SO THAT YOU CAN BE CONTINUOUSLY ON EDGE

There is now this site with a constantly updated map of global terror incidents, amber alerts, calamities, and false alarms.  “CANADA: Activist and Coast Guard Ship Collide.”  “AUSTRALIA:  Possible Nail Bomb Explosion.”  “SURINAME: Guyanese sea pirates detained by Suriname police.”  And so on.  (Outbreaks/Bird Flu Map: “coming soon.”)

IOWA

Chris McMahon:  “Have you read this week’s Time?  The cover article is about ‘green’ fuels and how they are destroying the planet.  [“Ethanol increases global warming, destroys forests and inflates food prices. So why are we subsidizing it?”]  Their argument is that we are pushing for more ethanol use and that requires corn.  This drives the price of corn up, so all the Midwest fields that used to grow soybeans are now switching to corn.  This in turn causes a defecit of soybeans, driving the price of soybeans up.  Brazil can grow soy, so they are burning down huge swathes of rainforest to turn it into farm fields.  This rainforest contains enormous amounts of carbon and burning it releases that carbon into the atmosphere.  Brazil is currently the 4th largest emitter of carbon in the world due to this.  Amazing cause and affect!”

F And it’s all because Iowa gets to go first in the primaries.  We need to change that.  (Sorry, Iowa.)

MORE PROFESSORS SHOULD LIE

This is ingenious.  As some of you are professors, it might come in handy.  And as some of you know professors, you might want to pass it on.  (Thanks, James.)

GAY HEROES

Erich Riesenberg:  “Joel writes: ‘We don’t often hear about gay heroes . . . too often stories in which our humanity is front and center are lost in the chorus of the Christian Right.  We deserve these stories to be told.’  This story of soldier Alan Rogers [17 years in the Army], who died in Iraq, states he was treasurer of ‘the D.C. chapter of American Veterans for Equal Rights, a group that works to change military policy toward gays.’  His master's thesis was on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.  Yet, the hard-hitting mainstream media can’t figure out if he would want his services as a gay man acknowledged, so it is left out of news stories.  One fewer gay American role model.  In my opinion, since he spent a good amount of time working to make it possible for gay people to serve with pride, it dishonors him to have this aspect of him ignored.”