“Bread crumbs”(perhaps how you got here)

Saturday, February 13th, 2010

Some items lately in the news and annoying, at least to me:

1. The neo-fascist press proclaims that global warming is obviously now a myth, because the winter has so far been unusually snowy and cold in the northern United States. The operative word in “global warming” is “global.” What matters is the overall temperature of the Earth’s surface, not the climate in any particular place. Wingnuts should check out the weather news from the Southern Hemisphere. I don’t have data for the entirety of the two hemispheres, but one possibility that ought to frighten us is that the differential between the average temperature of the Northern Hemisphere and that of the Southern Hemisphere is growing - thereby setting us up for a violent spring and summer. It will be interesting to watch.
2. The neo-fascists are fond of citing single examples of Canadians who come to the United States for medical treatment. Single examples are not what matters. No one disputes that the United States’ medical system can, at its best, do some really impressive things. What matters in the health care debate is the overall cost of health care and the nation-wide measures of health, such as rates of infection and recovery for diseases, the availability of emergency medical attention, and so on. Individual cases are emotionally appealing, but they don’t address the policy problem. The great scandal of American health care is that we spend a lot on health care, but actually deliver to the population as a whole only a mediocre level of care (that’s putting it mildly). Republicist sympathizers should see Paul Krugman’s recent commentary about their party’s health-care plans.
3. There seems to be a lot of garbage on both left and right about President Obama’s use of a teleprompter and Sara Palin’s writing on the palm of her hand. Who cares? When you go before the press or some other audience in a stressful situation, it’s a perfectly proper thing to have notes or even a whole speech written out beforehand. It’s not that long ago that public speakers customarily had their whole written speech with them as they took the podium. Then they read it. Washington did this. Jefferson did this. Lincoln did this. Teddy Roosevelt did (well, in his case, at least some of the time).
4. There was a stage-set malfunction yesterday evening at the torch-lighting ceremony for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Big deal. This is not a cause for making fun of Canada or preening ourselves (in America). Nothing’s perfect. So deal with it and move on, which is what the Canadians are doing.
5. Canada has one of the World’s most beautiful national anthems. So why was the young lady that sang it last night following a silly but popular American practice in trying to make “O Canada” sound like soul music or something? The song comes from a different time and place. It stands on its own, and does not need a tasteless and grotesque rendition. (Same is true for our own national anthem - it’s an Eighteenth-Century drinking song, for crying out loud.) If you want soul music, write something and get it publicized but don’t pervert a beautiful national anthem. In the same vein, the new version of “We are the World” is a pathetic and shabby ghost of the original, which was the finest thing Michael Jackson ever did.
6. Yesterday a young Georgian luger (? Is that the term?) lost his life in a practice run as he prepared to compete in the Olympics. This is sad, very sad. But it is not the end of the World. Deaths occur in all sports, some more than others. Every year in the United States several young men suffer serious injury or even death as high schools and colleges prepare for the coming football season. (See, e.g., NEWS - American Football's High School Death Toll and Heat deaths put pressure on football tradition - CNN.com.) For all I know, luge racing may be safer. Perhaps the real problem is our determination to go “over the top,” to exceed what happened last year. This is true in every sport. When will those that make money from sports understand that performance is not the reason for sport? The reason is dedication, courage, and effort. That really counts. The young man that died yesterday knew the risks he was taking; he knew that the course through which he had to take his sled was fast and dangerous. He also probably knew quite well that he was not as good at this sport as some of his competitors. But he still showed up, still tried. That matters. He died trying to do something inspiring to his countrymen. That matters. His death is, as I said, sad, but it was always his courage and devotion that mattered much more.

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