On this first full week of the sum­mer, we lost Andy Grif­fith. We cel­e­brated the 236th anniver­sary of the date on the Dec­la­ra­tion of Inde­pen­dence, though with­out fire­works in many areas near the nation’s cap­i­tal, owing to a lack of elec­tric power. We learned that a tiny sliver of a penalty is viewed by the Repub­li­can estab­lish­ment as the largest tax increase in history…but accord­ing to Repub­li­can Pres­i­den­tial can­di­date Mitt Rom­ney it’s only a tax if it’s done by the fed­eral gov­ern­ment, not by a state. And con­crete evi­dence of the exis­tence of the incred­i­bly mas­sive Higgs bosons was at last found.

But it’s Fri­day, which means it’s your day to pick the sub­jects of discourse.

Don’t see an arti­cle on a par­tic­u­lar topic, but want to talk about it some­where? This is Open Mic. Talk about what­ever you want, but stay respectful.

We cre­ate a new Open Mic every week to give a clean slate, but feel free to add to this topic at any time.