BREVITAS

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RULES OF THUMB

FOOLING A MAD OSTRICH - If an enraged Ostrich attacks you, lie down and
pretend to be dead. It will think it has won and within a few seconds
will forget the whole episode, allowing you to retreat intact.

http://rulesofthumb.org/

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MONEY & LABOR

WASH POST - Banks are failing to provide consumers with information
about fees on savings and checking accounts even though federal rules
require such disclosures, according to a government report to be
released tomorrow. The report by the Government Accountability Office
also says that some of the invisible fees have climbed substantially in
recent years. The average overdraft fee, for instance, increased 11
percent from 2000 to 2007. . . Federal rules require uniform disclosure
of fees and interest rates. . . Eric Halperin, director of the
Washington office of the Center for Responsible Lending, said the GAO
report was consistent with the center's studies, which have found that
consumers are getting increasingly hit with overdraft fees that now
reach $17.5 billion a year.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/
article/2008/03/01/AR2008030100189.html


ACTIVISTS TAKE ON THE BANKERS
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8V4PCJG2.htm

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BUSH NEIGHBORHOOD CRIME WATCH

JONATHAN TURLEY, LA TIMES - The recent decisions of Atty. Gen. Michael
B. Mukasey to block any prosecution of Bush administration officials for
contempt and to block any criminal investigation of torture led to a
chorus of criticism. Many view the decisions as raw examples of
political manipulation of the legal process and overt cronyism. I must
confess that I was one of those crying foul until I suddenly realized
that there was something profound, even beautiful, in Mukasey's action.
In his twisting of legal principles, the attorney general has succeeded
in creating a perfect paradox. Under Mukasey's Paradox, lawyers cannot
commit crimes when they act under the orders of a president -- and a
president cannot commit a crime when he acts under advice of lawyers.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-turley4mar04,0,4839406.story

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BOOKSHELF
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WOMEN'S STRUGGLE FOR POLITICAL POWER

In We Will Be Heard noted political scientist Jo Freeman chronicles some
of the struggles of women in the United States for political power. Most
of their stories are little-known, but Freeman's compelling portrait of
women working for change reminds us that women have never been silent in
the political affairs of the nation.

From J. Ellen Foster's address to the 1892 Republican Convention to
Nancy Pelosi's 2007 election as the first female Speaker of the House,
women have worked to influence politics at every level. Well before most
could vote, women campaigned for candidates and lobbied to shape public
policy. Men welcomed their work, but not their ideas. Even with equal
suffrage women faced many barriers to full political participation.

The fifteen case studies of women's struggles for political influence in
this book provide the historical context for today's political events.
Starting with an overview of when and why political women have been
studied, the three sections of the book look at different ways in which
women have broken barriers, practiced politics, and promoted public
policy. These engaging and accessible stories are even more important in
today's political climate, when a woman can finally be a front-runner in
a presidential race.

http://www.jofreeman.com/books/heard.htm

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OUTLYING PRECINCTS

JONATHAN CHAIT, NEW REPUBLIC - One question [in a CNN exit poll] asked
if the candidate's gender was important. 17% said yes, and of them,
Clinton won 57-43. So voters who wanted a female candidate outnumbered
those who did not. Another question asked if the candidate's race was
important. 20% said yes, and of those, Clinton again won 57-43. So
voters who did not want a black candidate outnumbered those who did.
Race and gender both seemed to cut in Clinton's favor -- which may not
be a shock, since whites and females outnumbered blacks and males. In
both questions, voters who did not care about race or gender split
evenly.

http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/03/04/
race-and-gender-both-helped-clinton.aspx


FOG CITY JOURNAL - Vice-presidential candidate Matt Gonzalez ended weeks
of speculation about his political party affiliation, formerly
announcing he has left the Green Party. Gonzalez said he made the
decision to withdraw his Green Party affiliation "to increase ballot
access for the Nader/Gonzalez ticket." According to Gonzalez, states
including Delaware, Idaho and Oregon do not allow members of political
parties to run as independents. "I have enormous respect for the Greens
but I don't want to create additional hurdles for the campaign by
remaining in the party," Gonzalez wrote.

http://www.fogcityjournal.com/wordpress/2008/03/04/
matt-gonzalez-leaves-green-partyincreasing-ballot-
access-for-presidential-run-cited/


NY OBSERVER - A source in the campaign, speaking on background, said
that Mr. Penn's philosophy was perfectly represented by a comment he
made during one of Mrs. Clinton's debate preps at campaign headquarters
in early winter. About 15 staffers were in a room with Mrs. Clinton
discussing how she could best respond to a particular line of attack.
One of the aides, the source recalled, had an idea. "I think you need to
show a little bit of humanity," said the aide. Mr. Penn interjected.
"Oh, come on, being human is overrated."

