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Does anybody else have the Ann Murray “Little Good News” song pop into their heads as they read the papers? Today was one of those days.

The debate over evolution rages on in Pennsylvania, where “a new bill would permit districts to include instruction on Intelligent Design. Bill sponsor Rep. Thomas C. Creighton says the current code is biased toward "atheists who promote evolution theory," while opponents warn the bill could set a dangerous precedent."

So just atheists acknowledge science? There are NOOOOOOOO people of religion who acknowledge science? And, if you think about it, Intelligent Design speaks of a ‘power’ that inspired the world we live in and all its glory. Well, doesn’t Darwin’s natural selection theory, where the fittest survive, species adapt, change and ‘perfect’ themselves, yes, evolve into something better, essentially speak to this ‘intelligent design’ that creationists are purporting?



Flag Burning—it’s back. Four times they’ve tried to make this a constitutional amendment since 1989. They always seem to use the examples of how upset soldiers would be if they knew the flag was burning. Well, just maybe some, most, maybe all, would say, we fight for the US so people can choose to hang the flag or burn it, whenever they feel like it, to express whatever speech they want to.

G8 'still selling weapons to worst regimes'
I was very interested to read an article on the G8 and the fact that something like 80% of the world's weapons held by the worst regimes are actually sold to them by the powerful 8, the ‘great powers’ as they are called in the international relations field of study. So, they are trying to solve the problems of poverty, AIDS and environmental blight all the while they are still supplying terrible weapons to terrible dictators who are certainly adding the numbers in poverty, not fighting an AIDS epidemic and slowly destroying the environment in the process. What’s wrong with this picture—hey, Left Hand, meet the Right One. Do you two know what the other’s doing?

Pentagon Creating Student Database: Recruiting Tool For Military Raises Privacy Concerns
I’m sure we have NOTHING to worry about here. This sounds just fine to me. (Run kids, run very fast, hide!)

"One Committee's Three Hours of Inquiry, in Surreal Time"
This goddamn story is just completely crazy. Many, many people should go to prison for this one. The brazen tactics of Jack Abramoff's are unbelievable. I have to think Senator Biden had a LOT of fun this one during the committee’s questioning session. This is the most fucked up scandal I’ve read about recently. The first paragraph would grab anyone’s attention: “Yesterday's Senate hearing into superlobbyist Jack Abramoff's alleged defrauding of Indian tribes had something for everyone. There was the yoga instructor who took the Fifth. There was the lifeguard selected to run a think tank from a beach house at Rehoboth. And there was Exhibit 31, an e-mail from Abramoff to a rabbi friend.”



In case anyone is suddenly feeling nostalgic for the song, here are the lyrics, enjoy.


A Little Good News
Anne Murray
Written by Charles Black, Rory Bourke, and Thomas Rocco

I rolled out this morning
Kids had the mornin' news show on
Bryant Gumbel was talkin' 'bout the fighting in Lebanon
Some senator was squawkin' 'bout the bad economy
It's gonna get worse you see, we need a change in policy

There's a local paper rolled up in a rubber band
One more sad story's one more than I can stand
Just once how I'd like to see the headline say
"Not much to print today, can't find nothin' bad to say", because

Nobody robbed a liquor store on the lower part of town
Nobody OD'ed, nobody burned a single buildin' down
Nobody fired a shot in anger, nobody had to die in vain
We sure could use a little good news today

I'll come home this evenin'
I'll bet that the news will be the same
Somebody takes a hostage, somebody steals a plane
How I wanna hear the anchor man talk about a county fair
And how we cleaned up the air, how everybody learned to care
Whoa, tell me

Nobody was assassinated in the whole Third World today
And in the streets of Ireland, all the children had to do was play
And everybody loves everybody in the good old USA
We sure could use a little good news today

Nobody robbed a liquor store on the lower part of town
Nobody OD'ed, nobody burned a single buildin' down
FADE
Nobody fired a shot in anger, nobody had to die in vain
We sure could use a little good news today