Mixed Messages

Things that are catching my attention while traveling:

• Someone told the police to let protesters spray-paint the Capitol Building... was it the Republicans who didn't want to be called "neo-Nazis" or the Democrats who wanted to show how much Americans hate the war in Iraq? Or maybe it was just some bureaucratic idiot who should be fired.
• The U.S. may be facing the same future as Europe (especially Britain) by being excessively tolerant toward people whose goal is to kill those who don't believe as they do. The pendulum has a way of swinging too far the other way in an attempt to correct an imbalance.
• Traffic in all cities seems out of control... literally. At this (unidentified) location, signal progression is obviously not a consideration as minor two-lane streets will stop normal signal progression on 6 or 8-lane thoroughfares. I'll repeat: if you are really concerned about CO2 increases and pollution, contact your department of transportation and demand that they do their jobs... fix traffic signal progression. (see my recent post about reducing CO2 now).
• We seem to be raising a generation of illiterates. My sister-in-law teaches at a high school and said that about 10% of her students have both the aptitude and attitude to succeed academically. She mentioned about how excited one of her students was to receive a "D" on a recent major project... "was it a high D?" the student wanted to know.
• Back home, students at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, displayed their intellect and class by walking out of a large lecture hall where three people who claimed to be former terrorists were denouncing their former ways. It's good to see that our best and brightest have all of the answers they need... and can automatically reject anyone who might challenge their pre-determined positions... but, then, life hasn't happened to them, yet.
  

More later.