What's Better Or Worse In The News With Sexual Assaults In The Military, Concussions In The NFL, And Furniture Throwing In South Africa

  The number of military sexual assault reports in the fiscal year ending last September was more than 5,000. This compares -unfavorably- with 3,375 the year before. We have supported Senator Kirsten Gillibrand's (D.-New York) efforts to legislate that independent prosecutors should decide whether to bring to court sexual assault cases rather than leaving the decision to military commanders where the decision is more apt to be a political one rather than a professional one.
    The NFL's $764 million concussion settlement was halted temporarily because a judge refused to approve the deal. She feared the amount might not be enough to cover all the victims. The money will go to all retired NFL football players who present evidence of severe intellectual impairment. Both parties will share information with a special master the judge has appointed to ensure there is adequate funding before the settlement goes forward.
    What's better in Hillbrow, South Africa is that the years- old custom of throwing furniture, appliances, and anything else that comes to mind out the window during New Year's Eve is ending.
Hillbrow used to be a white enclave, but when segregation ended, whites moved to gated and fenced  areas to live. Hillbrow was then occupied by blacks, many of whom didn't pay rent. It is such a poor area that some apartments are lived in during the day by one set of renters and at night by another set. Are we looking at the future? Last year, a person was hurt by a small refrigerator being thrown out an up-stairs apartment, and the police decided to be on the streets this New Year's Eve. There were no reports of furniture being hurtled out of windows though police did get bottles thrown at their vehicles. One observer remarked that the rent is so high, people can't afford to chuck their furniture out the window. Couldn't it be that people are simply getting a little more mature and less self-absorbed?
    These commentaries are based upon news from the Wall Street Journal, America's most trustworthy national newspaper.
    Peter Nickerson. Neither a Republican nor a Democrat but an Evidentist.