>> Do college students like having fun? Well, DO THEY!? Sounds like a job for Laura Sessions Stepp! Pull-quote highlight:
“[Professor Frederic D.] Homer and graduate assistant Rodney Wambeam wanted to know what students meant when they said they were in college to have fun. They wanted to know why students rarely included classwork in that definition. What they heard surprised them.”
That means if Stepp, herself, was surprised, it could potentially bring the total number of persons in the known universe who are surprised by the information imparted in this article to three whole people. This is, we believe, a personal best for Stepp.
>> Michael Hamlin has been sentenced to 26 years in prison for the murder of New York Times journalist David Rosenbaum. It was nearly a year ago that Rosenbaum suffered a head injury during a robbery. He died two days later while in the care of Howard University Hospital, leading to community outrage over the quality of his treatment. Hamlin, who provided testimony that led to the conviction of fellow criminal Percey Jordan, pled guilty and beseeched Rosenbaum’s family for forgiveness.
>> Smoking ban activists based their successful campaign on the premise that the rights of business owners do not trump a public right to safety, both in the workplace and in public spaces like restaurants and bars. Less dirty laundry and fewer hacking coughs: at bottom, we can all get behind that, right? One wonders, however, what will happen when the same premise that led to D.C.’s latest lifestyle legislation could potentially be brought to bear in an arena that really matters. Will those same activists rise to the occasion and champion public safety in opposition to market forces? Our guess: the snowballs-in-hell scenario.
> > Minnesota Representative Keith Ellison responds to loony-tune Virginia Rep. Virgil Goode’s criticisms by hitting him where he lives, vowing to use native son Thomas Jefferson’s personal copy of the Koran during his pretend swearing-in ceremony. The only question: will this escalate into a knock-down drag-out battle of quasi-religious relics? Will Goode have his own pretend swearing-in ceremony atop a Christmas tree? Will he vow his allegiance to George Allen’s football? And does anyone have a good Sally Hemings joke for the occasion? [The Reliable Source]
>> Less than a week after the Washington Post filed their story about Environment Maryland’s report on the state of Maryland’s air quality, newly elected Maryland AG Doug Gansler has vowed that he’ll take on the polluters. [NBC4]
>> Is Megyn Kendall-slash-Kelly busy making the beast with two backs (and several jowls) with Brit Hume? Radar Online seems to want us all to have that unholy image burned on the backs of our retinae.
Photo by Hoffman.
