Thursday, May 18, 2006

Civil liberties debate leaves much of America cold

Civil liberties debate leaves much of America cold - Yahoo! News (Reuters)

That it does is troubling.

I also think that this is due partly to the erosion of education in this country. Just one more argument to press for better education!

Excerpts from this article:

Richard Ben-Veniste, a Democratic member of the September 11 Commission which investigated the 2001 attacks, said the numbers reflected an indifference which was discouraging, but not surprising.

"Unless it directly affects an individual, people are not as vigilant as they
ought to be and perhaps not as educated as they ought to be on the importance of
our constitutional privacy and civil liberties protections," he said.

Other analysts say the polls highlight underlying resignation due to an erosion of civil liberties over time.

"There's been an assault on Americans' privacy. Everything we do in our society seems to be monitored, every purchase we make is collected by private entities. I think people are just used to it today," said Lewis Katz, a law professor and privacy expert at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Senate OKs Border Fence, Back Citizenship - AP

Immigration Full Coverage on Yahoo! News

From the article...

WASHINGTON - The Senate agreed to give millions of illegal immigrants a shot at U.S. citizenship and backed construction of 370 miles of triple-layered fencing along the Mexican border Wednesday, but prospects of the legislation clearing Congress were clouded by a withering attack against President Bush by a prominent House Republican.

Da Vinci Code Review - AP

Yahoo! Movies (AP)

The headline for the review: 'Da Vinci Code' Seen As Cursory and Rushed

Given 2 stars by the AP reviewer

Hmmm.

Read the novel, looking forward to seeing the movie for myself...

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

USATODAY.com - 'Da Vinci Code' backs away from book

USATODAY.com - 'Da Vinci Code' backs away from book

Snippets from the article...

Screened for critics Tuesday in Los Angeles, the film offers more skepticism to the theory of Jesus' marriage and fatherhood than Brown wrote

The movie focuses more on mysticism and spirituality and eliminates the romance between Langdon and police cryptologist Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou)

Contrary to rumors about the script, there are no scenes of Jesus and Mary Magdalene romantically involved

Monday, May 15, 2006

10 Ways to Lower the Cost of Driving

10 Ways to Lower the Cost of Driving from ConsumerReports.org on Yahoo! Autos

We from SoCal need this more than anyone.

I've realized that it costs ~$12 now to visit my daughter - and she only lives in the next county!

(Maybe we should take the train...?)

Oh, and it now can be cheaper to fly to Las Vegas from here then it is to drive (depending on where you live in SoCal, of course).