A harsh slap of perspective

I just clicked onto Yahoo News' front page. Here were the top three stories: "Israel softens conditions for cease-fire", "Space shuttle Discovery lands safely", "Americans try to cope with oppressive heat", and "U.S. choppers fly Americans out of Beirut." They're all AP stories.

Forget the second one - I'm glad the shuttle landed safely and all, but let's compare the other items. Right now in a large part of the Northeast, they're on their second day of 90-plus degree weather. People are sweating, spending time in malls and movie theaters, and fighting for parking spaces with shade.

On the other side of the world over two dozen Israelis have been killed and over 200 Lebanese have been killed in the latest chapter of the same stupid fighting that's been going on for three times my lifespan. I remember hearing about brief cease-fires and lulls in the fighting when I was little; about Yitzhak Rabin being killed and Palestinian houses bulldozed. For Joe Average in that region, it doesn't really matter what side of the equation you're on, because either one sucks. You're living in squalor and abject poverty and your hovel may or may not be bombed or bulldozed and your nation doesn't really exist. Or, you live with the constant threat of the bus you're on suddenly exploding, and your head of government being shot down, and growing up you know that you are going to have to go and get personally involved in some aspect of this and quite possibly you're going to get shot at.

Meanwhile, some New Yorkers are sweating as they walk to work and people in Philly are running up ridiculously high electricity bills, blasting the AC.

Why do people say that the world's not fair in response to complaints? Does anyone think it is fair? It's not; it's horribly biased and slanted and injust. John Philadelphia's biggest problem is that it's hot: John Mideast's biggest problem is that once again it's raining missiles and hellfire down in his backyard.

Bush said to Blair at the G8 summit:

"See the irony is that what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this s--- and it's over," Bush said. He also suggested that Annan call Syrian President Bashar Assad to "make something happen."

Yes. Obviously, that's all they need to do, Mr. President. Call in the Syrians, who will stop Hezbollah, and then the past few eons of instability in the region will fix itself.