I'll tell you my dirty little secret. My husband and I are professionals in the software industry. We vividly remember the recession of the 1980s and structured our financial lives accordingly. We pay our freaking credit cards off every month. We live in a modest bungalow and have a fixed-rate mortgage that we can afford to pay. We vacation in New Jersey, not Bora goddamned Bora. We don't suck down lattes and takeout every day. We don't have designer clothes or loads of fancy electronics. Our computers and our cars are old. We're living modestly, doing the "right" things and being "personally responsible" and all that good stuff, and we're just treading water.

My salary was 25% higher 8 years ago, before multiple rounds of layoffs. And that's not counting periods of unemployment punctuated by contract work; more financial hits. The first layoff happened when my large multinational employer decided to move most of its software development work to India. At least I got severance pay and outplacement counseling that time around. On subsequent layoffs, I got zilch. And the benefits were worse for each new job. Stock market turmoil has done a number on our retirement and educational accounts, low interest rates make saving money a lousy proposition, and everyone is taking a hit from high food and energy prices.

It doesn't look all that rosy for our kids. When my husband and I went to college, we were able to get into a good university and paid for our educations with a combination of financial aid and subsidized loans. (This was a good investment on the government's part, BTW; it has gotten back far more in taxes from our improved earning ability that it ever kicked in towards our educations). Even as recently as 10 years ago, this was a formula for entry into a middle class lifestyle. Now, these universities are extremely difficult to get into, college costs are soaring through the stratosphere, financial aid has shifted primarily to loans, and the good-paying tech jobs that we cut our professional teeth on have all either evaporated in a haze of misspent capital and bad business decisions or been shipped overseas along with the manufacturing jobs.

Structurally, the odds are against the middle class. The Republicans and the wealthy are well on their way towards turning our once-great nation into a third world kleptocracy. So don't give me any garbage about how exercising personal responsibility (which somehow only applies to people lower down the economic ladder) and passing up on lattes is going to magically bail our collective middle class butts out of the fire. The middle class would still be going down the tubes if every Starbucks in the nation was shuttered tomorrow.

You guys do realize that your citizenship comes from one of your ancestors being an anchor baby, don't you? Unless you're a native american or a first generation immigrant, at some point your ancestors immigrated to the USA and had a baby who automatically had American citizenship by birthright -- regardless of the status of his or her parents. Immigration law being what it was in the past, it's quite possible that they came here under less than formal circumstances and would today be considered illegal immigrants.

At least they are selling a fantasy of sparkly tiaras and Prince Charming, not sparkly stiletto heels and Prince Do-me.

We can thank WalMart for accelerating the process by insisting that its suppliers cut costs to the point where they had to move production overseas to meet WalMart's targets.

The problem is that if your friend punts on the assignment, the school will replace him with someone who's more theologically pure -- someone who, unlike your friend, will eagerly jump at the chance to indoctrinate a bunch of kids. Perhaps it's better in the long run that the students are taught by someone who has serious reservations about young earth creationism.

Maybe you could suggest that he go over a variety of creation theories (including evolution) with his students and let them decide for themselves. Or that he could teach young earth creationism and mention all of the scientific problems with the theory. Or that he could teach it as theology, not science.

Thinking about this some more, you're probably right. If the deep down, the friend really doesn't believe this stuff is true, he should not be teaching it as scientific fact.

I have a feeling that other controversies (both real and manufactured) are going to push this out of the news cycle.

Anyhow, this decision warms my straight little married-lady heart. Good for California!

Isn't it funny how conservatives are all gung ho for "states rights" except when a state wants to actually exercise them?