The 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19 brings memories of a terrible time in American history, one we would hope to never be repeated. But in 2010 the threat of another murderous event seems all too possible.

As Kathleen Parker of the Washington Post asks, "Is the political environment becoming so toxic that we could see another Timothy McVeigh emerge?" (What Americans can do to discourage future McVeighs, April 18, 2010)

This may seem very distant from Upper Arlington, Ohio. But recently, an angry man at our local BMV office told others in line, "This is why people fly planes into IRS buildings." He was upset because he had to pay an extra $4.40 to register his car.

The man probably did not mean he would take murderous action against government employees and anyone else who was nearby, even children. But the next disgruntled citizen may. As Parker says, "... it takes only one."

What can we do? Can we stay silent? Maybe moderate language is enough. Or do we follow Parker's advice?

"The only palatable answer is what conservatives say they love best: self-control and personal responsibility. When someone spews obscenities, shout them down. When politicians and pundits use inflammatory language, condemn them."

Before we decide, let's remember April 19, 1995.

Finally, a Limbaugh caller who breaks through to him on his support for torture. Here's a part of this immensely satisfying conversation:

LIMBAUGH: We're going to go to Chicago. This is Charles. Charles, thank you for waiting and for calling. Great to have you here. Hello.

CALLER: Thanks, Rush. Rush, listen, I voted Republican, and I didn't -- really didn't want to see Obama get in office. But, you know, Rush, you're one reason to blame for this election, for the Republicans losing.

First of all, you kept harping about voting for Hillary. The second big issue is the -- was the torture issue. I'm a veteran. We're not supposed to be torturing these people. This is not Nazi Germany, Red China, or North Korea. There's other ways of interrogating people, and you kept harping about it -- "It's OK," or "It's not really torture." And it was just more than waterboarding. Some of these prisoners were killed under torture.

And it just -- it was crazy for you to keep going on and on like Levin and Hannity and Hewitt. It's like you're all brainwashed.

A short NYTimes documentary profiling an 11-year-old Pakistani girl on the last day before the Taliban closed down her school. It's worth watching.

Freedom of Information and Sunshine laws can make people local heroes by making a difference in their communities when they get involved and hold government accountable.

Sunshine Week is a national initiative to open a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information.

Ohio's Sunshine Laws give you the right to access numerous government records and require many government bodies to conduct official business in public. Citizens, activists, advocacy groups, and others use these laws to monitor government actions and uncover potential wrongdoing.

Sunshine Week is a non-partisan initiative whose supporters are conservative, liberal and everything in between.

When: Wednesday, March 18 at 3:00 PM
Where: Columbus Metro Library Auditorium, 96 Grant Ave., Columbus 43215

The panel includes:

• Catherine Turcer, director of Ohio Citizen Action’s Money in Politics Program
• Frank Deaner, executive director of the Ohio Newspaper Association
• Fred Gittes, attorney and advocate for open records
• Gary Daniels, associate director, ACLU of Ohio

The event is co-sponsored by the ACLU of Ohio, Ohio Citizen Action, the Ohio Coalition for Open Government, and the Ohio Newspaper Association.

The event is free and open to the public. For more information or to RSVP, please call (216) 472-2200 or email contact@acluohio.org.

For a Mapquest map and directions to this event, click here.

The “sexual début” of an evangelical girl typically occurs just after she turns sixteen.

The highest divorce and teen pregnancy rates are in red states, the lowest in blue states. Margaret Talbot digs beneath the numbers to wonder, why do so many evangelical teen-agers become pregnant?

[T]he red-state [abstinence] model is clearly failing on its own terms—producing high rates of teen pregnancy, divorce, sexually transmitted disease, and other dysfunctional outcomes that social conservatives say they abhor. […]

For too long, the conventional wisdom has been that social conservatives are the upholders of family values, whereas liberals are the proponents of a polymorphous selfishness. This isn’t true, and, every once in a while, liberals might point that out.

America’s dominant political divide:

Social liberals in the country’s “blue states” tend to support sex education and are not particularly troubled by the idea that many teen-agers have sex before marriage, but would regard a teen-age daughter’s pregnancy as devastating news. And the social conservatives in “red states” generally advocate abstinence-only education and denounce sex before marriage, but are relatively unruffled if a teen-ager becomes pregnant, as long as she doesn’t choose to have an abortion.

Watch this video:

Sarah Palin is an enthusiastic supporter of aerial wolf gunning. Often wolves shot from the air are not killed outright and left to die on the ground. Palin enthusiastically defends this cruelty. You can find out more here.

It is no accident that the Humane Society Legislative Fund has decided to endorse Obama for president this year. They have never endorsed a president before.

The I-35W Mississippi River bridge catastrophically failed during the evening rush hour on August 1, 2007, collapsing to the river and riverbanks beneath. Thirteen people were killed and approximately one hundred more were injured. The average age of American bridges is 43 years, approaching the normal lifespan of 50 years. One fourth have a problem.

The U.S. has built 810 schools, 4800 water and sewage projects, 1047 roads and bridges.

Not in America. In Iraq.

Al Franken has an excellent video about this called 'Invest Here'.

Now the LATimes is reporting today that after the I-35W bridge collapse killing 13 and injuring 100 last year, 'Urgency has buckled since Minneapolis bridge collapse' due to lack of state funds for infrastructure projects.

From an AP story 'Little progress made in bridge repairs across US':

"An Associated Press review of repairs on each state's 20 most-traveled bridges with structural deficiencies found just 12 percent have been fixed. In most states, the most common approach was to plan for repairs later rather than fix problems now."

Of the 20 deficient bridges studied in Ohio, 40% have not been fixed or improved.

With $10 billion a month spent in Iraq we're short money for bridges and roads, tin-cupping to fund American schools, underfunding our water systems. And now President Bush is predicted to leave a record $482 billion deficit to his successor.

Update (Aug 6, 2008): NYTimes is reporting ('As Iraq Surplus Rises, Little Goes Into Rebuilding') that

Soaring oil prices will leave the Iraqi government with a cumulative budget surplus of as much as $79 billion by year’s end, according to an American federal oversight agency. But Iraq has spent only a minute fraction of that on reconstruction costs, which are now largely borne by the United States.