the killing fields

In the news...

-- The Americans are a step closer to selling four unmanned drones to South Korea ... another step in the effort minimize the blood and responsibilities of those committed to war.

-- The commander of Syria's military police has defected to Turkey, saying that the Syrian army had failed to protect the Syrian people and had turned into "gangs of murder."

-- And in Dubai, falconers are training their birds:

In order for the hunters to be able to eat the prey in accordance with Muslim beliefs, it must still be alive when its throat is cut and blood is drained. Once properly trained, a falcon will hold a captured houbara without killing it.

-- Several expensive birds have been stolen from a wildlife park in Sydney, Australia, and, although resale-at-a-profit is imaginable, still I wonder if they might not provide target practice for the falconers in Dubai.

-- And, in a sure sign that serious interest in the Newtown, Conn., massacre of 20 elementary school children is on the wane, an anti-toy-gun campaign has been resurrected in California.