Al Gore winning this year’s Nobel Peace Prize shows how much the world community is concerned about global warming — in sharp contrast to our own government. Gore’s citation lauds him as "probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted."
Rather than just being an environmental issue, the Nobel committee also considers global warming a threat to peace, because it "may induce large-scale migration and lead to greater competition for the Earth’s resources." It said that there were already "climate wars" occurring in the Sahel belt of Africa.
Gore shares the prize with the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which the committee praised for creating "an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming."
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
They say Hillary Clinton is as prepared as a Boy Scout on the stump. But there’s a new “oops” this week to add to the one about how she didn’t read the National Intelligence Estimate before giving President Bush the authority to go to war in Iraq. Though she sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, she has said this week she didn’t know security contractor Blackwater USA had immunity from prosecution in Iraq. “Maybe I should have known about it; I did not know about it,” she told the Boston Globe editorial board Wednesday.
And here’s a quote the GOP will love: “I have a million ideas. The country can’t afford them all,” she said, about her now-abandoned idea to give each baby born in the United States a $5,000 bond.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
The troubled teen who opened fire on teachers and classmates at a Cleveland high school Wednesday reportedly issued many threats of violence that should have set off alarm bells.
Asa H. Coon shot and wounded four people at the school before killing himself.
“He’s crazy. He threatened to blow up our school. He threatened to stab everybody,” said one student. “We didn’t think nothing of it.”
Why not? Several students said they had tried to warn the principal but that she was “too busy.”
How many more school shootings will have to happen before people take such threats seriously? There should be zero tolerance in schools for any expression of violent revenge fantasies, just as there is zero tolerance in airports for any mention of bombs.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Just as public libraries are rethinking their role in a digital world, communities are rethinking how to afford to keep their libraries open at all. An Associated Press story on the county library system in Medford, Ore., explored one trend at least 15 communities are trying: letting for-profit private companies run their public libraries. Fargo, N.D., ended such an experiment over concerns that the private contractor wasn’t paying bills on time, but for cash-strapped cities, the step has obvious appeal. As a Medford library official said, “Look, if it is either close the libraries or outsource them, we’d rather have outsourcing.” And, hey, at least the outsourcing of public libraries should not lead to the next step for so many American businesses: offshoring.
Posted by Rhonda Holman