This month, we've got a beef recall due to E. coli bacteria infection.

Last month, we got a tomato recall due to a salmonella outbreak (and we still don't know the source of the contamination).

So as we head into this Fourth of July weekend, is there any chance that...

I've been caught up in various projects and diversions this year that I haven't had a chance to do any pre-opening hyping babbling about the latest Pixar animated movie. Even so, I managed to dig out a little chunk of time this weekend and went to see Wall-E with the family.

For the last few years, my second-most invaluable gadget (next to my iMac) has been my Palm Tungsten C PDA. I first got it to help me manage a work project, and it quickly became an invaluable tool spare brain, helping me do everything from managing meetings and coordinating tasks to editing documents and reading e-books.

Naturally, then, when my trusty steed abruptly died of digital old age on Friday, my foremost priority was securing a replacement.

If you've been following the political news scene, you may have noticed a recent chorus of Republicans (and Republican candidates) who urge lifting existing bans on offshore oil and gas drilling.

As a card-carrying Republicans (despite the Republicans wishing he wasn't), George W. Bush predictably tossed in his two bits the other day -- and revealed that he thinks Americans are too dumb to tell time:

(No, I'm not going to make a gay marriage joke here...)

To absolutely no one's surprise, now that Barack Obama has become the Democrat's presumptive nominee for the presidential election this fall, the racist wing of the Republican right have been allowed to ooze out from their resting places and start their attacks on the Illinois Senator. This is understandable; the GOP has wholeheartedly embraced racism as part of their political strategy since 1948, and their efforts to paint themselves as tolerant have fooled no one.

In fact, the only thing that's surprising to me (so far) about Mr. Obama's nomination is how blatant the Republicans are willing to use racism in a desperate drive to save John McCain's doomed campaign (or at least until Diebold gets their hands on the results).

Like a lot of folks, I count myself among the casual Star Trek fandom; just enough to identify the myriad of characters and basic ideas, but not enough to quote episode and verse while wearing full Klingon makeup. I have also watched enough Star Trek: The Next Generation that I can answer in my sleep how Captain Jean-Luc Picard likes his Earl Grey tea.

For those who haven't heard, the early details of Scott McClellan's new tell-all book, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception came out the other day. Even a mere handful of excerpts provide enough revelations to go around: