Reality

This is a sad, sad day for Baltimore. Your story about the utterly senseless, tragic killing of Peter Marvit ("Scientist gunned down in street," Sept. 19) brings us face to face with a reality we are often able to ignore. That reality is that there actually are human beings who are capable of killing an unarmed, completely innocent, and in this case highly-accomplished and lovable person such as Peter Marvit. And for what reason? A robbery? A gang initiation? In the end, does the motive for such a murder matter?

If you have been reading the Sun lately, you might think that September is National School Safety Month. "Reviewing safety plans in schools" was a recent front page headline, and a half-dozen similarly titled articles have filled the paper recently. Has there been an outbreak of running with scissors? Have students been forgetting safety goggles in wood shop? Is there an outbreak of bad crosswalk etiquette? Sadly, these stories aren't really about school safety, but instead address the troublingly difficult effort to keep guns out of the area's public schools in the aftermath of the two most recent school gun incidents.

During the current presidential election campaign, Republican nominee Mitt Romney, in a clear effort to win Jewish votes, has asserted that President Barack Obama has "thrown Israel under the bus. " Some 78 percent of American Jews voted for President Obama in 2008, and Mr. Romney is trying to cut into that margin, particularly in swing states with significant Jewish populations such as Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Given the importance of Israel to the Jewish psyche, Mr. Romney is trying to demonstrate that, because of Mr. Obama's alleged lack of support for Israel, he is not worthy of the Jewish vote.

By now, it should be pretty clear to anyone with even the faintest pulse that regardless of who ends up winning any future elections, they aren't going to change your personal economic reality quickly enough to suit your liking. And that's only if they even manage to find the courage to sufficiently cut through all the lobbyists and special interests to implement any significant ideas at all -- which is unlikely in all cases. Forget relying on politicians to determine your fate. Take charge of your own situation.

"We're not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers," says Neil Newhouse, a Romney pollster. A half-dozen fact-checking organizations and websites have refuted Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan's claims that President Obama removed the work requirement from the welfare law and will cut Medicare benefits by $716 billion. The New York Times even reported that Mr. Romney has been "falsely charging" President Obama with removing the work requirement. USA Today calls the Romney campaign's claim that Mr. Obama has "funneled" money out of Medicare to pay for the federal health care law a "false line of attack" that's directly contradicted by Medicare's chief actuary.

There's an old joke about two hikers in the woods encountering an angry bear. When one turns to run, the other warns that he's not fast enough to outrun their ferocious adversary. "I only have to outrun you," the quicker-thinking hiker responds. And so it is with the candidacy of Mitt Romney, whose acceptance speech Thursday at the Republican National Convention may not have been the touchdown the pundits claimed he needed but was surely what his handlers wanted, playing up both the candidate's strength (management experience)

Well, Todd Akin really stepped in it, didn't he? The Missouri Representative's wacko claim that women have some sort of natural defense mechanism that prevents pregnancies from occurring in circumstances of "legitimate rape" is a real doozy. But statements like his are nothing unusual for House Republicans, who as a group are responsible for what seems like a bottomless cup of absurd, illogical and borderline lunatic comments across a range of topics. Indeed, Rep. Akin's comment is but one example of how bonkers House Republicans get when discussing sex, contraception, abortion or feminism.

Baltimore-area viewers won't see it in their TV listings, but this week a program will premiere on the Al Jazeera English channel that could do more to shape the world's image of their city than any other media coverage or civic promotion done all year. "Baltimore: Anatomy of an American City" will debut Tuesday night to a potential worldwide audience of 260 million homes. And what those viewers will mainly see is a landscape of young men on bleak street corners, block after block of boarded-up rowhouses, drugs, death, crime scenes and prisons.

Their show is called "Mama Drama," but Gina Obrien and her daughter, Marcella Peters, don't quite act like drama queens. Unless you consider the clothes. You're pretty much forced to consider the clothes, which cry out for attention. The two wear matching outfits. All the time. Head to toe. From the artificial hibiscus flowers in their hair to their orange sandals (they have 225 matching pairs of shoes). And their matching mani-pedis. Pajamas? "Matchy-matchy," Obrien says Thursday afternoon in their Parkville home.

In my review Tuesday night of Bristol Palin's new reality show on the Lifetime channel, I said that I had come to believe that the Palins were history. The mass audience no longer cared about Sarah, Bristol, Willow, Todd or any of the other characters in this screwy Alaska clan. Here's some of what I wrote about "Bristol Palin: Life's a Tripp": But you know what? I am sitting here at 1 a.m. typing this post, and even though it's been a very long day, my blood pressure is fine.