Let's Call It Gut-Check Day

Tuesday's top BlogPulse phrases should give everyone a reason to pause and think about the line that separates what's claimed as reality from true reality. Take charter schools, for instance. This week's Department of Education report finds that students in charter schools -- despite ongoing claims of better education and specialized attention -- perform worse than comparable students in public schools on basic tasks such as reading and math. Which begs the question: which children are being left behind?

And there's all sorts of chatter about New York Times editorialist Paul Krugman's "Saving the Vote" column, which raises doubts about the veracity of the votes that will be cast in Florida (and elsewhere) in the November election. Especially votes cast on electronic voting machines without even those pesky hanging chads as evidence a vote was cast. Let's hope those international observers coming to the U.S. can assure us that our own elections are tamper-proof.

And what's happening to Appalachia? Or to those Quakers in Colorado who had FBI agents knocking on their doors recently? Or the poor little First Communion recipient whose sacrament has been invalidated (for lack of a better word) because she got a wheatless wafer. (Hmmmm...what WOULD Jesus do in that case? Get bureaucratic on a little kid?)

Time for lunch. All this pondering and wondering what's real and what's not makes my head spin....

TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: And how about those Olympics? How are the Olympic games stacking up against other sporting events? Pretty well.