The peace is a mess, too

In late February 2003, before the invasion of Iraq, I wrote of, "The coming American Holy War," in which I outlined "a template that describes modern American war-making as drawing on both the Northern and Southern models," of which the American Civil War is the premier, though not only, example.

Without re-relating all that, I note only that my bottom line of the piece was this:

In Afghanistan, the national honor was avenged and our enemies were destroyed, though not all of them, of course. The Southerners way of war has had its day. The Northerners war is imminent. American Holy War is coming to Iraq, and its people will be freed. Afghanistan was Stonewall Jackson's war, Iraq will be Joshua Chamberlain's.

But the peace to follow will probably be a mess.

Now consider two pertinent points from this week. First, the op-ed in the WSJ by Kagan, Kagan and Keane that the war in Iraq has been won, though the victory has not been finalized.

All of the most important objectives of the surge have been accomplished in Iraq. The sectarian civil war is ended; al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) has been dealt a devastating blow; and the Sadrist militia and other Iranian-backed militant groups have been disrupted.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi government has accomplished almost all of the legislative benchmarks set by the U.S. Congress and the Bush administration. More important, it is gaining wider legitimacy among the population. ...

The blunt fact is this. In Iraq, al Qaeda is on the ropes, and the Shiite militias are badly off-balance.

We're not out of the woods yet, but the light at the end of the tunnel is now very bright - if, as the authors point out, we maintain our resolve.

The we come to Strategy Pages's succinct assessment:

July 16, 2008: The war is basically over in Iraq, but the peace brings with it a return to the corruption and inefficiency that has cursed this part of the world for centuries. There are other annoying habits, like demanding "compensation" for any real or imagined loss that might possibly be pinned on U.S. troops. It's also popular to demand, with a straight face, that U.S. troops fix utilities, schools and whatever else people want, but are unwilling to take care of themselves. Peace has not brought out the best in the Iraqi people. ...

The U.S. is negotiating, with the Iraqi government, a renewal of its authority to operate in Iraq. This authority expires at the end of the year. As part of the negotiations, the Iraqis are asking for a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops. This is popular with many Iraqis, especially those in the government who are getting rich by stealing oil money. As long as the American troops are in the country, auditors have armed protection and can be very effective at revealing the thefts and getting the thieves punished. This makes thieving government officials very uncomfortable. Corruption in general remains a major problem (as it is in all Middle Eastern countries). While many Iraqis would like to see clean government, they are usually not the ones who get elected (elections involve a lot of bribery and trading of favors.)

Read the whole thing. Yes, a mess. So far. But that may change, too.

Global warming "consensus" collapses

The so-called "consensus" about human-induced global warming ("anthropogenic global warming," or AGW) is collapsing like the house of cards it is.

The American Physical Society, an organization representing nearly 50,000 physicists, has reversed its stance on climate change and is now proclaiming that many of its members disbelieve in human-induced global warming. The APS is also sponsoring public debate on the validity of global warming science. The leadership of the society had previously called the evidence for global warming "incontrovertible."

In a posting to the APS forum, editor Jeffrey Marque explains,"There is a considerable presence within the scientific community of people who do not agree with the IPCC conclusion that anthropogenic CO2 emissions are very probably likely to be primarily responsible for global warming that has occurred since the Industrial Revolution."

Hat tip: Don Surber. This revelation comes on the heels of some scientists' claims that global warming is out, global cooling is in.

Late last month, some leading climatologists and meteorologists met in New York at the Energy Business Watch Climate and Hurricane Forum. The theme of the forum strongly suggested that a period of global cooling is about emerge, though possible concerns for a political backlash kept it from being spelled out.

However, the message was loud and clear, a cyclical global warming trend may be coming to an end for a variety of reasons, and a new cooling cycle could impact the energy markets in a big way. ...

... Each weather guru, from a different angle, suggested that global warming is part of a cycle that is nearing an end. All agreed the earth is in a warm cycle right now, and has been for a while, but that is about to change significantly.

This will be a big disappointment to Minnesotans for Global Warming.

What shall you risk?

Capt. Rick Rubel, USN-Ret., distinguished Professor of Ethics at the U.S. Naval Academy, offers an ethics thought experiment on "leave no one behind." What - and whom - does a commander risk in order "to bring home one wounded servicemember or a body?"

