Monday Newsbreak: 9/15

--An estimated more than 100,000 residents of the eastern Texas coastal areas directly in the path of Hurricane Ike chose not to heed warnings to evacuate and instead chose to stay and try to ride out the storm. At this writing, more than 600 rescues of stranded residents have been made, but only time will tell how many casualties resulted from decisions to remain instead of fleeing to safety. One might have thought that the disaster at Galveston of 1900, when a hurricane killed around 4000, or even the recent tragedy down the coast caused by Katrina just three years ago, would have been enough warning. And it probably was, for most. But for those who did stay behind, their danger is still ongoing, since the area is full of hazards, including downed power lines, debris, and damaged buildings.

--The level of mud being slung around in this presidential race has reached such epic proportions that I can barely continue to cover it. What may have been the final straw with me was the “pig with lipstick” comment Barack Obama made in reference to a failed policy that the Republicans, including John McCain, immediately blew up as a personal attack against Sarah Palin (Obama was in no way talking about her). Never mind that McCain himself had used the expression on a number of occasions with reference to Hillary Clinton’s take on issues. Don’t those slinging the mud realize that if elected, they will have an impossible task of reconciling half of the country with them? Or do they just seek naked power without regard to any sense of decency? And why do I already know the sad answers to these questions?

--As a response to Russia’s recent incursion into Georgia, The U.S. is stepping up its arms sales to allies in the region, including other former Soviet republics. Georgians living in South Ossetia are reportedly being harassed by local militias into leaving that region for Georgia proper. Although I understand how Russia could feel justified in intervening following the initial Georgian offensive against South Ossetia, allowing the persecution of an ethnic group (the Georgians) in a region under its military control makes its expressed concern about how Russian people living in the various former Soviet republics are treated nothing less than sheer hypocrisy. By putting the West on alert against them, this incursion may have been a very big mistake on their part. At least for the manner in which they executed it.

--In Steve Newman’s great feature Earthweek, ice in the Arctic Ocean has now melted enough to create an open, navigable circle of water for the first time in about 125,000 years, according to experts in the field. Of course, I don’t rightly know who would have been around to navigate the area 125,000 years ago! But this sort of information, which should help put to rest the notion that the melting ice is just part of a natural cycle, is going virtually ignored in the media (except by Mr. Newman). This is happening while a global warming denier is helping to catapult one candidate into the lead in America’s 2008 presidential race. Since we like to pretend that the ice isn’t really disappearing in the polar regions, why don’t we go a little further with our pleasant delusions and just proclaim that everything else is going hunky dory across the world? And bring the troops home.