FIVE THINGS I’M THINKING ABOUT TODAY

1) It’s Thursday, February 5, 2015. It’s still too freaking cold in this part of America.

2) I’ve always a lot of respect for Brian Williams. But how do you let something like a false claim of being on a downed helicopter fester for over a decade?

Everybody wants to be a hero, I suppose. The trouble is, there are real heroes, and often what they did to become heroes was scary, painful and emotionally scarring. I suspect those heroes don’t mind sharing their status with people in the same position — and do mind when people who haven’t suffered to revel in some glory that isn’t theirs.

Brian Williams is about to find out how forgiving people are.

3)  The immunization rate needs to be 92% or more for health officials to feel confident that a disease is under control.

According to a terrific story in The Los Angeles Times, more than 1,500 California schools have rates below 92%. The story leads with a Santa Monica preschool whose vaccination rate is 51%.

The people who aren’t vaccinating their kids aren’t lacking in resources. The areas with the greatest concentration of anti-immunization idiots are affluent communities in the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas. 

By contrast, Mississippi, which instantly conjures the word “unhealthy” for just about everything else that transpires, has a rate of measles-mumps-rubella vaccination of 99.7%. An effort by nutty parents to change a strict vaccination policy mercifully failed in the state legislature. 

It just needs to be stressed at every opportunity. Vaccination isn’t an option, it’s mandatory. Any other position is lunacy.

4) The Moslem world is pretty ticked off about what the ISIS pillbugs did to that captured Jordanian pilot. 

It just underscores one of the things I thought about yesterday: Refusing to call the terrorists by some derivative of Islam isn’t mealy mouthed or weak. It’s the recognition that they are even bigger enemies of Islam than of other faiths, as evidenced by the indiscriminate way they kill Moslems.

So, again, responsible American leaders should not be saying that Moslems need to denounce ISIS. They should be asking Moslems what we can do to support their battle against this disease.

5) It’s a point of pride among students and alumni of the University of Wisconsin. It’s called the Wisconsin Idea — the notion that the university’s goal is to solve problems and improve people’s lives. 

One would think the governor of the state would be proud of such a goal.

Alas, not Scott Walker. This clown, who actually wants to be President of the United States, tried to slip a mission change for the university into his budget proposal. Instead of public service, he wanted the university’s primary goal to be meeting the state’s workforce needs. 

This didn’t sit well with true Badgers. The screams of protest from administrators, faculty, students, alumni and people who understand that universities are supposed to advance civilization forced Walker to back down quickly.

Being from a rival Big Ten school, I usually don’t say this. But way to go, Badgers! Keep up the fight.