At  the risk of gross over-generalization, U.S. public education is good for little nowadays except teaching to standardized tests and enforcing silly rules and regulations.

An honor student gets busted for possession of a controlled substance: candy. Another student is suspended for wearing a gun to school. On his t-shirt. Zero-tolerance strikes again.

There are reasonable regulations, and then there is this: In Louisiana, it's illegal to arrange two or more different types of flowers without a state florist license. Silly, right? In Virginia, it's illegal to sell Sangria, a mixture of wine, brandy and fruit. Ridiculous. But wait, there's more!

When the chairman of the House Financial Services committee holds forth, people would do well to pay attention. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., writes in Monday's Financial Times that what ails America'a economy today is not too much regulation, but too little. "It appears that the regulatory tide may, at long last, be turning," Frank opines. And I believe him.