William J. Bennett gambled away more than $8 million -- he gambled away his credibility Oh gosh, Bill, it wasn't just money you gambled away. I mean, if the stories had simply reported that you, William J. Bennett, once the nation's education secretary and drug czar, lost a few bucks in your regular poker game, then most of us would think you're just an average guy. Even if some of your poker mates happen to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court, with names like Rehnquist and Scalia, I'm sure they ask you to pass the peanuts, just like anyone else. [continues 650 words]
The latest news about smoking, drinking and the use of illegal drugs among teenagers is actually good news. Perhaps that's why it got so little attention. The highly reputable annual survey conducted by the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research was released last week, to scarcely an approving nod, when it should have received sustained civic applause for what it showed: The use of tobacco, alcohol and illegal drugs fell simultaneously among 8th, 10th and 12th graders for the first time since the Monitoring the Future project began tracking teenage substance abuse in 1975. Even the use of ecstasy declined after several years of surging popularity. [continues 604 words]
The latest news about smoking, drinking and the use of illegal drugs among teenagers is actually good news. Perhaps that's why it got so little attention. The highly reputable annual survey conducted by the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research, released Monday, should have received sustained civic applause for what it showed: The use of tobacco, alcohol and illegal drugs fell simultaneously among eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders for the first time since the Monitoring the Future project began tracking teenage substance abuse in 1975. Even the use of Ecstasy declined after several years of surging popularity. [continues 422 words]
The latest news about smoking, drinking and the use of illegal drugs among teenagers is actually good news. Perhaps that's why it got so little attention. The highly reputable annual survey conducted by the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research was released Monday, to scarcely an approving nod, when it should have received sustained civic applause: The use of tobacco, alcohol and illegal drugs fell simultaneously among eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders for the first time since the Monitoring the Future project began tracking teenage substance abuse in 1975. Even the use of ecstasy declined after several years of surging popularity. [continues 594 words]
PERHAPS it should come as no surprise that racial profiling grew out of America's ill-formed, inconclusive war on drugs, or that ethnic profiling should now become an issue in the nation's ongoing war on terrorism. In war, the enemy must be defined, targeted and, if at all possible, conceived as the other. The intuitive desire for safety and the fundamental need for self-defense trump all else. There's no time for nuance. If you resemble the enemy, you could be the enemy; therefore, you are the enemy. [continues 558 words]
Perhaps it should come as no surprise that racial profiling grew out of America's ill-formed, inconclusive war on drugs, or that ethnic profiling should now become an issue in the nation's continuing war on terrorism. In war, the enemy must be defined, targeted and, if at all possible, conceived as the other. The intuitive desire for safety and the fundamental need for self-defense trump all else. There's no time for nuance. If you resemble the enemy, you could be the enemy; therefore, you are the enemy. [continues 732 words]
