I've known a number of people who've tried open marriage and they've run the gamut of young libertines to bored older couples. It's never worked. Either the marriage ultimately dissolved into divorce or the marriage became closed. Someone always seems to get more sex or forgets to mention someone (often a friend of the other spouse) with whom they're having sex.Even gay couples, where this is kind of arrangement is more common, often don't last in anopen relationship.

Southwest lives up to its hype out West. In the East not so much. Rude service. Long delays w/o explanation. And they got people playing fare roulette long before other carriers. Plus the cattle car seating.

I picked up a copy of Politico last week for the first time in months. All of the ads are from K Street lobbies--either law firms or plain old trade associations. No trade unions, no liberal interest groups, no professional associations. The more gossipy columns (they have a couple) are all about their advertisers' world and its players. Clearly, they've found their niche. The news isn't quite as thin as a few months ago, but no one would confuse this with a real news source, but it was a fascinating look at this insular little world. Isn't Mike Allen and or Jim van der Hei married to some mid-level wingnut lobbyist? (may be both are married to members of that whoredom--it would help explain the advertiser base).

It figures Flam (like an old WC Fields gag) would be a newspaper science writer. they regularly write inept stuff on birth order/, right brian/left brain, and this kind of dimwitted evolutionary psychology. Clearly neither she nor Clark-Flory knows much about evolution, psychology, or the differences (and no-so-differences) between the genders. This kind of column is a throw away and that's what Joan Walsh should have done--thrown it away.

Why did Salon bother with this debate between Schaller and an idiot?

The mcClatchey story reminded me of one important question that has gone unanswered for 7 years--who are the people in Guantonamo and (relatedly) how did they get there. No high profile person has asked this question in all this time.

As for the reader who wonders how this guy manages at Berkeley--he has tenure. The vast majority of tenured faculty at major universities deserve it, but some do not. Some quit working the day they got tneure, others got there through plagarism, invented data and other means. Yoo, as I understand it, already had tenure when he went whoring for Bush. There are ways to revoke his tenure, for example, if he plagarized work, or invented data (unfortuantely, he operates in a largely dat-free sphere). Otherwise, he's got a life time job. He probably wouldn't be the first fascist at a major university, just one whose been given a patina of respectaability by mainstream right wing outlets.

I recall finishing grad school, having a job that allowed little saving, even with a modest income and a second job, and discovering that I really needed to start an IRA (I was on soft money and didn't have a 401k). Yes, it's a shock. In previous generations, a decent middle class job came with a pension plan. Then employers pillaged those and we began to need 401ks and the like, partly because pension obligations devalued a balance sheet.

It wouldn't be unreasonable for Hetaher to expect her kids to work while going to school. I did it--it wasn't a big distraction and I always had pocket money. LA is expensive, but many of us do jobs that don't allow us to live in a small town in the Midwest (where dependnce on cars are a hidden expense) or sunbelt city (even more of an energy cost sinkhole).

Loh obviously hasn't heard much about private schools. They constantly ding parents for money, volunteering, etc. on top of the checks they write. Many of these schools are for well-off screw-ups and some use ludicrous approaches to teaching (e.g., bad versions of progressive education).

Many mediocre (or worse) public schools disntinguish themselves by being predominantly white. The schools I attended in the 60s and 70s were like this--even the college prep track was very uneven through junior high and high school with a mix of burned out teachers waiting for retirement and poorly mentored newbies. If my junior high or high school had had a sudden increase in the number of kids who were African-American, parents might suddenly have noticed what a crappy system they had. The response, of course, would have been white flight and defeat of property tax levies which would have made a crappy system worse.

Many "high performance" suburban public school districts basically teach kids to do well on standardized tests. This goes back to at least the 40s, when many districts used the NY Regents tests as a proxy for achievement. My college roommate could barely write a sentence, but graduated with decent grades from one of these places, which was in a well-off Republican suburb.

There's much that needs more exploration with private and public schools.