I'm thankful he's tackled healthcare. Hopeful that it doesn't implode before reaching his desk -- he will be a lame duck president for the rest of his term if that happens.

He didn't win with a huge mandate. He won with a decent majority made up of an odd coalition, as Joan points out. A lot of his supporters were liberal posers.

In the meantime, Michelle looks dynamite in evening wear.

....win the presidency in this country any more without the Hispanic vote, and I think he's pretty much kissed that goodbye.

Shouldn't someone say something to him??

....is the new fashion of reserving parking spaces in shopping centers for parents with kids, right next to the parking spaces for handicapped.

I'll honor the practice of allowing special parking spaces for parents with kids when parents stop bringing their kids to grown-up movies, restaurants and other adult events. Until then, I'm going to continue to disregard these signs with abandon.

....is her ability to stay on top for this long. I mean, she's outlasted Madonna (her contemporary, really) in terms of really top-tier popular appeal. And she's had a couple of blooper moments (the James Frey memoir, the issues at her African school) but nothing derails her.

She's earned the right to replace Cher in the old adage "After a nuclear holocaust, all that will be left are cockroaches and ..."

....post-metro sexual, he has a kind of uber-sexuality. Plays gay and straight brilliantly and with equal conviction. Great choice.

....but, on a related note, why does Katie Couric wear power suits with camisoles underneath them on the Evening News? Camisoles are underwear. She looks like that perfume commercial from the 70's where the chick throws off her jacket crooning about how she can "bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan and never let him forget he's a man"..

Truly, women are their own worst enemy when it comes to this stuff because they consistently wear really inappropriate clothing in office settings.

....you just couldn't resist playing the sexism card, could you? She fucking POSED for the pic, damn it! It's modest and pretty flattering if you ask me.

I mean, the lady lost one political race, resigned from another political job and says she's not running for anything. We should maybe only see her on magazine covers in power suits purchased for her by the GOP?!! Don't think so Joaniee. Bad call on this one. Read Tina Brown's take on this issue and grow yourself a pair, will you?

...not his family. Why did Cary not say this??

Whatever you believe, and whatever he and his family believe, you have a practical problem. Are you going to raise the child within the practices of a religion? You and he need to get on the same page on this.

My own feeling is that, if your husband insists, you should allow the child to be brought up with religion. If you believe the child should have a free choice to decide what be believes in later in life, it is unrealistic to think he'll choose ANY religion if he has been raised in a household with NO religion. That just never happens in my experience. On the other hand, people move away from (or beyond, depending on your perspective) all the time, so I think to give the child a fair shot at deciding what to believe in, you should err on the side of letting your husband raise him in his faith.

....you either believe we ought to have a policy to prohibit Iran and North Korea from gaining nuclear weapons or not.

The stuff on her family, her marriage, her feelings about having a special needs kid -- all seemed pretty strong to me.

Her answers about why she quit her job, and her behavior on the campaign trail were pretty lame, but I don't think this was primarily about politics. She's a private citizen who says she's not running for anything. The goal of this tour is to help improve her personal image, make her seem more likable for whatever next step she takes. She probably is succeeding at that.

....is just like the globe Christopher Columbus taught us about. If you keep heading right, you end up in exactly the same place as if you keep heading left.

Homophobia is morally wrong. It's not a question about which reasonable people can disagree. When someone gets up in front of a camera and says the equivalent of "I think gay people are immoral", it is the absolute equivalent of saying "I think black people are inferior".... Or do you believe that a little homophobia here and there is OK?

She is the object of scorn because she is a bigot. Her religious views are bigoted, the leaders of her religion are bigoted and the practitioners of her religion are bigoted. She and they are spreading a message of hatred and intolerance.

That she also happens to be a stupid pageant contestant with fake boobs and, now we learn, a past that makes everything she says grossly hypocritical in addition to being hateful is really beside the point.

No one is denying her the chance to express her opinion. We're criticizing her. That's what free speech is all about. She can express hatred on national television and Salon and its readers can trash her and everything about her.

And who could blame the media if they refused to give her air time after her little princess tantrum last night on Larry King?? Why is it fair for her to get national air time to hawk her book (which dwells on how unfairly she was treated when she made her homophobic statements), while at the same time she refuses to answer a caller's legitimate question about her views on gay marriage?? Whose views are getting shafted there??

No pity for her, please.