Gay adoptions, Muhammad Ali, and the ethics of reprinting e-mail were among the big topics this week. You are invited to guess which story brought these (amalgamated) comments: "cad … sleaze … no ethics … shocking."

Subject: The Evolving Family
Re: "Frame Game: Adopting Premises"
From: REW-OEM
Date: Fri Feb 8 10:02 a.m. PT

What fascinates me is the emphasis on "family values and the good of the children" and its theoretical derivation from our centuries-old religious traditions and precepts. This simply isn't true. For much of history, at least some children have been … bred and sold in slavery, relegated to sweatshops, and abandoned on the doorsteps of foundling homes. "Family Values" is an evolving concept, not a divinely inspired, time-tested certainty. If the good of the children is the key issue, then perhaps a broader construction of "family" is warranted.

[Find this post here.]

Subject: Capturing News on the Internet
Re: "Press Box: Who You Calling Mediasaurus?"
From: The Bell
Date:  Wed Feb 6  8:12 a.m. PT

The great myth of the Internet is that (beyond an access fee) it is free. … Most, if not virtually all, Web sites are underwritten by corporate sponsorship. As with network television or newspapers selling ad space, those sponsors exert influence, both direct and indirect, over content and presentation. … All of these news purveyors are tailoring their sites to encourage regular subscription and discourage casual browsing. Regardless of whether they levy a surcharge for access, all want exclusive control over readers' access to news.

[Find this post here.]

Subject: The Wrong Case

Re: "Chatterbox: OPEC and the U.N.—How To Tell Them Apart"

From: Fletch

Date: Thu Feb 7  10:51 a.m. PT

OPEC has been so unbelievably ineffective since 1979 that it's patently ridiculous that any American consumer try to pursue a legal claim against it. In fact, if there is an economic case against OPEC, it's for not being enough of a cartel: Oil prices have been so low (and supply so high) in the past two decades that the rate of global depletion has accelerated while research and development of non-fossil fuel alternatives has languished, at least relative to where it would be. Perhaps cheap oil fueled the 90s economic boom but at an economic cost over the longer run.

[Find this post here.]