World Views

Concentrating on summer pursuits, either selling, golfing or gardening.  Every once in a while, the world intrudes and demands some thought.  The situation in Egypt and the middle east as a whole is volatile and important to us, but perhaps not as much as 10 years ago.  With the boom in fracking and Canadian tar sands, we can meet most of our energy needs without the Arabs.  Of course we are speeding down the road to an uninhabitable planet, but I'll put some trust in science and capitalism and hope for the best.  The whole democracy thing seems questionable at this point.  We preach to the world about how wonderful our system is and meanwhile prosecute people who speak out and try to make the government transparent.  No wonder the majority of the world's population is ruled by authoritarians. If the "shining city on the hill" can't get this democracy thing right, how can we expect the third world to come along.  When getting enough to eat is a daily struggle, self rule can seem pretty futile.  Maybe that's why we are having some problems with government.  Up to 30% of US population experiences hunger on a regular basis.