Gongol.com Archives: October 2006
Brian Gongol


October 13, 2006

The United States of America DC a completely unsafe city
Map of robberies shows that just about anywhere one goes in the city (except to the northwest), they're at high risk of getting robbed. Nation's capital has a significantly higher rate of robberies per capita than Chicago, Miami, LA, or New York.

Iowa Does West Des Moines need a public-art program?
The only level upon which it's ever really acceptable to pay for art with public money is on the community scale, but from the plans it sounds like a public-arts program for the town is already a foregone conclusion

Water News Water re-use to continue in California agriculture

News Head of British army says they have to get out of Iraq soon
Says the UK's presence in Iraq makes the situation worse and insists the UK should "get ourselves out sometime soon because our presence exacerbates the security problems." Certainly a bold statement. It should come as no surprise he was promptly ordered to explain himself to the bosses. He's previously expressed indignation over the treatment of injured British troops brought home from Iraq. Whether plots like one to set off dirty bombs in the UK are direct consequences of the war in Iraq or simply coincidental, but there are clearly violent and uncivilized people around who intend to kill, and some of them at least use Iraq as a cover for their "cause."

News Why "nonprofit" is never the same as "better than for-profit"
Senate investigation suggests that independent "non-profit" think tanks took money from lobbyist Jack Abramoff and used it inappropriately for political projects that run against the tax rules for organizations of that type. "Non-profit" is a tax status, not a moral one.

The United States of America New California law prevents teacher-shuffling
Existing rules allowed districts to shuffle around bad teachers, and gave those low-performing educators priority over new teachers in the hiring process. Not anymore. The teachers' unions are hopping mad, and since they generally have the incentive to protect mediocre performers better than strong teachers (after all, the strong teachers have more bargaining power and thus less need for the union's help), it's probably a decision that's good for California kids.

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