Exactly. I can't imagine what kind of man could observe that horror inflicted on a child and walk away.

Wow, that's scary... thanks for the info!

Good point. The full-time assistant's personal knowledge of clients and subcontractors, and how to work with them, is not reproducible except over the long, long term. In today's business climate such knowledge could make the difference between success and failure. (My friend was the salesperson for a construction business that ultimately failed after she was let go for a 'cheaper hire' who didn't have her community contacts.) What could be seen as a good business decision on the surface, based on desperately hard times, could backfire....

Exactly. It takes more petroleum to grow the corn than is produced in the resulting ethanol (1.1 gal. of petroleum to produce 1 gal. of ethanol.) Even the Sierra Club folks have given up on this stupid idea.

Great response. "You have the right to control your own body -- and the duty to pay for it."

Either one is tacky bad manners. Lip-smacking in public, whether hetero- or homo- , is rude and offensive and gross; we need more grandmas teaching Pleasant Behavior 101. We all have to live here together, and behaving nicely just makes it easier on everyone.

I get the point of the article, and it's one that needs to be made. However, I do have to say that the pleasure of smoking a big ol' ceegar to the smoker is directly proportional to the disgust it is to the non-smoker at the next table. It's really, really gaggingly bad, my friend, and as a Southerner born and bred would say, inflicting it on anyone is just plain tacky bad manners. You should know better, and I bet your momma taught you better.

Thank you for helping keep our society civil! I am so appreciative when someone (male or female) shows basic courtesy. (Although here in the South it never went as far out of style as in some other places.) When my thirteen year old son holds doors for people, he often gets the comment, "you must be a Boy Scout!" (He is, actually.)

Wrestling is not sexual? In our society putting on your shoes has been sexualized. Every marketing decision takes into account, "is the product sexy?" Sex sells hamburgers, lawn equipment, vinyl siding -- you name it. We are trained to see sex in the most mundane actions of daily life. To say that a male and female wrestling is not sexual is naive, to put it mildly.

Anecdotally speaking, the meals I have observed (public primary school) are not bad at all. A recent meal I shared with a niece included a choice of entree ( I had a chicken tortilla) and sides including a green salad, coleslaw, and mixed fruit cup and a whole wheat roll. I cleaned my plate. However, the amount of food going into the trash was disturbing. Not a single clean plate (other than mine) did I see. Most kids nibbled a few bites and threw the rest away. So why pay big money for food that is being wasted? The amount of waste I saw was actually obscene in a hungry world. The school my son attended served food family-style, in bowls; this helped, although I saw teachers forcing children to take a helping of everything,...