Monday Newsbreak: 10/1

--"Hope wanes among Myanmar protesters" is the title of Sunday's Gainesville Sun article describing the dwindling protest movement there, led by Buddhist monks, against the long-time authoritarian military government. The Myanmar authorities decided to fire on the protesters, and this tactic has worked, at least for the short term. And sanctions are unlikely to work, since India, China, and Russia depend on trade with Myanmar, chiefly for their natural resources. By all accounts, I've heard that this is a repressive government, though not totalitarian in nature. There is a pro-democracy movement for Myanmar, symbolized by Aung San Suu Kyi, a noted Burmese (Myanmar) woman who has won the Nobel Peace Prize and is under house arrest there for her efforts at promoting democracy in Burma (I can't stand calling it Myanmar). A few decades ago, I think most people in the West would automatically take the side of religious groups (like the Burmese Buddhist monks) protesting against an authoritarian secular government, but now it's not such a clear picture. The rest of the world has seen some examples in recent years of countries being worse off after "religious" people took over control of them from secular dictators. Burma--I mean (ugh!) Myanmar is another of those countries, like Iraq, that were created out of the Imperialism Era of the nineteenth century by European powers and then granted independence in the twentieth century. In Myanmar's case, it was Britain who ruled and patched together a multitude of disparate and often conflicting ethnic groups into a national entity that was bound to have problems with stability.

--There seems to be a refocus in the media on the future U.S. space program plans. After the Space Shuttle program ends in 2010, we're supposedly going to go back to the moon (and stay there) using a new generation of rockets (the Orion rockets) that can eventually get us to Mars as well. Also, private companies as well as other countries are getting into space. I welcome all of this, and wonder why it's taken so long. After all, according to Carl Sagan in his 80's series Cosmos, we already possess the scientific know-how to build spaceships that can take us to the stars!

--The State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) renewal bill, with some alterations expanding its scope, was overwhelmingly passed in both the Senate and House, although the House margin was insufficient to sustain a promised White House veto. And why would Bush veto it? He claims that, under the new bill, children would be covered under SCHIP whose parents could otherwise afford their insurance, and that it would lead to more government-mandated health care. To me, this is another reason to support the bill. I'd prefer to live under a system where health insurance coverage is guaranteed to all American citizens and is not tied to employment. Our businesses need to be liberated from this yoke, and we as a people need to feel that we can switch careers or even become entrepreneurs in mid-life without worrying about ruining our health insurance coverage for ourselves or our dependents. But I remember back in 1992 when then-President George H.W. Bush vetoed the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). When Clinton became President the next year, one of the first things he did was sign the FMLA into law. And I think that the defeat of SCHIP will be just one more campaign issue to help convince the American people to return a Democrat to the Presidency.

--My prediction of there possibly being more than five undefeated major college football teams at the pre-bowl season's end just went flushed-down-the-toilet when seven of the undefeated top thirteen teams lost this past football weekend. Sad to say, my Florida Gators were one of the fallen. But they say misery loves company, and Gator Nation has plenty of company among the fans of Oklahoma, West Virginia, Texas, Rutgers, Oregon, and Clemson! Let's see if Florida can't straighten themselves out and add LSU to that list next week! I don't imagine they're going too far down in the rankings (with so many others losing as well).