Silly news, sad news

I just came across these two bits of news while reading KATU's website. First, the silly one: A woman in West Linn comes home to find 60 garden gnomes and other lawn decorations spread across her yard. KATU's story features a photo (not sure this is the original placement of the gnomes), but the Oregonian's writeup is much sillier, complete with a headline bad enough to make your stomach hurt with groaning.

And then for the sad news: "Study finds First Amendment no big deal to students." A foundation sponsored a study to gauge high school students' attitudes about the first amendment. Some of the findings: more than one in three high school students said it goes "too far" in the rights it guarantees. Only half of the students said newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without government approval of stories. Only 83% of students felt that people should be allowed to express unpopular views (compared to 97% of teachers and 99% of school principals). The blame is being placed on an increasing lack of school newspapers and other media, which teaches students to appreciate free speech. But of course extras like that go by the wayside so kids can learn how to take standardized tests. More on the study can be found here.