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My son's Sony Vaio laptop from Best Buy was replaced with a new Sony Vaio because of 2 bad hard drives. Well, the new one just did the blue screen of death. They have 24 hours before his 30-day warranty expires. I've told him to take it back and demand full credit (no 10% reshelving fee) towards a different brand. Best Buy offers Toshiba, Compaq, Gateway, HP and Dell laptops. Which brand should he go with?

A lot of people are atwitter over this addition to the Thompson advisory team of former Senator Spencer Abraham. But, it is starting to look to me like a story incorrectly reported by the MSM and rolling off track from there. It just seems that there are too many conflicting reports on Abraham's role with the AP reporting that he is a new "campaign manager" but others saying Randy Enwright is. The website IsraelToday, for instance, has posted a story full of alarm over the addition of Spence to the team. Their reaction is similar to many Israel supporters here...

My youngest son, 18 next month, is on the verge of enlisting in the Marines. I support him if he makes the decision to join. I'd be very proud to be a Marine's mother. He's graduating from high school in May and would actually enter the Marines in June. We are not a military family. I'd appreciate hearing from anyone who has knowledge of the enlistment process, any words of wisdom for my son, any information that might be of help before enlistment or after enlistment. [The recruiter sounds like a used-car salesman--anxious to make the sale.]

Education board may take conservative turn on reading, writing standard AUSTIN - The State Board of Education, an elected body with a history of fierce ideological debates about textbook content, now wants to put its stamp on the curriculum that guides the instruction of 4.4 million Texas schoolchildren. At its meeting Thursday, the 15-member board is expected to scrap a curriculum revision process dominated by teachers and the Texas Education Agency and discuss a new timetable for revising the English reading and writing standards. Many on the board want to replace a student-centered curriculum that calls on students to use...

<p>The first worm targeting Apple Computer's Mac OS X operating system has surfaced,....</p>

Families across the Brazos Valley will receive about 22,000 checks totaling $13.5 million as the federal government sends out advance child tax credits, officials said. About 25 million people nationwide are receiving the checks, which the U.S. Treasury Department estimates will average $623 per person. The IRS began mailing them Friday. “I’ve talked to people who have already gotten their checks, and they’re excited about having that extra money,” said Kenneth Vargas, an IRS spokesman in Austin. “They’re talking about spending it for back-to-school things they need or for last-minute vacations before school starts back up. “Judging from what I’ve...

An acquaintance of mine - a man in his mid-50s who makes a good salary, but who lives on the edge of his means - has just refinanced his house. With interest rates so low, "Homer" decided to take a good chunk of cash out of the value of his house to buy a sports car he's been coveting. "I'm investing in the future," he tells me. For the past couple of years I've heard Homer talk about how badly his pension plan has been hammered by the bear market. Although he hates his job, he now figures he will...

Freepers, I'd like to ask you for prayers for the comforting of a very fine man and his family. Friday evening I received an unexpected phone call from the secretary of the school where I work. She told me that the daughter of our school's counselor, Ed, had unexpectedly died that afternoon. The death of a child is the worst thing that can happen to a parent, but Ed and his wife have lived in fear of this for 25 years or more-- both of their children suffer from sickle-cell anemia. The children, both in their 20s, have had multiple...

If I read one more time that teachers are responsible when students fail academically, I am going to be sick right on the doorsteps of the Texas Education Agency. The politicians who govern TEA and board members Mary Helen Berlanga and Geraldine Miller (who were quoted in the Nov. 9 Chronicle article), would be well-advised to let people who care about children run their agency. After a 30-year career as an engineer, I'm now in my second year of teaching math at a middle school. I have seen that most teachers are dedicated and work hard for a fraction of...

<p>WASHINGTON -- One of President Bush's more endearing qualities is his taste for what the folks back in my hometown used to call "plain speakin'."</p> <p>These days you might call it, "Politics for Dummies." It's a knack for boiling the complexities of this complicated world down into their simple essence.</p> <p>He gave us a fine example last week during the news conference that preceded his big Wall Street speech on corporate ethics.</p>

<p>About that grade The NAACP trotted out a "nonpartisan" report card on election reform this week at its annual convention in Houston. The report grades each state is on progress toward the NAACP's idea of election reform. Among these "reforms" are the purchase of new voting machines, an effort to restore voting rights to ex-felons and a minimum of a 10 percent increase in spending for voter registration and education programs. To ensure its nonpartisanship, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People commissioned an outside firm to compile this report. Their choice? Robinson and Foster, a Washington, D.C., company with deep liberal ties that include a co-owner who is a former legislative aide for U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, California Democrat. The group has also worked with the ACLU, the Sentencing Project and the American Bar Association. The company gave several states, including Texas, an "F" on its report card. When reporters asked about Texas' rating, NAACP President Kweisi Mfume informed them sadly that the state had failed to return the questionnaire it was sent some time ago. It appears Mr. Mfume was wrong. Reporter Steve Miller of The Washington Times obtained a copy of the response from the Texas governor's office. And when the reporter asked the NAACP to explain the discrepancy between Mr. Mfume's words and the completed questionnaire from the Texas governor's office, a spokesman quickly noted that "Robinson and Foster did the study, not us." But Alexander Robinson and Tyler Green, who were proudly attending the convention for the firm, looked at Texas' completed questionnaire as if it were a prehistoric relic. "I've never seen this before," Mr. Green said, adding: "They could have typed this all up and sent it out in the last couple of days." Mr. Robinson said the information on the election-reform report was "as complete as we could make it."</p>

