Short fuse

Farm bill: Giving bipartisanship a bad name

The farm bill that passed both houses of Congress by huge margins isn't a model of bipartisan cooperation. It's a cynical mess, combining a much-needed increase for food stamps with tens of billions of dollars in subsidies for a farm sector that has been overindulged for years. Most of those subsidies go to agribusiness, not small family farmers. And with the price of commodities soaring, farm companies cannot argue that they need the money. President Bush sought to cap the payments to wealthy farmers earning over $200,000, but even that reasonable limit was loosened considerably. Supporters will probably override any veto, but Bush should kick the bill back anyway and give Congress a chance to refocus the bill on people who actually need help.

Road rage: Nobody does it better

When the automobile club AutoVantage ranked the nation's "road rage cities" last week, the surprise was that Boston came in only second. True, anecdotal evidence suggests motorists in first-place Miami are far more likely to pack heat. But Greater Boston is a hotbed of more workaday forms of aggression, as time-pressed drivers jockey for space in tight quarters. For safety reasons, Boston is better off not being the hub of the aggressive-driving universe, and yet this reputation is a point of perverse local pride. One almost wants to honk at the club's researchers and shout out, "Hey, what's wrong with you?" - the same question that echoes from intersections metrowide.