Morning Brief

Talk of the Day

A FLORIDA SCHOOL district that planned on spending $150,000 in federal money for iPods to give to parents of disabled children for the onerous task of filling out a 10-minute online survey has reconsidered the lavish giveaway. They're suspending the program.

How about those Olympics games? First, the self-promoting babe athletes appear in lurid poses in Sports Illustrated. Today, 30 athletes tested positive for doping and won't be attending the games.

NORTH OF THE BORDER In Canada, the big talk isn't of the Olympic games or the snowless sites, but of the arrest of Col. Russell Williams, Commander of Canadian Forces Base Trenton, one of Canada's busiest Air Force Bases. He has been charged with the murder of two women and is a suspect in rape in two home invasions. Police are looking into cold case files in areas where he had been posted in the past. (This is the man who flew the Prime Minister and the Queen around on her visits.)

NUTCASE TO THE SOUTH Venezuela's Socialist nutcase Hugo Chavez has done a deal with two Western oil companies. After nationalizing foreign oil company assets, imposing higher royalties on them and subjecting their executives to raids by tax authorities, he's allowing Chevron and a Spanish oil company to develop new fields. In 2007, he nationalized electricity companies in 2007. Now there are sporadic power outages and rationing. Forced rationing in Caracas last month led to chaos as the power was cut to hospitals, office buildings and traffic lights.
I wonder sometimes if Marxism is most appealing to the nutcases in the world (think Robert Mugabe and Hugo Chavez) or if the contradictions of Marxism and Socialism lead to frustrations that create serious paranoia.

AN ARAB AMBASSADOR has called off his wedding after discovering his wife-to-be who wears a face-covering veil is bearded and cross-eyed. Not sure what put him off. The beard or the eye thing, but it's another good reason why the Burkha should to be outlawed.

THERE'S A CREDIBILITY GAP when the U.K. Housing Minister has decided that repossession might be a good policy after all. It's easy for him. "Mr Healey was found to have made a profit of £88,000 on a flat in south London that was subsidized by the taxpayer for at least five years."

NEW WINDFARMS aren't bringing new jobs. At least, not to Americans.