We saw an insane example of that today at the Houston airport ... with terrible hold-ups because of security bullshit.  

And because lots of security workers didn't show up for work at the airport.

Just put the people on the airplanes, and help them get out of town.  They're not going to blow up the planes! Let's get real here.

Shut up, George Bush.  It's all bullshit, and you're dividing us against each other, and killing more people than you're saving from terrorism.

Hickok: "You know the sound of thunder. Can you imagine that sound if I ask you to? Ma'am, listen to the thunder."

Then there's this wonderful story by Tina Brown about Bill Clinton, which shows what CAN be done to help the world.

The big surprise of Bill Clinton's Global Initiative conference at the Sheraton Hotel in New York last week was how strangely calming it was.  

You would expect to emerge begging for mercy from a three-day talkathon  on the world's most intractable problems emceed by history's most  garrulous president -- especially if you were a survivor of one of his book tour gigs.

To be sure, Clinton, the big intellectual showoff, had never been less  than brilliant on his feet, but he never knew when to stop. And all that promiscuous lateral thinking ended up sucking the air out of the room. We got so tired of his lack of discipline that by 2000 we thought we were ready for a presidency that operated by assertion. Five years later we see what that's brought. ...

[.....]

"Now here's something else in my hot little hand," the former prez  
would say, dangling his glasses, with his best "doggone" smile. "My old  
friend Carlos Slim Helu here has just said he's willing to develop a  
cell phone network for Gaza and link it to Jordan's network! Why,  
thanks, Carlos. Come up here and be recognized." A big hand for Carlos,  who turns out to be the richest man in Latin America.

This wasn't just the usual FOBs from Park Avenue and Hollywood (though  there were plenty of those cruising around). With so many world policy  chiefs present -- Tony Blair, King Abdullah II of Jordan, Condi Rice,  President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, even Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams,  for heaven's sake -- the conference was a tour d'horizon of Clinton's life, and head, since the White House. (So that's what he's been doing on all those far-flung speaking gigs -- scarfing down public policy from the global minibar.) No one has figured out before how to leverage a post-presidency like this. Jimmy Carter's version has been about the power of example. Clinton's is about the power of power. ...

Hickok: "You know the sound of thunder. Can you imagine that sound if I ask you to? Ma'am, listen to the thunder."

The mid 20th century rise in generosity and expansion of rights, in the U.S. at least, coincided with middle class expansion and rising wealth. A guy who advocates sharing is just a common hippie in that kind of economy. In an impoverished nation under occupation, such a figure so rare we start a religion in His name.

All our ugly societal demons were likely to begin resurfacing when resource peaks started imposing shortages of wealth and opportunity. In my mind the scramble all along was to propagate the higher values and sustain them long enough to become culturally ingrained before things eventually got serious.

The nobility's massive propaganda war disrupted values advancement, and their subsequent opportunity confiscation pulled enough out of the planetary pool to push the middle classes into crisis thinking years ahead of time.

Take a moment to look around at the view. We rolled this rock farther up the mountain than all the world's peoples or religions or philosophies combined ever managed. As we head back down to start all over again, remember as many gulleys and shortcuts as you can, to tell your kids.

We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for victims of our nation and for those it calls enemy.... --ML King, "Beyond Vietnam"