Shame and Apocalypse

Two interesting Op-Eds at CNN.com. The first one is Jake Tapper discussing how disappointed he was that there was no high level U.S. official at the momentous 1.5 million person march in Paris after the recent terrorist attacks. Tapper says: "I say this as an American - not as a journalist, not as a representative of CNN - but as an American: I was ashamed." I try and try to give the Obama administration the benefit of the doubt, but damn they are so stupid sometimes. Talk about opportunity to be seen as a world leader handed to you on a silver platter. Jon Stewart on the Daily Show also went after the administration. Tapper and Stewart aren't exactly right wing talk radio. As Stewart incredulously said when mentioning that Eric Holder was actually in Paris that day for a meeting but couldn't make it to the march..."what the f*ck?!" The White House made some lame excuse that security concerns would detract from the event. Uh-huh. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu doesn't have security concerns? British PM David Cameron? German president Angela Merkel? Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority? The King of Jordan? All were there. Even Russia sent their equivalent of Secretary of State, Foreign Minister Lavrov. Ashamed is right. Obama, Biden, Kerry, Holder...somebody!? Either cowards or political fools or something else. You think John Kerry would be more at risk than the prime minister of Israel? Netanyahu not only boldly marched, but then gave a speech afterward at Paris' largest synagogue. January of 2017 cannot get here soon enough as far as repairing our global leadership goes.

And it is not just the administration. Perhaps the Republican leadership could have shown what they are supposedly made of (not to mention scoring easy points on Obama). Obama may be too cowardly to show (or not care), but maybe our bold congressional leaders could show some cajones. Boehner? McConnell? Nope. How about some presidential hopefuls for 2016? What kind of strong image would that project, Hillary Clinton or Jeb Bush marching in Paris with world leaders. I guess it didn't occur to them. How much do they pay their campaign advisors again? The march was on Sunday. Chris Christie, Scott Walker and Paul Ryan couldn't make it to Paris either. No, instead they were at the Cowboys-Packers game. Jesus.

The other article is about just how screwed we are environmentally. Want to be be scared? Read this. I generally lean conservative or libertarian on most things, but the environment has always been an issue where I tend to agree with my liberal friends. I can't think of an issue more important than the survival of the human race. Seriously, read the article. Yes, I am a conservative/libertarian, but I also believe in science. And whatever outlier scientists those on the right can get to dismiss our impending environmental apocalypse, they are far outweighed by the vast majority of scientific consensus. I don't even see why this should be a political or partisan issue at all. I do know that those on the left have squandered their credibility over the decades by being Chicken Little. They have made it easy for some kooks on the Right to prove them wrong on this exact prediction or that specific prediction. But you know, the sky really is falling.

As much as I love post-apocalyptic cinema, I don't want my kids living in a Mad Max world.

Oh, speaking of, have you seen the trailer for the new Mad Max movie coming out this summer? I love this stuff! Can't wait. Here it is, be sure to watch it full screen...