I used to tell people that I was a liberal — somewhat to the left of Karl Marx. Of course, that’s when I was thinking of the political spectrum as being a straight line from communist to capitalist. Of course, after viewing the information at “The Political Compass”, I realize that, today, I would better be described as a “libertarian socialist”. And, I find that I’m in the same quadrant of the compass as Gandhi — which is okay with me!. (I’m also in the same quadrant as Rebecca Blood whose blog pointed me to this site.)

Invest five minutes in taking this fascinating — and totally anonymous questionnaire — to see where your political inclinations lie. (I come out with a -3.62 on the economic left/right axis, and a -6.41 on the authoritatian/libertarian axis.) Where do you stand?

Jenn, who is a store manager for a large chain bookstore (Hint) was required to take a county Health Department course in order to have her store café certified for serving food.

One of the topics during training was proper handwashing technique. The instructor informed the class that it is important to wash your hands for at least 20 seconds in order to ensure that the soap has had a chance to remove dirt, oils and micrõorganisms. “You could count to 20-Mississippi,” she told them, “or you could just sing “Happy Birthday.”

I wonder if this instructor (and the Stanford University MedNews and the Cornell University Cooperative Extension) realizes that she’s being a shill for AOL/Time Warner, whose Warner/Chapell Music owns the copyright to “Happy Birthday” and who, due to the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998, will keep bilking kindergardeners and chain restaurants out of performance money until 2010.

Right now they can’t get any royalties out of me while I’m standing at the bathroom sink, scrubbing away, but I’m sure that won’t last forever.