My sites/links of interest today are, in honor of Independence Day and the shattered remnants of the Republic, related to the United States.

Barack Obama, this op-ed points out, has turned out to be yet another politician; something I’ve been saying was going to happen for months. Will he realize the error of his ways, or will he continue trampling the netroots? And what will this mean for his campaign?

Fireworks are laden with all sorts of lovely pollutants. Yet, there are more environmentally friendly alternatives, so, why aren’t we using them?

Speaking of fireworks, should we really be setting them off in California right now?

Jesse Helms is dead.

The Supreme Court is supposed to defend the Constitution. So, is it doing its job?

The Pentagon has chosen to extend tours of duty in Afghanistan under Stop Loss…after pledging that it wouldn’t.

Tension is rising in the United States as we cope with a failing economy and catastrophic natural disasters.

Home birth seems like a fringe movement in this country sometimes, although I don’t think it should be. This great feature from the Baltimore City Paper talks about the home birth community, and provides some nice statistics and discussions from people in the medical community.

All sorts of people are profiting from war, as this article very elegantly illustrates.

Globalization is going to happen whether or not we like it, and so is capitalism, but are there ways to make these things less harmful?

Rural schools are being forced to cut corners every way they can, thanks to their crappy budgets.

Animal welfare, or at least canine welfare, just got a huge boost.

Christopher Hitchens is the latest high-profile individual to get waterboarded in the name of, uh, science. Or something.

San Francisco, sanctuary to underage undocumented individuals? Not so much, these days.

Chronically ill children are tragic subjects of news articles and documentaries, but what happens when they grow up, and aren’t so photogenic anymore?

Green burial, and handcrafted coffins, get a nod in the Weekly Alibi.

Agwa is the new hot thing in liquor, and a handy new use of the coca leaf.

The war against Hummers is over, says the New Haven Advocate, and we won.

Adoption sometimes comes with hidden strings, and dark tales, attached.

What’s going on with feminism, and what can we do about it?

Many letters to Congress are the result of cold-calling, not spontaneous desires to communicate with representatives. How sad.

Quantum of Solace is starting to attract some media attention, since, you know. New Bond film. Exciting! I wonder when the Bond franchise will finally die; it was definitely starting to flag for awhile there, but Casino Royale was pretty dang awesome.

Snitches and the anti-snitching movement may be subjects of mockery and witty tee-shirts, but it’s a serious issue.

Abalone? Coming back? Could it be?

Marijuana potency is a favourite pet issue of the federales, but evidence suggests that, duh, more potent marijuana isn’t actually more dangerous. (In fact, it might even be better, since people need to consume less for the same high.)

The gallon jug for milk has undergone a facelift. Predictably, people hate it.

Patient errors at some of California’s most prestigious hospitals got a lot of press from the Los Angeles Times, but personally I think 100 Californians a month out of the huge numbers that go to hospital is a pretty low error rate. Yes, it sucks to be a statistic, but…statistics happen.

The American Academy of Pediatrics is fighting back against idiots who don’t vaccinate their children. Boo-ya! (The comments on this article are priceless. As is the article itself, honestly.)

Bloom’s Syndrome is a crazy rare disease. I like reading about extremely unusual diseases, so I thought you might too; this article profiles Sheryl Grossman, a patient with Bloom’s, while also providing loads of fascinating information. Yay learning!

The housing crisis is generally agreed to be bad, and here’s even more bad news: it’s going to get worse. A whole lot worse.

Paul House has been exonerated through DNA evidence. So why is he being tried again for a murder he didn’t commit?

Transit authorities all over the country are struggling to cope with high fuel prices. Luckily, they’re getting more riders, too.

Get your rocks off and, uh, help save the rock we live on.

Will terrorists rock the vote? (Thanks for the link, Vicki!)

The fall of the tobacco industry has been accompanied with a rise in the ornamental flower industry.

The Fat Experience Project is a fascinating and rapidly growing project which aims to encompass all of fat culture, with the goal of humanizing people of size and illustrating the diversity of the fat experience. You might find it eye-opening.

