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More Pledge Decision Backlash

In response to this summer's Ninth Circuit Court ruling on the Pledge of Allegiance, Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura told the New York Times, "It isn't the government's job to mandate patriotism. To me, mandating a pledge of allegiance to a government is something Saddam Hussein would do."

President Bush decried the court's decision, calling it "ridiculous," and the Justice Department has since filed an appeal to reverse the ruling, which asserts that the pledge violates the separation of church and state.

Party's Over

The Princeton Review was widely criticized last month for including a Top 20 Party School list in its annual review of the 331 "Best Colleges." Critics denounced the list as irresponsible for promoting the notion that alcohol and drugs are central to campus life.

Said Dr. Henry Wechsler of the Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Studies Program, "It's positively unscientific. There is no possible way that the Princeton Review could accurately rank schools one to 20 as the top party schools. It's impossible to do, it's stupid to do, and it's inaccurate."

Quotable Quote

"A three-year-old child in an affluent family has a larger working vocabulary than the mother of a three-year-old in a welfare family."

Reid Lyon, Bush advisor and Chief of Child Development branch at the National Institute of Health

Fall 2002