What I've Learned So Far... Today

Sunday, June 4, 2006

This is a special note to let you know that my documentary, Young Poet Incarcerated, and the young man it's about were profiled on Page One of the Ann Arbor News today.

In case you didn't know, I have been blessed with the opportunity to conduct creative workshops with the incarcerated young men at the W. J. Maxey Boys Training School here in Whitmore Lake. Last summer I received a grant to produce a mini-documentary profiling one of my bright young students. We are now in the process of releasing and distributing this documentary, and it has been getting a lot of media attention.

This fine article, written by News Staff Reporter Susan Oppat, does a wonderful job of shining a light on this young poet  and on the larger issue of finding ways to connect with the talented and troubled children in our society - exactly the focus of my film.

If you don't get the Ann Arbor News, you can read the article online at Mlive.com.

 

George W. Bush has asked the U.S. Senate to pass a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, saying that the legislation was needed to, "...fully protect marriage from being re-defined."

"What a relief!" said Mrs. Thelma Flapp, of Cranston Rhode Island. Mrs. Flapp, who recently celebrated her 59th wedding anniversary with her husband Clyde, went on to say, "Every minute of our lives together has been a challenge, not knowing from one day to the next how our marriage was going to be defined."

 

Three separate research papers published in the June 1, 2006 issue of the journal Nature all indicate that 55 million years ago the Arctic enjoyed a median annual temperature of 74 degrees Fahrenheit – roughly the same as modern-day Florida. The findings came as a result of the analysis of biological and climatic samples from the floor of the Arctic Ocean.

Not mentioned in any of the papers was the simultaneous discovery of an elderly man and woman, encased in the ice and perfectly preserved. After they were revived, they identified themselves as Ira and Myrtle Zimmerman and gave their address as 255 North Pole Vista, Unit 7G.

The understandably confused and disoriented couple told medical personnel that 55 million years ago they had been on the way to the Really Old Country Buffet to get the Early Bird Special, when they were overtaken by an Ice Age.

Mr. and Mrs. Zimmerman were found sitting in an "incredibly vintage" Coupe de Ville with the left turn signal blinking.

Copyright © 2006, Michael Ball

 

Almost two years after the contentious 2004 presidential elections, friends and supporters of Senator John Kerry are working diligently to set the record straight on Kerry's military record in Vietnam. They have been systematically proving false every contention made by the ironically-named "Swift Boat Veterans For Truth" during their $30 million anti-Kerry campaign.

And this has many of the "Swifties" crying, "Foul!" What I've Learned So Far... Today was recently able to interview one such individual, Mr. Clyde Payedoff of Wichita, Kansas.

George W. Bush, commenting on the situation in Iraq to a joint press conference during his two days of talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, stated that, "Not everything has turned out the way we hoped."

Bush went on to say that World War II was "...an unfortunate little misunderstanding," that the sinking of the Titanic "... sure must of messed up all those folks' vacations," and that the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake was "... a pretty good example of involuntary urban renewal."

Blair spent much of the afternoon briefing Bush on his meeting in Baghdad earlier in the week with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who said that his forces would be able to take control of security in Iraq within 18 months. "I'm way more optimistic than that," said Bush. "I'd say them fellas could take over in as little as a year-and-a-half."

Copyright © 2006, Michael Ball