title: Laravel before today rule... how to do
body: <p>For this rule I am getting an error <code>syntax error, unexpected '.', expecting ')'</code></p>
  
  <pre><code>public static $rules = array(
      'first_name' =&gt; 'required|alpha-dash',
      'last_name' =&gt; ' required|alpha-dash',
      'media_release' =&gt; 'required|boolean',
      'birthday' =&gt; 'before:' . date('Y-m-d')
  
  );
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I can't figure out why this won't work. I'm running Laravel 4.2.12</p>