Weekly wrap-up: Wyclef Jean, China’s death penalty, Chilean miners and a longer “Avatar”
Haitian born musician and former Fugees front man Wyclef Jean is not giving up on his desire to become Haiti’s president, even though he was considered ineligible to run because he hasn’t lived in the country over the past five years (lucky for him). I was thinking this week how much Obama wanted to be president of the U.S. at a time when the country was falling apart economically, we were fighting two wars, and there was a general feeling of malaise and disenchantment among the natives. He got his wish. To Wyclef Jean, looking to lead one of the poorest countries on the planet, a year after a devastating earthquake, I say be careful what you wish for. I wonder if Jean read James Dobbins’ recent article, “A to-do list for shoring up Haiti“?
Thirty-three miners were found alive after seventeen days following a cave-in August 5th in Chile. Trapped in an area about 540 square feet and over 2000 feet into the earth, it was originally thought the miners could be rescued sometime near Christmas. What the heck?! Christmas? Four inch diameter bore holes have been used to pass the miners supplies through a “tunnel”, including food, letters and clean clothes, but Christmas?! It sounds like a new reality show, “Extreme Big Brother”. Today, however, mine engineers believe they’ve come up with a Plan B that may halve the amount of time the miners will be trapped. So maybe Halloween? Oh, the stories that will come out of this…
China this week reportedly has decided to revisit their death penalty policies. Considering the country puts more people to death each year (around 5000 in 2009) than the rest of the world’s governments combined, the reevaluation sounds a bit overdue. Caught cheating on your taxes in China? Stealing fossils, damaging public property? You’re dead. Seriously.
Former president Jimmy Carter helped secure the release of American Aijalon Mahli Gomes from North Korea and was bringing him home to Boston on Friday. Gomes was arrested in January after illegally entering the country from China for unknown reasons and sentenced to eight years hard labor. After Euna Lee and Laura Ling obtained their release via Bill Clinton a year ago from North Korea, shouldn’t we more strongly discourage our citizens from getting anywhere near there? In terms of ex-presidents able to come to the rescue now, we’ve got George H.W. and his son. I wouldn’t take my chances.
Former Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman has come out as a homosexual, after “arriving at this conclusion…fairly recently”. Mehlman, who headed the RNC from 2005-2007, just after George Bush and his administration pushed an anti-gay marriage amendment, still believes there’s a place in the Republic party for homosexuals. I disagree. I don’t get the Log Cabin Republicans.
Glenn Beck was at the Lincoln Memorial today with friend Sarah Palin, on the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech delivered at the same location 47 years ago, addressing thousands upon thousands of tea partiers eager to “restore honor” to this great country and deliver us from “wandering in darkness”. Glenn Beck, you are no Martin Luther King Jr., not by a million miles.
A judge in Washington D.C. on Monday stopped federal funding for President Obama’s expanded stem cell research policies, effectively reverting to the intent and language of the 1995 Dickey-Wicker amendment. Read my post about it from Tuesday and don’t be ashamed for smiling after reading “Dickey-Wicker”.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan jumped into the fray caused by the Los Angeles Times release two weeks ago of teacher evaluations as they pertained to student test scores and achievement. It should come as no surprise to anyone in the state of California, specifically the LAUSD, that the teachers’ union doesn’t want any part of a teacher’s “grade” to be tied in with a student’s “grade” (my quotation marks). The discussion isn’t about making a test score the definitive indicator of whether or not a teacher is effective but rather one of several factors indicating an instructor’s success. United Teachers Union Los Angeles president, A.J. Duffy (sounds like an NFL quarterback), says the union is willing to sit down with the LAUSD and talk but won’t make any commitment about what he’ll talk about. So again, the children suffer and on Tuesday, California lost out on federal funds from the Race to the Top initiative. All is well.
I heard a rumor some Muslims are thinking about building an Islamic community center near ground zero. Have you heard about that?
“Avatar” was released again this past weekend with an additional eight minutes of footage. Is it just me, or wasn’t the original version long enough? Too long? I will say though that of the seven-thousand movies released in 2010 using 3D technology, “Avatar” was the only one worth the trouble, and the extra price.
Tiger Woods finally did well golfing, shooting a 6-under 65 on Thursday at The Barclays in Jersey. Today, however, he hit a triple bogey, among other bogeys. Oh, and his divorce was final this week.
Twelve days to the season opener of the NFL, Thursday September 9th, the Minnesota Vikings vs. the New Orleans Saints on NBC. And yes, before then there’s a lot of baseball going on. I like baseball.
And I think I like all of you, although I’m not sure.

