Stuff Out There

The minute I go outside to chase cars, you let stuff happen.

Humans; leave you alone for a minute, and you despoil the planet, foul the oceans, and treat each other like chattel. So many opportunities to be glad I'm a Dog.

• Texas = Stupid
  This, which really needs no additional comment, from the New York Times: This month, The Houston Chronicle published an opinion piece by [Barbara Bush, wife of 'Big Boots' Bush] titled “We Can’t Afford to Cut Education,” in which Mrs. Bush pointed out that students in Texas currently rank 47th in the nation in literacy, 49th in verbal SAT scores and 46th in math scores.
Texas is also ranks third in the nation in Teen pregnancies (some, even, by non-family members), and Number One in Repregnancies by some of those same Teens! Meanwhile, Governor Rick Perry says Texas is Jus' Fahn; s'All Good.
• Silvio = Il Più Grande Testicolo L'Europa
  From The Daily Beast: An Italian judge has ordered Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to stand trial for allegedly paying for sex with an underage prostitute and then abusing his official power by trying to cover it up. The judge agreed to waive a preliminary hearing and send Berlusconi directly to trial due to what prosecutors called the “obviousness of the evidence” against him. He faces up to three years in prison on the prostitution charge and 12 years on the abuse of power charge. Silvio, meanwhile, doesn't care, and in a roundtable discussion of the situation with Italian Journalists based in the U.S. on Charlie Rose last night, all agreed this would be a terrific spectacle, but that Berlusconi would not willingly back away from being an Oligarch With A Little Country All His Own. (By the way; I'm not sure how they arrived at the name 'Daily Beast' for their site, but for obvious reasons, I like it.)
• Continuing Protests Across Middle East
  The NYT notes: "From northern Africa to the Persian Gulf, governments appeared to flounder over just how to outrun mostly peaceful movements, spreading erratically like lava erupting from a volcano, with no predictable end."
• President, Congress = Slash 'n Burn Crazy Stupid
  Well, you knew this. Unfortunately, we have a leader who has already made a number of bad calls and is about to make another: On the day the Obama administration released its FY 2012 budget... William, a passionate New York Democrat [wrote]: "Yeah, let's cut public health services," he wrote. "Pardon me while I puke. Will this gutless worm fight for anything? He accepts GOP premises and fights on their turf." (From Salon online magazine)

More later. What; this isn't enough?

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