On Current Events

I don't typically spend too much time on here discussing my opinion on current events, but the update on my goings-on right now is this:

Work. Homework. Eat. Run/Bike. Sleep. Rearrange and repeat as necessary.

I guess I could just end the update there, thanks for coming, guys!





Just Kidding.

So, let's pretend I am CNN, the BBC, MSNBC, and Fox News-- I'll talk first about Michael Jackson and probably for longer than any news source ever should. Ever. Let's see, Michael Jackson died a mysterious and untimely death, most likely at the hands of prescription medication despite a pending "comeback" tour. Some speculate his death was intentional to get out of the tour. For one, what an absolute shocker that a celebrity died from a possible drug overdose, whoa, we've never seen that one. I am surprised for someone so creative, he took such a mundane way to go. Secondly, I think if I was a 50 year old black man who looked like a hideous 30 year old white woman who made a "living" out of grabbing my own crotch for millions of people, I might look for a way out of that too.* But what REALLY irks me, is that his funeral service, held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, is going to cost the state of California millions of dollars, particularly for the extra police needed for security and crowd control reasons. I don't think Arnold is signing a personal check anytime soon, which means taxpayers get this one. What is going on, and where is ANY sense of fiscal responsibility, when a state, hundreds of millions of dollars in debt, decides to take on more public spending to host the funeral of one of history's highest grossing pop stars? This is ridiculous and actually makes me resent the culture of celebrity in America more than I should. Spending on police presence at the Jackson funeral while education and health programs are being cut and people all over the state are losing their jobs-- sounds like ducks all out of the row.

This week is the G8 Summit in Italy, where the leaders of major global players tea-party and discuss the most pressing global issues. In the news today: Industrialized nations make tentative agreement on climate control action, while developing nations shun controlling greenhouse gases. Well, good news and bad news, I guess. At least we are talking about it, and at least we stopped calling it "global warming." Because the average temperature of the earth is up, but no North Dakotan on the planet is going to tell you they are a victim of global warming. But unseasonably wet winters and springs? Drier summers? Greater fluctuation and difference in seasonal temperature? That is what we need to be concerned about. So I am happy to see that there are at least tentative plans, which will probably not be followed by any country that isn't already doing those things, but it is a building block. And I don't blame developing nations for their stance-- alternative energies and emissions-reducing technology is expensive and the economy is not in a position to support that development right now, although we desperately need it.

Google is discussing their new operating system, Google Chrome. Move over Microsoft? Or just another too-complicated system that most programs can't run on? Hopefully the former, as I love The Google.

This one made me laugh: Amazon drops price of Kindle 2 to $299. That's funny- books at the library are free.**

I guess that's all I've got for now-- almost everything else was about the father of Michael Jackson's kids, the McNair murder-suicide, or Iran (violating human rights one subgroup at a time).


*I like Michael Jackson's music and will acknowledge that he was a talented recording artist (I even have, and listen to, the CD of his #1 hits). I otherwise see very little major contribution to society from him.
** I actually think the Kindle is cool. But not $299 of cool. That's like a plane ticket to somewhere (but not too far, or too cool).