The above photograph is a five year study of the globe in regards to unhealthy particles in the air.  Click on the photo to read the article at NASA and see the dramatic difference between US air quality and Chinese.  I have cropped and modified the original image to show the United States only.  That yellow spot there about 150 miles south of Lake Erie – that’s where I grew up.  Apparently with more than twice the amount of air pollution as Los Angeles.

Washington County Ohio votes republican the majority of the time.   Is the correlation between supporting corporate profits over people and lousy air quality just a coincidence?   Nothing to see here, you folks better get back to worrying about those terrorists in rural Appalachia – there’s your real problem!  Don’t worry about how your children are being used as test subjects to see just how much metal they can inhale before it causes problems…. just keep on worrying about “them sand people” or “that socialist agenda” and you’ll be fine.

Perhaps the most striking example of the correlation between politics and air quality is the divide between coastal southern California and the conservative voting inland areas.

Another funny correlation is the big yellow dot hovering just west of Salt Lake City – one of the most conservative areas in the world.

One of the parts of the article noted that these particulates seem to cause, or at least aggravate, asthma.  Guess who had to be hospitalized and medicated as a child for asthma in Ohio… and doesn’t even use inhalers after moving to California… ME!

(I’ll post something else that isn’t political within the next seven days – I promise!)