1. Salon has an article up about a group called CRACK (Children Requiring A Caring Kommunity) - which, apart from making me cringe with that whole Kommunity thing, pays male and female drug addicts $200 to undergo processes of sterilization or “long-term birth control.” The premise is initially interesting, and I’m not really a fan of the way most people have children as it is, but the people running CRACK sound pretty vile: Barbara Harris, CRACK ’s director, says she began the project five years ago after seeing dozens of babies born to drug-addled mothers who couldn’t care for them. Harris adopted four children of her own from the same crack-addicted mother who kept having babies year after year “without a care in the world,” she says. The organization grew slowly. At first, Harris worked from home and got friends to help her post flyers all over Los Angeles. (One read: “Don’t let getting pregnant get in the way of your drug habit.”) Critical individuals and organizations like Planned Parenthood point out that giving an addict a couple hundred bucks to get her tubes tied may keep her from having kids, but it doesn’t do anything for the health or welfare of the woman herself, much less address the issue of her addiction. A rep from the National Association of Pregnant Women has gone so far as to call CRACK’s campaign “Hitleresque eugenics.” That’s another issue, maybe, but there’s definitely something a little creepy about these folks. I’m all in favor of couples refraining from having children when they aren’t in a position to care for them, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say that everyone who’s ever had a drug problem should be removed from the gene pool.

2. The Salon Premium day-pass thing is all well and good, but it drives me fucking batty that they don’t take you back to the article you were reading when you’re done watching the ad. If I wanted the Salon front page, I’d have gone there myself.