This becomes one of the most difficult moral decisions of command — losing an unknown number of lives to uphold the important code, "Leave no one behind."

This case is a peacetime scenario — which probably occurs more frequently than the wartime scenario and has the exact same moral decision at its core.

There are many cognates outside the military, too. The basic premise is not much different related to the Israelis' dilemma to get the remains of two Israeli army reservists, killed by Hezbollah terrorists in 2006, " their bodies being grabbed for the purpose of bargaining," as co-author Daniel Jackson reported from Israel yesterday.

Read the professor's scenario and ponder the very tough, and extremely short-term, decision-making that faces commanders in battle, or others in crisis.

New on my wish list

The latest entry on my "I gotta get me one of these" category is a submersible speedboat. Popular Science reports,

Nautical engineers have long dreamed of a craft that could race across wave tops like a speedboat and seconds later dive beneath them like a submarine. But crossing the two breeds presents a catch-22: Subs need heft to sink, but speedboats need to be lightweight to go fast. With an investment of nearly $2 million and years of research, former auto-shop owner Reynolds Marion of Lake City, Florida, has finally hit on a solution, a machine he’s dubbed the Hyper-Submersible Powerboat. When complete, it will reach speeds of up to 45 mph and dive down to 1,200 feet.

1,200 feet! As comparison, naval historian Barrett Tillman reported in Clash of The Carriers: The True Story of the Marianas Turkey Shoot of World War II that the safe depth for American submarines in World War II was only 300 feet, and that diving deeper was done only in extreme emergencies.

The sub-speedboat is not the first civilian sub by any means. Luxury submarine yachts have been on the market for years.

Ah, wouldn't it be nice?

(The 300-foot diving depth was for US Gato-class subs. USS Pampanito(SS-383), commissioned in late 1943, was designed to dive safely to 400 feet, although some of its class successfully operated deeper. Herbert Werner, a German U-boat captain in WW2, reported that no one really knew the maximum depth for their submarines, since the only way to find out meant that your hull got crushed immediately afterward. Looking at the picture of the speedboat-sub above, I personally would not want to test its claimed ability to make 1,200 feet below the surface. What might happen at 1,201?)

Professional Courtesy

There must be a million jokes about lawyers, sharks, and professional courtesy. They are all predictable and all center around the intrinsic nature of land and sea sharks. The key to a successful story of this genre, therefore, is not to see it coming.

My long time friend of over 38 years, Jon Miller, is a lawyer, mediator, and all round good guy. He is also a certified diving instructor who is active in reef preservation and ecology, especially off Belieze.

Recently he wrote about his encounter with a whale shark, which he recorded and just posted to YouTube.



I asked Jon about the encounter.

"Jon, how big is that sucker?"

"About 50 feet or so; you know a pretty small guy all things considered."

"FIFTY FEET! That's the size of most dive boats. It's practically the length of my caravan in the Galil."

"Naw. Besides it's a whale shark; they have baleen so they aren't interested in people at all--no risk; no worry."

"Oh come on, Jon. It's not like you can see one of these guy coming a long way off and say, 'oh, that's a whale shark'. Surely it must have loomed up as a big shark shadow--a big shadow at that. Weren't you scared, at least startled when you saw its form through the blue?"

"No, not at all."

"Really? Not even an extra thumpity thump of the heart?"

"Nope."

"Why not?"

"Professional Courtesy."

Art work break

This is "Snowglobe," an original Photoshop Elements work by my 14-year-old daughter. She used a Wacom Bamboo Fun tablet to draw. Click on the image for a larger view.

Stop-Start on the way!

Awhile back I satirically posted about a nonexistent proposal in the Madison, Wisc., town council to "make it illegal for motorists to wait at a red traffic light with their engines running." (The post was prompted by a real city measure to ban drive-through service at coffee shop or restaurants.)

But now the magic starter is ready for the big leagues.

German automotive supplier Bosch has announced that it has provided nearly half a million start/stop systems for BMW and Mini since launching the system. Bosch also announced that three additional manufacturers will introduce its technology withing the next few months. If you didn't know, Start/Stop technology allows the engine to shut down when the car is not moving, for instance, during traffic jams or at red traffic lights. When the gear is engaged or the accelerator pedal is pressed, the engine automatically starts again.

Alas, it appears there is no retrofit possible to existing cars.

Clarity coming?

