Sustainability

Climate change is real, so let's just deal with that first. Science is science, not a belief system.

Since the fact of climate change can't seem to get enough traction to create the necessary sense of urgency now, here is what will, and I hope not too late.

Climate change is impacting the world's food supply in a really bad way. When enough people are really hungry (and there are too many already), the grain (or lack thereof) will hit the fan.

I hope we do something before it gets to that point.

Peace.

Prejudice and Conflict

The civil war in Iraq, like so many other conflicts based on differences among people apart from their views, is based on the machinations of political, power-hungry people. The age-old divide between Sunni and Shiite Muslims is more about prejudice and caste than it is about different interpretations of the Quran.

More deeply, its premise is the soft underbelly of all prejudice: Preying on people's fears and pre-conceived notions, asking them to identify as one group or another because of their birth or color or religion or whatever, rather than engaging in a debate about what the real differences may or may not be.

The Second Amendment

We have been so desensitized to mass shootings that it hardly warrants more than passing comment on the news. Recent case in point: the university shooting in Washington.

Sad.

I don't know why we can't get sensible gun control in this country. Every other developed country has been able to do it.

And for those who wave the Second Amendment around as the barrier to doing so, not so fast. This is what the US Supreme Court says on the matter, through an opinion written by Justice Scalia, no less:

"Like most rights, the Second Amendment right is not unlimited. It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose..."

If not now, when?

D Day 70 Years

Eternally grateful to and for the brave soldiers who did the unimaginable 70 years ago today, and in so doing changed the course of human history.

News?

The apparently insatiable appetite for needing to "know" now has eviscerated journalism. Recent case in point: the prisoner exchange. Several "reputable" news agencies have reported "as fact," that six soldiers died trying to find the missing soldier. Now, it looks like that might not be so. Tomorrow, who knows what will be "reported." Here is what I know: that I don't know.

Distant case in point: the missing airplane. Over a month of constant coverage with nothing to report. And that which was "reported" invariably turned out to be wrong. Yet, CNN's ratings were higher than ever.

I remember when it wasn't news until the facts were checked and double checked with multiple reliable sources. Not so now. Get it on fast, the facts be damned.