Home schooling could provide a case study in how different states take different approaches to the same issue (laboratories of democracy and all that). Indiana, for example, has almost no requirements for home schooling. The students are supposed to get "the equivalent" of a public education, for example, but equivalency is not defined, and there are no curriculum requirements. No tests are mandated, either.
California has decided to go a different way:
The drug war started getting absurd when officials started banning "paraphernalia" -- not just drugs but anything like bongs and papers that could be used for drugs. It would be akin to banning glasses because you can drink booze out of them. Now, Chicago wants to take another silly step:
Tiny plastic bags used to sell small quantities of heroin, crack cocaine, marijuana and other drugs would be banned in Chicago, under a crackdown advanced Tuesday by a City Council committee.
About a 50-50 chance:
NEW YORK (CBS) ?
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton hinted at the possibility of a Democratic "dream ticket" with Sen. Barack Obama.
Speaking on "The Early Show" on CBS, Clinton said "that may be where this is headed, but of course we have to decide who is on the top of the ticket."
Who is on top, indeed. If Clinton wins, she needs him on the ticket. He wins, he needs anybody but her.
Most (99.9 percent) of the drivel that we give out so breathlessly here in the blogosphere will disappear in the memory hole where it deserves to be. True genius must stand the test of time. It was way back in the 1930s when Will Rogers said, "I'm not a member of any organized political party -- I'm a Democrat."
Bush Derangement Syndrome on steroids:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Voters in two Vermont towns on Tuesday approved a measure that would instruct police to arrest President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for "crimes against our Constitution," local media reported.
It's probably too much to ask for that the court just tell the FCC it's got no business being in the "f******* expletive" business (that was "fleeting, you dirty-minded pervert, you):
Keith John Sampson is in his 50s, a janitor at IUPUI and also 10 credit hours away from gettting a degree there. While on break one day, he was reading a book about an early incident in Indiana involving the KKK. An employee complained that Sampson was "racially harassing" her by reading the book in front of her. You can guess what happens next.
The Jeffersonville City Council is wrestling with how to handle public comments. Beginning of the meeting or the end? On agenda items only or nonagenda items as well? During the discussion of the public discussion, the mayor had his say:
Tom Galligan spoke about the vulnerability he feels sitting in the mayor's chair during the Jeffersonville City Council's regular public-comment periods.
Take your choice -- scientific ignorance:
Lots of people are talking about John McCain's lunatic pronouncement that "there's strong evidence" for the proposition that thimerosol, a mercury-based preservative used in vaccines, causes autism. This is nonsense on stilts.
Boy, they must be dancing in the streets in northwest Indiana:
Now that the Cook County Board has raised Chicago's sales tax to one of the nation's highest, commissioners say they plan to consider hiking the parking tax, too.
[. . .]
That could drive the tax for monthly parkers from about $20 a month to $40.
