Things I tripped over on my way to the internet

Why do G-rated movies have to be so scary?

How to help your child learn to read.

As the LAT puts it: “Which Barack Obama will dominate as he begins to govern?”

From Slate’s Today’s Papers.

This flurry of political posts will end, I promise.

In the seventh paragraph, Slate’s Today’s Papers gets around to (my emphasis):

… the latest from Burma, where the top U.S. diplomat said the death toll from the cyclone could reach 100,000. Some aid began to arrive, but frustration keeps on increasing among foreign governments and relief organizations who say they’re ready to launch a full-scale operation, but their efforts are being stymied by the country’s military leaders, who are reluctant to let outsiders into the notoriously closed-off country. Actually, frustration doesn’t even begin to describe what people around the world are feeling as the military junta seems willing to do everything in its power to let the suffering continue. Meanwhile, teams from several governments and numerous agencies are standing by in Bangkok just waiting for the go-ahead.

The NYT points out that France’s foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said “it would only take half an hour” for French boats and helicopters to reach the worst-hit areas, but the Burmese government isn’t allowing them to proceed. The impatience has grown to such a degree that Kouchner proposed that the United Nations should invoke its “responsibility to protect” doctrine and simply ignore the government’s wishes. The idea was shot down by others who said it would make the situation worse. Meanwhile, those on the ground continue to describe horrific scenes of survivors surrounded by bodies and animal carcasses, which, along with a general shortage of clean water, is raising fears that an epidemic could break out.

I think it’s obvious the time has come to act first and ask for forgiveness later.

From the last two paragraphs of Slate’s Today’s Papers (my elipses and emphasis):

The NYT fronts, while the WP and LAT go inside with, the increasingly desperate situation in Zimbabwe… . On Friday, Zimbabwe’s election commission finally announced the results of the presidential election, saying that although the opposition leader had won, it wasn’t by a large enough margin to avoid a runoff… . Now the ruling party seems ready to do everything it can to quiet any voices of opposition. A member of the ruling party’s leadership made it clear to a reporter working for the NYT that the party won’t be kicked out of power by the elections. “We’re giving the people of Zimbabwe another opportunity to mend their ways, to vote properly,” he said. And if the majority votes for the opposition? “Prepare to be a war correspondent.”

We could use more democracies and fewer thug dictatorships.

From Slate’s Today’s Papers:

Campaign workers may be exhausted from all the campaigning, but so are the journalists who have to follow them around, notes the WP’s Howard Kurtz. Although the media are often accused of trying to prolong the horse race, some reporters just want it to end. “This is a really strange phenomenon in that you’re seeing people who can’t wait for it to be over,” says Time’s Ana Marie Cox. “There’s only so many stories you can write, and we’re running out of them.”

Here’s an idea. How ‘bout they stop “follow[ing] them around” and “writing stories” and just tell us what’s news?