...on Good News, Bad News

First the good news.

Lions Rescue, Guard Beaten Ethiopian Girl

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - A 12-year-old girl who was abducted and beaten by men trying to force her into a marriage was found being guarded by three lions who apparently had chased off her captors, a policeman said Tuesday.

Awesome. Not the first time a wild animal has come to a human's aid, but there is something poetic about this particular story. The ironic contrast between the men acting like beasts and the lions being the good guys is particularly delicious. I like to think that the girl will team-up with the lions to fight crime. She will hunt the streets of Addis Ababa, making sure evildoers are punished...and eaten.

Now, the bad news. That old chestnut, a constitutional amendment to ban flag burning passed the House today. Fortunately it looks like it's going down in the Senate.

This kind of jingoistic pandering pisses me off to an incredible extent. It's the basest kind of manipulation. "Let's get people whipped up over a non-existent problem and maybe they will ignore all the real problems out there! Never mind the fact that curtailing speech like this goes against everything this country is supposed to stand for! If anybody complains we'll accuse them of hating America!"

Unfortunately, it works.