Found this CNN item linked on Jezebel, about 17-year-old Poly High sophomore Xochitl Parra, who walked four blocks to St. Mary Medical Center after giving birth to an 8 pound, 3 ounce baby—with the baby still attached to her.
Parra did not call 911 because the home phone was disconnected, and she did not want to [...]

An Associated Press report on CNN has found prescription drug traces in the municipal water of 24 major American cities, including Long Beach. The city’s water supply Last year, the U.S. Conference of Mayors ranked the city’s water among the nation’s Top Five best-tasting, but the A.P. investigation discovered that Long Beach water includes the [...]

So, apparently those pirates who hijacked a Japanese ship full of benzene off the coast of Somalia over the weekend are still steaming away for parts unknown–possibly the Island of Lost Meals–with a U.S. destroyer in some sort of pursuit.
Now comes word via your friends at Associated Press and CNN.com

Are a flammable mixture.
Sorry, but it had to be said–especially because, as I write this, no benzene, no pirates, and no hijacked Japanese-owned ships off the coast of Somalia have been harmed in the research of this item.

Merry Christmas! Indian kids were beaten with pipes
A British paper revealed that a Gap clothing subcontractor was using Indian child slaves to produce clothing for the big Christmas rush. Gap officials respond by complaining about their own pain. “It’s deeply, deeply disturbing to all of us,” Gap President Marka Hansen said Sunday. “I feel [...]

In fairness, they’re nuts who claim to be Christians
There’s a great moment in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown when Brown discovers the Christians in his New England village worshipping Satan. It’s a tale of obsession, clearly–men and women so panicked about evil that they kind of like it. I’m reminded of Hawthorne following every [...]