Lucky, indeed. But she’s young, so let’s hope she learns from this.

And not a very good job of it at that.

She was a finalist, top 5. I watched on the tube as it happened. To her credit they were all pretty bad. They started off to be very funny, but soon were very sad. The only one who gave a decent answer was the winner – Colorado.

Hi Javier–

MRE

After a week away, I was looking forward to your posts and as usual, you came through with great ones!

Jesus isn’t the only one weeping these days. I was doing some sobbing of my own when I read this just recently:

http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_6658295

BTW, just as a bit of trivia what is the only state that has USA on their plates? New Mexico. Back when the Olympic games were held in Atlanta, I was both entertained and appalled by a story in the paper about a man in New Mexico who tried to order tickets for events by phone when they first went on sale. The salesperson refused to sell them to him because “they could not send tickets to people living in foreign countries.” No amount of talking could persuade her or her supervisor that New Mexico was indeed a part of the United States.

Hi Esther–

MRE

Some are beauty, some are beauty AND brains. I assume this is the latter or she wouldn’t have been asked the question.

Generally, I find the younger generation’s diction (listen to telephone solicitors sometime), spelling, grammar, punctuation and sentence structure abilties appallling. Some youngster’s will outgrow this condition, however some won’t.

I agree. I hope she grows out of it. I’m sure she will have this video of a constant reminder of how she used to be. Maybe it will be instructive for her children.

MRE

Lawmakers want tech updates at State Department
http://govexec.com/story_page.cfm?filepath=/dailyfed/0807/082307tdpm3.htm

The topline of the story made me think of you from earlier this summer. State took in $243 Mil in expedited passport fees over some time
period that will come available for use in the 2008 budget. The article, likely based on
some State/OMB insiders’ comments, points towards IT upgrades with the money. I am sure that you would push for staffing increases in passport processing, or at least that the tech upgrades should be directed to passport processing efficiency, if not returned to those who paid them and received less than the regular service when they were expecting expediting. I don’t work at State (State’s loss), but I think I could probably make the need for expediting a thing of the past. Done it in other places before government, so why not, other than the loss of a revenue stream. Please don’t be too steamed.

I’m only steamed over the thought of all the people whose vacations/business trips were ruined by bureaucratic bungling over this issue. These are experiences and dollars that can never be recovered by them. And that’s not to mention all the angst and despair they experienced. Of course, looking on the positive side, most of these people had never had an encounter with our supposedly benevolent government up close and personal. This might give them a little more pause at the voting both, but I doubt it.

MRE

FWIW, as someone who is more of a federalist, I think South Carolina generally winds up in the bottom five on any measure of public school efficacy, and there’s probably a state’s rights issue at the bottom of it. God forbid some eggheads in DC set some basic curriculum standards. FWIW, I also don’t think high stakes testing is a real solution so much as beefing up the curriculum and making a HS degree something meaningful.

For once, Max, you and I are in complete agreement.

MRE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9f2GDhMSgA

Ah, indeed. It’s a good thing he’s not running for Miss America.

MRE

Probably a bad choice of words on my part. Young women in these beauty pageants (I think this was the Miss America pageant) are supposed to be not only beautiful, but educated, articulate, talented and poised.