Another day on Planet Earth, brought to me by NPR, during my drive to work:

happy face (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

1. Let's begin in Africa, where hundreds of Nigerian school girls are still held captive by an Islamic extremist group that also kills school boys and girls who dare to seek an education.  Meanwhile to the west a thousand people have died so far from an Ebola outbreak, emanating from the swamps and still not under control.  One nation has enacted a law requiring that people wash their hands with antibiotic soap… duh.

2.  Continue east to Iraq, where units of female Kurdish soldiers are among the troops battling ISIS.  The women say they are eager to enter the fray. Not far away more than 200 Palestinians have died in the latest fighting between Gaza and Israel.  (One Israeli has died in the fighting… an interesting ratio.)

3.  Go to the Far East and we find China reneging on its promise to Britain to maintain a free press in Hong Kong.  Self-censership is the order of the day for media there, as protesters using the "Occupy" brand name and seeking free elections are put down.

4.  Onward to the Mexican-American border, where thousands of kids continue to show up from Central America.  I have yet to hear a convincing explanation of why so many and why now.  Meanwhile, a study shows that immigration judges are allowing far more such kids to stay than they are deporting, and especially when the kid has a lawyer.  And the trend is in the wrong direction.

5.  In Washington the latest wrangle is over the depleted highway fund, financed by a gas tax that hasn't been increased in decades.  Additionally, the Dems want to force the GOP to vote "no" on a bill to overturn the Hobby Lobby case prior to the fall general elections.  And Obama wants $4 billion to deal with the kids at the border.  One GOP lawmaker made real sense, even if tongue in cheek, when he said it would be cheaper to buy every kid a first class plane ticket home.  But, hey, it's only money… yours and mine.

And, as Walter Cronkite used to say, that's the way it is.

Have a nice day.