Monday Newsbreak: 9/8

--The secular People’s Party candidate for Pakistan’s presidency easily won election in that important, troubled nation in an election that carries important lessons for our own. Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of assassinated party leader and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, represents the majority sentiment in Pakistan of the desire to have a society devoted to civil rights, respect for diversity, and full integration into the world community. As such, he opposes the xenophobic and religiously narrow, intolerant, and violent minority who want to establish a theocracy and throw out Western influences (including democracy and civil rights). I think most countries have this sort of tension between those believing in social and scientific progress and those “my way or the highway” types who see anyone disagreeing with their religion or politics as part of an evil conspiracy that must be warred against. Although, in America, we don’t see the terrorism that exists in Pakistan, there are still groups that frame their xenophobia and religious bigotry in similar ways to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda sympathizers in Zardari’s land. Only their professed faith isn’t fundamentalist/political Islam; it’s fundamentalist/political Christianity. And now they have a voice in this election: Alaska governor Sarah Palin. Due to his regrettable, short-sighted, and cynical selection of Palin as running mate, I now see the possible election of McCain to be president as a potentially dangerous development. I’m counting on either my fears about Palin being dispelled by her own words or having those words eventually expose her extremism to the rest of the nation before the election (and before it’s too late). No, Palin is certainly not Al-Qaeda, but she does seem (to me) to promote a mindset that runs in opposition to the great American traditions of inclusion and progress.

--NASA Administrator Mike Griffin has revealed in an e-mail what I had been suspecting for some time: President Bush, in spite of his public pronouncements about establishing a Moon base and seriously preparing for a manned Mars voyage, in fact has no interest in either of these projects. Apparently, our president was only interested in scrapping the Space Shuttle program and used the carrots of returning to the Moon and exploring beyond to get people at the agency to work at shutting it down. The result: without any real funding for new ventures, the next president will probably just keep running the Space Shuttles, as old and outdated as they are, without implementing any new plans. But, as I see it, this is nothing new. The only presidents who have shown any real interest in our space program were Eisenhower and Kennedy. Johnson was indifferent, and Nixon was the first of a string of presidents who deliberately set out to sabotage our manned space exploration efforts. Ironically, if Vice-President Spiro Agnew, even with his public image as an anti-intellectual, had survived his 1973 income tax scandal and had succeeded Nixon (instead of leaving it to Gerald Ford) after Watergate, we might have been able to revitalize our space program. For Agnew was very captivated by our Apollo successes and was eager to get started, even in 1969, on plans to land on Mars!

--Hurricane Ike keeps altering its trajectory and now appears headed to the Gulf of Mexico after it batters the southern Bahamas, Haiti, and Cuba (which seems to be happening way too often this year). Then, if it hits Texas or Florida, expect an appropriate, measured disaster preparation response. But if it heads straight at Louisiana, then expect more ridiculous statements by New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin and ridiculous meddling by presidential candidate-turned-shameless-opportunist John McCain.

--The University of Florida Gators football team, with a little timely help from a questionable call by the officials (ruling an obviously incomplete long pass as being complete), were able to finally pull away from a tough University of Miami Hurricanes team and win 26-3. Now here’s what got me. The Vegas “line” on the game had the Gators favored by 21 and a half points. And they had built up a 23-3 lead late in the game. With time running out on the clock, Florida had the ball deep in Hurricane territory and could have just run out the clock, as was the expected custom of sportsmanship in these types of situations. Instead, they decided to kick a field goal, giving them a 23 point victory margin and beating the Vegas spread. H-m-m-m!!!

This season represents a departure for me: it’s the first time since the early 1980’s that I am not enthusiastically rooting for the Gators. I’m sensing a rather ugly streak of sports fanaticism and hero worship (of Tim Tebow and Urban Meyer) in this community that repels me. When Florida goes up to Knoxville to play Tennessee, I may well actually pull for the Volunteers, who have won my respect with their likable coach Phillip Fulmer. Plus, I dig Knoxville! (Of course, I understand that in the nineties, the Tennessee fans went a little over the top idolizing Peyton Manning as well.)