What Caught My Eye Today

Birth Rates - Frankly, I'm not sure if this counts as good news or bad news. All I can say for sure, is that it definitely is news. More babies were born in the United States in 2007 than any other year in the nation's history. The 4,317,119 births topped a record first set in 1957 at the height of the baby boom. While it shows the U.S. population is more than replacing itself, a healthy trend (sounds like goods news), the teen birth rate was up for a second year in a row (in this day and age, that's probably more on the bad news side of the equation). The new numbers suggest the second year of a baby boomlet. On average, a U.S. woman has 2.1 babies in her lifetime. That's the "magic number" required for a population to replace itself. Countries with much lower rates — such as Japan and Italy — face future labor shortages and eroding tax bases as they fail to reproduce enough to take care of their aging elders. For me, this is especially good news. At some point I'm going to retire, and it would be nice if there was someone around to chip into the entitlement fund that I'm planning to draw from in my golden years. You know what I'm talking about--Social Security.

Gambia - Authorities in Gambia have rounded up about 1,000 people and forced them to drink hallucinogens in a witch-hunting campaign that is terrorizing the tiny West African nation. Witch hunts? It's like we time warped back to the Dark Ages. Authorities began inviting "witch doctors," who combat witches, to come from nearby Guinea soon after the death earlier this year of the president's aunt. Since then, "witch doctors" — accompanied by police, soldiers, intelligence agents and the president's personal guards — have forcibly taken about 1,000 alleged witches from their villages and spirited them to secret locations. Gambian officials could not immediately be reached for comment and the government has issued no statements in reaction to the report. Naturally. What is the government supposed to say? "Yeah, we know he's lost his senses, but he's our president. What can we do?" And if that's not enough, apparently back in 2007, this psycho decided that he had discovered a cure for AIDS. Funny how I seem to have missed that medical breakthrough in headlines.

Afghanistan - President Hamid Karzai warned the international community against meddling in Afghanistan's politics as it prepares for a presidential election later this year, saying the country is not "a puppet state." I agree that Afghanistan should be left alone in deciding who its next president will be, but honestly, I don't see how Afghanistan is in any position to tell the rest of the world what it can and cannot do. NATO said the alliance needs four more battalions in addition to nearly 60,000 troops already in the country to provide security for the August election. See what I mean? Karzai said he appreciates the work that the U.S. and other members of the international community have done to fight terrorism and rebuild the country. But, without singling out any nation, he accused some of proposing to weaken the central government. Well now that's the problem right there. If you let too many people into the kitchen, one them (at least) is going to poke their hand into the old cookie jar. Good luck with that election, Mr. Karzai. It sure looks like you and your country are going to need it.

Czech Republic - The Czech prime minister canceled a vote to allow the United States to put a key part of its planned missile defense system in the Central European country. Dear God, why would they do that to us? Prime Minister Miroslav Topolanek said he called off the vote for fear his government would lose but added he could still put the two treaties up for a vote in parliament at a later date. I don't understand. Who cares what Parliament wants. This is our missile defense system, and we want to build it in their country. I fail to see the problem here.