Bad Ads; Iraqi Dead; OJ in Trouble

There are 3 headlines which all caught my eye today--right up there with the latest earthquake in Indonesia. Let's sort out the priorities:

1. Betray-Us = Petraeus. Moveon.org, of which I am a member, has used this clever and cute play on words to indicate that we, the people, are being played like a fiddle when it comes to the truth of what is happening in Iraq.

I, happily, am not a ploy to this volleyball, because of my inside track with my closest friend, Christopher Dickey. He is the resident terrorist expert at Newsweek Magazine, as well as Paris Bureau Chief and Middle East correspondent. He's been to Baghdad and knows the players more than I can count, or want to. This whole Iraq occupation from day 1 was bad news, per Chris.

2. Los Angeles Times article says that death toll could be 1 million Iraqis since US incursion began:

According to the ORB poll, a survey of 1,461 adults suggested that the
total number slain during more than four years of war was more than 1.2 million.

This number is not hard to believe because the loss of life is always higher among civilians than military in an occupied situation.

3. OJ Simpson is accused of "stealing" back his old memorabilia in an armed robbery in Las Vegas. This story was up there with the previous two headlines.

How are we, the people, supposed to be taken seriously when we apeal to our elected representatives to concoct legislation to make our lives better, if we equate 1 million dead people with a politically provocative advertisement and a long-gone celebrity whose only claim to fame is that he got away with murder?

Seems like we deserve what we get. Here's some advice for those of us who crave a more appropriate priority list:

I have never yet seen any plan which has not been mended by the observations of those who were much inferior in understanding to the person who took the lead in the business.

I venture to say no war can be long carried on against the will of the people.

--Edmund Burke (1729 - 1797) Irish orator, philosopher, & politician