I'm shocked and a bit insulted that people think there is anything strange about people of advanced age having sex lives. Wake up and smell the coffee! Sexual ability may decrease with age but the desire lasts long after our eyes and ears and bones have failed us.

Yes, making pastry with shortening does make a difference, perhaps not so much in taste as in texture.

Shouldn't the city just let people know what foods have trans fats and let the free market decide? Of course when they find out their pie crusts are now being made with lard they might not like that either.

Talking to the Pastor or church leaders would be a good idea, but LW will not get the answer she wants. What the Pastor will do is offer her help on how to manage her money. There may even be accountants in the congregation who will give her free advice. This is what a tithe is, a tax to help pay for the church's services, some of which can help the individual tither.

So much to comment on in such a short article! If there is a nightmare that Jerry Ford ended it was the War in Vietnam. No, Ford can't take any credit for ending it, but he was indeed president when it happened. It is interesting that now, thirty years later it can be referred to as a defeat for the US. It was rather a victory for the people of this country who forced our leaders to reluctantly withdraw from a shameful situation.

But aside from that, about the big "what if" about the Nixon pardon, my comment is that had things been done differently, I can't imagine it turning out worse than it did. It dealt a death blow to moderate Republicans and percipitated the rise of the religious right out of an unresolved collective guilt. And as the Republicans had been tarnished by Watergate it gave rise to the "centerist" wing of the Democrats (the DCL) who could now talk just like republicans but be free from association with Nixon. And now in 2006 our foreign policy is driven by messianic ideas and our domestic policy has turned back the New Deal in a way Nixon never dreamed.

Not having been in this situation or near anyone who was, my first suggestion is to talk to people who have done this, both the parents and the child. I wonder if telling a young child who his/her "real Dad" is and then seeing that he doesn't act like the child's Dad can be disturbing. The child could feel rejected. I mean since this man will legally give up any parental rights, what guarantee is there that he will be around?

Just a thought, but it seems to make sense for a woman to get sperm from a relative of her partner. That way there is no need for the child to explain who this man is and the child will share a genetic inheritance with both mothers.

Even if Obama is a mediocre president, this will make a great statement to the world, which is mostly thinking Americans are boorish idiots for electing a boorish idiot to be their president. I don't think we so much need someone to take us in a radical new direction and someone to get us out of this radical direction we are in. We don't need a Lincoln or a Roosevelt but we need someone to lead us who is sensible, intelligent and aware that there is a world world out there. Someone has got to bring America back to its senses and Hillary Clinton is not the person to do that.

Hillary may indeed have the a female body and female chomosomes but is she truly a woman or is she just female enough to attract women voters and still be acceptable to the general public?

:D

At least not in the northeast where I live. People are Italian or Polish or Irish or Jewish or Greeek etc. Americans. How much people hold on to these cultural differences tends to diminsh with each generation, but many still claim the identity with pride. Race in America is a far more serious matter. The many Hispanics or Native Americans who get labelled by the color of their skin, rather than their true ethnic identity can tell you this. But it is a problem we are getting over. But even when that day comes, when race has no negative meaning, many will chose to maintain the identity. There is a lot to be gained by feeling connected to an ethnic communty and to the ancestors who went before you, to have roots, if you will.

Could someone explain to me how this is different from all the times in the past US forces have fought alongside allied armies? Is it just that we don't trust the Iraqi military?

Rooting against a team, rather than for a team ties into a rather nasty human sesibility. To put it in terms Salon readers would understand, this is like when the US supported Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war just because we hated Iran. And you see where that got us!