As The Who Once Sang, "Miracle Cure"

It seems like the media these days is dominated by one "genre" (for lack of a better word) of news.

That is the genre of people saying unbelievably stupid things in public.

It happened to Mel Gibson, Rush Limbaugh, Rush Limbaugh, Rush Limbaugh, Isaiah Washington, Rush Limbaugh, and even President Obama. These unbelievable utterances are generally followed by half-hearted apologies, which are then followed by more sincere, false follow-up apologies. Unless you're Gibson, in which case they're followed by binge drinking and even worse sound bites.

Can anything be done for this rapid outbreak of foot-in-mouth disease?

Experts have recently approved just such a "miracle cure." It's called a brain.

The best part of this revolutionary treatment is that everyone already has one! Terrific, isn't it? It just takes a little extra training to use it, since the typical human impulse is to let the tongue go first. And I know that can be very tempting-- sometimes, you just want to say something, right? But a stupid phrase by itself is at least a thousand times better than a stupid phrase followed by an apology that everyone knows is less real than the dwarf that sneaks into bedrooms at night to steal socks and underwear.

Here's a good philosophy: your brain is (hopefully) bigger than your tongue. Don't let the latter defeat the former.