On Being One Human in a Sea of Human Stories

Of all the places I could be this morning, there is one remarkable place I am not, and that would be Chicago, Illinois. That is remarkable on this particular day not because I happen to have been born there, but because it means I am not at BlogHer 2007. Theoretically I could, and maybe even should be there, giving a hug to the, oh, probably 3 people I actually know, and networking with moms who document public restrooms to twenty-something economists to people working for global issues impacting the quality of life for billions of people.

When you consider the fact that they didn’t exist 3 years ago, it is quite remarkable that they have 13,000 members. I am just one of them.

However, we have reached a point where there is no such thing as a slow news week. It would be very easy to have spent the whole week paying attention to nothing more than Gonzovision and the escalating tension between Congress and the Bush Administration over subpoenas and such. But if you did that you would have missed the Senate calling for universal internet filtering and the House actually passing a Farm Bill that the President will likely veto (along with the current version of the SCHIP renewal bill and anything else that means he doesn’t get exactly his way). You would have missed the President asking for an overhaul of the FISA statute that he can’t even be bothered to follow. And that’s just the news from Capitol Hill!

In other political news you would have missed an effective end to voters registration drives (so for goodness sake, why don’t you pick up a half dozen of those cards and make sure your friends are registered?), the Republican Presidential Candidates deciding they won’t debate on YouTube, this item on Purple America, and the World Can’t Wait campaign, Declare It Now: Wear Orange.

From economic news you would have missed the fact that wages are stagnant and the lowest job growth in 40 years, and I honestly don’t know why the Neo-Cons aren’t screaming about how Clinton’s numbers weren’t much better and blaming him for everything (with added bonus Hillary-smearing!). You also would have missed millions of people getting a raise, the only ray of sunshine in the last Iraq spending bill.

Speaking of Iraq, did you know that we’ve stopped gathering data on how much electricity per day they get in Baghdad? Just so you don’t forget, it’s a typical July day there, with a projected high of 116 F. That might have something to do with why “In Baghdad, the search for ice becomes a deadly struggle”. Oh, and we might be abusing the workers we imported to build the American Embassy, begging the question of why we aren’t hiring locals considering the current unemployment rate there. And to top it off, one of the Iraqi Vice President’s bodyguards was shot by an off-dute Blackwater operative.

Speaking of assassination, just when you thought we knew everything about Pat Tillman’s unfortunate death as a hero, no wait by friendly fire, more keeps coming. Friendly Fire doesn’t normally result in 3 bullets to the forehead.

From the world of science, we have a hospital reducing infections through the inexpensive and liberal application of common sense and even the Pope says that evolution probably happened! He did caution that didn’t mean God didn’t make evolution. Somehow that seems like a good middle ground that should be palatable to many Christians, even the not-Catholic kind.

Somehow through all this, CNN has time for Lindsay Lohan and Zsa Zsa Gabor’s naked husband. Go figure.