How tragic that the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens (in photo), and three staff members were killed Tuesday as the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi was overwhelmed by a mob upset about an obscure film that ridicules the Prophet Muhammad. The violence made Stevens the first U.S. ambassador to die in the line of duty in 33 years. The U.S. Embassy in Cairo also has been targeted by protesters. Boston Globe columnist Farah Stockman watched the trailer on YouTube believed to have inspired the violence, for a movie credited to California real-estate developer Sam Bacile. She found it hard to believe something that “felt like a ‘Saturday Night Live’ spoof” with “terrible acting” and “weird cardboard-looking desert backdrops” could lead to the death of Stevens, a friend of a friend. “The blame for Chris’ death rests squarely with the mob who attacked our embassy. Their actions are despicable, and perhaps were incited by long-standing enemies of the United States. Muslims who are angry at how their religion has been portrayed must stop responding in violent ways that perpetrate the idea of Islam as a dangerous faith,” Stockman wrote. “But shouldn’t people who knowingly incite violence against the United States – as a crude, thinly-veiled publicity stunt – also be held accountable?”
The City Council of Portland, Ore., is expected to vote Wednesday to fluoridate that community’s water. If so, that will end Portland’s status as the largest city in the U.S. lacking naturally occurring fluoride not to have embraced fluoridation of its water system. (San Jose, Calif., decided to fluoridate late last year, but hasn’t implemented fluoridation yet.) According to the American Dental Association, the other unfluoridated cities larger than Wichita are Albuquerque, Tucson and Fresno, Calif. Wichita’s question will go to voters on Nov. 6. “It’s about health equity, it’s about social justice,” Portland Mayor Sam Adams told the New York Times. “Fluoride is means to an end. I hope that folks, whether they agree with me or not, understand that my intentions are to help those Portlanders that have no voice in this process.” The Oregonian reported that Multnomah County’s five public dental health clinics see dozens of patients a day whose oral health would be helped by fluoridated water, and recounted how a dental hygienist took one look into the cavity-free mouth of a 9-year-old and asked, “You don’t live in Portland, do you?” (She lived nearby, in fluoridated Beaverton.)
Good for Gov. Sam Brownback for joining efforts to combat obesity. Brownback spoke at the Kansas Summit on Obesity last week and shared some of his own challenges and strategies for controlling his weight, the Lawrence Journal-World reported. He recalled how he gained 15 pounds in one month when he went to college and soon realized he had to change his eating habits. Now, he tries to stop eating when he is still “just a little bit hungry.” Some conservatives have made fun of first lady Michelle Obama’s efforts to encourage kids to eat right and exercise, but obesity is a major problem that costs the nation billions of dollars in health care costs. In Kansas, nearly two-thirds of adults and one-quarter of adolescents are considered overweight.
How tragic that the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens (in photo), and three staff members were killed Tuesday as the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi was overwhelmed by a mob upset about an obscure film that ridicules the Prophet Muhammad. The violence made Stevens the first U.S. ambassador to die in the line of duty in 33 years. The U.S. Embassy in Cairo also has been targeted by protesters. Boston Globe columnist Farah Stockman watched the trailer on YouTube believed to have inspired the violence, for a movie credited to California real-estate developer Sam Bacile. She found it hard to believe something that “felt like a ‘Saturday Night Live’ spoof” with “terrible acting” and “weird cardboard-looking desert backdrops” could lead to the death of Stevens, a friend of a friend. “The blame for Chris’ death rests squarely with the mob who attacked our embassy. Their actions are despicable, and perhaps were incited by long-standing enemies of the United States. Muslims who are angry at how their religion has been portrayed must stop responding in violent ways that perpetrate the idea of Islam as a dangerous faith,” Stockman wrote. “But shouldn’t people who knowingly incite violence against the United States – as a crude, thinly-veiled publicity stunt – also be held accountable?”
