random newsy things

A couple random newsy things:

* Normally, I roll my eyes at celebrity-ish doings and rich people indulging their fantasies being a part of the news.

But you know? I really hope Steve Fossett turns out to be OK. I hope he just decided to touch down in some remote area and run to an In-n-Out Burger just to see if he could do it without people recognizing him. Or that he went to meet a mistress. Or something.

I'm really not an aviation fan but I think what he did - the round-the-world flights and all - was pretty cool. So I'd be sad to think he crashed somewhere.

* When did we start calling that part of Pakistan "Waziristan," and why?

I admit to being somewhat immature about this but whenever I hear the name "Waziristan," the first thing I think of is Wizzo the Wizard from the old Bozo show in Chicago.

* I'm a bit fearful that Fred Thompson - considering all the delays and all the problems with getting his campaign going - may turn out to be "all hat and no cattle," as they say in Texas. I know, that's heresy to some of you, and I also know that may be what the media WANTS us to think, but...I'm just a little leery of the fact that he's kept putting off entering the race formally.

* Speaking of candidates - given John Edwards' talk of "mandatory preventative health care," I dearly dearly hope he's not the next president. Because I can see a day coming when those of us who are slightly fat - even if we try to watch our diets and get exercise - being forcibly put on strict diets, or that alli crap (which, quite literally, is crap for some people - makes them soil their pants). And who's going to pay for all of it? And what about people who, for whatever reason (religious beliefs, or someone who's really old and of the "let me just GO" temperament), don't WANT the health care?

And what about failed treatments? Like - they put you on some statin drug and it makes you have memory loss or some other horrific side effect? Can you decline treatment?