Friday, September 12, 2008

Friday Evening

Shortly after I posted the previous message, I spotted a Breaking News headline on a news site. A Metrolink commuter train out in Chatsworth collided (some are saying head-on) with a freight train, making for an ugly scene, several deaths and quite a few injuries. All the local channels are broadcasting live from out there, grabbing worried relatives of those who were on the Metrolink and asking them to share their ordeal with the home audience. That's not literally what they're requesting but it's what it comes down to.

It's horrible, simply horrible. I mean the train wreck, not the news coverage...though the news coverage isn't helping a whole lot. Reporters: We don't need to see the pain of people who've lost or fear they may lose loved ones. We need to know what happened, how it happened, what it means, how to prevent it from happening again, if anything can be done to minimize the damage...things like that.

(When I started typing this, they were saying four dead. Now it's five and they're hinting that's not the end of this.)

We waste so many of our resources in this country — time and money. Even if you think the Iraq War is a noble effort that will accomplish something, you oughta be horrified at the billions of dollars that have simply vanished. Someone pocketed it and they're going to get away with it. No one will ever look for that money. That's cash we could have spent in this country to alleviate pain and suffering...to shore up levees in hurricane-prone areas and have better disaster preparation...to do a better job of preventing accidents. (No one knows what caused the train wreck but there must have been something that could have been done.)

Sorry this is so serious-sounding but if you're watching what I'm seeing on my TV right now — a train wreck intercut with warnings of Hurricane Ike — you understand. And the death toll now stands at "six and expected to go much higher."

• Posted at 6:47 PM · LINK

Today's Good Question

Hurricane Ike looks scary. Damn scary. Why do we even spend five seconds in this country discussing lipstick on pigs when we should be spending that time preparing for things like Ike and figuring ways to minimize the loss of life and property?

• Posted at 5:30 PM · LINK

Recommended Reading

My favorite political writer Fred Kaplan has a view of the Sarah Palin interview that seems spot-on to me.

It will be interesting to see if a lot of people this time vote for Vice-President. There have been some elections where it felt like a ticket could have had Bozo the Clown on it and it wouldn't have made a difference as long as he was in the second position. I think a lot of folks who voted for Bush-Quayle or Gore-Lieberman felt that way. But maybe McCain's age plus Palin's unfamiliarity with foreign affairs makes it more of an issue this time than usual.

• Posted at 4:24 PM · LINK

Today's Video Link

This one's only thirty seconds. It's one of those commercials I must have seen a thousand times back when I was a wee lad watching cartoon shows — an ad for a Remco game named Fascination. The catchy tune (a parody of "Alouette") resonated in my brain until half past high school. Which means it lasted a lot longer than the toy or, for that matter, the Remco company.

• Posted at 1:00 AM · LINK

Correction

I've decided I was wrong in this post to insist that Cheerios® is Nature's Most Perfect Food. I just had Nature's Most Perfect Food and it's a toasted egg bagel, lightly-buttered. Sorry for the earlier confusion.

• Posted at 12:39 AM · LINK