Steven Colbert and Bill O’Reilly had a fun time this week… they each went on each other’s shows. I think Colbert won, but props to them both for being daring enough to do it. You be the judge!
Colbert on O’Reilly:

O’Reilly on Colbert:

Sometimes a picture tells a thousand words.

Link to NOAA 2006 Annual Climate Review.

This is a pretty stunning article. At first I thought this was sarcasm. “Hooray for Global Warming!”, the editor of the National Review says. “Global warming is great.”
In response to criticism that some areas of Florida and Manhattan will go underwater, James Robbins says, “…we cannot, we will not let this happen! A wall I say!” Are you kidding me? Um, remember New Orleans?
I don’t know what to say. This article pretty much stands on its own.

In this article on the BBC News site, it is reported that New York City council members are thinking about limiting the number of fast food restaurants in the city in order to get people to eat more healthily.
What the hell?
Unfortunately this is the kind of thing that Democrats sometimes do – start with an idea that is great, “let’s get people to eat healthier”, and then they figure out a ham-handed way of enforcing it that actually reduces people’s freedoms, instead of compelling them to make smarter choices. I mean come on, does this solve ANY problem? Maybe people will have to walk another block to go to McDonald’s, or maybe they’ll just grab a big bag of Cheetos at the deli instead of a Big Mac. So what.
I love this quote from Joel Rivera, “What I want to do is LIMIT the number of fast-food establishments … and give people CHOICES.” (Emphasis mine.) Give me a break.

Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek International and host of PBS’ “Foreign Exchange”, had a great article up on the Newsweek site a few weeks ago. In his piece, “How Long Will America Lead the World?”, he makes references to previous empires as well as current economic conditions in the U.S.
In most articles like this that I read, the partisanship or perspective of the writer is clear from the outset – you can read one paragraph or two and know what you’ll get from the article. Zakaria, however, has a real knack for staking out the middle ground and just giving you really useful information on the issues he discusses. Sure, he draws some conclusions at the end of this piece, but it isn’t before he goes through a whole raft of evidence on both sides. Is America in decline as a world power? Yes? No? Depends how you want to argue it.
This article is certainly worth a read, and it will leave you – most likely – feeling a bit better about how things are going in the U.S. Or at least, that’s how I was left. Of course, I may read articles by too many doomsayers.