Mark Landsbaum: The best of times? Evidence mixed  Technological
advancement not necessarily most reliable indicator of human
advancement.    Mark Landsbaum: The best of times? Evidence
mixed  Russian President Vladimir Putin has been critical of
American culture.  Authorities in Belgium have decided it is OK
to kill terminally ill children. Not merely letting them die
naturally, mind you, but purposely killing them, quite
unnaturally. At the same time, if you know one, you can
instantly contact a Belgian child on his death bed, thanks to
cellphone technology bouncing your voice digitally off of a
satellite.  At the risk of being a Pollyanna, please excuse
yours truly for a bit of optimism. Things, in so many ways, have
never been better. But, out of fairness, this news must be
tempered. There's much that's gone, and still going, horribly
wrong.  The above examples, while perhaps seemingly
contradictory, are simultaneously true. Your assessment of the
big picture probably will boil down to whether you're a gl