Real Kato Blog: Today's News

Bringing you the news, so you don't have to go to all the trouble of turning on your television set.

The Senate has reportedly reached a compromise to avert the filibuster showdown. Fourteen centrists in the Senate have essentially bypassed their party leaders, forming a block of swing votes that will allow some controversial Bush judicial appointees to receive a confirmation vote, while retaining the rights of the Democratic party to employ filibusters in "extreme" cases. I think this is really a victory for the American people. I also think it's a loss for Bill Frist, who probably would have liked to have pushed through his hard-line stance, in order to appease religious conservatives and grease the skids for a possible presidential run.

Here's a story that's both happy and sad. An eight-year-old girl was raped, and then buried in a recycling bin and left for dead. But the police found her, about seven hours after she'd been reported missing. She told her rescuers that she knew she would be found. This has got to be one brave little girl. For me, that would be absolutely one of the worst ways to die... alone, helpless, and facing the possibility that no one might ever know what happened to you. But the girl just went to sleep for a while, and said she was just waiting for her rescuers to find her. Wow.

Now here's a funny story. For our state seventh-grade end-of-grade test, there was a football-related math question. Students were supposed to calculate the average yards gained by a football team after six plays. However, as the question was written, the offense would have failed to convert on fourth down, and thus would have lost possession of the ball after four plays. This is exactly the kind of question that would have INFURIATED me in school, because I would have known that there were two possible correct answers, depending on whether I chose to outsmart the test or not. Sigh... this is what happens when you live in basketball country.

And finally, speaking of basketball... how 'bout them Detroit Pistons? Whoohoo!

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