That massive spending bill passed several days ago, the first one not the second one, effectively denies funding for a D.C. area education scholarship program which has been pretty successful in allowing parents to give their children better education. But we already know school choice is not something Democrats favor. They seem to favor submission to their iron fists. Why do the people upset about privacy issues in The Patriot Act not give a rat’s rear-end about families finding the best education they can? (That’s broad-brush, of course. I’m sure some people do want choice in education and take issue with The P.A. and some of those choose homeschooling or unschooling for themselves.)

In other news, “Homeschoolers Save Taxpayers Billions Per Year.”

Also from the Drexel PG blog, a link to a loaded game site, Sporcle. I’m proud to say I could not name all of the U.S. Presidents, and the ones I couldn’t remember are the ones no one else could either, except Chester Arthur. I knew him, and most people don’t apparently. Others people couldn’t name are Pierce, Buchanan, McKinley, um, Taylor . . . Harding . . . Here’s the test, so you play yourself.

The ad reads: “Are you sick and tired of cleaning up after your lazy, good-for-nothing family?” Try murder. It can be easy, even for a woman.

All these years I thought I was going gray. Turns out I’m a peroxide blonde.

Which just goes to show that one of my Viking friends was right when he said, “I’m not getting grayer. I’m getting blonder.”

And here’s a story about a woman in New Zealand, an amputee, who got the Weta special effects people (the folks behind all the neat stuff in “The Lord of the Rings”) to make her a prosthetic mermaid’s tail.

Part of me thinks that’s a little creepy. But most of me thinks it’s pretty neat.

What bothers me is that the tail the technician is shown sculpting in the pictures doesn’t appear to be the same tail the woman is wearing in the photos. Perhaps there were alpha and beta versions. Or perhaps they’re making them available to the general market.

Tips on both stories: Fox News.