| On Native Ground
DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- It still amazes me that newspapers still publish pieces by William Kristol, Charles Krauthammer, David Brooks and Thomas Friedman. It still amazes me that people such as Fred Barnes, Rich Lowry, Michael Barone, the Kagan brothers, Dick Morris and Joe Klein still get taken seriously as pundits. It still amazes me that people still think David Broder is relevant, that Sen. Joe Lieberman is still a Democrat or that we're winning the war in Iraq. It amazes me because the right-wing pundits who have been wrong every step of the way for the last five years still have steady gigs. The people who didn't drink the conservative Kool-Aid are still on the outside looking in. I'm fairly low on the media food chain and was not privy to the high-level discussions going on in Washington back in 2002, when the Bush Administration starting ginning up support for an invasion of Iraq.
Desperate measures
People have various excuses for their clutter, the most common of which are lack of space, storage or time. I favour the lack of time option - I do, after all, have a full-time job and two young children, but the truth is I DON'T LIKE THROWING ANYTHING AWAY. It gives me pain. I am sentimental, clearly, but I also find that having lots of possessions grounds me in a way I can't explain. Where does it come from, this instinct? I have a distinguished hoarding inheritance. Annya said it is usually carried through the maternal line, and my maternal grandmother, Ethel Morgan, was a clutterer and hoarder of prodigious talent. She lived in Devon, largely by herself as she was widowed early, and when she moved to Sussex to be nearer my parents, all her clutter moved with her. Cardboard boxes were stacked in the garage, and when she moved again, aged 90, the boxes came too.
Michigan goes back to basics
Fran Fraschilla, an ESPN analyst and former Manhattan coach who went up against Beilein for four seasons while Beilein was at Canisius, believes some changes could be underway -- at least for the short term. Nothing, however, can supplement experience in a philosophy that appears quite different than the freelance offense Amaker ran in Ann Arbor, Fraschilla said. Fraschilla attended the Wolverines' final home game last season against Utah State in the NIT. "When I first knew that John would take over the program, my first thought was, 'This is going to take a little while (to fix),' " he said. "I thought that because there wasn't a lot of thought (last season) put in the way I think (Michigan) could have played the game from an intelligence standpoint." Beilein's offensive philosophy is based heavily on anticipation, and Fraschilla predicts that it could take an entire season for U-M's players to get on the same page.
Blunt warning to Turkey from Rehn
Rehn also said Turkey needed to press ahead with reforms and to do more to ensure human rights and freedom of speech are respected not only in law but in real life. Problems Gul said his government was continuing its reforms and trying to improve democracy but conceded there were "some problems in implementation". Nicosia appeared fully satisfied with Rehn�s remarks. House president Demetris Christofias, back from a visit to Austria, said he was happy that the EU Commissioner had reminded Turkey of its obligations. "Mr Rehn put it very correctly that if Turkey does not fulfil its commitments , there is the danger of a veto being used," Christofias added. Turkey whitewashed again By Alex Efthyvoulos THE blatant and continuing gross violation of human rights by Turkey as the occupying power of north Cyprus has once again been whitewashed by the latest annual US State Department Human Rights reports dealing with the situation both on the island and in Turkey.
|
