The state of the culture

So, a leftist group posted some video maliciously edited to make the mostly white Tea Party appear racist. That was followed quickly by a righty blogger posting some video maliciously edited to make a black Agricultrue Department employee appear racist. All the race-baiters are represented now, and the expected camps are saying the predictable things about the usual suspects.

How many more near tragedies do our musical greats have to endure before we take their safety seriously? We all remember how Mozart almost self-immolated while setting his violin on fire for a performance at Salzburg, an audience pleaser later stolen without credit by the shameless Jimi Hendrix.

Must be more loose money floating around Fort Wayne than I realized. i saw an ad for this on TV yesterday and looked it up on the Web just to make sure I didn't dream the whole thing:

Have your BREAST AUGMENTATION COMPLETED BY AUGUST 31, 2010 and receive a 10% DISCOUNT on the surgeon and facility fees, excluding anesthesia, implants, or products. Availability is limited, so please call today!

Here's one of those "Who's on first?" situations. A judge has struck down a federal statute on grounds that it violates states' rights, and conservatives who normally complain about federal power are outraged, and liberals who usually love federal power are celebrating. Perfectly understandable considering the nature of the law in question:

Sigh:

Oh, well. So much for the 200-mile-high club:

Commanders do not allow sexual intercourse on the International Space Station, it has been disclosed.

 "We are a group of professionals," said Alan Poindexter, a NASA commander, during a visit to Tokyo, when asked about the consequences if astronauts boldly went where no others have been.

Nothing controversial here, no siree:

When kindergarten through fifth grade students return to class at Veterans Memorial Elementary School in Provincetown, Mass., this fall, they'll be able to ask the school nurse for condoms.

Juxtaposition of the day: On our home page, this is the top story,

GARY — The childhood hometown of Michael Jackson is planning a tribute Friday at his former house to mark the one-year anniversary of his death, and the mayor says his mother is among the people expected to attend.

and it's followed immediately by this one:

The brick-and-mortar sector isn't crumbling as quickly as we might think:

So what percentage of retail business in the United States would you say is done online? In my world, where people seem to be using their iPads to buy new Kindles, the answer feels like 90 percent, and certainly no lower than 60 percent. Maybe you run with a more old-school crowd, but the figure must be at least 20 percent, right?

Anything strike you about the results of this research?

 A new Ball State University study says text messaging has far eclipsed e-mail and instant messaging as college students' favored way of staying in touch.

The findings show that 97 percent of students now send and receive text messages, while only about a quarter of them use e-mail or instant messaging.