The end is near.

How do I know this? Because Tribune Co., one of the largest media chains in the United States, has announced plans to charge smokers a $100 monthly surcharge for health insurance.

I wonder how they'll determine who's a smoker? I know lots of people who smoke occasionally (really occasionally, not half-a-pack-a-day occasionally) or only when they drink. If someone sneaks a drag in the privacy of her home, will some Tribune human resources hatchetman pop out of a closet and hand her a bill?

So Floyd Brown, the man with an IQ of 50, is free after years in a state mental hospital for a crime it doesn't look like he committed.

His confession, the only evidence linking him to the crime, was likely falsified (in it, he used words he wouldn't have known), the detectives in the case were later jailed on corruption charges, and physical evidence was lost, the Observer has reported.

He's a poor man, and black, and without a lot of resources to stand up for himself. So he's not unlike a lot of the people freed for crimes they didn't commit. That's unlike the unjustly accused Duke Lacrosse players, whose case was a cause célèbre for angry whites everywhere.

Let's hope this stays in the public's consciousness like the Lacrosse case has — and that Brown gets the kind of financial recompense that's likely awaiting the Duke guys.

—Cartoon by Jim Hunt

Here's some stuff I came across this weekend and this morning:

I'm posting this a bit late, but ePluribus Media has pictures from the Arlington South display that was in Independence Park last weekend.

The ASPCA is reporting that their tests have shown that all but one of the 49 pit bulls seized from Michael Vick's property may not have to be euthanized, as is often necessary for dogs that have been fought:

The evaluations were conducted between September 4-6, and the team recently provided its recommendation to the United States Department of Agriculture—that 48 of the 49 dogs have potential for some sort of placement. Recommended placement options for the dogs include:

* Possible re-homing into appropriate foster homes for further observation and evaluation

* Rehabilitation as law enforcement dogs

* Placement in sanctuaries, which will need to meet USDA facility standards

Only one of the 49 dogs was deemed unfit for rehabilitation and recommended for euthanasia, which was ordered on Monday, October 1, by Judge Henry E. Hudson. A federal judge will determine the final disposition of the 48 dogs recommended for potential placement.

By Ralph Nader

Last week, a sizable gathering of conservative religious leaders retreated to Utah to eat salt-water taffy and discuss their collective disappointment with the front runners in Republican presidential field. Upset that pro-choice, anti-gun candidate Rudy Giuliani's political halo is still gleaming, they've decreed:

If there is a pro-abortion nominee [elected in the primary] we will consider working with a third party…

So I was hanging out with Barack Obama this past Sunday and …

Yeah, I said Barack Obama. Yes, it was THAT Barack Obama. You know, the guy running for president? Yeah … we kicked it the other day.

OK, OK … I’ll be honest: we weren’t exactly kicking it. I got to spend time with him at a meeting with African-American journalists in Columbia, S.C.

The assembled group of reporters — there was about 10 of us in attendance — got to grill Obama for close to an hour about a host of subjects. My thoughts about the candidate? He has great skin and really soft hands.

All kidding aside, he seemed a little tired and subdued, but he came across very “presidential.” And all that talk about him not being “black enough?” His response to color critics was, “[Black enough] compared to who?” Incidentally, all that crap about him not being black enough is insane. I’ve never met a black person who ever questioned Obama’s blackness — and, yes, I’m black. My black brothers and sisters do, however, question the blackness of Condi Rice and Clarence Thomas. Now suck on that.

Back to my meeting with Obama … we all got a chance to ask him a few questions. Some people just threw him softballs, and some folks were pretty substantive. My question addressed the growing polarization between white and black people in America. I think race relations are getting worse and, as far as I’m concerned, white people who were sensitive to black issues 10 years ago are now saying, “Oh enough already.” Obama, not surprisingly, didn’t agree with me. He said that as he’s been going across the country, most of the white Americans he’s met are concerned about issues in the black community. Of course, he’s probably met most of them at Obama rallies … but oh well.

Wrapping up the visit, Obama said the thing that most blacks are concerned with regarding his run for the White House is, “They wonder if I can actually win.”

We shall see.