Or Not

I'm currently trying to talk with my dad via Google Talk. It would be nice to save a bit of money and talk off the PC. And I'm sitting here on my fairly large rear fairly often, anyway . . . . But we're having some trouble at his end, I think. He's on a network from his employment pre-retirement, which makes anything new a challenge. I feel inept trying to assist, as I've no experience with networks, alas.

Or not.

We've got more bird flu creep happening. Human death has crept into Europe's backyard, landing in Turkey this week. When last we spoke, avian death had already moved into Europe, with domestic poultry in Romania hit in November. But don't worry about this, folks. It could turn out to be Swine Flu.

Or not.

Grist has a great photo essay on the relatively new fair trade tea plantations in India. As a sporadic but devoted tea drinker, I enjoyed both the photos and the info on fair trade. Try here for a fair trade tea (search fair trade, of course). Don't know if our local tea emporium, Todd & Holland, sells fair trade. I'll have to ask.

Or not.

Nice, that newest Pat Robertson opinion of God's actions toward our fellow humans. This time, it's Ariel Sharon's strokes being divine retribution for splitting Israel. Over at Political Animal, Amy Sullivan noted with some glee Pat's own health "punishment" of prostate cancer a few years back and wondered what, exactly, the punishment was for. Kinda fun to read the comments in response.

Or not.

If you'd like a bit more indepth discussion of God and us and all that kind of stuff, check out Street Prophet.

Or not.

Why do we spend more time debating, commenting, and bemoaning abortion when there are so many more babies throughout the world killed (sic) each year from diarrhea? And why aren't we celebrating, dancing in the streets, that not one but two vaccines have been developed to prevent this killer? And for all that Microsoft drives me nuts, you gotta (ok, I've gotta) admire the heck out of Bill Gates for almost $2 million in grants toward this incredibly underreported issue.

Or not.

Speaking of issues that need more attention, why haven't I read much in the dailies about the Andrea Mitchell interview in which she suggested that the NSA may be tapping journalists' phones or otherwise eavesdropping on them? Talking Points Memo says that, while NBC withdrew that part of the interview from its website, it has indicated that it is still conducting an "inquiry" into the issue. Hardly seems likely that Mitchell would just drop that bombshell into casual conversation without something to back it up. And hardly seems likely that NBC would continue an inquiry into something unless there was an issue into which needed inquiring. (Did that work, folks?) So there must be something to it, eh?

Or not.

On that note, I'm going to go let my mind fester and watch some version of Animal Cops on Animal Planet. We all must have our vices.

Until tomorrow,
Liz