A couple of topics today, ending the year on a down note, for sure, but then there have been a lot of reasons to feel too many things have not gone well in 2015.

One of the most upsetting elements of the year has been the behavior of police officers. Not all of them, certainly, but far too many of our cops have been involved in murderous activities. And way too many of them have gotten away with it. Their victims have been disproportionately black. The conclusions: too many cops have a racial bias. And, too many cops are cowards.

Cops need more training, a lot more. They need to learn that firing on people without knowing what they’re up to is not courage, it’s cowardice. Cops are supposed to serve not to defend themselves at all costs. And when they take aim and murder victims who may or not be armed they are behaving as untrained people who are so scared they lose their sense of service, of training, of common sense. They are cowards, plain and simple.

And that’s disgraceful, shameful and murderously wrong. Those cowards need punishment.

******************

This year has been a downer in part because of the surfeit of unqualified candidates seeking the office of President. There is not a single Republican candidate who is fit for the job, and most have no business running.

But there’s this: The Manchester Union Leader earlier endorsed Chris Christie for President. Several pundits have referred to the Union Leader as an “influential” paper in New Hampshire. Donald Trump has denounced the newspaper’s editorial endorsement.

So here’s the truth about all of this: The Union Leader is not an influential newspaper, only the state’s largest circulation newspaper. Its editor Joe McQuaid is a right-wing, tea party admiring Republican, and his newspaper occasionally reflects a GOP bias in its news coverage. That makes it not a very good newspaper. Its editorial pages, where opinions are expected, are mostly drivel since the paper has a long history of right-wing editorial drivel. The sum of that is that the paper is not influential save among some of the more extreme elements of the population. Fortunately, most of New Hampshire is more grounded and sensible than the Union Leader.

And on that note, Happy New Year. Surely 2016 will be better?