Let’s review.

Mothers Against WASL lose steam

Listening to WASL-phobes is like listening to the 1937 radio broadcast of the Hindenburg landing. The Washington Assessment of Student Learning scores are going to be a disaster! Oh, the humanity!

Not exactly. As it turns out, the 2008 high school seniors’ dreaded crash became a safe landing, rather routine in that these kids have been taking and passing tests for 12 years. On Tuesday the state superintendent announced that 91.4 percent of the state’s seniors met WASL qualification for graduation. This, of course, was awful news for Mothers Against WASL, many of whom “opted out” their own kids from the tests.

Another setback for MAWASL was the revelation that credit deficiencies — not WASL failure — is the primary reason seniors don’t graduate. We still have much work ahead of us in reducing the number of dropouts, but last week’s news about the WASL was encouraging.

As founder of Fathers Against Mothers Against WASL, I hereby announce the following FAMAWASL resolution:

“Be it known, that if my kid cannot pass (with multiple retakes, multiple alternative assessments and multiple remediation programs) a test that 91 percent of his classmates passed, I don’t think I’ll be blaming the test.”

Operation Chaos crumbles

Rush Limbaugh launched this crusade in April, urging his minions to vote for archenemy Hillary Clinton, hoping to “bloody up Obama, politically,” and ultimately to disrupt the Democratic Party National Convention in Denver. To the tune of “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas,” Limbaugh even sang, “I’m dreaming of riots in Denver.”

Tampering with elections and wishing ill upon liberals can be expected of Limbaugh. But with Obama emerging as the nominee, and with Clinton’s scheduled concession yesterday, and with Democrats falling in line for their Denver pep rally, it’s evident to all but the dittoheads that Operation Chaos was a dismal failure.

Marriage guardians suffer setback

I’ve discovered whom to blame for my soaring golf scores. It’s those darn gays. Hey, if the late Jerry Falwell could blame gays for 9/11, and if Pat Robertson can blame gays for Hurricane Katrina, then I can sure blame ’em when I need four strokes to get out of a sand trap. Makes about as much sense to me.

This has not been a good year for those who believe gays threaten the institution of marriage. Blind to the fact that alcohol, lying and philandering do far more to undermine the institution, gay-marriage foes have winced at a few recent developments. On May 15, the California Supreme Court struck down a ban on same-sex marriage. Then last Tuesday, after the entire state had not fallen into the sea, the court rejected an appeal of its ruling. So, on June 17 California will have one of those “Don’t look, Ethel!” moments when counties start issuing marriage licenses to gays. Hurricane warning!
This is awful news to the marriage guardians, although not to occupants of  California’s 108,734 same-sex households (according to the U.S. Census).

The do-gooders did succeed last week in getting a gay-marriage ban back on the ballot in November, but there’s more bad news for them: A Los Angeles Times/KTLA poll found that half of those surveyed believe legalized same-sex marriage is “inevitable.” A Field Poll revealed that two-thirds of people aged 18 to 29 approve of same-sex marriage. That second point confirms my belief that it’s geezers like me (a few weeks shy of 60) who harbor the most fear of those darn gays. Most young adults find this whole crusade incredibly boring.

Instead of getting all riled up, I figure the issue calls for the application of my “Next Door Test.” Which person makes the best next-door neighbor: Someone who tells you whom you cannot marry and wants to convert you to his way of thinking? Or someone who figures it’s none of his business and would never try to change your mind?

John Laird is The Columbian’s editorial page editor. His column of personal opinion appears on the View page each Sunday. Reach him at john.laird@columbian.com.