Not just the recent downturn, but poverty in general. If one of the few pleasures a person can access in a long workday is fast food or a treat, I can't judge them for taking it. Broccoli might be better in the long run, but carbage will make a person feel better NOW (sweet => endorphins).

I feel you, and the schools will ride the kids/parents in this gray area like crazy, because the state tells them to.

Mr. Graphemist called it: Putative grandparents want you to climb into their crappy boat.

The worst thing about having kids is other people's kids. And the K-12 penal system that is public schools (US).

He's prepping you for all the totally illogical moves he's got in store for your future. They get so much more creative.

By this metric, my line is "Seriously, have you lost your mind?" I hope they do well enough in life to afford therapy, it is their only hope.

"(my knowledge of human biology is quite limited," is a great point. You seem like a reasonable person, with the sense to acknowledge your limitations. Earlier, you mentioned abstinence as a viable option to avoid pregnancy. One of the biggest problems in the US the (often intentional) lack of reproductive knowledge.…

That's the thing, you don't have to be the judge, the woman who will be responsible for raising a child will decide. Impediments to reproductive education (abstinence programs) and access to barrier contraception merely make it so a decision becomes necessary more often than it should.

I can see the point, but don't you think that political power and/or wealth supersede sexual suasion if, you've got them to spend (which Cheney certainly has)? Halls of power have been (in Cheney's life) almost exclusively men's clubs, which trade on power that is often generated by wealth, and can wield sexuality by…

Love this dress; glad you included her in the rundown (Sharon Malone). She looks fantastic.

Maybe that will put the brakes on rich old people purchasing herds of poor orphans.

Good. Massive insecurity for all, I say. Now, lets get the fellas into some excruciating footwear. How about unbearably pointy oxfords?

Dodai seems pretty straightforward, if nonstandard. Non-standard is good, you won't ever be in a room full of other people named Dodai. (There's gonna be a lot of annoyed Emmas in France in 5 years.) How about folks who can't be bothered to say your entire name and instantly shorten it to a standard nickname, and will…

People are weird. I have green eyes, and a total stranger who was pretty clearly wearing tinted green lenses asked me where I got mine, then stomped off in a huff when I owned up to not wearing any.

This article cannot be read by enough people: Phillip Seymour Hoffman did not have choice or free will and neither do you.

Yay, research contributes to more pressure on the baby-havers. What about sperm quality based on the type of hops used in the last beer the testicle-haver drank? Where is the research on that? (mostly kidding)

This reliance on parental help in elementary school, and homework in elementary school particularly, is a relatively recent development. Don't you wonder why? Is it because parental help has become a necessary tool due to modern societal expectations of schooling, heightened competition to get into college creeping…

But why is it important to get help at home? I never had help at home; I didn't become a rocket scientist, but I understand my kids' homework. I happen to think it is not well designed, and a bit too advanced for their age in some areas and shallow in others. Schools are covering a lot more material in a shorter time…

The person who designed the question is at fault. Do these test designers ever interact with actual students in the wild, or is this a purely theoretical exercise on their part? Between obfuscatory instructions and questions with multiple inadvertently correct answers, this is going to be super fun. Wish I didn't have…

To those who are saying these problems don't look too bad, how many of you dealt with problems like this in 3rd grade (roughly age 9)? So much of the curriculum is getting pushed down in age, most of us did not have algebraic problems until middle school. Not sure what the rush is for cramming information into their…