What Caught My Eye Today

Fred's Note: Despite my best efforts to stay current on world events while on vacation, the allure of Hawaii got to be more than I could manage. But fear not. I'm back and fully rested. From the look of things, it would appear that the world could use a bit of a breather.

China - About 80,000 people were evacuated from downstream of an unstable earthquake-created dam that is threatening to collapse, and troops rushed to carve a trench to drain the water before it floods the valley. The magnitude-7.9 quake that struck Sichuan province May 12 sent a mass of dirt and rocks tumbling in the valley about two miles above the town in a spot not reached by roads, plugging a river that is now forming the lake. The number of deaths from the quake climbed toward an expected toll of 80,000 or more. China's Cabinet said that 67,183 people were confirmed killed, with 20,790 still missing. Aftershocks continued to rattle the region, causing more damage and injuries and jangling the already-frayed nerves of survivors. Two temblors today caused more than 420,000 houses to collapse. Think about that for a moment--420,000 houses collapsed. That's equivalent every house in San Francisco being destroyed (probably more). A calamity of this scale is almost beyond comprehension. Tragically, this sort of thing is becoming more frequent, especially in Asia.

2008 Presidential Race - I have a daily double for you today. First up, John McCain. The president and McCain were appearing together for the first time in nearly three months at an event that epitomized both elements of their tricky alliance — they were holding a fundraiser with GOP faithful at a private home, without the media to document it. Bush and McCain last appeared together publicly the day after the Arizona senator sewed up the nomination in early March. Mindful of the risks Bush brings, McCain has been aggressive about separating himself from the president. He has been laying out his own vision for the future with speeches on a slew of high-profile issues such as the U.S. posture in the world, climate change and the response to Hurricane Katrina. If any of this sounds vaguely familiar, it is. Remember what an 'asset' Bill Clinton was to Al Gore in his bid for the White House in 2000?

Here's how Barack Obama's day went.... The Obama campaign said the candidate mistakenly referred to the wrong Nazi death camp when relating the story of a great uncle who helped liberate the camps in World War II. The Democratic presidential candidate said the story is accurate except that the camp was Buchenwald, not Auschwitz. Auschwitz was liberated by Soviet forces as they marched across Poland in January 1945. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum says Americans liberated several death camps in Germany, including Buchenwald, Dachau and Mauthausen. As you can well imagine, this historic gaff of epic proportions did not go unnoticed. The Republican Party demanded an explanation. "It was Soviet troops that liberated Auschwitz, so unless his uncle was serving in the Red Army, there's no way Obama's statement yesterday can be true," said a spokesman for the Republican National Committee. I wonder how many RNC officials knew of the historical accuracy of this statement before someone (probably a voter like you or me) brought it to their attention. Always nice to see sanctimonious blow hards keeping vigil on every word either candidate utters. On a separate, but related note, isn't it telling how Hillary Clinton is not mentioned at all in either story.

Tornadoes - With the year not even half done, 2008 is already the deadliest tornado year in the United States since 1998 and seems on track to break the U.S. record for the number of twisters in a year. The brutal numbers for the U.S. so far this year: at least 110 dead, 30 killer tornadoes and a preliminary count of 1,191 twisters. The record for the most tornadoes in a year is 1,817 in 2004. In the past 10 years, the average number of tornadoes has been 1,254. The nagging question is why. Global warming cannot really explain what is happening. Why not? We blame everything else on it? While higher temperatures could increase the number of thunderstorms, which are needed to trigger tornadoes, they also would tend to push the storm systems too far north to form some twisters. La Nina, the cooling of parts of the Central Pacific that is the flip side El Nino, was a factor in the increased activity earlier this year — especially in February, a record month for tornado activity — but it can't explain what is happening now. A short-term answer is that the nation's heartland is stuck in a tornado rut. Gee, that sure sounds technical, don't it? For my money, I blame the high price of oil. If all the weather geniuses can come up with is 'rut,' then why not oil?

Plumbing - I don't even want to contemplate how much this service call is going to cost. The international space station's lone toilet is broken, leaving the crew with almost nowhere to go. So NASA may order an in-orbit plumbing service call when space shuttle Discovery visits next week. Until then, the three-man crew will have to make do with a jury-rigged system when they need to urinate. Sort of you want to cringe a bit, doesn't it? While one of the crew was using the Russian-made toilet last week, the toilet motor fan stopped working, according to NASA. Since then, the liquid waste gathering part of the toilet has been working on-and-off. I'm not saying this to irritate the Russians, but NASA should have gone with the tried and true, American Standard. Fortunately, the solid waste collecting part is functioning normally. Thank God for small favors.

Matrimony - Same-sex couples in some California counties will be able to marry as soon as June 14. County clerks would be authorized to hand out marriage licenses as soon as that date, which is a Saturday and exactly 30 days after the California Supreme Court ruled that gay marriage should be legal. The court's decisions typically take effect after 30 days, barring further legal action. An effort, however, is under way to stay the Supreme Court's decision until voters can decide the issue with an initiative planned for the November ballot. The measure would overrule the justices' decision and amend the state constitution to ban gay marriage. Justices have until the ruling's effective date to weigh the request, but could give themselves longer to consider it, attorneys have said. Another complicating factor is that the Supreme Court also directed a midlevel appeals court that upheld the state's one man-one woman marriage laws a year ago to issue a new order legalizing same-sex marriage, and it's not clear when the appeals court would comply. Massachusetts is the only other state to legalize gay marriage, something it did in 2004. More than 9,500 same-sex couples in that state have wed. I cannot remember if I've ranted on this before or not (one rant sounds just like the next after awhile). Seriously, what is the big deal here? Why are we wasting some much energy on this issue. My favorite gripe is the one that suggests that same-sex unions will threaten the sanctity of marriage. Is that the same sanctity that ends up in divorce 51% of the time. I say let same-sex couples have the same chance at misery and divorce as us straight folks have.