Dowbrigade

An earlier posting concerning dozens of Massachusetts school teachers
who were about to lose their jobs after having failed a new, state-mandated
English fluency test (Teachers
Fail Fluency Test, Lose Jobs, Sue) takes on a new dimension today
with the revelation that one of the failing educators (three times!)
was the SUPERINTENDENT of Schools in Lawrence, Mass. Coincidentally,
Lawrence is
one
of the school
districts
currently sueing the state over class size and school funding (Mass
Districts Sue State over Class Size)

Now many of the same state officials who clamored for the ouster of
minority teachers who failed the test are lining up to support the Lawrence
Super, Wilfredo T. Laboy. Laboy, who takes home $156,000 of taxpayer’s money in salary, earlier this year sanctimoniously supported the firing of 24 Lawrence teachers for failing the same exam he himself failed three times.

"Governor Mitt Romney and state education leaders lined up yesterday
to defend the Lawrence school superintendent, who is leading one of the
state’s most troubled school systems despite having failed a state-mandated
writing test for educators three times."

”I’m not sure the superintendent of schools is in the same level of importance to me in terms of English skills as are the teachers in the classroom teaching our kids,” said Romney.

from the Boston Globe

The Harvard Law School Library has approximately one
million pages of documents relating to the trial of military and political
leaders of Nazi Germany before the International Military Tribunal. Now
Harvard has started putting the entire collection on line.

article from
Boston Globe
direct link to the Nuremberg Trial Project

Few things exemplify the chaos of Liberia more than the
sight of doped-up, AK-47-wielding 15-year-olds roaming the streets decked
out in fright wigs and tattered wedding gowns. Indeed, some of the more
fully accessorized soldiers in Charles Taylor’s militia even tote dainty
purses and don feather boas. Why did this practice begin and what is
its logic?

Cross-dressing combatants have been regulary seen in the
Liberian Civil at least since 1987, when currently beseiged president
Daniel Taylor laid siege to Monrovia with a
band of dolled-up marauders dressed in "wedding [dresses], wigs,
commencement gowns from high schools and several forms of ‘voodoo’ regalia.They
believed they could not be killed in battle."

from Slate

Perhaps
the most spectacular of modern morality plays is the saga of Mike Tyson,
mythical in his abilities and his appitites. It is the contradictions
in the man which fascinate; his beefcake physique and squeeky voice,
his obvious intelligence and repeated stupidity, his savage strength
and psychological weakness. Well, he’s in the news again, now bankrupt…

"For the former heavyweight champion, a cash machine to himself and
to others,
record
earnings
in the
boxing
ring
became a
license
to
spend on jewelry, mansions, cars, limousines, cellphones, parties,
clothing, motorcycles and Siberian tigers. Despite making about $400
million over the past 20 years, Tyson managed to squander his fortune."

by RICHARD SANDOMIR in the New York Times