In the aftermath of the exchange of murderers and prisoners for two coffins, there is some chance that some clarity may emerge. In the case of the two reservists, The Jerusalem Post reports they were killed outright, their bodies being grabbed for the purpose of bargaining. Jewish Law mandates redemption of captives, alive or dead; a fact well known by Israel's enemies and exploited to the maximum. Already the Hamasniks are increasing the price for Shalit's release, the third soldier taken in 2006.

Despite the blatant exploitation of Jewish Law by her enemies, Israel will not abandon its practice to bring back the bodies of its fallen soldiers. That does not mean, however, that there is concensus on the price paid. This is especially the case here, where Hizbullah and the Lebanese government gave a hero's welcome to Samir Kuntar and his fellow prisoners. It is not so much the televised spectacle that digs at the collective Israeli gut. It is the apparent silence and impotence of the world community for two years to expose the truth about the fate of the two young men. All assurances about their welfare or where-abouts were lies.

It is difficult to convey the centrality of the IDF experience in Israeli life. It is more than a "draft" or "service". Perhaps it approaches the US cultural concept of the colonial minuteman--the citizen soldier ready to go in a minute.

Whereas the high school experience in the US intended to prepare the graduate to survive in the job world, Israeli the Israeli high school, and post high school, experience prepares the graduate to serve in the IDF. For three years, Israelis perform some sort of national service. Afterwards, they serve in the reserves for another twenty, like the two young men whose bodies just came home. Many volunteer as reserve police or firefighters or EMTs after they are "too old to go".

Every family in Israel has experienced the waiting, the loss, and the homecoming. Every family knows the cost of taking a firm stand against brutality and thuggery, both of which show no signs of abating in the future. Every person here, tonight, feels the tears of loss and asks the eternal mourner's question, so well phrased by E. E. Cummings, "how do you like your blueeyed boy Mister Death".

It is hard, therefore, for Israelis to squelch the dissonance felt with the decision to release Samir Kuntar. Full of radical chic, Kuntar and some buddies took a rubber boat across the Israel Lebanon border to the seaside resort town of Nahariya to hunt Jews. They found them in an apartment complex where they gunned them down. The Prime Minister's Office released a video document of the crime today on YouTube:



It is not the attempts of Hizbullah to deride the Israelis as fools that galls Israelis. Nor does it bother Israelis that the international community continues to believe that mediation will work with parties who have no intention of following through on any agreement they make. What grinds them is that they are going to have to catch Kuntar again.

Go Figure

In a deal engineered by a German, the remains of two Israeli hostages were exchanged for a convicted murderer with his own Wikipedia entry along with some Hizbullah remains. There is grief in Israel while Kuntar receives a hero's welcome for killing a policeman, a 31 year old man, and his four year old son. Until yesterday, most Israelis believed that the two captive IDF soldiers were alive.

Most Israelis are too appalled to speak. There is only dismay. Once again, coffins return while murders go free.

Is there a remedy in Gilead?

Let's hear it for hypocrites!

A few weeks ago I attended a seminar on how to connect with non-religious people. That's the new term for describing the folks we used to refer to as the unchurched. The presenter had arranged for four self-described non-religious people to form a panel for us. Curiously, to be called "non-religious," all but one attended a Christian church and the fourth followed Buddhism. In the Q&A they tried to clarify that what they meant, by calling themselves non-religious, was that they rejected the in institutions of religion, the formally-organized structures of denominationalism, and by strong implication, the basic tenets of historic Christian religion as well. Jesus, it seems, is whomever you wish him to be, rather than a first-century Jew of a particular context and religious heritage. (I wrote about that issue here.)

But at one point the panel and other attendees generally agreed that one of the main reasons the unchurched are well, unchurched is because church people are such hypocrites.

Alexius: Well, Paul, the reason I won't join your church here in Corinth is because there are so many hypocrites in it.

Paul: We always have room for one more.

The hypocrisy excuse for staying away from church has got to be the oldest there is. Which only proves what Mark Twain observed, "When you don't want to do something, any excuse will do." And to borrow one of Yogi Berra's malapropisms, If people don't want to come to church, nobody's going to stop them.

But I say, "Hooray for hypocrites!" If you're a hypocrite, you're just my guy or gal.

