A Strong Voice March 13, 2006March 4, 2017 Do you know what makes Publix Fat Free Light Wild Berry Crumb Cake Yogurt so good? Can’t quite put your finger on it? It’s the hint of cinnamon! Do you know what didn’t even hurt – during or after? Not so much as a single Advil? My root canal. If only Dustin Hoffman had had Novocain. CAN YOU DO FRACTIONS? Mike Axelrod: ‘I’m normally a big fan of Bill Gross, but his paragraph on education does nothing but repeat old canards about math and science education in the US. Norm Matloff, professor of computer science at U.C. Davis, has written about these international tests. For one thing, most countries don’t send all their students to secondary schools the way the US does. Only their best students. Then there is the problem of the underclass in the US. If you look at states like Iowa and New Hampshire you’ll see they score very well on these international tests. I have been hearing stories for the past 30 years that American students are deficient in math and science. Why do we still win so many Nobel prizes? Surely if the system were so rotten we should see the effects by now. Besides, progress is made by best students not the average students. So you really need to compare the very best US students against the very best in other countries.’ A STRONG VOICE I assume you have seen this video clip by now (give it a few seconds to load before thinking it’s a bad link) – Syrian-American psychiatrist Wafa Sultan debating an Egyptian professor of religion on Al Jazeera. Talk about courage! Both links are well worth clicking. ANOTHER Howard Dean on CNN yesterday: . . . I believe that we can take back the House and the Senate. You know, America really wants a change, and the bottom line in this next election: Do you want more of the same or do you want a change? And the Democrats can represent the things that people really want changed: honesty and openness in government, real security changes, a health care system that works for everybody. Those are fundamental things that people want to see done differently. . . . . . . [Democrats will] give a consistent message about what Democrats want: honesty and openness in government, American jobs that will stay in America using energy independence as a new industry to create those jobs, a strong national defense based on telling the truth to the American people and our soldiers. Those are the kinds of things where we can really make difference. Health care that works for everybody. Those things we’ve all agreed on. Governors, senators, congressmen, and mayors have all agreed on those. . . . . . . After all, what’s really at stake here is the future of the country. This country’s become much weaker under President Bush, not just security and the outsourcing of our ports operations and all that, but the deficits. We’re about to vote next week on a new debt ceiling. I think the Democrats are going to vote no. And thank god. Somebody has to be fiscally responsible in this country. And the Republicans have lost the mantle of fiscal responsibility. Democrats are the only party in the last 40 years who have run a surplus under Bill Clinton. We’ve got to return us to the basics, return this country to the basics, where we’re focused. The president talks about homeland security. Well, homeland security means hometown security. And the Republicans have forgotten about ordinary people in the streets of America. . . . Tomorrow: The Man Who Ate Five Democrats