ODDS AND ENDS

I've never understood why, with the billions we already spend for defense, there are so many people who are opposed to anti-missile defense. Isn't it prudential to create a structure that gives us another option besides the nuclear incineration of the innocent population of a state whose leaders have fired a missile at us? Doesn't it make sense to create a defense against a missile fired by a non-state actor? Shouldn't we have such a system if there were to be an accidental launch? Even if all those scenarios are highly unlikely, can we risk even one such incident?

Here is a defense of building such a system.

Why do we continue to suffer through seemingly inexplicable school shootings? Why do some youngsters decide one day to gather weapons, march through their school killing randomly, and then take their own life? It seems to me that these shootings are a relatively recent phenomenon. I don't recall reading about such incidents prior to the early 1990s. It now seems we have one at least every couple of years in the United States. What has changed? Is it a more readily available supply of high-powered guns? Is it violence in popular entertainment (TV, movies, video games)?

Or, is it that too many of our children are on prescription drugs?

Finally, lest you think the Terri Schiavo case is another left vs. right political fight, here is a piece in the Village Voice, by Nat Hentoff, that calls what is happening to her an example of judicial murder.