For at least the last week, it seems as though the topic we began thinking might top our list the day before is not the one we end up writing about or publishing the following day.
Today is no exception.
We began on Tuesday night by thinking we'd look a bit deeper into certain legislative efforts finding sad success in Nebraska and elsewhere. New laws are being proposed - and some even passed, like those in Nebraska - that are attempting to box women into specific health care situations while removing their choices on how to manage their own health care needs.
We can't even begin to note how disgusted we were at one misogynist Republican lawmaker from Kansas, who made it clear on Tuesday that he believes women should pay for unique, female-only health care insurance, because they should "plan" on having things like rape happen to them.
This topic is one we may still address soon. However, one of the most powerful female forces we know of, Mother Nature, decided she wasn't exactly fond of our story choice and directed our attention to her latest acts of destruction instead.
In case you missed it, massive storms rolled through the Midwest and Texas last night, even near the already hard-hit town of Joplin, Missouri.
So far, floods, droughts, fires, and tornadoes have ravaged much of the country this year, and the pace of those disasters doesn't appear to be slowing down at all.
We know there are still those who don't believe in or understand global climate change. While we respect the rights of people to be blind if they choose to, we know what both the climate data and our own eyes and ears are telling us.
In short, we've believed for years that the climate is changing. We've seen it in our gardens, and we've noticed it in the trees and flowers and habits of animals we've observed over the last 20 years.
Just as there are those who deny that anything humans are doing or have done is causing these extreme, intense weather events, so too there are legislators who would attempt to use events like the Missouri and Oklahoma tornadoes as political fodder - like House Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor did on Tuesday.
In short, we find that lack of compassion for his fellow Americans more disgusting than almost any image our previous topic might bring to mind - but this is not the time to discuss that either.
In times of crisis, there should be no political divisions that separate us. We are simply Americans, trying to help other Americans.
If you want to help, with anything from the floods in the Alabama to the tornados ravaging the Midwest, the best thing you can do is donate to organizations like the Red Cross, and their Spring 2011 disaster relief fund.
If you've got an animal that needs help, or one you've found, who is looking for its people, we recommend contacting Noah's Wish, an organization committed to helping animals and their owners during times of crisis.
If you know someone who was recently in the tornadoes or floods, we recommend going to safeandwell.org and registering your friend as "OK". You can also search for missing loved ones there.
Regardless of what you believe about global climate change, its effects are quite obvious - and terrifying - already.
There is a time for politics, and a time to step up and help our neighbors, no matter what their party affiliations are.
We hope you step up yourself today, and leave the politics behind.
