Heard and Seen...

A few things that make one think:

• Heard on NPR this morning, an interview with a physician who criticized lax environmental requirements by -- everyone join in, now, big surprise -- the Bush Administration on mercury pollution levels, in which the speaker made the point that allowing such high levels of mercury in the environment is bad especially for children, saying that children would have impaired "ability to compete in the global marketplace" and referring to them as our future "intellectual capital." Guess he doesn't give a damn about whether they become thoughtful, intelligent, artistic, caring, peace-loving, well-rounded adults and members of society. Just not important.
• Saw a bumper sticker that identified the driver as a "Lifetime Member of (university name withheld) Alumni Association." Correct me if I'm wrong, but once you graduate, aren't you forever and ever an alumnus/na? Can someone be excommunicated or delumnified? I'm guessing the message is simply a nicer way of saying "I Got Conned Into Making A Huge Donation, And All I Got Was This Dopey Bumper Sticker."
• IMHO, big-ass SUVs and the people who drive them are the perfect symbol of greed, waste, arrogance, and self-centeredness. Regrettably, those of us who drive size-appropriate automobiles have to co-exist with these behemoths. But can someone explain to me why, in a parking lot, we often have to wait for these monstrosities to back into parking spaces, usually by executing a perfect 14-point turn? Isn't it simpler to pull straight into a small space, and back out into a large one (i.e. a two-lane parking lot aisle)? Extra discredit points for those with any Bush stickers (I find "W Stands for Women" particularly amusing...how do you like John Roberts as the next Sandra Day O'Connor, ladies?) or ridiculous ribbon magnets (God Bless America, implying no one else, another symbol of the Urban Assault Vehicle crowd)...
• At BJ's Wholesale Club, the large-size (quantity, not volume, presumably) Trojan-Enz Lubricated Condoms on the shelf right next to the EPT Home Pregnancy Test Kits.