Benzene: Even Better for The Bottom Line Than Aspartame!

Sweet mother of reason. I know I should be used to this sort of thing by now, but...well, I'm not. I can't be. I need to wake up in the morning with the belief that human life does matter to other people. If I become used to this, I might become used to Bush in office, or wars based on lies, or some other mass-hypnosis. At least I can deal with soda.

The FDA has decided that they're going to hold out on a decision about that whole Benzene-in-soda thing for awhile - you know, just to see how it affects the marketplace.

Because, hey, there are worse places to pick up benzene than soda. And it's only four times the "safe" level, for chrissakes. What are you, some kinda liberal nutjob?

This is some death wish we got here, people. We've been told for so long that our lives don't matter, that they don't have value beyond our ability to perform and consume, that we've apparently decided to believe it. We can no longer comprehend the notion that it's possible to be happy without our addictions, so like a good junkie we spit in the face of death and grab ahold of the fix that refreshes.

Which is how you get chemical execs working in the upper ranks of the FDA, worrying about the bottom line over the potential harm to children - not to mention the rest of us, numb from a lifetime's barrage of cornea-peeling uberhip acid green soda marketing.

This isn't so hard. My nine year old gets it. She took the whole story to her rather confused third grade show and tell, replete with the bottom line: Drink. Filtered. Water.

Skip the bottle.