Would it be wrong to suggest that Michael's death is not likely to be an event important in our lives?  Iran is in insurrection. Obama is fighting seemingly everyone trying to get meaningful health care reform into a system plagued by nay-sayers. California is about to stop helping very poor people survive because its politicians won't compromise. And on and on and on. Michael is/was a troubled man with great musical talent which he hasn't used since probably 50% of people alive on the planet were born. Bread and circuses are nice. How about freedom, reform, and good public policy? [...]

The perfect is the enemy of the good. -- VoltaireWhat can I say when very intelligent people stand back and say that neither/none of the viable candidates running for President deserves their vote?  They are very intelligent, and therefore they have already analyzed the alternatives, weighed the pluses and minuses, and are convinced of the superior rationality of their decision. These Greens/Libertarians/unregistered folk have their killer points at the ready:I could never vote for someone who said “x”, who voted for “y”, or won’t commit to “z”. The candidate(s) are either too centrist, or pandering too much to the extremes. [...]

From the BBC: "Several years ago, I asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife in confession and marriage counseling," said Louisiana senator David Vitter after he was identified as associating with DC Madam Deborah Palfrey. 1. I really don't care about the Senator's sex life.  2. I believe that Senator Vitter can be pretty sure of his wife's level of forgiveness for whatever his "serious sin" was.  It's not my business, anyway. 3. I am seriously annoyed about his -- and other self-righteous conservatives' -- self-proclaimed ability to understand God's thoughts, feelings, and desires. What happened to [...]

Within this first week after the Democratic Congressional victory the bar conversations and blogs are already filling with the futility of choosing between Republicans and Democrats. With a world-weary air, folks are lamenting the Tweedle-Dee Tweedle-Dum two-party system, yearning for Real Choices. Nothing will be really different. Global warming will grow, racial and sexual orientation discrimination will remain, and power will continue to corrupt. Oh crap.  Enough of the assertions that both parties are basically the same and that voters have no real choices! That statement is both untrue and a too easy "don't blame me" hand-wringing hand washing. There is a huge difference [...]

A friend just moved his family — including school-aged children — into San Francisco. This week on the first day of classes, when the time came to greet the two children coming home on the school bus after their initial SF school experience, things didn’t go quite right. The school bus came, but the kids weren’t on it. The bus driver claimed absolute ignorance of the boys, aged 6 and 11. The parents’ had been fighting the vision of predators waiting for children in the big city, but that nightmare suddenly moved into the front of their minds. One parent’s [...]

TV news sure makes wars comfortable spectator sports. On-the-spot reporters break in to elaborate on nighttime flashes and siren wails. Speculating pundits, laden with biases, are able to maneuver every new factoid into their preconceived situation synthesis. Not to worry, though, the news network format is not stretched. Commercials are still running. The anchors are still fluffing the hair (CNN) or twitching their jowls (FOX). The mid-East horrors are being played like a expandable -- but fungible -- disaster piece for our schadenfreude entertainment. "Israeli Missile Strikes Gaza" follows "San Bernardino Declared Disaster", and then the hunt for the hit-and-run [...]