Perspective

In no way do I wish to downplay the horror that occurred on the Virginia Tech campus two days ago where a gunman killed 33 people and injured 15 more. This is was the worst mass shooting in US history, and has rightfully shocked and outraged the whole nation. As individuals, most all of us can empathize with the inexplicable loss experienced by the families of the slain. And many of us now fear for the safety of our own children, brothers, sisters, parents, and friends who go to school or work each day in what should be a safe environment. The emotional healing required to move on from an event like this is only begun.

But here’s a sobering thought. While this one event on a campus far from where most of us live has rocked our entire nation. Events like this, racking up similar body counts of innocents, are occurring in the city of Baghdad several times a week – and have been doing so for years now. Can you even remotely imagine what it would be like to live there? To watch your loved ones leave the house in the morning and rationally wonder if you’ll ever see them again?

Here in the US, Virgina Tech was an historic tragedy. In Iraq, it was just Monday…


A Real Interview for a Change

This is kinda long, but you have to watch it. John Bolton is interviewed by a BBC reporter who actually had facts in front of him and was willing to use them to expose his “guest” as being more than a little callous and hypocritical. It’s a shame we can’t get the US media to behave like this. Then maybe we wouldn’t be in this mess.

Ironically, one interpretation of Bolton’s position would be that he actually supports troop withdrawal as proposed by the Democrats. That wasn’t addressed in the interview, but I’m pretty sure he’s too much of a party-line man to agree with it.


Confirming a Long Held Suspiscion

Lots of interesting (if not troubling) stats in this Pew Research Center survey on what Americans know (or don’t know) about their government and world affairs. But I find the most comical to be that regular viewers of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report scored 54% higher than regular viewers of Fox News. Hold on a minute while I try to come up with an astonished expression…