29 October 2006

what's going on here (part IV)...

U.S. Jobs Shape Condoms’ Role in Foreign Aid

Alabama firms were given an almost exclusive contract to produce condoms for foreign aid. The purpose was to keep jobs in the US rather than using cheaper more cost-effective condoms from Asia. They can't keep up with the number of condoms required. The federal government begins buying the cheaper condoms. In effect, it out-sources just like many American companies. American lay-offs are to begin soon. Sen. Jeffers (R-Ala) wants a law to use only US made condoms. He'll probably get it. What's the price of millions of people in Africa and Asia dying of AIDS when we can save a couple of hundred Alabaman's jobs? just asking...



GOP at a loss? Karl Rove has an 11th-hour plan to win

be afraid... be very, very afraid. Not of the terrorists but of the promised October Surprise. [There are still three more days in October!] Rather than focusing on issues, this man focuses on power, getting it, keeping it, and abusing it. No tactic is above consideration. He consistently uses tactics that scare not only little babies but full-grown adults. Anybody counting down the number of day? Can he spill over into November if he doesn't have enough time? just asking...



Relief for Nasa as Discovery makes a textbook landing

Did anyone know that Discovery had even launched, let alone returned safely? This makes the news in the UK and you can't find it in the NYT, LA Times, Chicago Sun-Times...? Have we become so inured by space travel in the US that it is now routine? Or are we being led to only read certain things in the news? just asking...



Tearing Down The Walls

al-Jazeera in English? The station may have an idea here. Many people in the US don't have an inkling on the thinking going on in the heads of people who actually live in the Middle East. Democracy is based on free speech & dialogue. Yet, we seldom hear a word, let alone have any kind of dialogue, from the people of the Middle East. Is this part of Homeland Security? just asking...



Gay Cruises Are on the Seas and in the Mainstream

They're everywhere! They're everywhere! I hadn't gone on any cruise, let alone a gay one, until this past January. My friends kept telling me I would like it. I didn't want to believe them. I had no idea that a cruise could be so relaxing and enjoyable. I venture onto a gay cruise this coming March 10-17. [shhhh, it's a secret.] Anyone else going to be there? just asking...



Une jeune femme grièvement brûlée dans l'incendie d'un bus à Marseille

On the first anniversary, the rioting returns in France with a bus being burned, damage to property, injuries to rioters, and the death of one young lady. What have the French learned in one year? Appeasement? Ignorance? Stay the course? just asking...



Sources: New York Times, Telegraph.co.uk, Los Angeles Times, Time Magazine - Europe Edition, Le Monde

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