foreclosure sales

from WaPo

I’m sorry, but I continue to get the overwhelming feeling that the media is playing us. In order to keep this contest going, the media is pushing Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich. They’re making them seem more popular than they really are. Therefore, they get more votes and before you know it we have a “real contest.” This thing is going to go on for months. Oh, by the way, Rick Santorum won both Alabama and Mississippi. Mitt Romney can take some solace in knowing that he won Hawaii, I guess.

North Slope oil well hhad been gushing well for several weeks. It has finally been plugged.

Wells Fargo and Bank of America may face fines for fraudulent foreclosure sales. This is a real tragedy. How do you fraudulently foreclose on somebody? It is unbelievable that fines are all they get.

Sarah Palin wants to be relevant, again. She has challenged President Barack Obama to a debate. All I can do is smile.

Speaking of challenges, Jon Stewart has challenged Grover Norquist over his anti-tax pledge. I suspect after getting roasted by Samantha Bee that he probably will not accept the challenge.

Our aging nuclear reactors are probably cause for safety concerns.

A cancer patient has been kicked out of the hospital for using medical marijuana. The problem is that there is absolutely no clarity in this case. Specifically, although medical marijuana is legal in California, the federal government has taken a different stance. This leaves hospitals in a significant bind. No hospital wants to see itself on the evening news as federal agents are raiding it for allowing patients to smoke medical marijuana. Hospitals, like most large corporations, are risk-averse.

I haven’t mentioned Afghanistan. For some time, I used to talk about Afghanistan as the “good” war, like there is such a thing. For the last several years, I have been wondering what we are truly doing in Afghanistan. Whenever we ask that question, we seem to get the same knee-jerk answer – we are preventing Al Qaeda from establishing another safe haven. Okay. How many troops does that take? The fact that Afghans have murdered American troops and what appears to be a lone American soldier went on a premeditated shooting spree is tragic. It is clear to me that Afghanistan has some issues. We are not going to be able to turn Afghanistan into some type of American democracy. They don’t have the infrastructure. I’m not sure that they have the desire. We don’t have the will to spend the money and resources to get that done. So, we are going to have to settle for something less, something that is relatively stable and strong enough to protect itself from al Qaeda and the Taliban. The question is whether we will be able to get to that place sooner rather than later.

What stories are you following today? I’ll have more on our discussion on race later on today. I appreciate your stopping by.