In the inimitable conservative debate style the quoted author has been somewhat less than honest. When have we ever had a depopulation that wasn't caused by something like a war or the Black Death or some other tragedy that wiped out a lot of people? When have we ever had a depopulation that was planned and orderly? When? The present Chinese society comes to mind where the one baby per family has almost arrested the population growth. Of course we all know that China is a backwards, third world society that will never be of any importance economically or politically, right?

Some day a conservative will actually say something reasonable that has been thought out and considered based on reality, not just some sort of talking point that is distorted to serve the agenda. On that day, Gabriel will blow his trumpet, the Zambonis in hell will have to work overtime, and lots of naked people will go flying through the air.

Who was it said that the more he saw of people, the better he liked his dog?

And then Mark Twain said, "If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you; that is the principal difference abetween a dog and a man."

The reason a dog has so many friends is that he wags his tail instead of his tongue. -Anonymous

If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.-Will Rogers

There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face.-Ben Williams

A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself.-Josh Billings

The average dog is a nicer person than the average person.-Andy Rooney

Dogs love their friends and bite their enemies, quite unlike people, who are incapable of pure love and always have to mix love and hate.-Sigmund Freud

If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons.-James Thurber

Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.-Roger Caras

My wife is an administrator in a Center for Foreign Languages associated with a major university in northeast Mexico teaching Japanese, Chinese, English, French, German and Italian (also Spanish to foreigners who are living in Mexico.) The graduation requirements for the whole university (over 50,000 students) include being competent in at least one foreign language. In a few years the graduates will be required to be competent in two foreign languages. About half of the students in the language facility are nonuniversity students, high school and junior high school kids whose parents want them to be able to compete for decent jobs later in life.

This city is infested with global corporations and they aren't hiring Americans because Americans are useless to them. They don't speak the language. They aren't acquainted with the customs. They are useless in anything of a responsible position. As long as people fail to understand that, there will be fewer and fewer well paying jobs available to Americans.

Several of the posts on this message board have derided Mr. Obama for suggesting that children learn Spanish. I seriously doubt that he was restricting his recommendation to Spanish and was just using that as an example. To suggest otherwise is to be unable to do abstract thinking.

Other posts get bent out of shape because they are essentially saying that living in the US, they shouldn't be required to have another language. While it may be true that you can exist like that if you don't do anything outside some small, isolated community, it does brand you as an ignorant clod with a limited vision and Bush's capacity for inquiry and curiosity.

For what it is worth, 40 years ago a majority of American high schools actually taught foreign languages. This is no longer true, and may be one of the many contributing factors to our slide into oblivion as a nation over the last 20 years.

I don't like ANYONE having that much information on me, banks, credit agencies, Amazon, whatever. But this pales to insignificance next to Bush's surveillance network where he is recording my phone calls and emails without a warrant. I'm not real happy with Obama supporting that program, which is essentially what his vote on FISA did. Since McCain is Bush on steroids, I'm in a quandary because I can trust McCain much less than I can Obama, so whom do I vote for? And even if McCain came out and stated that he would close down Bush's surveillance program, which he won't, I couldn't believe him because I know that in a week or two he'll have forgotten what he said and say just the opposite. But no one will call him on it because the MSM isn't about to suggest that McCain isn't the best thing since whole wheat bread, with sprinkles on it.

I am a veterinarian and, yes, I DO give free care in those cases where the owner obviously cannot afford it. There are limits, of course, in that I will not donate a lot of material that cost real money, but I certainly have no problem at all with donating my time and expertise. I would have serious doubts about the quality of medicine that that particular doctor practices under any circumstances if he is so unconcerned about a patient's well-being. You can't force a person to be concientious. They have to want to be in order to do a good job and it is obvious that the doctor under discussion really doesn't care.

The proper response for a resident who doesn't care about his/her future to the doctor's question about insurance would be, "How the hell would I know, and what difference does it make?! Get your ass in here now!"