Iran Rattles Missiles:

Iran test fired nine missiles, including one with sufficient range to reach Israel. Mixed messages are coming out of the country. First an insistence that they have no interest in creating nuclear weapons, then two days later weapons testing that could deliver nuclear weapons. It should be noted that they are following the same pattern as North Korea, whose government has recently been more successful in negotiations with the Bush administration than previously. (See the NPR story.)

World's Rich Nations Pledge To Cut Greenhouse Gases—Someday:

The leaders of the world's richest nations got together in Japan so that they could pretend to plant trees. They also pledged to cut global warming, which George Bush denies exists, by 2050, after most of them are likely to be dead or in nursing homes at the very least. (See The New York Times story.)

Price of Oil Drops and …

No one knows why. Most authorities have denied that speculators have had much effect on the rapid increase of the price of oil over the past year, but then they also can't explain why the price of oil has dropped for two days in a row. Yes, America, it is true that you, along with your European cousins, are using less, but most authorities insist that the daily increase in demand from China and India easily offsets any savings. (See The New York Times story.)

Remember "The Space Race"?

The Washington Post reports that "China plans to cap its Olympic triumph with a spacewalk in October." Meanwhile, the "European Space Agency is building a roving robot to land on Mars," and India has already "launched a record 10 satellites into space on a single rocket."

Cheney Lied:

Vice President Dick Cheney's staff cut six pages of important material from testimony about global warming and its effects on human health in order to protect the position he and the Republican party holds.

According to The Washington Post, Sen. Barbara Boxer, who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said,

the administration sought the changes for fear that Gerberding's testimony could trigger new controls under the Clean Air Act that would regulate greenhouse-gas emissions from burning fossil fuels.

Last year, the EPA determined that global warming presented serious threats to human health, but to date, the document so stating has never been made public.

There's Nothing Like a Warm Gun:

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people who own guns are far more likely to kill themselves with their guns than to use them for self-defense.

And Yet Another Way To Scam Taxpayers:

The Washington Post reports that since 2000 perhaps as much as $92 million was paid out for home medical equipment, like wheelchairs, "prescribed by physicians who, according to records, were dead at the time."