VBVW for June 8, 2007: Furious George and The Pod People

• The Very Best

America and Russia decided to work together on preventing a looming missile crisis in Eastern Europe. No pounding of shoes on tables, no blockades, no talk of dropping the bomb. Maybe Earth has a future after all.

The leaders of the G8 nations agreed to a plan to cut carbon dioxide emissions in their respective countries. Even George W. Bush agreed. Yeah, we had to read that twice, too.

Biologists claim to have discovered a way to use skin cells as stand-ins for stem cells. In effect, the skin cells can be reprogrammed to behave like cells of other organs in the body. Good thing, because George W. is about to veto stem cell research again, defying the will of the majority of Americans in favor of those who believe that Adam and Eve had a pet brontosaurus.

• The Very Worst

The Senate failed to deliver on its promise to pass an immigration reform bill. It’s not so much the bill itself that matters; it’s the discovery that our elected officials have no brains, no hearts, no spines, and no balls. The truth is out: we’re governed by pod people.

In the first of what is sure to be many titles tossed, the organizers of the Tour de France stripped Bjarne Riis of his 1996 Tour win after he admitted using performance-enhancing drugs. Worldwide, cheating has come to define sports of all types. Makes you wonder what kind of steroid 13-year old Evan O’Dorney was on when he spelled the word “serrefine” correctly to win the National Spelling Bee.

The Sopranos ends its 8-year run this weekend. Sunday nights go back to being that dark period of the weekend when everyone’s stress rises in anticipation of going back to work on Monday morning. Worst of all? No more Meadow.