1. It’s Tuesday, November 3, 2015

2. Vote! (if it’s Election Day where you are) If you don’t, you get the government you deserve.

3. I’m trying to remember what people argued about ten years ago, before there was Twitter.

Today, of course, they’re arguing about Twitter itself. But not about whether it’s a reliable source of information, or whether people spend too much time on it.

They’re arguing about the change from clicking on a star to say a tweet is a favorite to clicking on a heart to say you like a tweet.

By switching from “Favorite” to “Like,” Twitter is using the same nomenclature as Facebook. But Facebook uses the thumbs-up icon to indicate you like something (I’m still waiting for that “Unlike” icon for people who can’t stand someone’s goofy picture of a dog).

Some people are bothered by the change in terminology. Some people are bothered by the change in icon – so much so that Lucky Charms is trending on Twitter because both stars and hearts are the shapes of marshmallows in the cereal, indicating that half-moons might be next.

Anyway, the fact that I’ve wasted all these electrons on this subject indicates why it’s a topic for discussion. Twitter has changed our world in its nearly 10 years of existence, and maybe not always in ways that make the world a more enlightened place.

4. The Times’ lead story underscores what a freakin’ mess Syria is.

It points out that a coalition the U.S. backs to battle the Islamic State hardly exists in reality. In facts, the Kurds who are supposedly part of the coalition look down at the Arabs who are supposedly part of it. There’s no unity of purpose, no coordination and suspicion galore.

When critics suggest the U.S. needs to take a more forceful position in the region, they need to consider who we’re dealing with here. The only alternative that could override this factionalism is a massive American force. And while that might light Dick Cheney’s fire, the American people are understandably not the least bit interested.