Anyone but me realize that when a kid isn't in school, the school doesn't get paid? This policy is misguided at a lot of levels but I believe revenue is part of it. I've had friends pull their kids out of school for vacations and been approached by the school after for money to reimburse the school. When my SIL took her four to my son's graduation, and the kids missed a week of school - she was given a minor amount of school work for each kid to do on the trip (nothing relevant to them being in DC and at the Naval Academy) which allowed the school to still get paid.

My husband and I went to wine tasting classes back in those heady days before kids when we had time and money. The teacher constantly reminded us that it was "wine tasting", not "wine drinking", but the first five minutes of every class was spent comparing hangover cures.

We were surrounded mostly by young lawyers, accountants and several waiting for bar results. Wine loosens the tongue; by the end of the evening we would have outrageously detailed guesses by some as they tried to guess the vineyard and tried to one up each other with ridiculous adjectives (I follow the PJ O'Rourke rule: when stumped, just describe the guy across from you: too pale and a tad flabby)

In a favorite moment, my husband said the following: Santa Ynez valley, 1983, grown on the south side of the hill, picked by a guy named Juan.

And the nose? He described it as "wet poodle in a phone booth".

Church raffle. I bought my tickets, threw them in the bin. I joined the crowd, turned to the person next to me and said, "I am going to win this thing". They drew a ticket, called my name and I won $1,000. I KNEW I was going to win. The only other times I felt so certain was in labor with my first and my last. With my first, after 27 hours of labor they wanted to do an emergency C Section. I knew everything was okay. I talked the doctor out of the operation, two hours later I gave birth and everything was fine. (That son later described being born, but that's a story for another day.) After 15 hours of labor with my 4th, doctor was again worried and said he wanted to do an emergency C Section. I agreed immediately. The umbilical cord was really short AND the kid was holding onto it with both hands (and he was huge, which was why I was able to blame it all on my husband). Don't know what would have happened without the C Section, but I was glad to not find out.

TV count? I am not a huge fan of 30 Rock, but my husband is. I don't like Tina Fey, to add insult to injury my husband says she reminds him of me. I do, however, appreciate Alec Baldwin. There is a scene where in minutes he impersonates Tracy Jordan, Tracy's mother, Tracy's father, Tracy's stepfather and an Hispanic neighbor (or maid - I'm not sure). It is the funniest couple of minutes I've ever seen on TV.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTj47rcuM-4

Breitbart is smiling.

Thanks MT. There is something I say so often I'm going to embroider it on a throw pillow:

"all hope lies with homeschooling"

It's my hope to vote for a home-schooled president someday.

Mark Steyn. P.J. O'Rourke. And they can bring their wives and kids.

This is what I consider the "yeah, but" argument. And I am tired of it being used to undermine the pro-life argument.

We have a speed limit on my street. When I was driving my son to the hospital and seconds counted, I broke it.

So are there exceptions, namely rape (incest not so much)? Of course.

But I can't count the people in my life who have had abortions and speak of them openly. And with no sense of shame. And they know I'm Catholic. And in no case was rape a factor.

You want to give a morning-after pill to a rape victim? I have no problem with that. What to make it available over the counter to underage girls? I have HUGE problem with that.

The slippery slope is, indeed, slippery.

While pro life, I used to think reasonable people could disagree on this issue. No more.

Am loving this thread.

My last name is Yenny, I married a John. I have a brother John, father John, friend John. My father-in-law's name was John. I got in the habit VERY early of referring to my husband as John Yenny, otherwise no one knew who the heck I was talking about.

When my daughter was 4 I was pregnant with baby #4. I asked her one day what we should name the new baby. "John Eddie", she said.

Who the heck is John Eddie, says I.

She replied, I don't know. That guy you are always talking about.

@Rachel. My kids grew up listening to talk radio with me. Larry Elder has always been a favorite and he starts each show similar to ricochet podcasts, with famous people saying famous things. My oldest (anyone besides me getting a sense we should be worried about this one) parroted "I'm a human being, damnit! My life has value!" from the age of three.

Slightly off topic but I can't resist. My mother's way of saying "serves you right" (like when you fell off of something you weren't supposed to be climbing) was "hell slap it into you." Being a daughter of little imagination, I used the same phrase with all my kids. When my oldest was about 12 he heard me say it (again) and said to me: you know, mom, that's not very politically correct. ????##? thought I. I asked him what in the heck he was talking about; he replied that we weren't supposed to say Indian, instead Native American. For 12 years he thought I'd been say "hell slap an Indian". Which makes no sense but is now oft repeated.

@redfeline: not many of my relatives are on Facebook, but a cousin in Canada (previously lived in Scotland) read my post and responded with Ding Dong The witch is dead. Oh well. (And thanks for the compliment)

No TV - details appreciated

This thread inspired the following:

http://politichicks.tv/column/how-margaret-thatcher-changed-scotland/

Oh man ... I do NOT want to miss this. Put me down for one - if anyone is bringing their golf clubs put me down for two. That's all it will take for better half to tag along.