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Some believe it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. It is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. (Gandalf, The Hobbit)

So after watching American liberals scream hate speech at each other for a few weeks, I (Brad) am reminded of why I don’t pay a lot of attention to politics. Lela does, but she has gotten so she thinks it’s all a bunch of hooey. I prefer not to pay much attention because I prefer not to be angry over things I can’t control. If you haven’t figured out that you don’t actually control politics yet … well, you don’t.

There’s this belief these days that politics is the only way to keep evil in line. We must confront power with power, right? I think Gandalf had it right when he suggested the opposite is true.

So, if you’ve been busy screaming shit about each other, maybe you missed these five human achievements while you were driving the poison koolaid of Washington politics.

1.  The World Bank reported that the number of humans living in extreme poverty dropped below 750 million worldwide. The Wall Street Journal reported that this is the lowest figure since the World Bank began collecting such data in 1990. That’s GREAT news, but if you were busy trying to analyze the body language of Brett Kavanaugh, you probably missed it.
2. Scientists found a way to use spit (yeah) to predict heart attacks and strokes. Researchers at Queen Mary University London and Imperial College London announced a breakthrough in gene research that will allow them to identify patients genetically predisposed to high-risk blood pressure conditions through a simple spit test.

“This is the most major advance in blood pressure genetics to date,” Professor Mark Caulfield, of QMUL told The Sun.

The technology will enable doctors to more effectively identify, educate, and treat high-risk patients, reducing the number of heart attacks and strokes.

3. Our oceans may be getting cleaner sooner. The Ocean Cleanup, a non-profit organization that uses new technologies to rid the oceans of plastic, announced the beginning of a two-week trial phase in preparation for its anticipated cleanup of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

“Consider it a final dress rehearsal before the main performance: cleaning plastic from the ocean,” said officials with Ocean Cleanup, a privately funded initiative.

Oceanographers claim plastic in the world’s oceans represents a “global threat” by carrying toxic pollutants into the food chain and endangering some 600 marine species. It also looks really gross (see below).

4. A big solar power breaththrough? I’m always skeptical of these because I live in Alaska where we experience a severe shortage of solar anything in the winter, but it sounds cool. Solar power has yet to become an affordable and efficient energy source. But there’s reason to believe that could change.

University of Cambridge scientists recently claimed they made a significant breakthrough in their attempts to find new ways to harness solar energy. The breakthrough reportedly involved splitting the elements in water—hydrogen and oxygen—”by altering the photosynthetic machinery in plants.”

Yeah, even as a master electrician, I won’t pretend to know what that means, but it sounds impressive. You can read more about it here.

5. New data show life expectancy is rapidly increasing in Africa. A new UN report shows that residents of sub-Saharan Africa are living much longer than they were a mere two decades ago.

People in the region, The Guardian reports, “can expect to live for 11 years longer than the generation that went before them, new statistics show.”

The increase in life expectancy in Africa is linked to the stunning growth of its middle-class in recent years, one of the greatest stories of our age.

It’s not that I don’t think the Supreme Court and the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation isn’t important, but that there is nothing you or I can do about it, so why are we wasting our time and raising our blood pressure freaking out over it. It just creates acrimony, bitterness, and antagonism. It’s a bunch of tyrants scrabbling for control of the monopoly of force (yes, Lela, I do so listen to you).

Contrast that government spectacle with free markets — people working together willingly, exchanging stuff each other, and solving problems.

Entrepreneurs are “ordinary folks” (to get back to our Gandalf metaphor) who go mostly unseen. They aren’t politicians, bureaucrats, or Supreme Court justices, but they are the ones who actually improve our world and really keep evil at bay.

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Hello. This is Brad. Lela is editing a book preparatory to launching in November. After spending the last few weeks watching Americans scream at each other, I received this funny in my email, sent to me by a friend with an odd sense of human. We don’t know where it comes from, but it’s funny and it makes a point that maybe needs making in these days of hate and rage.

Dear American liberals, leftists, statists, social progressives, socialists, Marxists and Obama supporters, etc:

We have stuck together since the late 1950’s for the sake of the kids, but this latest election has made me realize that we should get a divorce. I know we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly, this relationship has clearly run its course.

Our two ideological sides of America cannot and will not ever agree on what is right for us all, so let’s just end it on friendly terms. We can smile and chalk it up to irreconcilable differences and go our own way.

Here is a model separation agreement:

–Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by landmass each taking an appropriate portion. We’re happy to give you New England and the West Coast. The good people of New Hampshire obviously will need some time to pack up and move to flyover country, and we’ll give the tenured professors in university towns ample time to relocate in your share of the country.

–We don’t like redistributive taxes and the IRS, so you can keep them.

–You are welcome to the left-wing judges and the ACLU.

–Since you hate guns and war, we’ll take our firearms, the cops, the NRA and the military.

–We’ll take the nasty, smelly oil industry and you can go with wind, solar and biodiesel.

–You can keep Oprah, Michael Moore and Rosie O’Donnell. You are, however,  responsible for finding a bio-diesel vehicle big enough to move all three of them.

–We’ll keep capitalism, greedy corporations, pharmaceutical companies, Wal-Mart and Wall Street.

–You can have your beloved welfare grubbers, food stamp recipients, homeless, hippies, druggies, and illegal aliens.

–We’ll keep the hot Alaskan hockey moms, greedy CEO’s, and rednecks.

–We’ll keep the Bibles and give you the networks and Hollywood.

–You can make nice with Iran and Palestine and we’ll retain the right to invade and hammer places that threaten us.

–You can have the peaceniks and war protesters. When our allies or our way of life are under assault, we’ll help provide them security.

–We’ll keep our Judeo-Christian values.

–You are welcome to Islam, Scientology, Humanism, political correctness and Shirley McClaine. You can also have the U.N. but we will no longer be paying the bill.

–We’ll keep the SUV’s, pickup trucks, and full-sized luxury cars. You can take every Subaru, Volvo, and Prius you can find.

–You can give everyone healthcare if you can find any practicing doctors.

–We’ll continue to believe healthcare is a product of the marketplace and not a right.

–We’ll keep “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” and “The National Anthem.”

–I’m sure you’ll be happy to substitute “Imagine”, “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing”, “Kum Ba Ya” or “We Are the World”.

–We’ll practice trickle down economics and you can continue to give trickle up poverty your best shot.

–Since it often so offends you, we’ll keep our history, our name and our flag.

I’m from New Hampshire. I grew up there. So I’m going to argue for it to remain with the red states. And, I think Alaskans will demand visitation rights with the Subarus. But otherwise — yeah, it’s about right.

When a marriage devolves to this much vitriol, it really is time to consider dissolution before and as an alternative to a murder-suicide.