Sherry Chandler

Over at Pol Watchers, Ryan Alessi has put together a nice post on outgoing governor Ernie Fletcher’s effect on the local lexicon.

Fletcher talked about “waste, fraud, and abuse’ so much, in exactly that order, that the phrase got reduced to WFA

the Frankfort equivalents of Weapons of Mass Destruction: a lot easier to say than to find and destroy.

Fletcher stopped looking for the “unvarnished truth” of the hiring scandal that brought his administration down — well, actually it was his blanket and preemptive pardon of anybody in his administration who may have been involved in hiring abuses that brought his administration down — but he did leave us with a rather expensive state slogan and logo, Unbridled Spirit, which you see all over the place now, including on this blog. I use it because I’ve had grants and fellowships from the Kentucky Arts Council. But you don’t have to be “official” to use it.

Since being unveiled in November 2004, “Unbridled Spirit” has found its way onto T-shirts, caps, merchandise and materials of any in-state group that wants to use it.

Even the Creation Museum in Northern Kentucky slapped the brand’s insignia on its billboard along I-75, which Commerce Cabinet spokesman Chris Gilligan said is something any organization can do as long as they don’t alter the logo’s form. An atheist group also has inquired about putting it on letters, he said.

I understand that the Creation Museum shows Fred Flintstone riding a dinosaur so I would argue that they’ve bridled their spirit.

I certainly bridle at the idea that they can use the state logo with impunity.

Noodling? Go read Alessi.

And read the discussion here back in June 2006.

On December 10, 1948, in response to the tragedies of World War II the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Here’s the NYTimes front page declaring it so.

Here is part of what that frontpage story said:

Paris, Dec, 10–A universal Declaration on Human Rights nearly three years in preparation, was adopted late tonight by the United Nations General Assembly. The vote was 48 to 0 with the Soviet bloc, Saudi Arabia and the Union of South Africa abstaining.

…

The declaration is the first part of a projected three-part International Bill of Rights. The United Nations now will begin drafting a convention that will be a treaty embodying in specific detail and in legally binding form the principles proclaimed in the declaration. The third part will be a protocol for implementation of the convention possibly by such measures as establishment of an International Court of Human Rights and an International Committee of Conciliation.

The Assembly accorded an ovation to Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt when Dr. Herbert V. Evatt, the Assembly’s president, after declaring the declaration adopted, paid tribute to the first chairman of the Human Rights Commission for her tireless efforts in the long process of drafting the document.

“She has raised a great name to an even greater honor,” Dr. Evatt said of the United States delegate.

From the AP, link from Informed Comment:

BAGHDAD (AP) — Religious vigilantes have killed at least 40 women this year in the southern Iraqi city of Basra because of how they dressed, their mutilated bodies found with notes warning against “violating Islamic teachings,” the police chief said Sunday.

Maj. Gen. Jalil Khalaf blamed sectarian groups that he said were trying to impose a strict interpretation of Islam. They dispatch patrols of motorbikes or unlicensed cars with tinted windows to accost women not wearing traditional dress and head scarves, he added.

“The women of Basra are being horrifically murdered and then dumped in the garbage with notes saying they were killed for un-Islamic behavior,” Khalaf told The Associated Press.

…

Khalaf said bodies have been found in garbage dumps with bullet holes, decapitated or otherwise mutilated with a sheet of paper nearby saying, “she was killed for adultery,” or “she was killed for violating Islamic teachings.” In September, the headless bodies of a woman and her 6-year-old son were among those found, he said. A total of 40 deaths were reported this year.

“We believe the number of murdered women is much higher, as cases go unreported by their families who fear reprisal from extremists,” he said.

from Irrawaddy News Magazine:

The UN Human Rights Rapporteur to Burma, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, said recently that at least 31 people, including Buddhist monks, were killed and up to 4,000 people were arrested during the military government’s crackdown.

At least 52 monasteries have been raided by soldiers since September and hundreds of monks were arrested, said a Burmese Human Rights group, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma).

Tate Naing, the secretary of the AAPP, said in reality, the death toll might be higher than current estimates because no one can get accurate information in Burma.

“Even the UN human rights rapporteur’s investigations are limited because the military junta watches and controls his every footstep in Burma,” said Tate Naing.

and this:

The UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy, expressed concern over the use of child soldiers in Burma and Burundi, despite repeated appeals made by the international community including the United Nations.

“The issue of recruitment and use of children continues to be a problem in Myanmar [Burma] both with regard to the Government and various non-state actors,” Coomaraswamy said in a statement a day after she made a detailed presentation before the Working Committee.