In the Top of the News...

My radio listening this morning brought three stories worthy of comment.

Malala, the 14-year old Pakistani girl shot in the head by a Taliban militant for having the temerity to advocate education for women, stood up for the first time in a British hospital today, and now they’re saying she could make a full recovery.

I take a little offense at the notion that religion prompted this shooting. While I’ve long contended that religion often gives God a bad name, Islam doesn’t go this far off the rails. While it would be nice if Jesus comes back, I think he should wait in the wings and let the Prophet Muhammad (blessings and peace be upon him) return first and straighten some of these crazies out.

BTW, while fundamentalist Islam displays its low opinion of women by forcing them to wear burkas, that policy doesn’t say much about men, either. Why do women have to wear burkas? Is it because men can’t control themselves at the sight of a female?

************************************

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the 1987 event known as Black Friday, when the stock market dropped 22 percent in one day. I was working in radio, and we had to take our business/stock reporter out for at least one drink to calm him down. I remember that his tie was loosened at the neck, sort of like what Jerry Lewis used to do on those charity telethons to denote long hours of stress.

Could a similar thing happen today? Not in a single day, the experts say, thanks to automatic trading curbs that would kick in. It would just be elongated. Like four years, maybe? Well, it is nice to see the market coming back.

***********************************

And finally, it’s also great to see Mitt Romney and Barack Obama having fun with each other at the Al Smith dinner in New York. The boxing analogy fits like a glove over the debates we’ve seen so far – that’s how we “score” them, by jabs, power punches, etc. The dual appearance at the dinner reminds me of what we often see in the ring, when two boxers who have furiously beaten each other up for 11 rounds come out for the 12th – and the first thing they do is touch gloves.