stuff you learn when you're stuck in the house

1. On mercury amalgams:

McKinlay also said that while the study revealed children with the mercury fillings had higher mercury levels in their urine, there was no evidence they had a higher incidence of kidney damage.

Honestly, how much mercury do you want in your kid's urine? Holy cow.

2. Governor Ryan of Illinois is going to prison. Before we lived in Illinois, we lived in Connecticut, where Governor Rowland went to prison last year. Between Connecticut and Illinois, we spent some time in Massachusetts, where Governor Cellucci got in trouble with voters for pinching pennies in the government but owing a bunch of money personally, and his lieutenant governor, Jane Swift, got in trouble for commuting home in a helicopter. We were in California for the election of The Terminator when Gray Davis was recalled, so I'm expecting something really, really weird from Janet Napolitano, except she was chosen as one of the top five governors in the country by Time magazine in 2005.

I suppose that for me, that is really weird, so never mind.