One of the key people who influenced my family's decision to go the home-school route was John Gatto. Anyone interested in why many of us nonreligious folks choose to home-school should read his book, "Dumbing us Down, The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling". It is well worth the read. He was both NYC and NY state teacher of the year.

Also, consider some of the changes in our society from the '60s and '70s to present. Back then, bright women had two career choices: nurse or teacher. As a result, we had a great number of super-intelligent women involved in teaching. Sadly, the down side of finally giving women a (nearly) fair shot in the business world is that we now don't have quite as deep a talent pool to draw from in filling teaching jobs. Back in the early '80s I was considering a career change and took some of the courses required to get a teaching license. Let's just say I was shocked at the quality of the people who were about to become public school teachers.

When I served on an advisory board for my local school district, the issue of what is done with children who cannot physically attend school came up. The district's policy, which was common throughout the state, was to give the student one hour with a tutor PER WEEK. That was considered to be equivalent to the amount of instruction that was received in the public school setting. Needless to say, several of us were shocked and pressed the superintendent on this issue. He assured us that it had nothing to do with budget constraints and that one hour with a tutor was indeed equivalent to a week in the classroom. I daresay that any adult of average intellect could stay far enough ahead of most children to give them one quality hour of instruction per week.

As to those who ask, "How will you teach them calculus?" I answer, "Have you heard of this new thing called the internet?" I don't speak Japanese and have no desire to learn to do so. However, at the end of my son's junior year of high school (yes, we home-school) he decided to learn Japanese. A year later he is taking the third year Japanese classes at the university he attends (on a full merit scholarship) and is fully fluent. He has learned most of what he knows of Japanese by hunting down what he needed on the internet. I doubt if he could have found the time and energy to do so if he was sitting in a classroom seven hours per day and had another several hours of mind-numbing homework.

Last week I spent a night on my guest bed. It happens to have a mattress from Ikea. I don't know what it cost; my in-laws gave it to us because it was too soft for them. I hope to be done with my new-found back pain tomorrow (as I have hoped for the past 8 days).

Several people have suggested using freebie mattresses. Check out the return of the bedbug sometime when you have a chance. The BBC did a piece on bedbugs a few months ago. Ew.

As long as we face an inelastic supply limit, and barring fantastically large finds of cheaply extractable oil deposits we will face supply limits from now on, we will see price spikes. When consumption gives indications of approaching the supply limit two things happen: speculators rapidly push the price up and pumpers slow down (why sell for $100 what may be worth $150 tomorrow?). Net outcome: the U.S. economy is screwed.

If anyone wants to be an economic patriot, it is quite easily done. Just stop unnecessary burning of fossil fuels. Do you need to drive or is it simply a choice? When you do drive do you really have to pass within inches of that cyclist? Can you handle 60F or do you have some serious underlying health condition that requires you to overheat your indoor spaces? Are there any patriots left in America?

Alkaline,

The speculators will tell you that they put their money on the line and provide liquidity to commodities markets that allows them to run efficiently. Without the speculators, so they say, you would get supply shocks instead of price shocks.

Maybe, maybe not. At any rate, let's put them in line behind the lawyers and bankers while their case is reviewed.

"I fear he has a toxic combination: self-minded focus and arrogance,"

He's a Republican, what did this judge expect? Contrition?

it will just increase the ratings of Fox.

Finance stalled in the hopes that support for a government option (Socialism!) would abate. It didn't, so the Big Insurance Cos got put out a couple of bogus reports; those galvanized a solid majority in favor of a public option. Now Reid is stalling while those with the gold try to find some way to sway enough people to stop supporting the public option so that he has some cover for dumping it.

We need a grassroots effort to revoke health coverage for all government employees and political retirees until everyone has basic coverage.

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."

This pretty much describes both our elected officials and "the media". How do we correct it? I suppose we will have to wait for the miracle of a Supreme Court that recognizes how corrupting bribes are to a democracy and finally rules that money is not speech, it is an amplifier. I'm not holding my breath.

Alternatively, when the moneyed interests finally push the peons too far, they may take the Gandhi approach and stop providing them with services. Oh, nevermind. Americans don't have that kind of courage. I suppose I should be grateful for the two centuries this experiment did last. Better luck next time.