Monday Newsbreak: 5/12

--In the aftermath of the tragic cyclone hitting southern Burma, it does sadly seem that this country's military government is only interested in holding on to power and cares very little for the welfare of its people. Its intransigence in allowing relief aid to enter the country, along with widespread accusations that it refused to give preventative warnings to the people about the cyclone's impending strike, says all that I need to know about the moral bankruptcy of this regime.

--After last Tuesday's North Carolina and Indiana primaries in which Barack Obama convincingly defeated Hillary Clinton in the former and essentially broke even with her in the latter, the momentum has sharply shifted over to Obama. The tide of superdelegate support is overwhelmingly going in the direction of the charismatic young Illinois senator. I agree with the pundits I've read who state that Hillary's behavior over the next few weeks will determine her political future within the Democratic Party on a national level. A lot more tact and a lot less sideswiping would appear to be the right course of action for the New York senator.

--The local news is full of the woes of the University of Florida as it tries to figure out a way to implement a $47 million budget cut. Not only will faculty and staff be severely cut, but degree programs will also be affected with some eliminated, leaving some students stranded in the middle of targeted programs. I agree with one of the letters to the Gainesville Sun's editor, which raised the question: since the UF administrators knew for a while about the impending cuts, why didn't they take earlier actions to both warn people as well as to look for alternative private sources of funding?! UF President Bernie Machen, with his multimillion dollar salary, comes out of this appearing totally incompetent and insensitive.

--The first Walmart Supercenter in Gainesville opened this week, so naturally it looked as if this store was the "place to be" this weekend. I went there and liked how the grocery store looked. However, judging by the chronically sloppy appearance of the other Walmarts in town, I think I'll wait a while after the initial hoopla has settled before rendering any kind of judgement about the new store. Only that, with the deliberate placement of the store in sparsely populated eastern Gainesville far away from everything, coupled with the skyrocketing cost of gasoline, I don't see myself making the crosstown trip very often to save money on merchandise.