Clearly, we must do something, but what?
Many political pundits are screaming that Obama is not acting strong enough but, as I said weeks ago, no one is making any real suggestions as to what should be done. (I’m not counting Sarah Palin’s suggestion to use nukes; I’m talking about real suggestions from rational people.) 
Most military commentators who aren’t just political mouthpieces admit that this would have happened no matter who was in the White House (pointing out properly that Putin invaded Georgia while Bush was President). Still, there are many Americans seem to think that everything in the world is about us. Ask any foreigner and they will tell you that they do not make decisions based on what America thinks any more than we do based on what they think.
Putin is clearly the bad guy here, and simply sending in 007 won’t work this time. (Since whenever I look at Putin, I see Dobby, maybe instead we should send in Harry Potter.)
Economic sanctions are already working on Russia; military action may backfire tremendously (especially since it appears that a majority of those in Crimera actually support Russia in this).
So we’re back to the first question: What should we do?
Fred Phelps was a cruel man who believed in an evil hateful god. He would protest the funerals of veterans and try to disrupt them with his “God Hates Fags” signs. He probably did more to help the gay rights movement than anyone else. 
He was, however, not a criminal, and he helped bring about some important cases about Freedom of Speech. It is terribly important to protect speech we hate. After all, we don’t need to protect speech we all agree with. It’s the controversial, angry and disruptive speech that needs protecting.
Some people have wished to protest his funeral as well. I hope they do not. Phelps had the right to his opinion no matter how vile. You fight back without stooping to his level.
His son Timothy Phelps apparently responded to one of my blog posts a while ago. You can go here and read the comments and decide for yourself whether it really was him or just some troll. Usually trolls give themselves away by being too over the top, so I wonder…
Anyway, while I certainly do not celebrate his death, I don’t mourn him, either.
I agree with Bernie Sanders on almost every issue, and think it would be amazing if he were President. It will never happen though, and I’m not naive enough to think that it could. 
That doesn’t mean I would object to him running in the primaries. He could move the Democrats to the left and prove that it is possible to do so without alienating voters. While it is true that “the votes are in the middle” and if you run a candidate too far to the left or right you will lose the election, the problem is that politicians are wrong about where the “middle” is. They think it is far more conservative than it is in reality.
A majority of Americans support Obamacare. A majority thinks gay marriage, abortion and marijuana should be legal. A majority supports more gun control. A majority want to raise the minimum wage and do something about campaign finance reform. A majority wants to raise taxes on the wealthy and do not believe that “corporations are people.”
These positions are not radical dreams of the left. They are mainstream. For Democrats to shy away from what a majority of Americans want is ridiculous. Having Senator Sanders in the race might help toughen up the other candidates and bring them away from the center-right and perhaps lure them to the center-left.
The problem is this: For all Sanders has said about wanting to enter the race, I am waiting to hear that he will be running as a Democrat. Because he isn’t one. He’s an Independent Socialist who caucuses with the Democrats.
If there’s one thing we definitely don’t need, it’s another spoiler who will siphon off votes from Democrats and allow a Republican to win the Presidency in 2016.
So here’s hoping his plan is to enter the Democratic primaries and not run as an Independent. Otherwise, we could end up with President Ted Cruz.
I admit — it’s fun to speculate on all the dramatic things that could have happened to the lost Malaysian plane. 
Hijackers, an inside job, aliens — you name it, someone has been able to find time on the news shows to flog their pet theory.
I always like Occam’s Razor in these situations, and look for the simplest explanation. And the one that makes the most sense and doesn’t require us to believe in some conspiracy is that this was simply a fire on board leading to a crash somewhere.
It explains the sudden turn (to get to the closest airport), the lack of communication, and the shutting down of parts of the engine that could be on fire.
Here’s a link to an article by a very experienced pilot explaining why this is the best explanation.
Now, are there other possibilities? Sure. And it’s fun to imagine them. But sadly the most likely explanation is simple and not quite so exciting, though plenty dramatic.
Obama’s candidate for Surgeon General has some explaining to do. Apparently his views on guns is completely unacceptable to the Senate, who will probably refuse to confirm him. 
After all, Dr. Vivek Murthy has positions on guns that are compatible with the vast majority of Americans, and which mirror positions taken by the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American College of Emergency Physicians. And we can’t have that.
As we all know from our basic government classes, the Surgeon General has supreme power over our country, and can write laws to take away everyone’s guns and enforce these laws with his leagues of stethoscope-wearing minions.
The NRA is doing everything they can to make sure this absolutely sane, mainstream doctor is not confirmed. Maybe Ted Nugent is available?
Of course, we are all perfectly aware who will win this, and it won’t be the American people. The NRA is, after all, very good at killing things.
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