The New York Times' front web page this morning is so full of dire warnings as to be startling.
... Town by town across the country, headlines have been telling similar stories. Lakewood, Wash.: “Family Blames Iraq After Son Kills Wife.” Pierre, S.D.: “Soldier Charged With Murder Testifies About Postwar Stress.” Colorado Springs: “Iraq War Vets Suspected in Two Slayings, Crime Ring.”
Individually, these are stories of local crimes, gut-wrenching postscripts to the war for the military men, their victims and their communities. Taken together, they paint the patchwork picture of a quiet phenomenon, tracing a cross-country trail of death and heartbreak.
The New York Times found 121 cases in which veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan
committed a killing in this country, or were charged with one, after their return from war. ...
Huckabee destroys Christian right
... Instead of uniting conservative Christians, his candidacy is threatening to drive a wedge into the movement, potentially dividing its best-known national leaders from part of their base and upending assumptions that have held the right wing together for the last 30 years. ... [Wait! What's so bad about that!]
US economy on skids; latest measures to save it have come too late
... With a wave of negative signs gathering force, economists, policy makers and investors are debating just how much the economy could be damaged in 2008. Huge and complex, the American economy has in recent years been aided by a global web of finance so elaborate that no one seems capable of fully comprehending it. That makes it all but impossible to predict how much the economy can be expected to fall before it stabilizes. ...
Bush threatens Iran from Algerian beach in Abu Dhabi
... President Bush said Sunday that Iran is threatening the security of the world, and that the United States and Arab allies must join together to confront the danger ''before it's too late.''
...''Iran's actions threaten the security of nations everywhere,'' Bush said. ''So the United States is strengthening our long-standing security commitments with our friends in the Gulf, and rallying friends around the world to confront this danger before it is too late.''
...Bush spoke at the Emirates Palace, at an opulent, gold-trimmed hotel where a suite goes for $2,450 a night. Built at a cost of $3 billion, the hotel is a kilometer long from end to end and has a 1.3 kilometer white sand beach -- every grain of it imported from Algeria. ...
[Whole industries are being developed to keep cell phones and other devices from destroying the planet]
Hi PW. OK, that's a lot of bad news. Here's something that isn't exactly good news but may put a smile on your face anyway.
Posted by: Dan | January 13, 2008 at 08:02 AM
Who's Fred Thompson?
Posted by: PW | January 13, 2008 at 08:11 AM
Actor. Current role getting lousy reviews.
Posted by: Dan | January 13, 2008 at 09:10 AM
Oh. Him. How can you give lousy reviews to someone who's never there?
Posted by: PW | January 13, 2008 at 01:31 PM