Three Big Stories

Three big things that happened while I was commenting on the Olympics . . .

Curiosity didn't kill NASA; the space rover of that name landed on Mars with no trouble, despite all the complex maneuvers involved.  It's already sending back images of the Martian landscape that could offer clues to any kind of microcosmic life that could have existed on the planet.  I sometimes wonder, though, how much useful information we can find about Mars, though if water ever existed there, maybe we can learn how it all dried up and figure out how to prevent that process on Earth rather than exacerbating it.

The Sikh temple shooting in Wisconsin not only illustrated the stupidity of our gun culture, it illuminated a seething hated for religious and ethnic minorities fostered by right-wing extremists ready to resist the ever-growing diversity in this country.  It also revealed how ignorant many people are in this country by confusing the Sikh faith with Islam.  The former has nothing to do with the latter.  But then, what does it matter when many people regard all non-Judeo-Christian faiths as "foreign" and "un-American?" 

The choice Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan as the Republican vice presidential candidate sends a clear signal from Mitt Romney.  Romney not only endorses Ryan and his budget, he's going to pursue Ryan's ideas as President if elected.  A Vice President Ryan may not be in a position to control the House Budget Committee, but he will certainly be in a position to work between a Romney White House and a Congress that's likely to be Republican no matter who wins the Presidency to get a budget to his liking passed.  Ryan will be very instrumental in getting passed a budget that eviscerates Medicare, decimates other social programs, and gives carte blanche to tax cuts for the wealthy and to gold-plated Tinkertoys (to cop a phrase from Iowa senator Tom Harkin) for defense contractors.  Ryan is the first politician of the post-Boomer generation - that is, my generation - to be on a major national party ticket.  My generation is not one I'd like to talk about, baby; it's disappointed me yet again.

There you go.