Daily Show, SNL, the Bill Maher season finale - just a few I’ve missed this week, and it’s only the second week. I’ve heard that this could go on for up to six weeks. Time to depend on our Netflix membership I guess. Here’s to hoping for a successful (and quick) result for the writers and their DVD profit share.

Ellen seems to not have noticed (for long), though. What is up with that?

Yesterdays tragic loss of at least eight lives as a result of a bridge collapse once again impresses on me how we take our safety for granted. We assume that the bridges we drive over are never going to fall. We assume the buildings we work in are protected by flying objects, a shaking ground, or a windy storm. We assume that cars we drive in are not going to allow us to be killed. We assume that barriers that keep the water back will not crack. We assume that the insurance premiums we pay will cover us in the event of an illness. And yet once again we learn that Americans are not safe from all harm after all - despite our best efforts. We continue to learn from these experiences, but we are like a horse with blinders on - refusing to simply accept the fact that despite our extraordinary resources, we cannot avoid catastrophe.

My thoughts are with the families and friends of those in Minneapolis who have been personally impacted by this event. I hope that we can learn something new as a result, but also find a way to cope and understand that tragedy is something we will face once again.

For those of you who have visited Shutternick before, you may notice that I’ve made some modifications to the sidebars. One of the new items I’ve added is a poll. To start this new addition, I thought I would use the top news item that I woke to. CNN reported this morning that there is a connection between mental illness and marijuana use. I know this is generally a hot topic especially in the gay community. Personally I think that marijuana is less harmful than alcohol. How often do you hear of a “bar fight” in a Pot Cafe in the Netherlands? Ummm…how about almost never? One fact I didn’t realize - the death penalty is an optional sentence for bringing marijuana into the US - do we have a screwed up sense of reality here?

Now - as a father of a teen boy, I also feel compelled to balance my opinion with the fact that not all laws represent the majority opinion or even an educated conclusion. I feel that the process of democracy and judicial review is something that does work in the big picture. As such, I don’t condone marijuana use simply because it is illegal and has consequences not related to it’s physiological impacts. I think instead that as a society, we should work to change laws through the systems given to us based on our convictions supported by truth.

Feel free to add your thoughts to the poll at the bottom of the left banner or as a comment.