In Brief

MARRIAGE

Redefining Marriage

Washington Times, May 25

“Now that Massachusetts has legalized same-sex ‘marriage,’ will major dictionaries expand their definitions of the word ‘marriage’ itself? … They already have. … Boston-based Houghton Mifflin, publisher of the American Heritage Dictionary, added a ‘same sex’ clause to its definition of marriage in 2000. ‘A union between two persons having the customary but usually not the legal force of marriage,’ the addition—or ‘sub sense’—states. ‘But we’ll be altering that in the future to reflect the Massachusetts decision,’ editor Joe Pickett said.”

EDUCATION

Washing Out Mouths

Fox News, June 11

“An elementary school teacher was placed on paid leave for washing a boy’s mouth out with soap after he shouted an obscenity at a classmate. Lori Thomas, 48, … said she was stunned when a 10-year-old boy directed ‘a vile, very nasty sexual reference’ at a third-grade girl in March. Thomas said she didn’t want the boy, who had frequently been sent home for unruly behavior, to earn another one-week suspension. … Thomas was suspended indefinitely. … More than 40 relatives of children in Thomas’s class have asked for her to be reinstated.”

LAW

Litigious U.S.

David Bach, The Automatic Millionaire

Ninety-four percent of the world’s lawsuits are filed in the United States.