Children

Just as American children grow up with Dr. Seuss’s The Cat in the Hat, British children grow up with Edward Lear’s fantastical but touching poem “The Owl and the Pussycat.”

Let’s tick through three pieces of bad news from the last week.

On the Weekly Standard cruise to Bermuda in July, I received an unusual request. After dinner one evening, I was approached by Carrie Ann Stallings from Jackson, Mississippi. She was on the ship with her husband, Alan.

On the Weekly Standard cruise to Bermuda in July, I received an unusual request. After dinner one evening, I was approached by Carrie Ann Stallings from Jackson, Mississippi. She was on the ship with her husband, Alan.

The public school teachers are going on strike in Chicago and the first worry of the people who run the city is for the safety of the children—where violence is already sky-high. The political class in Chicago has already failed in its duty to provide for the public safety. Failing to keep the schools open and the teachers happy, is a lesser offense. The strike will be settled and the teachers' union will get more than it deserves but less than it wants while insisting that this is all about the children.

The National Center for Public Policy Research hosted a “lunch-in” today at Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C. The target of the protest? “[F]ederal school nutrition guidelines that allegedly forced at least one student to forgo her mother’s home-packed lunch in favor of chicken nuggets,” a press release announcing today’s event read.

Toby Harnden: "Perfect Storm of Hype: Politicians, the media and the Hurricane Irene apocalypse that never was"

Dana Milbank: "Wanted: More bite from Obama the Great Nibbler"

Jonathan V. Last, writing in the Wall Street Journal: 

The New York Post had a long story on fertility rates yesterday, centered on the idea that lots of college educated women—and particularly Manhattan women—no longer want to have kids.

My wife Mollie and I have been married just four years, but already we’re blessed with two adorable daughters, Evangeline and Linden, aged 3 and 18 months. Like most happy husbands and proud fathers, I am more than ready to produce photographic evidence of just how blessed I am. 

An absolutely must watch video today -- Corporal William Lottering, USMC by way of South Africa, gives a tour of the schoolhouse in Garmsir, Afghanistan. The headmaster of the school fled the school and didn't come back to teach until the Marines arrived and started providing security. When the Marines arrived, their were just over a hundred students. Now they're educatiing 366 kids. Most are between eight and 12, but some trying to learn to read and write are as old as 22.