"Hypocrite" is derived from the Greek, "hypókrisis," or "play acting." It was the description for actors in the Greek theater and refers even more specifically to the masks that certain actors wore to denote different roles, multiple roles being quite common in ancient Greek theater. Members of the chorus - a sort of on stage narrator group - also often wore masks to correspond with the mood, emotion or tome of what they were singing or narrating.

So a hypocrite is literally a "mask wearer," one who hides who s/he really is. It is, as the Greek denotes, play acting. Jesus had a lot to say about play actors, and none of it good.

The Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, part of the Western Wall of the Jewish Temple that was destroyed in 70 c.e. by the Romans. The Western Wall is all that remains of the Temple. Today, Jews of all religious convictions go there to pray. I prayed there, too, the same day I took this photo in October 2007.

One biting example,

"And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others."

That is, the men Jesus referred to made a show of praying in public so that they would gain the respect of others for being so pious. (Please note that public praying was quite normal in ancient Judea and is still done now in Israel. And it is the imperative practice in Islam. Christians pray in public, too, mainly at worship services, but also other occasions, say, the Indy 500.)

Jesus admonished his hearers that they should pray in private, so that God would hear them privately. His meaning, I think, was that prayer should be God directed, not human intended.

But no matter how you cut it, Jesus was pretty harsh on hypocrites. So how can I be rooting for them?

Because hypocrisy requires the hypocrite to believe in something or someone outside himself. Hypocrisy requires an aspiration to something higher or better than oneself. That is the meaning of the folk saying, "Hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue." Hypocrisy is an imperfect, deficient attempt to be better.

Thankfully I have known very few non-hypocritical people. They were insufferable. They were entirely self centered, self directed, self oriented, self focused and just plain purely selfish. They recognized no cause, entity or belief higher than themselves, their own desires, wants or needs. You can see, I'm sure, that it is impossible for such people to act hypocritically because they are always looking out for No. 1 in every situation. They never pretend they are acting in someone else's interests. They don't seek others' approval because they don't fundamentally care about others or what they think.

Very, very rarely is this kind of person to be found in a church (or a synagogue, either, I would imagine). The church-attending hypocrites over which the seminar attendees clucked-clucked so sadly are not actually hypocritical in the usual meaning of the word: "a pretense of having a virtuous character, moral or religious beliefs or principles, etc., that one does not really possess." Yes, they fall short of what they intend, but their striving is real, not phony, and they try to do better. If they are hypocrites, then so was St. Paul.

It is deceit that makes hypocrisy what it is. The true hypocrite wants others to think better of him/her than is actually justified. Absent this deceit, there is no hypocrisy, just error or human frailty. That's what the hypocrisy-excuse people don't understand - or pretend not to understand - about church people. What may appear to be church people's hypocrisy is almost always just simple failure to meet the standards of our faith rather than deceit. Why? Because the standard is so high:

But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Mt. 5:28).

But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual transgression, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery (Mt. 5:32).

There are many such examples. So I say that if our churches are filled with such "hypocrites," then let's have many more. Vice is easy, virtue is hard. It's no hypocrisy to fall short of a very high standard and such an excellent goal. And I would suggest that the hypocrisy-excuse people have largely chosen the easy way over the hard way, and choose to call that virtue. So who are the hypocrites? Well, we always have room for one more.

So however we fall short of the standards of our faith, and fall short we certainly often do, we nonetheless seek a "more excellent way" and strain forward to what lies ahead, pressing on towards the goal.

It's to save the polar bears, ya know

BOHICA! (Bend Over, Here It Comes Again): EPA Could Regulate Lawnmowers, Speed Limit:

Want to mow your lawn? Better check with the Environmental Protection Agency first.

Last Friday the EPA issued an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) that would impose a number of unthinkable regulations on the economy and everyday life. One of many is regulation the emissions of a lawnmower. This would require the agency to create different regulations and units of emissions requirements for each gadget that pollutes. Page 337 of the EPA’s ANPR reads,

“[E]ach application could require a different unit of measure tied to the machine’s mission or output– such as grams per kilogram of cuttings from a “standard” lawn for lawnmowers and grams per kilogram-meter of load lift for forklifts.”

If one considers all the non-road greenhouse gas emitting sources that need to be regulated, this would not only be a daunting task that would require a great deal of time and human capital, but it would also be very costly. ...

