Free kibbles

REGULATION:

Senate unanimously votes to force volume to be turned down on TV commercials to match the volume of the TV show they interrupt. I have to admit I take guilty pleasure in this. At least they weren't doing any real damage. I used to get mad when aristocrats did frivolous things. Now I wish they did nothing else.


FOREIGN POLICY:

I think most Americans want to stop the Iranian government from getting a nuclear weapon. Many Americans and almost all politicians claim we should do whatever it takes to keep that from happening. But they don't mean it. What they mean is we should bomb Iran. But there's a far better way.

Anybody who really wants to do whatever it takes to stop them from getting a nuclear weapon must examine why they want one in the first place. Once you ask that question, the answer becomes obvious. The US government has been aggressing against the Iranians for decades. The CIA toppled the Iranian government in 1953 and installed the Shah. The US prodded Saddam Hussein into attacking Iran. The US regularly threatens Iran. Not only that, but the US helped create Israel against the will of Muslims and armed Israel to the teeth including with nuclear weapons.

The Iranian regime wants nuclear weapons so we will stop aggressing against it.

We also have to ask how such a virulently anti-American regime came to power in Iran. The answer is for all the same reasons above.

Knowing what caused the problem, the solution seems pretty obvious: stop threatening and aggressing against Iran. We should engage the Iranian people and empower them so they no longer feel threatened by the US and don't feel the need to turn to an oppressive government for protection. Then they will replace their government with a more moderate government. But the warmongers in both parties will never accept that.

POLITICS:

Rahm Emanuel resigns as Obama's chief of staff to run for mayor of Chicago. Obama's staff gives him a dead Asian carp as a parting gift.

MISC:

Artist's conception of exo-planet 20 light years away, nicknamed Zarmina's world after the wife if the discoverer, with the potential to support earth-like life.

How to teach your children about government. This is a great essay. Every dad should have an ugly shirt with GOVERNMENT printed on it so the kids can see when dad is playing government and run.

Animal farms producing super-bugs just as I predicted back in high schools. We're going to pay a high price for our abuse of antibiotics. It's interesting that government continually distracts us with non-crises like global warming or small threats like terrorism while purposely hiding the real looming crises like government debt and super-bugs.