Laws

Pennsylvania's always a little slow to open the taps. On Sunday, some state liquor stores opened their doors for Sunday sales for the first time ever. Pennsylvania, one of this nation's first states, yet one of the last to allow Sunday booze sales, now has caught up to the rest of the country in yet another category. For the next two years, 61 out of Pennsylvania's 638 liquor stores will be open between noon and 5 p.m. every Sunday. Harrisburg hopes this experiment will rescue market share from liquor stores in neighboring states.

It has often been said that ours is a country of laws and not of people. In this year of the Constitution's Bicentennial, we celebrate a document which represents the supremacy of those laws. Without that great compromise and the enduring principles embodied in our present laws, there would be no United States of America. Nevertheless, it is important to remember that the privileges we derive from the Constitution are the direct result of human effort. The laws are not carved in marble, but are the work of men and women who have used their intellect and drawn upon their convictions to breathe life into a cold document.

It was a sublime irony that the same edition of The Inquirer with an editorial, "Ignoring guns' toll" (Wednesday), denouncing the Supreme Court's upholding of the Second Amendment right of citizens to "keep and bear arms," had an account of a North Wales man defending his wife and daughters by shooting three armed men who had broken into his house, killing one and wounding two others. How many times will liberal media like The Inquirer advance the preposterous notion that bans, laws, or other restrictions will magically make society "free from handgun violence"?

Question: I was really looking forward to getting to know my in-laws (who just moved back to the States after spending several years in Germany), but to my disappointment, they are standoffish, judgmental, unfriendly people who, when they do visit, are only interested in the company of my husband and our infant. I could not begin to guess why they are so lukewarm about me. Whatever the reason, their snubs are just subtle enough that I can't actually call them out, but just obvious enough to really hurt.

Last year there were more than 4,000 children under INS custody, many of them having fled such evils as child prostitution, bonded labor, forced recruitment as soldiers, or female genital mutilation. The INS slammed almost half of them behind bars. Imagine the confusion of a child who after perhaps taking courage and comfort from images of Lady Liberty, finds himself locked up with gangbangers and carjackers. No asylum seeker should be subject to this kind of treatment, least of all a child.

Dear Amy: Our children are lucky enough to have both sets of grandparents still alive. However, one set puts in zero effort to have a good relationship with them, even though we live in the same town. This saddens both my husband and me. Both of my parents will help us when asked and call us regularly. However, my husband's parents rarely call and never help us out with baby-sitting when we are in a bind. We only ask for family to help when our paid help is not available. My kids are very active at 2 and 5 years old, but I wouldn't consider them bad kids.

President Bush's Nov. 13 order authorizing military tribunals to detain and try foreign nationals accused of committing terrorist acts against the United States unleashed a firestorm of criticism . . .. That's truly unfortunate, because military tribunals have a long-settled and appropriate role to play in wartime. . . .Military tribunals shouldn't be used as leverage over those accused of war crimes or as a means to signal to those from whom we seek information or assistance that if they cross us they may disappear and receive second-class justice.

MEXICO CITY - A group of Latin American leaders declared Monday that votes by two U.S. states to legalize marijuana have important implications for efforts to quash drug smuggling, offering the first government reaction from a region increasingly frustrated with the U.S.-backed war on drugs. The declaration by the leaders of Mexico, Belize, Honduras and Costa Rica did not explicitly say they were considering weakening their governments' efforts against marijuana smuggling, but it strongly implied the votes last week in Colorado and Washington would make enforcement of marijuana bans more difficult.

A checklist of early warning signs - sure indications that the movie you're about to see is headed for Bombsville: Introduction of main characters by way of voice-over narration. Yup. Ker-plinking string section accompanying dialogue, striving for that buoyant, romantic comedy effect. Uh-huh. Rampant, distracting product placements. Check. Pratfalls. Yes, sir. No chemistry between stars. You bet. Laws of Attraction - with a suavely somnambulistic (or somnambulistically suave?

Question: My wife and I have been married 14 years. Before my father died, my in-laws and I got along well. I was raised in a loving family, we believed a family in need is a family indeed. When my father died, my wife told her family - and they had no response, not even a simple "I'm sorry for your loss. " A week later they finally responded with "I'm sorry to hear the news," and they sent a card. This was after my wife had told them how upset I was with them. In addition to sending a card, my father-in-law explained, "I thought you wanted to be left alone.