Ferguson

Clearly Ferguson has a lot of very unhappy campers.  Questions that the TV newsies aren't asking.  Does the black community of Ferguson get out and vote?  Is Ferguson a real town, with a mayor, a town council, police department, fire department, and school department?  Or is it merely a district of St. Louis?  How many blacks and how many whites live in Ferguson?  Census data ought to show it.  Are there black candidates for municipal office?  Do they get elected?  What sort of turnout do Ferguson's black districts show, compared to the white districts?  
   The TV suggests that Ferguson's police force is mostly white, which is problematic.  Is this because Ferguson's blacks don't come out and vote?  The newsies would do the country a favor if they looked into this, rather than riot mongering.
   The riots, burning down stores, reduce employment opportunities as well as retail opportunities in Ferguson.  Hopefully the burned out store owners have insurance that will make them whole again.  But I bet a lot of 'em don't.  Certainly any businessman will think twice, maybe three times before setting up to do business in Ferguson.  Which costs jobs.

Snow just started up here in Franconia Notch.

Follow up to the non stop weather forecasts.  It's just at freezing, and light snow has started in the last few minutes. 

Why do I bother to read them?

You gotta wonder about the Economist.  A London based weekly news magazine with a long history and pretensions of seriousness.  The end-of-the-year special edition just came in, thick with ads, and lots of speculation and prognostication about next year.  Lots of good opining with little factual content, a sort of writer's delight. 
   Lead article, bylined "From the Editor".  second sentence reads "Two grand gatherings toward the end of the year, the UN's meeting to set 'sustainable development goals' and a get together in Paris to combat climate change, will show whether countries can agree on way to tackle some of the planet's biggest issues. "
Wow.  With Europe's economy tipping into recession, ISIS on the march, Ebola spreading, Putin taking over Ukraine, and China making moves all over the South China Sea, the Economist calls "sustainable development" and global warming  some of the planet's biggest issues?   Can you spell obsession?  Can you spell liberal lightweight?

National Guard

The TV newsies have been pointing to the lack of the Guard on the streets of Ferguson last night.  The Guard was called up, but was not sent out to confront the rioters face to face. 
   This might be a decision by the governor to allow down town Ferguson burn rather than accept the casualties that might result from sending in the Guard.  Kent State must have been on the governor's mind. 
   The National Guard are part time soldiers, and have a much more practical attitude toward opponents than professional police officers do.  Guardsmen tend to believe the best way to deal with opposition is to shoot them before they get you.  If necessary call in some air and artillery strikes to soften them up before sending in the infantry.  This is a good attitude for soldiers in combat.  It is a little bit harsh for domestic law enforcement purposes.  
  

Oz, the great and powerful, Disney

As a dyed in the wool Oz fan, I had to watch it.  I first saw the original at age 5, my grandmother took me into Boston on the train, (Grandmother didn't drive) in a snow storm.  That was back before we had TV.  And we had a lot of Oz books around the house and I read them.   
   Any how, this is the second Disney attempt to revive the Oz franchise.  It isn't actually bad,  but it lacks something.  The cast are all people I never heard of.  A much younger wizard gets blown to Oz in a balloon by a cyclone.  Once in Oz he has difficulty figuring out what he is there for.  The wicked witch of the east doesn't seem all that wicked, despite wearing black and flying a broom that leaves a trail of black smoke.  He teams up with a cute blonde Glinda the Good, but the relationship never seems to get to the boyfriend-girlfriend stage, let alone into proposals of marriage.    There is a CGI china doll who tries to fill the role of Dorothy but CGI doesn't have the stage presence of a Judy Garland.  There is a CGI flying monkey in a bell boy uniform who winding up carrying the Wizard's bag and cracking a few jokes. 
Over all,  Meh. 

Chuck Hagel, Defense Secretary is OUT.

Obama will make a formal announcement in an hour or so.  I, and many others, wonder how this happened.  Is Obama firing Hagel?  Or is Hagel resigning?  Who will ever know? 
I also wonder what Obama will do for a replacement.  Taking on the Defense Secretary job with serious budget cuts, sequester, ISIS on a roll, no boots on the ground, Iran building nukes,  and various other S.H.I.T.F things going on is not career enhancing.  Obama has driven foreign policy and the military so far down the drain that I cannot imagine anyone being able to do good or look good trying to fix things. 

Nature on PBS, still into Global Warming

Watched "Nature" on channel 6, Vermont Public TV.  Interesting show on the Arctic.  Interesting shots of a school of killer whales driving narwhales into the shallows and chowing down on them.  The voice over kept emphasizing that global warming was melting off the Arctic ice cap, allowing the killer whales to hunt farther north.  And it sympathized with the fate of polar bears.  The traditional bear hunting tactic involves walking out on the ice, finding a breathing hole in the ice and waiting for a seal to come up for air.  No more ice, no more seal hunting on the ice.  We did get to see a couple of polar bears going after spawning arctic char, with variable luck. 
    Of course, this year's arctic ice report shows more arctic ice than usual.  That happy talk about the arctic ice going out and  allowing steamships to make it thru the NorthWest passage has died down.
   That didn't seem to affect the Nature voiceover bewailing the onset of global warming.