In the realm of false achievement….

I turned over to Google News, & this pops up:

If that’s too small to read, here’s what it says:

Welcome to Google News Badges
Collect private badges for your favorite topics. The more you read, the more your badges level up: you can reach Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and finally Ultimate. Keep your badges to yourself — or show them off to your friends!

For example, if you keep reading articles about Gay Rights, it will earn you a Bronze badge.

Okay, now, I like a lot of Google stuff — the grand search engine itself, Gmail, Google Docs, Picasa, the new social networking tool Google+ —

— but this? Merit badges for reading news stories?

I don’t want a Bronze Badge for reading about Gay Rights.

What I want is my rights.