SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 9:16 P.M. ET:

BRAIN BUILDING – Former Governor Arnold Schwarznegger of California has co-founded a think tank at the University of Southern California and will become a professor at the school.  I suspect that this development will raise the general intellectual level of American higher education, and possibly lead to greater physical fitness in the academic world as well.

WE CAN'T WAIT – NBC has bought a TV series set at the United Nations.  (Okay, please try to stay awake.  Show respect.)  The drama follows an interpreter at the UN working with ambassadors and politicians from around the world as they deal with international crises.  Has anyone informed NBC that the UN either 1) does nothing or 2) messes it up or 3) sends a bill to the United States?   Someone should send a note before the writing begins.

WAS THERE A WARNING BEFORE AURORA? – Fox is reporting that a psychiatrist warned the University of Colorado about student James Holmes some time before Holmes allegedly committed the July 20th massacre in an Aurora theater.  The warning was put aside when Holmes dropped out of school.  We have noted, here at Urgent Agenda, that the refusal or inability of institutions to pass on disturbing information to law enforcement, especially involving mental health issues, has been a factor in some very high-profile murders, including the Tucson shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

BETTER WEAPONS NEEDED – Military procurement, and the problems associated with it, continues to be a contentious issue in Washington.  Now pro-military Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma is demanding that the Army accelerate its search for a better rifle to replace the current M4, which has been the source of a number of soldier complaints.  The Army's competition for a replacement is scheduled to end in 2014.  Coburn is asking members of Congress to join him in demanding that a replacement be found sooner.  One of the most consistent complaints I've heard over the years, both from military people and civilians in Washington, is that Pentagon procurement procedures are bloated, obsolete and far too slow.

August 2, 2012