Why Can’t U. S. Secrets Be Kept as Well as TV’s; Why Would Anybody Object to the U. S. and Iran Talking and

Other Short Comments on the News

Forget Breaking Bad, the most entertaining bad guys on display today are the members of Congress.  But speaking of Breaking Bad, how is it possible that a group of actors, producers, directors, and tech people can keep the secret of how the series ends, while the U. S. government with all its resources cannot keep its secrets?

Expect a torrent of criticism from Conservatives about the President talking with the leader of Iran.  This Forum just cannot understand why anyone would object to talking between adversaries, just how do the critics expect disputes to be resolved without resorting to massive violence? 

Is the most dangerous place to be in Washington is standing between Texas Senator Ted Cruz and a camera?

And speaking of Mr. Cruz, is Kentucky Senator Rand Paul kicking himself for being less outrageous than Mr. Cruz and ceding to the Texas Senator the title of the Craziest Republican ever? 

Does anyone else notice that on a lot of new TV shows the only presence of African Americans is in the role of bosses?  On the Michael J. Fox Show, on The Blacklist and on some show featuring Ichabod Crane resurrected from the dead into modern Sleepy Hollow African American men play the role of the boss.  But that’s about the only roles African American men have.  This condescending tokenism attitude of TV is almost as bad as when the banned African Americans altogether from the little screen.

The ace closer for the New York Yankees, Mariano Rivera is retiring.  He leaves the proper image of a regular person, a person who shows up for work, does it well and then walks off the mound without making a fuss about other things.  What a mensch.

With a new Major about to succeed Michael Bloomberg in New York City, one wonders how long it will take for New Yorkers to realize how incredibly fortunate they were to have had Mr. Bloomberg lead the city for 12 years. 

A judge in New Jersey has ruled that because the U. S. government must recognize same sex marriages and not discriminate against couples who are legally married regardless of gender, the state of New Jersey cannot bar same sex marriages as would violate the state’s Constitution requirement of equal rights because it denies same sex couples Federal benefits.  Just another messy legal battle thanks to the Supreme Court being unwilling to give a definitive decision of marriage equality, and another positive step towards the day of full equality.

With their lame lineup of new lame comedies and totally unrealistic dramas have the major networks taken a giant step forward towards having only news, sports and awful reality shows on their schedules?

If the Syrian crisis involving chemical weapons is ultimately resolved peacefully with no U. S. military action,  is there any way to console John McCain and Lindsey Graham?

New York Times columnist David Brooks has taken a leave to write a book.  Is there anyway to convince the Times to make the leave permanent?

The NCAA is reducing its penalties on Penn State’s football program, penalties enacted because the program allowed an Assistant Coach to sexually assault children.    Apparently this is in response to the fact that this past year Penn State has no known incidents of coaches assaulting children.  The school must be very proud.