Too much government means too little personal freedom. Right and Left agree.

In another related article entitled Line Drawn in One Case Dissolves in Another, we see the justice system in the U.S. is wrestling with taking into account the age of the perpetrator when delivering sentencing for grievous crimes. It is uneven across states and injustices for child criminals are many.

In this article, Charges Detail Road to Terror for 20 in U.S. , we see that there have been succesful efforts to recruit American residents for overseas terror assignments at a much heftier level than we imagined.  This is going to be a tough nut to crack amoung our immigrant Muslim population.

In this article, Pressure Builds Over Obama’s Afghanistan Plan , we read that senior Congressional Democrats are not happy with the way the war in Afghanistan is being played out and are making their unhappiness known to the President.

Here is the opening paragraph to the article:

"WASHINGTON — As President Obama nears a decision on a troop increase for the war in Afghanistan, he is facing increasingly vocal criticism from senior Congressional Democrats over the war’s cost, the size of the United States troop commitment and the reliability of America’s allies"

That is an understatement to say the least.  Why are we there?  No one has clearly explained this to us in any way that is acceptable to us relative to the cost in blood and treasure.

If this is only one more boondoggle to make wealthy Americans even wealthier, my vote is "No".

I am not much of a science-head and so I cannot speak to this issue intelligently but this article, Near Geneva, Particles Finally Come Together With a Bang, shows the door opening to the micro world of quantum physics in a very big way as of yesterday.

Nothing will be the same in science after yesterday, even a science-Neanderthal like me can see that. Away we go!  Hang onto your hats.

In this editorial by the Times entitled Turkey and the Kurds, we see that the government of Turkey is finally, after many generations, taking steps to fairly treat the Kurds as full citizens. This will have a huge impact in Afghanistan I am sure.

In a very important Op Ed piece by Bob Herbert relative to veterans issues entitled Signs of Hope, we learn that the U.S. is the leader in technological advances to ensure green energy takes hold. With a large amount of discipline we can go hugely green in the next decade.

This is very important to veterans since the USA has been going to war over oil since 1941 (actually 1939 but lets not bicker). A ‘green’ USA relative to energy production and consumption means there is no need to go to war over fuel supplies. Good idea, eh?

Roger Cohen in an Op Ed piece on Obama called Obama in His Labyrinth, laments the fact that the President is smart and very capable but still has not closed one important deal on the international stage. We need to start opening ourselves to the fact that we are losing influence due to the financial meltdown of last year.

Is this Obama’s fault or are we simply not the "player" we once were? I think it is the latter case.

The On This Day section of the New York Times has the following statement printed.

From the BBC News today we learn that the British government has now started its investigation of its own involvement in the debacle in Iraq. "Iraq inquiry told of ‘clear’ threat from Saddam Hussein" is the article.