I happened to be in the library today and I noticed the current (3/09) issue of Consumer Reports. I noticed on the cover something about how Americans indulge in "risky" behavior. The article touted statistics such as 73% of those surveyed admitted that they "...sometimes use cotton swabs to clean their inner ears.."
My first thought was to recall why I stopped subscribing to that POS rag about 30 years ago. Then I felt sad.
I was sad that a nation so grandly conceived less than 300 years ago is now so narrowly defined and dominated by a risk-adverse culture that considers cleaning inner ears with Q-tips to be risky behavior. I wonder what they would call walking across the American southwest next to a covered wagon?
No wonder the Muslims are kicking our ass.