The James Logan Courier

By Aaron Barnhart
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)

—"Aliens in America"
8:30 p.m. EDT, the CW



I will confess to something that no self-respecting TV critic should admit: I never cared for "Freaks and Geeks."

Oh, yes, it's easy now to say I saw the future brilliance of Judd Apatow in the Peabody Award-winning sitcom he produced about the kids who get picked on at high school in the year 1980.

Not only did I not see a great future in Hollywood for Apatow, who would go on to write "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and "Knocked Up," I found "Freaks and Geeks" actually painful to watch. In hindsight, I guess that was a good sign that Apatow had hit his mark, but reliving scenes from my own years in prime time was definitely not my idea of entertainment.

By Ed Morales
(MCT)

The United States must stop relying on mercenaries in Iraq.

The Sept. 16 incident in Baghdad, where Blackwater USA, a private security company, killed at least 11 Iraqi civilians, has created a diplomatic crisis between the United States and Iraqi governments.

Worse, it has made a mockery of U.S. efforts to establish democracy in the country it invaded more than five years ago. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has already called for Blackwater to cease operations, saying the mercenary army amounted to a challenge of his nation's sovereignty.

While initial accounts of the incident said Blackwater was responding to gunfire, subsequent Iraqi reports claimed that there was no attack. Instead, they said Blackwater security guards opened fire at a car that didn't stop when told to by a policeman, and its passengers — a couple and their infant — were killed.

Blackwater, which is the primary provider of security to senior U.S. officials, including Ambassador Ryan Crocker, operates outside the law and governmental supervision. Having received a no-bid contract and operating on billions of dollars in taxpayer funds, Blackwater plays the role of renegade cowboys, flying low in helicopters with guns drawn. It is despised by Iraqis, and even some U.S. military personnel.

By Bronwyn Lance Chester
McClatchy-Tribune News Service (MCT)

Anyone looking for true bravery found it last week.

Not in the gasbag-athon between Columbia University's president and Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Not in presidential wannabe John Edwards announcing he'll accept public financing for his campaign. Hardly impressive when he could finance the whole shootin' match with the stroke of a pen.

No, courage showed itself in an unusual place — Myanmar — and wore robes the color of old blood, older bricks. Pluckiness sported a shaved head and bare feet. Defiance was armed only with holy words and photos of Buddha.

From wikipedia:
Will Keith Kellogg, usually referred to as W. K. Kellogg (April 7, 1860 – October 6, 1951) was a U.S. industrialist in food manufacturing.

W.K. Kellogg started out selling brooms as a young businessman then moved to Battle Creek, Michigan to help his brother John Harvey Kellogg run the Battle Creek Sanitarium. There in one of the labs they produced the first flaked cereal. W.K. Kellogg saw this as a great business opportunity and wanted to keep the production of the product a secret, John Harvey disagreed and allowed anyone in the sanitarium to come see the flaking process. This allowed a fellow sanitarium guest, C. W. Post to see the process, thus inspiring him to start his own company, which became Post Cereals and later General Foods. C.W. Post then made his first million dollars off the sales of his new product; this upset W.K. Kellogg who then left the sanitarium to create his own company.

Learn more about W.K. Kellogg, and about his stable of fine Arabian horses,free from California State University, Pomona.