nothing you have to say can be that important

One of Dan's sisters was hit from behind and pushed into oncoming traffic when driving home from work a while ago. No one was hurt, but someone coming from the opposite direction had to drive into a field to avoid a collision.

My office mate's husband was in a similar accident a couple of months ago. He was the passenger in a car waiting at a red light when they were hit hard from behind and pushed into the intersection. No one was seriously injured, but my friend was bruised and hurt when he was thrown first forward, and then back. He's a big guy. The car seat broke from the impact of his weight. They were lucky no other cars were traveling through the intersection at the time.

Neither of the drivers hitting my friends from behind had time to brake. They didn't even engage their brakes. Why? They were both busy texting.

Tonight when Dan and I were driving to San Jose we noticed an SUV swerving and straddling two lanes on the onramp to 280. As we passed the car I turned around to see what was going on.

The driver was a guy, around 60, and he was operating a smart phone with both of his hands, looking down at it.

He was steering with his knees. He was going 50 mph.

stupidity

The Keep Calm and Carry On poster was designed in 1939 by the British Ministry of Information. The idea was to use them should the Germans invade Britain during WW2. But, since that never happened the posters were never mass-distributed.

At a Barnes & Noble that I went to yesterday they had red notebooks with the same text on them. And they had red bookmarks in the same style.

When I saw those things I remembered a poster in a magazine a while back, on a wall in the London apartment of Jo Malone, the woman with the perfume line. So, I went online to do a little research.

I found that there is an entire line of products. Some of them are for sale in the US through amazon.com.

I've never lived through a war. But, it's ironic to me that a culture that promotes drama queen-ness, excess, and hysteria (Housewives, anyone?) puts British calm up for sale.

you know what that word means, 'option'?

How is it freedom of choice with no public option?

barbara calls it 'hideous'

Here is some news that will make you sick.

thanks to evan I found this clip