One thing we’ve learned about this Egypt uprising: you can’t blame it on John Kerry.  No sir, he has an alibi. He was on his yacht in Nantucket Sound.

With all the diplomatic problems over there, including Syria, Iran, Lebanon, Libya, Gaza and Israel, he should sail his boat to the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea and drop anchor. Save a bundle on air travel from DC. Of course, our Secretaries of State have been wrestling with the Middle East problems for decades, and what have we got to show for it? Mainly, trillions in new debt. Considering where our efforts have got us, maybe Kerry should just plop that yacht down in the Dead Sea. (After writing this, I learned that Mrs. Teresa Heinz Kerry is in critical condition in a Boston hospital. I wish her a rapid recovery.)

I saw a headline, “12 killed, 55 injured.” No, it wasn’t the airplane crash at San Francisco, and it wasn’t the runaway railcars in Quebec. Do you know what it was? Last week in Chicago that’s how many was shot to death, and shot but not killed. The story never said how many dozens more was shot at and missed.

Boeing sure knows how to build an airplane. When that 777 bounced on the runway the tail tore off, but the fuselage and wings held together pretty much in one piece. Yes, two died and a few more are critically injured, but three hundred got out alive. I’ll take those odds over a Chicago gunfight.

In Egypt we don’t seem to know exactly what we want. We pay 70% of the Army budget, so we expect the Generals to be looking out for our interests. Mubarak was tossed out, then the Islamists voted in Morsi who acted more like an Ayatollah than a President and he got the boot. I think the majority in Egypt would like a leader who can democratically and intelligently govern a country with advice and consent from local representatives and a fair judicial system. But that ain’t easy when a loud minority insists on Islamic Sharia law that most of us consider barbaric.

In case you missed the news, part of Obamacare was postponed and won’t take effect until after the 2014 election. Interest rates on student loans went up, which likely will cause students to pay off the loan first rather than letting them drag on for years. That change might even cause new college students to pick a field of study with good prospects of solid employment rather than moving back with parents.

I could give you an update on the George Zimmerman – Trayvon Martin trial, but I know the airwaves are filled with that news. A couple of so-called TV news networks are insisting that the investigation into the plane crash be concluded quickly so they can get back to uninterrupted trial coverage at 9:00 a.m. Monday. That, my friends, is why I read a newspaper.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:
“If there is a safer mode of transportation (than aviation), I never found it. If your time is worth anything, travel by air. If not, you might just as well walk.” DT #389, Oct. 20, 1927.