What about World News?

Do we have a spot for that? Am I missing it?

nah...but i would like it!

and how are you doing aggie? any serious lookers for your fort wayne house? job going well?

Part of the deal of moving to Houston was that the company would buy my house at its "appraised value", so I didn't have to worry about selling it. But I did get hosed on the "appraised value", and this was even before the recent downturn.

The job has been very interesting and challenging. I received a promotion after 4 months -- that was a huge plus. (I had interviewed for the higher position, but they didn't think I had the credentials at the time.)

And, not to be a downer, but the company I came to work for here in Houston declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this year, one of the largest ever. (it happened very fast.) Still, Chapter 11 is nowhere near as bad as Chapter 7, and there is hope. Even if there weren't, tax people are generally the last out the door.

I do like living in Houston again, but ask me again in summer, when it's too friggin' hot.

And here is what I was going to post on World News -- another link to Leonard Pitts. (I really do like his columns, obviously.) It's a heartbreaking, but inspirational story. (that sounds so trite, but it really is.)

http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/story/875495.html

Shamsia is back in class
By LEONARD PITTS JR.

Shamsia was walking with her sister when a man on a motorcycle pulled abreast of them. ''Are you going to school?'' he asked.

She was. And this was, by definition, an incendiary act in Kandahar, Afghanistan, where the Taliban is making a comeback and posters on walls warn, ``Don't Let Your Daughters Go to School.''

What happened next was monstrous. As recounted Jan. 14 by The New York Times, the man lifted the girl's burqa, exposing her face. Then he sprayed it with acid. In all, 15 girls and their teachers at the Mirwais School For Girls were targeted by six men on three motorcycles in the November attacks.

Seventeen-year-old Shamsia Husseini got it the worst, according to The Times. She was left with jagged scars on her face, and her vision was damaged.

The next day, the school stood empty.

you did your good deed for the day aggie--i had not been a follower of leonard before this post..maybe had read a few things he had written..may have liked what i read but just didnt bother watching specifically for more of him. i will be reading his stuff regularly now!

i am a big mcclatchy news (the only one that really researched and documented facts about gitmo) fan and i looked up several writings of his they had available. he is good and i like what he says--thanks!!

and on the particular item you posted..amazing the trivial shit we get worked up about in our daily lives when this kind of stuff is going, particularly in a country we have a relatively long term presence in! continuing what you posted--

Shamsia, you see, is back in school. So are the vast majority of the other girls. This, after the headmaster held a meeting with parents and begged them to let their daughters return. When that was only modestly successful, he got local officials to promise the school greater police protection, a bus to transport the girls, and a footbridge across the busy road. None of it has materialized, but the girls came back anyway.

Shamsia told reporter Dexter Filkins, "My parents told me to keep coming to school even if I am killed. The people who did this to me don't want women to be educated. They want us to be stupid things."

I know -- working for a chapter 11 company is NOTHING compared with acid in the face for going to school and trying to get an education. It does put things in perspective.

my own world news issue that i try to learn what i can about, is the horrific tragedy that is gitmo and our other foreign prison systems set up by bushco, who is/has been americas version of a leader of international terrorism..

one i have watched closely considering there was relatively little press in america on it, is the prison ships we used as a venue where there should be no accountability for what was done aboard since it was not actually on any countries land..reporting here is from june 2005..and later proven to be fact. but how much press has it gotten??

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4632087.stm

on another source, mcclatchy did a superior reporting job and keeps the updates current. the facts do not allow me to bask in the patriotic glory and justifications of those who think torture has any acceptable place in our policies.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/detainees/

An eight-month McClatchy investigation of the detention system created after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has found that the U.S. imprisoned innocent men, subjected them to abuse, stripped them of their legal rights and allowed Islamic militants to turn the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba into a school for jihad.
Day One: We got the wrong guys
Day Two: 'I guess you can call it torture'
Day Three: A school for Jihad
Day Four: 'Due process is legal mumbo-jumbo'
Day Five: 'You are the king of this prison'

i would think a chapter 11 involved company has a decent chance of surviving and improving..if the high ups want to do so!

Hey, sorry I missed this thread. I'll create a topic for you and you can move what you want over .

i saw the new thread..thanks!! i will hope to have more time to do some posting there in the next couple days!

Thanks for adding, Vis. I can't say I'm a big follower of World News as much as I should be, but the story I posted really belonged there.