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FURTHERMORE. . .

MSNBC - Voters in two Vermont towns approved measures calling for the
indictment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for what
they consider violations of the Constitution. More symbolic than
anything, the items sought to have police arrest Bush and Cheney if they
ever visit Brattleboro or nearby Marlboro or to extradite them for
prosecution elsewhere - if they're not impeached first. . .

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23472875/

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE - High on Mount Sinai, Moses was on psychedelic
drugs when he heard God deliver the Ten Commandments, an Israeli
researcher claimed in a study published this week. Such mind-altering
substances formed an integral part of the religious rites of Israelites
in biblical times, Benny Shanon, a professor of cognitive psychology at
the Hebrew University of Jerusalem wrote in the Time and Mind journal of
philosophy. "As far Moses on Mount Sinai is concerned, it was either a
supernatural cosmic event, which I don't believe, or a legend, which I
don't believe either, or finally, and this is very probable, an event
that joined Moses and the people of Israel under the effect of
narcotics," Shanon told Israeli public radio on Tuesday. Moses was
probably also on drugs when he saw the "burning bush," suggested Shanon,
who said he himself has dabbled with such substances.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gEOpkeLopJixolK1-9AQ_zNeWe5g

SPIEGEL, GERMANY - Women who would rather not wear a burqa can now slip
around it electronically. . . A German designer has debuted a
digitally-enabled burqa that can broadcast a photo of the wearer to
nearby mobile phones. . . A broadcasting burqa may not be explicitly
forbidden by Islamic law -- since most interpreters of Shariah have
never imagined such a thing -- but certain Islamic governments have
tried to clamp down on electronic flirting. By 2002 it was so common for
teenagers in Saudi Arabia to send each other pictures of themselves by
phone that an import ban was imposed on camera phones. But demand was so
high that the law was lifted two years later.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,537517,00.html

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE - The US will drastically reduce emergency food aid
to some of the poorest countries this year due to soaring food prices,
The Washington Post reports. Citing unnamed officials, the newspaper
said the US Agency for International Development was drafting plans to
cut down the number of recipient nations and the amount of food provided
to them. A 41 per cent surge in prices of wheat, corn, rice and other
cereals over the past six months has generated a $US120 million ($126.5
million) budget shortfall that will force the USAID to reduce emergency
operations, the report said.

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23305038-5003402,00.html


IDG NEWS SERVICE - A new survey found that more than a quarter of
employers have fired workers for misusing e-mail and one third have
fired workers for misusing the Internet on the job. The vast majority of
bosses who fired workers for Internet misuse, 84 percent, said the
employee was accessing porn or other inappropriate content. While
looking at inappropriate content is an obvious no-no on company time,
simply surfing the Web led to a surprising number of firings. As many as
34 percent of managers in the study said they let go of workers for
excessive personal use of the Internet, according to the survey. Among
managers who fired workers for e-mail misuse, 64 percent did so because
the employee violated company policy and 62 percent said the workers'
e-mail contained inappropriate or offensive language. More than a
quarter of bosses said they fired workers for excessive personal use of
e-mail and 22 percent said their workers were fired for breaching
confidentiality rules in e-mail.

http://www.itworld.com/Tech/4535/companies-fire-
employees-email-080228/pfindex.html


HOW TO LOSE THE WAR ON TERROR
http://valleywag.com/363325/five-youtube-videos-show-
american-soldiers-at-their-worst


TERMS FOR GROUPS OF ANIMALS (LIKE AN OBSTINACY OF BUFFALO)
http://www.hintsandthings.co.uk/kennel/collectives.htm

IF LINCOLN HAD JUST HAD POWERPOINT
http://norvig.com/Gettysburg/sld001.htm

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