports on a potentially controversial admissions policy under consideration by the Board of Regents at Texas A&M. The new policy would grant “automatic admission for the top 20 percent of graduating seniors from about 250 high schools classified by the state as ‘underperforming.’ These schools are minority-heavy.” Critics of the proposed change argue that the University is trying to skirt the 1996 Hopewood v. Texas

insist careless camping “is no laughing matter”… From Chris Pellerito’s Liberty Blog: Sure, American scientists are mapping the human genome, inventing cool battery-powered scooters, leading the world in biotechnology, etc. But the British Institute for the Advancement of Science announced that it has isolated the world’s funniest joke. Not surprisingly, the joke’s protagonists are British… [Update: Okay, so I made up the part about the protesting Greens. But it could

insist careless camping “is no laughing matter”… From Chris Pellerito’s Liberty Blog: Sure, American scientists are mapping the human genome, inventing cool battery-powered scooters, leading the world in biotechnology, etc. But the British Institute for the Advancement of Science announced that it has isolated the world’s funniest joke. Not surprisingly, the joke’s protagonists are British… [Update: Okay, so I made up the part about the protesting Greens. But it could

In her latest Nation column, Katha Pollitt implores her readers to get together this holiday season and help excise religion from…well, from Christ-mas, for starters. Some compelling reasons: Just think of the damage religious mania (combined, as it tends to be, with nationalism and patriarchy) has wrought around the globe this year, the first of the new millennium–the World Trade Center attack, the Taliban, suicide bombers in Israel versus yet

Ken Layne, drawing on this ABC News report detailing “missing sections” from the UBL tape, says it’s time to take the battle to The House of Saud. So, let’s get this straight: A Saudi millionaire from one of Saudi Arabia’s richest families plotted a massive attack on the United States using 15 Saudi citizens as hijackers, and this attack was praised by members of the Saudi Arabian government’s religious council

Lots of bloodsoaked bloggers in Cyberville tonight, having invested a lot of time this afternoon and early evening eviscerating this report by New Hampshire-Durham’s Marc Herold, professor (or, as the MediaFile site has it, “Progfessor”) of Economics and Women’s Studies. Herold’s “research” (yawn) purports to expose the “true number” of civilian casualties in Afghanistan. Left unanswered, of course, is how a professor of Economics and Women’s Studies is qualified for

Lots of bloodsoaked bloggers in Cyberville tonight, having invested a lot of time this afternoon and early evening eviscerating this report by New Hampshire-Durham’s Marc Herold, professor (or, as the MediaFile site has it, “Progfessor”) of Economics and Women’s Studies. Herold’s “research” (yawn) purports to expose the “true number” of civilian casualties in Afghanistan. Left unanswered, of course, is how a professor of Economics and Women’s Studies is qualified for

…Just heard Johnny bin Walker being interviewed by CNN. Is it just my imagination, or does he sound a li’l bit like a later Kathleen Turner (y’know, after she began affecting a vaguely Austrian accent)? Hmm. ‘Dunno. Could be I’m thinking of Max von Sydow in Three Days of the Condor… Alsace Lorraine, maybe?