DISQUS

I think there is far too much "protect the children" sentiment going on today and one way it manifests itself is in the guilt people feel over whether they are giving their children a good enough childhood. Like TV violence, scholastically demanding parents, or competitive sports where a score is actually kept, I don't think it will ruin a child's childhood or self-esteem or whatever if both parents work. It's really not that big of a deal. Children are not delicate little snowflakes that will melt if not given the perfect environment.

One of my favorites from my childhood was Where the Red Fern Grows

For not being political, you sure snuck in plenty of issues. :)

The only one I'll comment on is your comparison of natural causes of death to murder. I'm more upset by things like 9/11 than by diseases that, for the most part, affect people who have already had full lives. My grandfather died of cancer, but he was over 90 years old. I don't feel angry about his death. If someone I knew died in 9/11, I would still feel angry about it. If someone I knew was killed by a drunk driver, I would feel angry about it.

Now if there were some new disease that randomly killed a million people a year, every year, without regard to age or health, then yeah that would be a bigger threat than terrorists, murderers, and drunk drivers all combined. That's probably not going to happen though.

Okay well one more comment. I hadn't heard of baby bonds before, interesting idea!

I put some blogs on Google Reader but I have to say, I rarely use it. I much prefer visiting the websites, checking the comments, looking at the little graphs and meters in the sidebar, etc.

As for the poll, I'll take the money! I get plenty of enjoyment from reading comments on other blogs. Then again, there must be a way to monetize 19000 RSS readers.

Another thing to consider is undergraduate vs. graduate school. The reason MIT and Harvard are so famous isn't because of their undergraduate programs (though they're good), it's because of the grad schools. If she's going to do grad school, it would be a good idea to save money on the undergrad education since nobody's going to really care about the undergrad degree anyway.

I've been looking into Zecco recently and I think your information is a little out of date. There is no minimum to open an account, and you can sign up for a higher yielding money market account (you have three options). See http://www.squidoo.com/zeccoreview/ for instance.

I drink bottled water almost exclusively. Spring water tastes so much better than tap water or purified water that it's worth the cost to me. My parents live outside of the city so they have well-water, which is just as good, so when I eventually get a house hopefully I'll have that option available to me.

$1.35 per bottle is way too much to pay, though. I get 24-packs for $3.99.