Quibbles and Bits, Looking Up And Down And All Around Edition

They're in the air, on the ground, in the water, and from my head onto this page.   More morsels for your mental-culinary discernment:

>> Check out this picture from NASA, a rare, clear, beautiful view of Sarah Palin's home state.  
With this picture, we can now say with a clear conscience that we can see almost all the way to mainland Russia.  

It's a beautiful picture, all right - and terrifying.

This much of Alaska should not be this cloud-free this time of year.    The accompanying article mentions areas well-north of Anchorage with high temperatures into the upper 90s.   

Don't believe in human-caused global climate change yet?    Check this out...

>> Imagine being able to swim at the North Pole.  You can do that now, as the beacon that serves as the marker for 0-degrees North is now doing double-duty as a buoy.   There's a nice-sized lake up there now,  smallish to be sure, but time to break out your swimsuits and suntan lotion.   

This is what happens when we allow corporations to purchase our government.   

What Lessons did Trayvon Teach Us?

I just got word a few minutes ago, about the Trayvon Martin verdict.  

This is going to be a strange blog entry, as I honestly don't know what to make of this.    I feel for Trayvon.   I feel for the family and the supporters.  I feel for those who felt that justice was not served.  And I feel for the jurors. 

I was a foreman for a jury trial last year.   Being put in a position of juror for a criminal (or for me, civil with criminal overtones) case, especially one with as much emotional payload as this, puts the jurors into a lose-lose, damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don't, situation.    Someone is going to be upset with this verdict, regardless of which way it went.     Had George Zimmerman been found guilty, then the gun nuts and the entirety of the right wing would be up in high dudgeon, trumpeting their anger and racism from on the heights of 1211 Avenue of the Americas and elsewhere.   The white supremacists would have likely come out in force.   

But that's not what happened.   

But here's the truth -  I wasn't at the courtroom.    I don't know what the judge allowed or disallowed for evidence.   I don't have the transcripts, and I could not observe how the jurors (only 6??  For a criminal case?  I find THAT interesting...) were acting during the course of the trial.   I know that in some areas of the trial, such as that involving whose voice was on the tape, there were conflicting claims as to whose voice it was screaming.    The bottom line is - I only know what the press filters out to the public, and that's not sufficient to potentially put a person behind bars for life.

I could speculate till all things that go "moo" come home.    I suppose that in the coming weeks, we'll be hearing about "Flori-duh" and the culture down there as far as race relations are concerned, and about the police, and about George Zimmerman being the right wing's new hero, and about "stand your ground", and about how this verdict opens the floodgates for race-based murder disguised as "stand your ground" self-defense, and on, and on, and on.    But guilt or innocence is not what I'm concerned with here.

I'm concerned about our country's love of sensationalism.  It sells - at the expense of all of the affected parties;
I'm concerned that "stand your ground" will now be opened for misuse, especially with our nation's sordid history of race relations;
I'm concerned that this case will form a stone paving the path to future race-related violence;
I'm concerned that our justice system will now be seen by more as an unfunny farce.  

The only winners here are George Zimmerman, the American Right Wing, and the 2nd-Amendment-Solutions crowd.    Nobody else is celebrating in the zero-sum game we play in the Gladiator's  Stadium of America.   

Eastern Seaboarding

I've been away for the last week, between self-guided walking tours of New York City and Boston and homework when I can get to it.  By the way, my adventures in these cities are detailed here, at my travel log blog, Beyond Highway 99.   I'm refining it as I go along, and will include photos, links to recommended places, and other things learned along the way as a relatively novice traveler.  

In my travels, I did find a few nuggets which I think of as relevant in this here progressive-leaning blog.     You'll see 'em soon - I think I might actually have a couple of doozies for you.   

So before I knock off for now, I'll let you know about a couple of topics I won't cover here, outside of what you see below:
1. The case against former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez - he may be as guilty as hell, but at least let him have his day in court;
2.  The crash of the Asiana Airlines flight at SFO, especially in light of the possibility that the flying fickle finger of blame may be pointed squarely in the flight crew's direction when all is said and done.   No rush to judgement, please;

More later.  

Putting the Boot to John Galt

It isn't typical that a professional athlete speaks out publicly on politics, current affairs, or much else that doesn't relate to their chosen profession.   What gets in the news, as we know, is the sensational stuff, much like the sensationally idiotic tweetings of Lolo Jones regarding the Trayvon Martin case.  

But its nice to see exceptions to that rule.    Chris Kluwe, former Minnesota Vikings punter now with the Oakland Raiders, has long been noted as a supporter of gay marriage.   I can only wonder how much his outspokenness on this issue led to his dismissal from the Vikings roster - the Vikings said it didn't, so well...OK.    What caught my attention is this post in Salon magazine regarding the shortcomings of the Ayn Rand philosophy which serves as the bedrock for modern Conservatism.   It's a short article, just a few paragraphs, but he gets right to the heart of what's wrong with Rand - a severe case of social myopia, and a delusional perception of a dream world existence.     Check it out.