Speaking of speed limit regulations, the EPA’s proposed rulemaking also notes on page 324 that “vehicle speed is the single largest operational factor affecting CO2 emissions from large trucks,” and that “every mph increase above 55 mph increases CO2 emissions by more than 1%.” The ANPR puts speed limiters on large trucks on the table as a means of reducing carbon dioxide.

The ANPR will now move through a 120-day comment period. During these four months, the EPA should strongly consider the inconvenience, misery and massive costs they will impose on the American public if the agency is granted this unprecedented authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

Many commentators, including me, have been warning for a long time that the real basis of climate alarmism is just a naked power grab by socialists or their ideological allies to gain ever-increasing control over the way people lead their daily lives. I wrote in May that Climate Change long ago became a matter for True Believers:

Old-line socialists, faced with decades of the failure of political socialism, have jumped on the environmentalist bandwagon to keep socialism alive. Environmentalism has become a much better vehicle to achieve a rigid regulation of people's lives than political socialism ever was. After all, the fate of the entire planet is at stake! Environmentalism has already led some British members of Parliament to propose that the government regulate almost every aspect of buying and selling by private individuals. If this is not socialism, it is a distinction without a difference.

So there you are. At bottom, modern environmentalism has discarded scientific rigor to embrace something not much different than Leninism, the desire to control the major components of the way individuals live. From there it is a short step for environmentalism to Leninism's successor: Stalinism, the desire to control every aspect of the way we live. That's our future, minus the gulags. We hope.

What about the polar bears of this post's headline? remember, polar bears are the first species placed on the endangered-species list because of climate change, specifically the rise of atmospheric CO2, which is claimed to be destroying the bears' habitats. It is not true because there is no actual science to back it up, and because the polar bear population is actually growing overall. But no matter. The bears aren't the point. Increased regulation is. And boy, is the EPA going after it.

Update: Brendan O'Neill, writing in The Guardian (of all places), Greens are the enemies of liberty:

Environmentalism is instinctively and relentlessly illiberal, and it is doing more to inculcate people with fear, self-loathing and a religious-style sense of meekness than any piece of anti-terror legislation ever could. If you believe in freedom, you must reject it.

Amen, brother, amen. Brendan also observes elsewhere,

The most striking thing about the rise and rise (and rise) of the environmentalist ethos is how it has acted as a life support machine for the political and cultural elite’s contempt for the lifestyles of the lower orders, and how it has added a new scientific/end of the world twist to the authorities’ attempts to manage, control and change our behaviour and expectations.

Quite.

Oh, Nooooooo!

You just cannot make this stuff up: "Global warming may raise kidney stone risk"

Washington, D.C. - Global warming could do more than hurt polar bears: It could force a rise in kidney stones, scientists warned Monday.

"We see a relationship between kidney stones and temperatures everywhere," says study co-author Margaret Pearle of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. "Even in places with air conditioning, warmer temperatures mean more stones."

Hat tip: Gerard Van Der Leun, via email.

Iraqi govt. gets loyalty the old-fashioned way

They buy it.

BAGHDAD - It is a politician's dream: Handing out cold, hard cash to people on the street as they plead for help. Iraq's prime minister has been doing just that in recent weeks, doling out Iraqi dinars as an aide trails behind, keeping a tally.

The handouts by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and a handful of other top officials are authorized _ as long as each goes no higher than about $8,000, and the same people don't get them twice. Aides say they are meant merely to ease the pain a bit, and are motivated by a belief that better conditions will lead to more security.

An honest voter is one who, when bought, stays bought.

IAF in Iraq and Iran's New Arrow

As if one set of missile tests were not enough, Iran fired a second round of their new rocket at night and showed the heavy duty light show fireworks on national tv. Far out, dude; colors.

So, let's tally up the results of these two tests. The first rounds were fired in secret, landed in secret, but broadcast that they were successful. The second rounds were fired at night, landed in secret, and broadcast success. Pooling the sample suggests that the Iranian rockets have a 50% launch rate, an unknown landing rate, and virtually no data on accuracy, other that the unbiased reporting of the clerics running everything from command to latrine.

Perhaps the mullahs (remember when that term meant money?) should do us all a favor and actually show the world what they can do. Haven't they seen Dr. Strangelove? Don't they know that to have the Doomsday Machine work, you have to tell others first? Why don't they simply pick any two numbers in the universal coordinate system (they can check Google to find out how), tell the world where the target is and hit it--at least several times so it is not an error. Certainly that will make the folks in Gaza happy so that when Iran tries to hit Tel Aviv, they won't hit Gaza instead.

