A truck driver killed 84 people in France by driving through a crowdcelebrating the birth of the French Republic. It isn't certain why he did this, but Islamist terrorism seems plausible.

Judged as a crime, this one was heinous. Considered as a cause of death, it remains minor. For comparison's sake, cars and trucks kill around 275 people in France each month through accidents.

People of France, don't panic! You don't away your freedom because of road accidents, so please don't throw it away because of this.

Oppositoin politicians are criticizing President Hollande for failing to do the impossible.

He is responding to this idiotic criticism by saying he will try harder to do the impossible -- stepping up harmful, misguided "security" measures.

France can't stop individual suicide attacks through snooping, intimidation and persecution of Muslims. But it can discourage them, with a united society that condemns these killers as the enemy of everyone.

Instead of replacing the aging Trident submarines with new ones, merely to give the appearance of being a world power, the UK should take the opportunity to lead the world by eliminating them.

"Trident won’t protect us from terrorism. But it will still be renewed."

Exxon continues to fund denial of global heating, its causes, and its effects.

Republicans in Congress are trying to harass the investigation of Exxon's global heating deception, with subpoenas against the bodies that are investigating. These include some state governments, and the Union of Concerned Scientists.

I am proud to give every year to the Union of Concerned Scientists. You can give, too.

Businesses that provide services people want in a hurry can get themselves to the top ranking in local Google Maps searches, just by paying for fake reviews saying they are great. Sometimes the companies listed are entirely fake, and people who call get passed along to some other company for the service; that company may intentionally skimp and do a bad job.

One positive side effect of my refusal to run nonfree software is that I'm totally safe from this. Google Maps requires the visitor to run nonfree Javascript code, so it simply does not work for me.

When a nonprogressive Democrat such as Clinton or Obama gets elected, the first task on per agenda is to dampen the voters' expectations that the newly elected official will make things much better.

Contrast this with slogans such as "hope" and "change", designed to fool voters into expecting some of the change they hope for.

After seeing the pattern a few times, you can learn not to vote for them. I learned this from Bill Clinton.