By Laurie Baron
SAN DIEGO― The death of Shirley Temple Black reminded Americans of how much the country has changed since her years as a child star in the 1930s. Would anyone really mourn if Honey Boo Boo passed away?
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This week network news broadcasts have spent an average of ten minutes per broadcast covering the winter storms on the East coast and only one minute covering the UN rescue of civilians from the besieged Syrian city of Homs. When asked why the former merited more attention than the latter, network spokespersons replied, “Because we can do something about the weather.”
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French President Franҫoise Hollande paid an official visit to President Obama. The two conferred on the world economy and Franco-American relations. For approximately an hour, Hollande’s whereabouts were unknown. Rand Paul has charged that Hollande used this time to secretly meet with Bill Clinton to talk about domestic affairs.
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College football star Michael Sam announced this week that he is gay. Sports pundits began debating whether this would hurt his prospects for being drafted by an NFL team. Some NFL insiders claimed that teams would avoid Sam because his sexual orientation would be too much of a distraction in a game where grown men pile on top of each other to penetrate the other team’s end zone. Those who laud Sam for coming out say NFL players need not worry. There are penalties for encroachment, illegal contact, illegal touching of a forward pass, illegal use of hands, and spearing,
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John Boehner asserted that House Republicans will not allow the Immigration Reform Act to be put up for a vote because they don’t trust President to enforce it. This will come as a shock to the 1,100 illegal immigrants who have been deported daily since Obama became president.
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Baron is professor emeritus of history at San Diego State University. He may be contacted at lawrence.baron@sdjewishworld.com