Millions of American families received a Christmas gift from Congress: hunger.

Palestinians shot an Israeli who was working on the fence around Gaza, so Israel retaliated with bombs, killing children in Gaza.

Although the Israeli who was shot was not a soldier, he was doing a job that is not entirely civilian in nature, like the Iranian nuclear scientists that Israel killed a few years ago. The Palestinian children, by contrast, were simply being children.

Extra, extra! Netanyahu admits he doesn't want peace with Palestine!

He did not say it in so many words, but that's the inescapable implication. For Israel to demand release of an American who spied for Israel — or any other unrelated concession — says, "Peace isn't something we seek, just something we might do for the US in exchange for something we want."

Violent Islamists in Egypt carried out a car bombing against a municipal thug office. There have been a series of such attacks.

It is clear that they are inspired by the violent suppression of the Muslim Brotherhood.

A former BP geologist says that we have reached Peak Oil, and that the rate of oil extraction will decline from now on.

Whether this is a bad thing depends on how humanity reacts to it. The high price of oil reduces demand: Americans drive less, nowadays, than they did when oil was cheaper. The high price of oil encourages investment in other energy sources — some renewable (solar, wind, geothermal) and some polluting (coal, fracking, nuclear).

If only our governments pushed for renewable energy rather than polluting energy.

We could use a lot less energy for heating and for transport if we pushed harder to achieve that. Amory Lovins showed years ago that a small fraction of what we now use could do the job. And mass transit uses a lot less energy than travel by car.

The extent of economic inequality in the US is so great that our main need is not increased production of things, but rather a way for everyone to get a share. If the US produced only half as much, we would get along ok if the poor got a bigger share.