Apparently, the capture of Saddam Hussein failed to spark the expected Wall Street rally. For some unknown reason, investor confidence in the bleary U.S. economy didn?t explode just because we nabbed a sick old mass murderer.

But not to worry ? stock analysts foresee a much more satisfying Dow bounce if we hook Bin Laden.

It?s hard to imagine an American political leader proposing to screen political candidates for marital faithfulness as Somchai Sunthornwat, chairman of Thailand?s Thai Rak Thai party has done. But it?s even harder to imagine American politicians clamoring against the proposal on the grounds that infidelity is natural, as many Thai members of parliament did. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has voiced cautious support for the monogamy requirement, even as he works to legalize prostitution and gambling.

Thaksin ? who?s claimed victory in Thailand?s war on drugs ? says that casinos and brothels are part of reality and should be brought ?above ground? as part of an ?entertainment complex.? In other words, malls. It?s interesting to see how the battle over family values plays out in a country that practices Theravada Buddhism. As one commentator points out, ?law vs. morality is a long-running debate with no end in sight.? Kamol Hengkietisak notes that most of the things Buddhism considers a vice aren?t actually illegal, including being lazy and having bad friends.

Meanwhile, Mitt Romney, the Mormon governor of Massachusetts, claims that thousands of years of ?history? speak unanimously toward the rightness of marriage equalling one man, one women, no ifs or buts. Apparently, his history book is a very thin and highly selective one, probably with lots of pictures and a few captions.

Remember how your mother always told you bullies were weak and insecure? Turns out it?s not true. A study of nearly 2,000 kids by UCLA researchers found that bullies are strong psychologically and receive lots of props from their peers. Victims of bullies are ostracized and psychologically damaged, but kids who are bullied and also bully others tend to be the most damaged of all. On the other hand, the UCLA study, published in , also suggested that other kids didn?t really want to hang out with the bullies, but merely treated them as ?cool? to avoid becoming victims themselves. The other striking thing about the study is how prevalent bullying was ? 22 percent of kids had bullied, been bullied, or done both.