News I missed from June 2009

I just discovered that I had missed commenting on some vital news from June 2009. I wouldn't be concerned except that most of these items must be addressed because of the monumental effect that these situations will have on my fellow Mensa members everywhere.

I came upon most of these items when I finally got around to reading my favorite news magazine: The Week (for June 19, 2009.)

01. A European Airline is starting to charge passengers $1.60 for each trip to the restroom. Will this important cost-cutting action catch on in the U.S.?

02. An eleven year old genius graduated from college with an A+ average. His degree is in astrophysics. (When I was 11, I was still trying to learn how to add over ten without taking off my shoes.)

03. Overfishing for twenty or more years may result in jellyfish taking over life in the ocean. (One might relate this somehow to our political parties.)

04. A little boy in England found a seven-leaf clover. Lucky, lucky kid. ("I'm looking over, a seven-leaf clover.")

05. A disabled Minnesota man who could not make his mortgage, was boarded up inside his house when he refused to leave. A 911 call was needed to get him released.

06. At last, my blushing has been vindicated. As an empath, I have always suffered a red face. According to Dacher Kelmer, blushing signals to others that you have a heart and are sensitive to what other people think of you, and it says to them: "I care."

07. A Washington State high school junior made an oral presentation for the legalization of marijuana, and for effect, he lit up a joint. He was arrested and expelled from school.

Finally, a quote by the late George Carlin: "Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that."

I thought about that this morning while I listened to CSPAN radio. Some of the people who called in sounded very intelligent and some sounded like they had not thought at all about what they were saying. This is the way my email is running right now: some of it is very well thought out.. but, more and more, I am receiving email that sounds very familiar to the mass-mailed lies and exaggerations of the recent Presidential election.

I can visualize a recognisable chubby man with horns sitting at a giant computer, creating nasty stuff to send to people who are agreeable to forwarding the garbage to everyone on their address lists, without checking any of it to see if it might be true.

My solution to all this: I just delete all messages that have the word "fwd" shown in the title. Good riddence!