Thomas Friedman, hyperbolic as ever, uses the Madoff money management scam to predict the end of capitalism. The Madoff affair, Friedman says, "is the cherry on top of a national breakdown in financial propriety, regulations and common sense." Sure it is. Or it's just another big financial scandal in a long line that dot American history.Michael Knox Beran in National Review has a prodigiously researched, slightly mean-spirited excoriation of Caroline Kennedy's interest in Hilary Clinton's soon-to-be vacant Senate seat. Beran, surprisingly, defends John Kennedy, while bashing father Joesph. What he doesn't address is whether Caroline Kennedy is qualified for the job, or least more qualified than Fran Drescher. Beran assumes, probably rightly, that anybody who has never -- not once -- run for public office, should, ipso facto, not be appointed to the highest legislative body in the land. No matter who her daddy was.
Not that American politics doesn't have a nobility. CBS points out that the Senate currently includes six sons or daughters of Congressmen. Next year's 111th Congress will have 21 House members with a parent who also served in Congress, plus five wives who holding their late husbands’ seats.
A Muslim woman was arrested for refusing to take off her head scarf at a courthouse security checkpoint. A judge ordered Lisa Valentine, 40, to serve 10 days in jail for contempt of court, said police in Douglasville, a city of about 20,000 on Atlanta's west outskirts. Valentine violated a court policy that prohibits people from wearing headgear in court, police said after they arrested her Tuesday. Valentine, who claimed her "human and civil rights" were violated, was unexpectedly released Wednesday after the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations urged authorities to investigate.
