The communists are after our precious bodily fluids again! First fluoridation, now toxic Chinese toothpaste! Somebody call Gordon Sinclair!

I agree with Glenn Reynolds one hundred percent: “the ridiculous effort to purge all risks from childrens’ lives” is truly a scourge of modern society.

Unfortunately, no politician (or prosecutor) is ever going to stand up and tell an angry public that there is a certain amount of acceptable risk inherent in our childrens’ lives. It’s obviously, logically true, but as I’ve noted before, logic doesn’t matter when “it’s for the children.”

Sometimes, a tragedy is just a tragedy, not a crime. (Original post here — and be sure to read the comments, they’re interesting.)

Mammatus in Nebraska. (Hat tip: Literal Barrage.)

Resident Hillary-haters shouldn’t miss this. Heh.

Whether Tropical Storm Barry was ever really a tropical storm is a matter of some debate, but at any rate, it’s not anymore: the National Hurricane Center downgraded it to a tropical depression at 11:00 AM and issued its final advisory on the system at 5:00 PM, declaring that it was “rapidly becoming extratropical.” (Margie Kieper says it was extratropical all along.) So what we have now is essentially a June nor’easter that will head up the East Coast this weekend, bringing much-needed rain to various places along the way. This may go down as the least harmful, most beneficial tropical cyclone (or perhaps I should say “tropical cyclone”) in recent years.

Alan Sullivan, however, is slightly alarmed: “Meanwhile tropical storm Barbara is drifting NE toward the mountainous coast of SE Mexico and Guatemala. … Barbara and Barry share a single elongated envelope of tropical moisture and energy. Such storm pairs are common at high season but unusual at this time of year. I find this morning’s satellite a rather disquieting sight. But there were early storms last year also, and it meant nothing.” Indeed. As Dr. Jeff Masters noted yesterday, “There is no relationship between high activity early in hurricane season and high activity during the main August-October peak of the season.”

At least 146 German police officers are injured, 25 of them seriously, in clashes with about 2,000 protestors ahead of Group of Eight summit in Rostock, Germany, police spokesman says.

Visit CNN for the latest.

Three suspects have been arrested in an alleged terror plot aimed at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, a law enforcement official tells CNN.

Visit CNN for the latest.

I have no idea what got me thinking about this, but I believe my current ZIP code is the ninth one I’ve lived in: 06106, 06111, 90007, 10040, 85215, 46556, 46637, 85301, and now, 37919. (And then of course there’s 14221, which I spent so much time in, I feel like I might as well have lived there. Same goes for 85218.)

How many ZIP codes have y’all lived in? Anyone got more than nine?

P.S. I’m not going to list all my addresses, but I’ve had 12 of those: four in 90007 (L.A.) and one for each other ZIP code. And I’ve moved between and among those addresses… let’s see now… 19 times, I believe. With all but one of those moves being in the last eight years. :)