popping corn and popping bubbles

This morning, I went for a walk around the huge KBR complex up the street. I intended to listen to a Bill Moyers podcast (which takes about 45 minutes) and to get some idea of what the heck USED to be on that huge yard. As I was walking along through the mounting waves of heat and temperature, I noticed that I could hardly hear out of my left ear, but could hear great out of my right.

The first thought was that perhaps my headphones were busted. After all, these mini-cables are very tender to internal breakage and shorting. That thought lasted a nano-second, and then I started to reflect that I hold my Treo 700 (tm) to that ear. I put my Bluetooth (tm) headset in that ear. Was I suffering damage to that ear from the constant irridation of that part of my head?

I come home, and my friend Ben has sent me an article. Ben's always got something interesting to share, so I went to it right away.

Uh, scary. Seriously scary. Fortunately, it's not TRUE. But, it makes you wonder.



While we're on the subject of scary, how about this new fangled definition of two words not previously associated?

hot stain n. Because there are what scientists call “hot stains‘“…the parts of the Earth now running out of potable water. Hot stains include northern China, large areas of Asia and Africa, the Middle East, Australia, the U.S. Midwest and sections of South America and Mexico. —“Protecting water vital to America” by Marylou Healy APP.com (Asbury Park, New Jersey) June 16, 2008.

Over on Hullabaloo yesterday, Tristero wrote something that I'll never forget about the Supreme Court's decision released last week about Guantanamo...

As much as I would like to believe the Bush revolution has failed, I really don't think a 5-4 decision restoring the Magna Carta counts as evidence, or any of the other victories for America that occurred with the same or similar margins.

Lastly, here's a terrific article from Harper's magazine about the law and order herd mentality that will cause those who have an open spot in their thinking to revisit the idea that more police, more prisons and harsher punishment is the answer.

It was written in 1929. It could have been written today.