Month: April 2003

Wow. The Dutch sure have a different conception of justice than we Americans do. Seriously, you assassinate your nation’s leading candidate for prime minister — and you get 12 years in prison? Can you possibly imagine someone killing an American presidential candidate and walking free 12 years later?
“The panel of three judges…were not imposing a life sentence, they said, because they had been persuaded that Mr. van der Graaf was not likely to repeat his crime.” I suppose it’s the second political assassination that really shows you’re a bad guy.

Oh, and on a personal note, somebody pinch me: Today I wrote the final check to pay off my student loans. The $15,810 I once owed for my time in New Haven is finally, like my major, history.

Here’s my story from today’s paper, on the Texas Legislature vote to boost college tuition up to 22 percent.
Also, I just taped another appearance on TXCN — it should run Friday and repeat through the weekend, promoting a story that’ll be on Monday’s front page.
I’m leaving in a few hours for Louisiana and a four-day weekend. May your rocks continue to roll in my absence.

Blog of the day.

The comics page at my old college paper — long considered the most important real estate in college journalism — has been strong of late. Don’t Look at Me by Tom O’Donnell is great week in and week out. This Happy Planet is usually creepy good, and Cavalcade of Assholes (which repurposes self-important quotes from the editorials of rival paper) is entertaining in a bloviating sort of way.

Just the other day I was wondering: What is the single, unifying theme behind the hit ABC daytime drama All My Children? Thank heavens, now I know!
“The theme of ‘All My Children’ from the beginning is the belief that, as God’s children, we are all bound to each other by our common humanity despite our many personal differences; that it is our failure to understand and respect those differences that causes most of life’s pain and suffering.”
So it’s not about hot lesbian action?

My guess is that James Scott of the Charleston Post and Courier is being mercilessly taunted at work today. In his story on the Masters protests, he writes:
“Throughout the morning, law enforcement officers stood on the perimeter of the five-acre field. At no point did the protest turn violent, though officers escorted Heywood Jablome away after he held up a sign directly in front of Burk that read “Make me dinner” before shouting ‘Oprah rules.'”

Uday, Saddam’s kid, used a Yahoo Mail account! All this time, you could have dropped him a line at udaysaddamhussein@yahoo.com.
I’m sure Yahoo will be using that in their promotional campaigns: The web-based email of torturers everywhere!

Sniff, sniff…the track listing for the final CD Mix of the Month Club mix is online.

Here’s my story from today’s front page, on the Iraqi leadership’s disappearing act.