Current Affairs

Just saw that annoying Sally Fields ad pitching Boniva, the osteoporosis pill. What's annoying is that they make such a big deal about having to take the thing only once a month, as if taking a pill weekly or, heaven forbid, daily is an unbearable hardship. Taking something monthly seems to be a disadvantage to me -- that gives you 30 or 31 days to forget to take the stupid pill.

The first government-ordered quarantine since 1963 -- what would it feel like to be locked up just for being sick? If you knew it was coming, would you do as much as you could in the meantime?

Health officials said the man had been advised not to fly and knew he could expose others when he boarded the jets. He had a supply of masks to wear for the protection of other passengers, but it is not clear whether he donned them, Cetron said.

Drat. Just when the press gets us all worked up into a good panic, somebody who knows what he's talking about comes along to spoil all the fun:

Today's life lesson: "New poll reveals Canadian parents believe teaching their kids to swim is the best way to prevent drowning." Next: Teaching kids about gravity is the best way to prevent deaths by falls from tall buildings. Those crazy Canadians.

Dr. Death will soon be back among us:

In case you wondered, politicians in Allen County are smarter than those in England. The county has approved changes to its public-smoking ban:

On Friday, the commissioners changing the definition of “public place” to exclude private or semi-private rooms in health-care facilities that are occupied by one or more people, who have requested in writing to be placed in a room where smoking is permitted.

So long to poor, sad Cindy Sheehan, whose rantings will apparently no longer be Page 1 news:

I have invested everything I have into trying to bring peace with justice to a country that wants neither.

[. . .]

With all due respect to Sen. Richard Lugar, who wants to "rewrite" America's farm program, that would only give us a slightly more sensible multi-billion-dollar subsidy monster. Why not try something truly radical, like just ending the whole thing? It sounds scary, but one country's experience indicates that the fear might be exaggerated:

Hey, if you're going to get people to come to your museum to appreciate natural history, they have to be able to park, right?

The Witte Museum is raising eyebrows from those who say the natural history museum is plotting to destroy natural history.

Trees that have been on the grounds adjacent to the museum since the turn of the century could now be replaced by a parking garage.

I don't watch much network TV news, but somebody turned on NBC News with Brian Williams the other night, and I caught the tail end where he read viewer mail (the segment referred to here). The letters were all critical of NBC, which is fine; we make a point of giving letters that disagree with us priority.