While We Were Out

A lot happened while we out on Spring Break. A few highlights:

The Hoyas lost (boo). But they had a great season and should be back for more next year. (The Curmudgeon missed the end of the game--the pilot had it piped into the plane, but lost the signal with about 14 minutes left to go.)

John McCain, launching the Doubletalk Express, created terrific fodder for an opponent's campaign ad by going to Baghdad, appearing at Baghdad's Shorja market (above, after a recent attack) with 100 soldiers in armored humvees while attack helicopters hovered overhead and sharpshooters covered the rooftops, pronouncing, while wearing body armor, that it was just as safe and normal as a shopping center in the midwest. We sure don't want to visit such shopping center!

(The Wall Street Journal and a handful of other right-wing publications continue to insist that things are "getting better" in Iraq through awfully selective reporting of facts. Things may well be a bit "better" in Baghdad, but that's a bit like saying things were "better" in Atlanta a couple of weeks after Sherman burned it to the ground.)

The presidential posse reported their first quarter fundraising totals. Obama and Romney beat expectations, Hillary did fine, McCain disappointed, and our man Richardson made a credible showing.

And the Supreme Court handed a tremendous victory to environmentalists and conservationists who want the EPA and other executive agencies to get off their hands when it comes to regulating carbon emissions. Bush, in his typical double-speak, declared that he will fight global warming, but not at the expense of "economic growth." He then invoked that great conservative bogeyman of climate change--the China/India argument, i.e., what's the point of America doing anything when China and India aren't. The problem, of course, is that Americans--not America--cause anywhere from 10-1000 times the emissions of Chinese and Indians (not China and India), and you can hardly expect the developing world to take action if the U.S. doesn't. It's up to us--like developed Europe and Japan--to take the lead and stop makng lame excuses.

Ah, it's good to be back.