Three stories that explore the boundary between what’s reasonable and what’s not, what’s criminal and what’s not, and what’s ethical and what’s not.
What’s reasonable?
A California school district has taken to billing parents who take their kids out of school for nonmedical reasons — like a family ski trip. The price? $36.13 for each day missed. [...]

I’m in the midst of writing another book now, called The Broken American Male. It’s about how the family rut is primarily due to the fragmented nature of today’s manâ€â€?just how messed up men are today and how we can heal them.

~ Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, in Publishers Weekly.
Discuss.

With negotiations — and protests — underway over Bush’s presidential library, and analysts trying to predict what his legacy will be, I’ve been musing about a not-so-far-off time. Specifically, what will Bush do once he waves goodbye for the last time and leaves office in 2008?
I figure it’s pretty certain he won’t be sent on [...]

Which will win, the tiger or the meat?
You know what to do…

There’s a lot of talk about whether Joe Lieberman or Bernie Sanders will switch from independent to one of the other parties. Sanders could turn Democrat; Lieberman could go either way, though he has repeatedly said he’ll caucus with the Democrats.
But what about moderate Republicans? They were massacred on election night because of their association [...]

I’ve come up with a couple of out-there ideas — one on the minimum wage, the other on campaign contributions. I don’t pretend they’re realistic; mostly, they’re thought exercises. But I can’t really tell.
I’d appreciate people’s thoughts, but I find I’m actually too embarassed to post them here. So they’re up over at Midtopia.
Be gentle….

I just heard NPR refer to an AP report that Donald Rumsfeld is stepping down. A White House announcement is expected later today.
More as it develops.
Update: The AP story.
Asked whether his announcement signaled a new direction in the war that has claimed the lives of more than 2,800 U.S. troops, Bush said, “Well, there’s certainly [...]

Don’t click on the link. Instead, create a link in the comments section to a news story or blog post about them. And only label your link as “link.”
Just trying to have some fun.
From CNN:
Here’s a five-step plan guaranteed to make an obscure company absolutely notorious.
First get into a business you don’t understand, selling to [...]

I don’t really think so, but after what happened to my family this weekend, I’m beginning to wonder.

Be careful what you ask for, because you might not like what you get.
Six years ago, the Supreme Court ruled — correctly — that a private organization like the Boy Scouts could not be forced to accept gays as either Scouts or leaders.
Since then, however, the Boy Scouts have learned a lesson about the other [...]

NPR had an interesting take on the evolving cashless society this morning, telling the story of a small cafe in Washington, D.C. that has stopped taking cash (you’ll have to click on their audio link to hear the story). The downside? Occasionally upset customers. The upside? No need to make change, no need to worry [...]

Michael Reynolds (aka sideways) wrote a great post last week about Pakistan’s surrender to the Taliban that got a lot of attention around the web. More than 12,000 people viewed the post thanks to the site reddit.com.
Given that, I think we should take a look at the post again, as well as the followup, and [...]

We live in a world that likes to focus on flash…the best news is breaking news that portrays the latest tragedy…whether that be a plane crash, a shooting, or any of a number of calamities. At the same time, slower burning, less inflammatory catastrophes unfold at a reliably steady pace each day. The question is [...]

In the wake of the British plane plot I suggested that European domestic terror plots hatched up by Muslims will not go away if Europeans make their foreign policy less “American.”
Now I have proof that I was correct and that other measures/solutions are necessary.

Apparently, yes.
A federal appeals court ruled yesterday that if a motorist is carrying large sums of money, it is automatically subject to confiscation. In the case entitled, “United States of America v. $124,700 in U.S. Currency,” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit took that amount of cash away from Emiliano Gomez Gonzolez, [...]

Is the “American Dream” realistically attainable? Meaning “every” American can get there?
Is it even what we should be dreaming about?
Discuss.

In the most recent Associated Press-Ipsos poll, Democrats are still favored to reclaim the House this November. Here’s how it breaks down:
Not surprisingly, 81 percent of self-described liberals said they would vote for the Democrat. Among moderates, though, 56 percent backed a Democrat in their district and almost a quarter of conservatives � 24 percent [...]

Althouse has a post on Title IX and the new phenomenon of men being in the minority on college campuses. When colleges add or emphasize sports teams to attract more male students, they can be accused of violating Title IX, not providing equal athletic opportunities for women. There are many interesting comments. [...]

(h/t: NeoMugWump…and by the way, go over and read what Dennis Sanders has to say about this)

Robert Anton Wilson, quoted by Commenter “Nick” at Church of the Churchless:
DO NOT BELIEVE ANYTHING
This remark was made, in these very words, by John Gribbin, physics editor of New Scientist magazine, in a BBC-TV debate with Malcolm Muggeridge, and it provoked incredulity on the part of most viewers. It seems to be a hangover of [...]