Faced with looming catastrophes like climate change, we're -- oh, hell, there I go again, talking myself out onto a ledge. But two recent events unexpectedly heartened me, and that they happened in the runup to the Fourth of July has not been lost on me.
Until I saw sixteen hot North Korean chicks singing "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo" to Kim Jong-un, the strangest video that I'd ever seen of a head of state enjoying a performance was Pope Benedict XVI watching four ripped acrobats strip off their shirts and put on a show.
One of the rules of running for president is that you have to release your tax returns. It's not a law, but that doesn't mean it's not a rule. There's no law that a presidential candidate has to debate, either, but that's the way we do it in America.
No wonder media outlets maximize political drama. It holds audiences, and that's great for the bottom line. But there is zero civic virtue in paying attention to campaign coverage.
