Double standard?

The recent dust-up over whether Anne Romney and other stay-at-home moms actually "work" or not has revealed some interesting things about the way we USAniacs think of "work."  Too many to include everything here, but this morning I was thinking...

The Republicans have rallied fiercely to the defense of Romney and other stay-at-homes, insisting that child rearing is "hard work," and I agree.  But in nearly the same breath, most Republicans are quick to insist that relatively poor moms, in order to receive welfare and other family benefits, should be forced to enter the labor force, even if they have to pay for child care while they're working.

Isn't there a double standard here?  Why is the labor value of raising children higher for wealthy moms than for poor moms?

What did Jesus look like?

I just recently stumbled upon this, and thought it worth spreading around a bit.  We're all familiar with the ever-present blond, blue-eyed interpretations of Jesus coming out of Western culture.  In 2002, Popular Mechanics (?!?) published a reconstruction of a more plausible Jesus.  The work was done by forensic artist Richard Neave; the details can be found in the online article.

Probably not much comfort for many of the white born-agains. And, if he were at the airport getting ready to board a plane,  the TSA would surely pull him aside for extra "scrutiny" (if you know what I mean).