I am so glad about the news that I’ve been watching about the successful rescue operation of those Columbian hostages! That seems to be the big headlines for the week, and for good reason! I was amazed to learn that some of those people have been hostages for YEARS! I didn’t realize that hostages ever lived that long; I thought that hostages were killed off pretty quickly!
What a great covert mission that rescue was, I am so happy for the hostages that were freed, and for their families! Great causes for celebrations, for sure!

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Last week there was a cease fire started between Gaza strip militants and Israel.  When I read about the truce, I thought “that’s not going to last very long!”  Well, it sure seems that I was right, according to the news that truce was broken yesterday.  I have to give credit to the world leaders that they keep trying to broker a peace in that area (this time it was Egypt) but I really feel that there are just too many fanatics out there to allow a peace to happen for very long.  It really is a terrible shame that so many people are so invested in having the violence continue.

I was very sorry to hear about the diagnosis for Ted Kennedy’s health over the past couple of days. His family has suffered so much loss and grief; it just doesn’t seem fair for so much of it to be heaped on one family! I just have to wonder sometimes if this is some kind of karmic justice against the entire family for ill-gotten wealth from the moonshine days of old. (The sins of the father shall be visited upon the son. I’ve heard that quote before, I think it is from the Bible, but don’t know exactly which chapter or verse. Sorry to disappoint all of you Bible-memorizing folks out there!)

Anyway, I am truly very sorry to hear about anyone having any kind of cancer nowadays. With all of the technological advances we have made in the past several decades, it seems to me that we should have found the cures for cancer, AIDS, Hepatitis, MS, and all the other horrible diseases that plague our existence. We have lost a few family members to cancer; it is not a pleasant journey. I wish Ted Kennedy and his family well.

I was watching the news this afternoon, and was listening to the story about a horrible cyclone hitting a country called Myanmar.  To be honest, I have not been very diligent about keeping up with what foreign countries have been changing their names to what, so I wasn’t even sure where Myanmar was.  So I did a little bit of research and found that it is the country that used to be called Burma and it is located between India and China.  From what I understand that country is ruled by a dictator who seized power through a junta after a democratic election had elected a woman to be the country’s leader.  There has been a quiet rumble about human rights violations in the country ever since then, but it would appear that the USA has not attempted to interfere with this country’s politics – yet.

I hope that the international community pulls together some relief effort for the victims of the cyclone and that the relief supplies actually reach the victims and don’t simply get “given” to the country’s leaders and “favorites.”  Call me cynical if you will, but I think that history has shown that in dictatorships like this the leaders are the only ones who fare well in any circumstance.  I feel very sorry for the victims of both the cyclone and the regime.