It’s been a busy news weekend.  Kanye West set a new record in his endless series of records for douchbaggery.  Serena Williams had a tantrum and discovered her inner child has a potty mouth.  And the demonstration in DC had the media fighting over who could do a better job of displaying their bias.  The right-wing media estimated a crowd size of approximately a bajillion, while the left-wing media put it closer to twelve.

And lost in all the hoopla was the story that a great man, perhaps the greatest man in all human history, died.

Mass murders and petty thugs become household names while the good guys are ignored.  Norman Borlaug is unknown to the masses, even though he’s saved an estimated billion people from starvation.

He did it through cross breeding grains to increase their yield, calorie content, and resistance to disease and pesticides.  He fought against bureaucracies and stupidity to get his grains to the farmers who needed them, and then to get fair prices for the farmers.  He ignored naysayers and merchants of doom, and worked harder than anyone else to make their predictions look foolish.  He also fought against the political problems that created starvation, fighting to make the greatest amount available via free market principles and practices.

As a direct result of his work countries once full of starving people are now food exporters.  He not only saved a billion lives directly, he saved even more through countries becoming prosperous and avoiding wars over resources.

He died Sunday, at the age of 95, while most of us were discussing trivia that will be forgotten in a month.

I didn’t form my opinions about him on my own.  I adopted them from Penn & Teller a few years ago, when I saw this segment of their show Bullhshit!  (NSFW).  I have to admit that before seeing this I had never heard of him either.

Here’s a short message from Norman:

And here’s an interview with him.

So here’s to you, Norman.  Perhaps future generations will give you the acclaim you deserve.  Until then, Smartenized people the world over will be raising a glass to your memory and celebrating your life and the billion other lives you’ve saved.