if the biscuits and gravy don't kill you

...then the air will!

being glued to ye olde computer as i am, i couldn't help but read this story raging across all of the big news sites today regarding how smog can actually kill you. can you believe it? brown air is harmful!

however, courtesy of one of those nifty, newfangled interactive map whatchmajigs that the kids like so much these days, i found out that sepia-skied los angeles is actually far, far healthier than the piney woods from whence i came (and where my beloved family still lives). to wit:

los angeles county has 3x the pollution of the national median, with a national rank of 944th worst air in the country.

the south carolina county in which my parents live has nearly 11x the pollution of the national median, with a national rank of 350.

the south carolina county in which my sister's family lives ranks #744, with 4x the pollution.

i guess the upside is that i'll be getting my inheritance sooner (i kid, i kid).

there's a political rant in me somewhere about why the worst air is found in the poorest states, but i'll leave it at this: i bet if you did an overlay of red indicating "red states" on this map, you'd find the worst pollution levels in the same places where people overwhelmingly vote republican, which would give you a shining example of what voting against your own economic interests (not to mention environmental interests) gets you in 2008 america.

word!