Today's topics include: S.D.'s poor and unhealthy, outsourcing torture, why Bing Crosby continues to suck, the world's longest palindrome, our non-reading fellow citizens, more Metabank follies, state fair funding, a Turkish writer, Zip/Event Center follies, and the area's worst politicians vote.

*Roundsie, You're Doin' a Heck of a Job Keeping Our People Healthy. South Dakota ranks 20th as healthy place to live South Dakota ranks 20th among the states as a healthy place to live, according to an annual ranking by the United Health Foundation. One of the most disturbing statistics in the report is that children living in poverty in South Dakota increased by 33 percent during the past year. Twelve percent of South Dakotans do not have health insurance. [Northern Valley Beacon] [David Newquist]

*Now, If We Could Only Outsource the Bush Administration. The Wonderful World of Outsourced Torture The more we learn of the Bush administration’s pervasive outsourcing of torture, the more sensible it seems as a policy. Evidently, our intelligence people, tainted as they are by the squeamish morality of Western civilization, are just not fully up to the task of getting prisoners to tell us what the administration wants us to hear.  READ THE WHOLE ITEM [Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines]

*Bing Is So Not in Sinatra's League It Isn't Even Funny. Now It's Bing vs. Sinatra I promise that this is the last music post for a while. Reader Joe from Pierre opines: Guys I suggest you go up one notch in your singer pecking order, as it were, to the top. Sinatra is the most important and influential entertainer of the 20th century. May I suggest "Why Sinatra Matters" by Pete Hammel, as a good place to start.  I share Joe's high opinion of Sinatra. [South Dakota Politics] [Jon Schaff]

*And the World's Short's Palindrome: W, as in President Bush. The World's Longest Palindromes A palindrome is a word, phrase, verse or sentence that reads the same backward or forward. In 2002, Peter Norvig read that Dan Hoey had created a computer program that had generated a 540 word palindrome in 1984. [Damn Interesting] [Daniel Lew]

*11 Million and 1 If You Count President Bush. Study: 11 million can't read

Eleven million U.S. adults — about one in 20 — have such poor English skills that they can't read a newspaper, understand the directions on a bottle of pills or, in many cases, carry on a basic conversation, says a new federal survey that offers the first peek in more than a decade at the USA's "non-literate" adult population. Story [ USA Today]

*Time to Stick a Fork in the Fried Twinkie Called the State Fair. Funds sought to bail out fair ABERDEEN, SD - The Legislature probably will agree - one more time - to approve emergency funds for the South Dakota State Fair, according to state Rep. . . . [Big News Network.com - South Dakota News]

*Just Another Thing to Make You Go "Hmmm." MetaBank's Sioux Falls president resigning Tony Trussell, president of MetaBank for Sioux Falls , is resigning. Trussell, who has been with MetaBank since 2000, gave his notice last Friday and will be with the company through the end of the year. [Argus Leader - News]

*And Now, Two Words in Turkish: "Case Dismissed." Trial of Turkish author adjourned The trial of Turkey 's greatest living author, Orhan Pamuk, was today adjourned almost as soon as it opened. [Guardian Unlimited Books]

*First the Implosion Imploded. Now the Site for the Events Center Imploded. What Next? City may lose dibs on Zip lot The city is in danger of losing a five-year option to buy land for an events center because some city council members are upset that negotiations took place without their knowledge. [Argus Leader - News]

*Vote Early (Thune), Vote Often (Munson). Don't Forget...   ...to vote for the area's worst politican. Polls close Tuesday at 7, with a new poll to follow shortly. [Rant-a-Bit by Scott Hudson] [Scott]