In short, it is becoming increasingly clear that the ONLY way Iran could hit the side of a barn is if their rockets are right next door--like Gaza or Lebanon or Syria.

Meanwhile, in addition to practicing their low altitude refueling operations, both YNETNEWS and the Jerusalem Post announced that IAF jets are showing up in Iraq where they are joyriding in the northern areas of that country. The Jerusalem Post says,

Israel Air Force (IAF) war planes are practicing in Iraqi airspace and land in US airbases on the country as preparation for a potential strike on Iran, sources in the Iraqi Defense Ministry told a local news network, Friday.

The report, carried also by Iranian news outlets, claimed that recently massive nocturnal activity by IAF craft was noted in several American held airbases, including measures by the US army to increase security around the bases

Nocturnal? Where have we heard this before? Ynetnews points out the obvious.

The sources estimated that should the Israeli jets take off from the American bases it would take them no more than five minutes to reach Iran's nuclear reactor in Bushehr.

Meanwhile, Iran unveiled their newest weapon based on years of research in the French National Library, Bibliotheque Nationale de Paris. An unnamed source suggests that after years of hanging out in the library and the cafes, it was discovered how the English defeated the French crusader armies not once, but three times.

Hey, if bows and arrows worked before, why not now?

As this picture shows, the Revolutionary Guard has trained several believers with this revolutionary weapon, the longbow, and given them cool clothes as well.

Ooo, men in tights!

Psychiatrists identify "climate change delusion"

No fooling.

PSYCHIATRISTS have detected the first case of "climate change delusion" - and
they haven't even yet got to Kevin Rudd and his global warming guru.

Writing in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, Joshua Wolf and Robert Salo of our Royal Children's Hospital say this delusion was a "previously
unreported phenomenon".

"A 17-year-old man was referred to the inpatient psychiatric unit at Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne with an eight-month history of depressed mood . . . He also . . . had visions of apocalyptic events."

"The patient had also developed the belief that, due to climate change, his own water consumption could lead within days to the deaths of millions of people through exhaustion of water supplies."

But never mind the poor boy, who became too terrified even to drink. What's scarier is that people in charge of our Government seem to suffer from this "climate change
delusion", too.

Here is Prime Minister Kevin Rudd yesterday, with his own apocalyptic vision: "If we do not begin reducing the nation's levels of carbon pollution, Australia's economy will face more frequent and severe droughts, less water, reduced food production and devastation of areas such as the Great Barrier Reef and Kakadu wetlands."

And here is a senior Sydney Morning Herald journalist aghast at the horrors described in the report on global warming released on Friday by Rudd's guru, Professor Ross Garnaut: "Australians must pay more for petrol, food and energy or ultimately face a rising death toll . . ."

Wow. Pay more for food or die. Is that Rudd's next campaign slogan?

TEOLAWKI again

The End Of Life As We Know It looms yet again. OpinionJournal reports on the new doomsaying:

• "Hawaiian Volcano Spewing More Lava Than Usual"--headline, Associated Press, July 5

• "The Worms Crawl In"--headline, New York Times, July 1

• "Earth Begins to Kill People for Changing Its Climate"--headline, Pravda, July 4

• "Australian Researchers Warn of Global Cooling"--headline, DailyTech.com, July 1

• "Scientists Warn U.S. Is Unprepared if Asteroid Strikes"--headline, Seattle Times, July 5

• "Smallest Planet Shrinks in Size"--headline, BBC Web site, July 4

• "Report: The End of the Internet Is Near"--headline, FoxNews.com, July 6

First there was the supernova and galaxy-attack scenarios. Then the predicted return of the comet Genondahwayanung, which pretty much annihilated most life in North America when it came here the first time. And then the massive gas cloud speeding toward a collision with the Milky Way! Then we learn that the earth's atmosphere may detonate. And then the asteroids. Then the black hole death stars! Then we'll be swallowed whole by the sun. Then the intense beam of gamma rays coming our way. Then there was the fear that "human society is very quickly headed to a violent and disturbing end." I tell ya, I'm starting to think that sooner or later, every one of us is going to wind up dead.