Speaking of being small ...

Just before I posted a view of the Earth and Moon as seen from six million miles away (courtesy of NASA's Jupiter-bound Juno spacecraft), I re-read Carl Sagan's sublime "Lonely Pale Blue Dot" essay. Putting us into proper perspective, he wrote: "Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark." And we humans are smaller still in the scheme of things. Amazingly, the news media is even smaller. Driving home the point, the Washington Monthly writes: "The media is making quite a fuss over the fact that President Obama intends to deliver his speech on the economy to a joint session of Congress at the same time as a debate for Republican presidential candidates." Is Obama trying to step on GOP toes? Breathless, inquiring minds in the White House press corps want to know. Steve Benen reports that "for what it's worth, rumor has it this afternoon that NBC will shift the timing of the debate so that it airs after the national address." And political life goes on, ever smaller and meaninglessly, on our pale blue dot.