So I came across the U.S. News and World Report's list of top 100 schools.  They provided the methodology they used for how they decided who to rank where.

http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/high-schools/2007/11/29/the-ranking-formula.html

I can't help but notice that all blacks and hispanics are included in the "disadvantaged" category.  Regardless of family history, family income or any other criteria.  So a black student who has two parents with PhD.'s is automatically included in the disadvantaged group. 

Odd, no?

So my major reaction when watching the ISG's public conference was, "What expertise is it that Sandra Day O'Connor brought to the ISG?"

Okay, so she was a Supreme Court Justice and a legislator in the Arizona legislature.  As a Supreme Court Justice, I'm sure she could've told the ISG all about the Constitutionality of the war in  Iraq.  "Congress authorized it, it's legal."  Beyond that, what expertise did she bring that say, an  engineer couldn't have?  Heck, even a Sergeant in the Marine Corps who'd done a year in Iraq probably would've had more productive information to bring to the table.

So the Democrats are off in Europe making nice with Europe's socalists.  Is this their plan to reconnect to redstate Ameria in 2008?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061207/pl_nm/europe_socialists_us_dc 

I just finished filling up my gas tank for a whopping $25.  So now that gas is back to $2/gal, and the stock market is approaching its all time high, what are the Democrats and the media going to say is wrong with the economy in the run-up to the '06 elections.  I'm betting on "It's only the rich who are doing well.  The poor are getting worse off."   I wouldn't be surprised if they started screaming about the worries of inflation either.

The Discovery space shuttle is about to make its decent from outer space, and I can't find a single, significant contribution that the shuttle has made that in any way justifies its price tag.

Clearly, space has certain national security implications.  The spy and reconnaissance satellites that we have in space are an ever increasing portion of our ability to gather intelligence on what is going on in the rest of the world.  But manned space flights are different.  Spending billions of dollars so we can learn what zero-g adds to geriatric science seems like a massive waste of money. 

But manned space flight has become the most visible face of NASA, so it seems like they're sending people into space just to keep the agency in the news. 

As the war in Israel continues to spiral into a larger conflict that threatens to engulf the entire region in a shooting war, I can't help but note the reaction of the liberals both in America and abroad.  It is high time that Israel be allowed to defend themselves.  To demand that Israel allow its cities to be bombarded with missiles fired from Palestinian territories and not retaliate is to demand that Israel give up its right to exist. 

The Palestinians have proven by their actions in Gaza that they have no intention of ever acknowledging Israel's right to exist.  Almost from the moment Israel moved out of the Gaza the Palestinians started building that tunnel that they used to kidnap an Israeli soldier.  I've seen people around the net argue that the Palestinians will never be happy until Israel ceases to exist.  I'm not completely sure that even then they'd be content.  It would take the expulsion of every Jew from the Middle East before the Palestinians would even consider laying down their bombs. 

It is time that the west (and Americans in particular) realize that it is the same ideology that caused people to fly planes into the World Trade center, is causing people to try and kill our soldiers in Iraq and is exacerbating this crisis in the Middle East.  So long as we continue to treat these as separate conflicts the jihadists will take this as a sign of weakness that they will continue to exploit.

I've decided to start blogging because I miss sitting around in college having all sorts of fascinating debates with people who completely disagreed with me.  My mother is fond of telling me I'm the only person in the history of the world to go off to college and come back more conservative than I was when I left.  It's that debate that I really miss.

The immigration issue is one that amazes me anytime I hear any pundit talk about.  On Friday, I was listening to the guest host on Rush's show talk to Mike Pence about his guest worker plan.  One thing that bothers me about this issue that no one ever talks about is what is going to happen to these people once they become part of the official system.  In short, they're going to be subject to all of the same laws as American citizens in regards to minimum wages and required payments to Social Securiry. 

Among the reasons that illegal aliens have had so much success finding work in the States is because they can accept any wage they want.  Once all these people become guest workers and their employers are required to pay them the same wages as all other Americans, the demand for illegals who can accept a lower wage is going to remain as strong as it is today.