Friday Funday: Reaching For The Gold

By the time some of our readers see these pixels on Friday, the crowds will already be gathering in London at the new Olympic Stadium for the opening ceremonies of the 2012 games.

We have to admit - for at least one American, the last few days haven't exactly been the best warm-up period. Mitt Romney's trip to London so far has been a public relations disaster, with headlines both in the UK and the U.S. savaging the former governor for a continuing series of embarrassing gaffes.

When the London Daily Mail's Political Director quotes unnamed British government officials - on Twitter - as saying that Romney is "Worse than Sarah Palin," you know Mr. Romney hasn't exactly had a great day. If positive and effective self-promotion were an Olympic sport, right now Mitt Romney wouldn't even make it inside the stadium, let alone onto the podium.

Still, as this is Friday, we're determined to be positive - and whether or not you agree with the way Mitt Romney used U.S. government subsidies to save the 2002 Olympic games, he did help those games to be very successful. In fact, the 2002 games were the last successful Olympics held in the U.S. of either kind, Winter or Summer.

For our staff, the Olympics remind us of some of the best things we enjoy about sports, media, and humanity all rolled into one.

Most of the athletes aren't highly paid divas. They're like student athletes at small schools. They have their own local fans, and they give every last drop of blood, sweat, and tears they can muster. Most people in the world still don't know them, though. That's where the modern media comes in.

On practically every screen you can imagine, and from every audio platform available, the way Olympic sports are presented to the world - especially here in America - are a true testament to what is possible in broadcasting. Nearly every athlete for the U.S. has some kind of profile worked up on them. Many have video and audio packages produced around their life stories, and their struggles to make it to The Games. Virtually every athlete from every nation has some statistics compiled from their past performances - and every nation has their own profile developed too.

Sure, there's a lot of pomp and fanfare. When the majority of the world takes a break from being our normal, antagonistic, war-like selves, we tend to agree that there are few better reasons for a world-shaking celebration.

So for today and this weekend, whether you're reaching for the gold in London, reaching for the TV remote at home, or just reaching for more political excuses wherever you are, we hope that you'll also join us in reaching out to your fellow citizens, from whatever your home country is, in a gesture of peace and friendship.

As Baron Pierre De Coubertin once said, "The most important thing is not to win but to take part!"

Fire-Breathing & Facts

For much of the summer, especially in our original home office location in Lincoln, we've been desperately wishing for rain and more seasonal temperatures. The storms that tiptoed through the Lincoln area on Wednesday evening were not even noticed in an otherwise insanely hot summer.

Feeling like we're getting blasted with dragon's breath every time we step outside - even at night - has tested far more than just our patience. Don't even ask about the electric and water bill for most Midwesterners this summer.

What some of our most arrogant right-wing Kool Aid swilling subscribers have been asking about - maybe because they have difficulties clicking links and reading in the first place - is exactly where the numbers are coming from to prove climate change is real.

Thankfully, multiple professional writers and researchers have been kept inside in the air conditioning this summer, with computers, data - and a lot of time.

To start with, the U.S. is experiencing the worst drought in 50 years as confirmed by the publicly available records used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That's the first fact.

The next set of facts was laid out by author, journalist, and environmentalist Bill McKibben in the first paragraph of his recent article in Rolling Stone magazine. McKibben's numbers can also be checked through the National Climatic Data Center's website, for those who doubt their accuracy.

As McKibben noted, "June broke or tied 3,215 high-temperature records across the United States. That followed the warmest May on record for the Northern Hemisphere – the 327th consecutive month in which the temperature of the entire globe exceeded the 20th-century average, the odds of which occurring by simple chance were 3.7 x 10-99, a number considerably larger than the number of stars in the universe."

Weather is local, as we've noted before. Climate, however, is the aggregated collection of weather data from multiple adjoining locations, looked at over a broad spectrum in time.

When a reasonable person, looks at the collection of just these few facts that we've laid out here, they would likely notice something key. Even though weather patterns change over time, and even though North America has had severe droughts like this - or worse - in the past, the rate our climate is changing in North America has never happened this fast before.

Ever.

That is climate change.

However, just because climate change is real doesn't mean we're all doomed to die as Earth turns into one giant crispy crater. It does mean we need to get moving on alternative energies, water conservation, food crisis management and all kinds of other fact-based strategies to plan for the future. And we need to do it yesterday.

So when an ignorant fool, drunk on the latest mental Kool Aid from Fox or their favorite barely educated right-wing radio blowhard tells you that this drought thing will blow over soon, just think of having another thirty summers in the future like this one.

Then feel free to take these facts, aim them at the fool, and fry their brains, just like dragon breath.

Crazy Americans

Thanks to the intermixed biennial pattern of both the Summer and Winter Olympics, every couple of years Americans are forced to stop our near-constant introspection, and take a look at the way the rest of the world perceives us.

This year, because that pause is happening right as the dog days of summer begin, we've also got some time to look take a wide look at America right now - and we can see why the world might think we're crazy.

Take, for example, the issue of gun control.

In America, we have one of the highest rates of gun-related deaths and accidents than almost anywhere else on the planet. Yet we're also the nation with the greatest number of guns per person on the planet. That said, states with more strict gun control laws actually have fewer deaths from gun-related violence. All of these are facts which would make any sane, logical person conclude, "If Americans want less gun-related deaths, then the logical action would be to enact stricter, more effective gun laws."

Yet every time another incident like the horror in Colorado occurs, some legislators will attempt to pass sensible, stricter, more effective gun regulations - and are most often turned down.

How about the issue of health care?

The Congressional Budget Office released its latest look at the Affordable Care Act yesterday. Their report confirmed that repealing the ACA - ObamaCare to its detractors - would actually increase the federal budget deficit by more than $100 billion in the next decade. Yet Republicans - who nominally say they care deeply about getting rid of budget deficits - continue to say they're going to try and get rid of the health care law any way they can.

Even the way some of our politicians campaign is in conflict with itself.

When President Obama spoke to the VFW this week, he didn't mention his opponent, not once in 33 minutes. He told the veterans what he'd done as our Commander in Chief, and what he's been doing for our troops once they get home. He was positive, strong, and resolute.

Mitt Romney, on the other hand, condemned President Obama's approach to ending our nation's involvement in Afghanistan as a timeline. Then Romney promised he'd withdraw American troops from Afghanistan by 2014 if elected. Mr. Romney also told the VFW members that, "if you do not want America to be the strongest nation on earth, I am not your president. You have that president today."

Of course, that comment begged the question journalist Steve Benen asked later: If the title of 'strongest nation on Earth' no longer belongs to the U.S.A., who took it from us and when?

Don't even ask about Mitt Romney's job counting hypocrisy.

We understand that America is a large country, and - in general - our diverse views make us better, not weaker. That said, we also understand the confusion of others from around the world.

There are those of us who operate from the facts, and deal with the realities of the world. Then there are those Americans who let their emotions override what the hard data is telling them on virtually every decision they make.

If you're cheering for the U.S. in the Olympics this summer, and you find a foreigner staring at you askance, just remember - it's not like 'Smart American' or 'American Idiot' is tattooed on your forehead.

Maybe it should be.