How safe is American beef, really?

Dick Cheney is a barnacle!

Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes. How to pick them, how to store them, how to use them.

Can Obama connect with the global Muslim community?

Supreme Court backs gun ownership, and my new favourite protest sign ever emerges: “If guns kill people, do pens misspell words?”

Britain has some pretty cool animals along its seashores. Like puffins.

Anti-growth may be hitting the Supreme Court soon. Except some sparks to fly.

Are tax credits really necessary for hybrid owners at this point? (Interesting side note: a friend recently had to replace her car, and she tried to buy a used efficient car, and realized it was actually cheaper to just buy new, for the range/condition of car she was looking at, because people are snapping up used cars in droves as they ditch their SUVs. Pretty neat, eh?)

Do we need to nationalize our gas companies? Should we? And how could we?

Speaking of gas, for the car drivers among my readers, here’s a feature on the fact and fiction behind various techniques for saving money on gas.

More aggressive anti-bullying laws might help to prevent future hate crimes.

The Guardian recently launched a new offshoot of their awesome “Comment is free” section, focused on America. Go check it out.

Albinos in Tanzania have been cropping up in the news a lot lately, and here’s an interesting Al Jazeera video talking about the great albino issue.

The Orange County Register is basically one of the most conservative newspapers in California. It is the bastion of the Southern California Republican community, and it will have no truck with any liberal nonsense. Which makes it…simply amazing…that they just published an editorial supporting gay marriage. YAY!

The DREAM Act is a great illustration of the polarization surrounding the immigration debate.

High fashion: now it’s for kids, too! A throwback to the Renaissance, when children went from long pants to adult clothes at age five. I wonder if we will be marrying girls off at age 12 next?

Is market manipulation playing a role in rising food prices? (Thanks for the link, Vicki!)

The energy crisis can be solved, but most of us won’t like the ways in which it can be solved, which means that those methods are pretty much off the bargaining table. God forbid people actually have to pay for gas!

Don’t want to get raped? Don’t wear lipstick, says the Malaysian government. Nice. Classy.

California, it is on fire.

The Justice Department is getting slammed for illegal hiring practices. Oh, the sweet smell of corruption.

Mineral makeup is all the rage in the green movement, apparently. So, for those of you who wear makeup, here’s a really informative and useful article all about it.

Honor killings: not just for the Middle East anymore.

Female athletes get to enjoy all the delights of highly competitive sports, while also being totally objectified by the media. Awesome!

Protesters are organizing for the DNC…and they are already in disagreement.

Remember the articles of impeachment introduced by my hero, Dennis Kucinich? The media certainly has done a good job of ignoring them, hasn’t it?

Nudism is becoming more mainstream; will that mean that body acceptance might become more mainstream, too?

Japan votes for reinstating commercial whaling. Cue Greenpeace frenzy in 3…2…1…

Being an atheist doesn’t preclude believing in god, apparently. God-believing athiests must be like bacon-eating vegetarians.

Private jailers make a lot of money when they get contracts. What they do with their prisoners often goes on behind closed doors, and no one really cares anyway, because it’s prisoners, so obviously they don’t matter. But it should matter. It should matter a lot that American citizens on American soil are being treated like garbage, because no matter what their crimes are, prisoners are entitled to humane treatment.

Are gay activists making the right decision by keeping marriage politics out of the election? Alas, I think they are, but unfortunately, I think the Right is going to drag gay marriage on into the debate anyway, just because they can.

The scoop is in the poop. When it comes to drug use trends, anyway.

Post-Hillary feminism? Are we really regarding Clinton as such a landmark in the history of feminism? Sigh.

Hollywood, land of gliterati…and lost children.

Inflation in Egypt is rife, along with social unrest. Except to see the pattern of inflation/unrest/protests repeating itself around the world in the coming months and years.

Female circumcision is the target of a sting operation in Britain, where parents taking young children out of Britain to certain African nations will now face interrogation, in an attempt to prevent the removal of children from Britain for the procedure. Can anybody spell “inevitable lawsuits”?