The thing that's bothering me about this is the way one single answer to one out of the blue question is being taken as a definitive measurement of this young woman's mental capabilities. You know, if you took the trouble to look up her transcript I'll bet she's actually doing pretty well in her high school. And if you simply sat down and talked with her under normal circumstances I'll bet she'd come across as a reasonably intelligent and aware person. It's simply unfair to make so much out of so little. As for the question itself, the whole issue of why the U.S. education system isn't doing the job it should be is surely too large and complex to be addresses fairly in a thirty second sound bite. I think it's a shame that this one botched moment may haunt this young woman forever and have a real negative effect on her future.

LS,

Not to disput the main points of your argument, but I just wanted to point out that the finals of the National Spelling Bee have in fact been on in prime time for the past couple of years or so, and I believe they've done pretty well.

We've grown accustomed to our corporate controlled conservative media in this country failing to question what George Bush says. But these were FOREIGN journalists. So why didn't they ask that obvious follow-up question???

I believe the contradiction that Glenn points out is at least partly explained by the sense among right wingers that in the case of Libby (and North, and the other examples he mentions as well) their convictions were UNJUST because, whatever they did, they were FIGHTING FOR THE RIGHT. They simply do not acknowledge that anyone who is prominent in their political movement ever does anything wrong.

'West Side Story' is one of my all time favorite shows, and 'Maria' is one of its most beautiful songs. Now I'm just afraid I'll never be able to listen to it in the same way again! Thanks for the laugh!

All I can say is...how unutterably sad and tragic.

I find the caveman mildly amusing as an advertising figure, though I've never quite understood the supposed stupidity of a caveman being a major selling point for insurance. ("So easy a caveman can do it." Is that supposed to mean that ease of applying is more important than rates, comprehensiveness of coverage or quality of service?) Still I can't imagine how that kind of joke can be sustained for a full episode, much less for a series. I will be amazed if this show lasts more than a month.

Reading something like this always makes me shake my head. I simply cannot comprehend how anyone of either gender would NOT want to wash their hands after using the restroom.

As for that scene in Seinfeld...I have seen restaurants that have signs posted in the restrooms saying that all employees MUST wash their hands before returning to work. That's probably a good idea, though there are certainly questions about how it is enforced.

I very much appreciate the basic thrust of this article and the encouragement to approach life with a basically cheerful attitude. I just have one little quibble. We haven't quite survived "the most incompetent leadership ever" yet. We still have about sixteen months of the Bush administration to get through, and who knows what additional havoc they can wreak in that time? I just hope that when it is finally over we will be able to look back and sigh with relief over how right you were.

"Non-binding" is worthless! It simply means it's not going to happen. Werner should be ashamed of himself on this one.

If passing this resolution would cause such problems with deployments then MAYBE it's just one more indication that the policy we're pursuing is a bad one to begin with.

If Bush's claims about Iraq being the central front in a clash in which our very civilization is at stake were anything other than empty rhetoric then we would be pursuing the war with an all out effort, including a draft that wuld assure adequate manpower without multiple rotations (or at least with adequate time between rotations)...and a tax increase to actually pay for it!

I also just saw a TV ad for Romney this morning in which he says Republicans need to act like themselves and not like Democrats..."the party of big spending". Given the fact that the last Democratic president actually had us in a situation of budget surpluses while George Bush has presided over perhaps the most profligate spending and the greatest explosion of the national debt in our nation's history while not using a single veto to attempt to restrain spending, one can only conclude that Romney must have been asleep for about the last fifteen years or so. The Republicans have given up any pretense of being for fiscal responsibility!

It ought to have been clear to anyone that Bush and the cabal surrounding him were intent on invading Iraq no matter what. All the "diplomacy" he engaged in in the period leading up to the invasion was focused, not on finding some way to avoid war, but on trying (with very limited success) to drum up support for it. The tone of everything he said confirmed this, as did his unwillingness to allow the inspectors that were there to properly complete their job. Saddam could have come crawling on his knees and Bush would have still declared that, in some way, he was not doing what was being demanded of him. The decision was already made.

The Downing Street memo, which basically asserted that intelligence was being manipulated to fit the predetermined policy, caused a brief stir, but then the story was simply allowed to die out. I wonder if this report in El Pais will even receive mention in the MSM.