[Superman]

Sometimes I wash my hands. Yep. And sometimes, instead of paper towels or some other traditional drying method, I find one of those Berkeley blow dryers mounted to the wall. No other alternative.

I'm also addicted to reading. Anything. Matchbooks, if that's all that I can reach. Can't help myself. Probably should find a local Readers' Anonymous chapter to join. Anyway, while drying my hands, I read the panel on the dryer. Almost invariably, they tell me of the wonderful and responsible reasons why blow drying your hands is a superior method over paper towels. Saves trees. Saves the environment. Safer. Better for your hands. Cures aging. Cures erectile dysfunction. Increases IQ. Feeds the hungry. Stuff like that.

Okay, anybody know what I'm going to say next? Anybody read those reasons and say to themselves "Bull****?" The businesses that have installed them did not do so out of a sense of environmental responsibility. They did not install them to save us from chapped hands.

Anybody know the real reason they are installed? Anybody see any parallels between this situation (what you are told, versus the real reason, and why you are not given the real reason up front) and our economic system, or our political system?