Did anyone see Toby Keith on CNN with Wolf Blitzer? It was a rather extended interview, and Keith was able to speak his piece and sing the song Peter Jennings forbade. Keith said that Jennings was dishonest, that he (Toby Keith) had the paper trail to prove it. He said Peter Jennings had been "talking smack." It was great to see. Wolf Blitzer applauded after Keith finished singing and told him that Keith had a large audience on CNN.

Remarks delivered June 24, 2002 at the Rose Gardenhttp://www.jewishworldreview.com | For too long, the citizens of the Middle East have lived in the midst of death and fear. The hatred of a few holds the hopes of many hostage. The forces of extremism and terror are attempting to kill progress and peace by killing the innocent. And this casts a dark shadow over an entire region. For the sake of all humanity, things must change in the Middle East. It is untenable for Israeli citizens to live in terror. It is untenable for Palestinians to live in squalor and occupation....

NEW ORLEANS -- Homophobia is not an actual phobia, according to three University of Arkansas psychologists. In a recent study, these researchers showed that homophobia originates not out of fear or anxiety -- as true phobias do -- but from feelings of disgust. The UA researchers also found close associations between homophobic tendencies and concerns about contamination as well as conservative views about sexuality in general. Their findings suggest a social, attitudinal basis for homophobia rather than a psychopathological one, as the term itself implies. "If you can identify the underlying emotions of certain attitudes and behaviors, you can better...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - All 15 European Union (news - web sites) nations ratified the Kyoto pact against global warming (news - web sites) on Friday and goaded Washington -- which has turned its back on the treaty -- to also do its part. The so-called Kyoto protocol (news - web sites), which grew out of the historic 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, is aimed at cutting the emission of greenhouse gases blamed for rising global temperatures. Signed in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997, the protocol requires industrialized countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by an average of...

Leave it to the Log Cabin Republicans, the GOP's resident gay organization, to applaud a nasty insult of a Democratic member of Congress and lend it a certain consumerist panache. "Rhymes with Abercrombie and . . . " begins Wednesday's LCR Congressional Briefing on Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and her fight with the Los Angeles Police Department over Police Commission President Rick Caruso's use of the b-word to describe her during a recent meeting with top brass. The item in LCR's "Inclusion Wins" newsletter, which is e-mailed weekly to 2,000 subscribers, then notes: "OK, it's tacky to call a Congresswoman...

DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed has bought more than $1 billion worth of shares in Citigroup, AOL Time Warner and Priceline.com over the past six months, his company said on Monday. The prince, among the world's wealthiest men, bought $500 million in Citigroup, $450 million in AOL Time Warner and $100 million in Priceline.com. With around $10 billion in Citigroup, Alwaleed was already the biggest shareholder in the bank. quot;At about $43, Citi's share price was at too attractive a price,quot; the prince said in a statement issued by his company Kingdom Holdings. The statement said the prince...

BOSTON – Melting glaciers could cause global sea level to rise between 7 and 11 inches in this century, more than twice what was previously predicted, scientists said Saturday. That melting could combine with other factors to bring total sea level rise to between 1 and 2 feet. The rise may sound small, but "you could lose 100 feet of prime real estate along shores," said Mark Meier, a glaciologist at the University of Colorado. In low-lying areas such as estuaries, a 1-foot rise in sea level could push the shoreline 1,000 feet inland, Dr. Meier reported in Boston at ...

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The authorities have not yet calculated Afghanistan's civilian death toll in the war on terrorism, and the dimension of the tragedy is not fully known. Although estimates across the Arab world have placed the civilian dead in the thousands, an Associated Press review suggests that the toll may be far lower, perhaps not more than 600. The number -- reached by examining hospital records, visiting bomb sites and interviewing witnesses and officials -- will surely rise when more exhaustive surveys are compiled by independent bodies. Neither the United States nor the Afghan government is attempting to take ...

<p>Attorney General John Ashcroft has created an interagency task force to review current administrative and legal sanctions governing the leak of classified information.</p> <p>The review, the first in nearly two decades, will look at current tools to stop leaks and will make recommendations for modifications to administrative policies and regulations, and formulate new statutory remedies, if necessary.</p>