If the folks at Expectant Mother Care really were interested in expectant mother care, they would use these mobile sonogram vans to provide free or reduced-cost prenatal sonograms for poor women, women in rural areas who are far away from imaging clinics, and anyone else who doesn't have easy access to the health care system. Vans outfitted with sonograms would also be a boon to clinics in impoverished countries.

What a missed opportunity to do good in the world. This kind of service has the potential to save a lot more babies (and mothers!) than loitering around abortion clinics would. And isn't saving babies what the pro-life movement is supposed to be about?

My neighbor's daughters, both of whom are Girl Scouts, come to my door every year to take my cookie order. I don't know what I'll do once they age out of Girl Scouting ... gnaw my arm off, maybe.

Seriously, though, because of several horrific incidents where kids were assaulted, door-to-door fundraising downplayed these days. The fundraisers at my kids' school suggest that parents sell fundraising items at work and recommend that children be accompanied by an adult if they're selling door-to-door.

Tony Snow is either an idiot or a whore to say something this stupid with a straight face. Sending soldiers into a dangerous urban warfare situation without specialized training isn't a surge. It's a setup for disaster.

How many MORE good men and women are going to die to feed Bush's ego and preserve his political bacon?

Hold on. This guy used you as an ATM machine to fund his fantasies of being a rapper and is now languishing in jail ... and you're thinking of coming back for more?

You've put your finger on it in your letter. He's not good for you and you know it. Dump him before he takes you down with him into a world of hurt.

Diebold could have made voting machines with paper receipts, good security, logging, and all the other elements of safe transactions. This technology has been in existence for years and they'd already implemented similar hardware and software systems for their ATMs.

But no, they had to play politics and do their voting systems with half-assed, easily hackable security and no way to independently verify that votes were cast. And now they're paying for it with loss of reputation.

Of course, the ones who'll really suffer are the ordinary people who work for the voting machine business unit. Inevitably they will be laid off when the unit is sold. Meanwhile, the executives who precipitated this crisis and destroyed the reputation and bottom line of Diebold's hitherto profitable units (not to mention ruined America's trust in its elections) will sail away on golden parachutes.

What irks me is the idea that we need to force "good" literature down people's throats as if it was medicine. "Good" in this sense isn't necessarily good in the sense of being well-written, enjoyable and thought-provoking. It's literature that conventional wisdom states is good for you, like purportedly healthy food that tastes like soggy cardboard.

Critical reading skills are pointless when they aren't accompanied by an enjoyment of reading. If you can't stand what you're reading, it's torture to analyze it. This will leave you with an abiding negative view of literary analysis.

Perhaps this is why many fans of popular works don't want to think critically about them. A fan's appreciation is unquestioning and accepting. My sense is that they think that picking apart their favorite works will spoil their enjoyment of them. And they may be right.

The 9/11 attacks.

Imagine, if you will, what the response would have been if President Gore had received a presidential daily briefing that stated "Bin Laden Determined To Attack USA" ...

I saw Stossel's 20/20 report on the "fear-industrial complex" and he was (for the most part) right on the money.

I'd like to see him inquire a bit more closely into exactly who benefits from fear, and why.

Too bad Larry Flynt didn't get the goods on Newt when he was "outing" Republican adulterers back in the '90s.

Republican motto: Personal responsibility is for suckers.

It's logical for Disney to expand their princess merchandising to adults. The generation of little girls who grew up with Ariel, Sleeping Beauty, Tinker Belle, Cinderella, and the like are old enough to marry and have their own little princesses. And Disney is going to be there for them.

I also think a lot of Disney-brand clothing tends to infantilize adult women -- things like cutesy Tigger appliques, Minnie Mouse jumpers, and the like that are appropriate for pre-schoolers but look kind of strange on grown-up women. Giving brides the chance to dress up like princesses from their favorite girlish fantasies fits right in with this.

A man who has a high-paying but high time commitment job is considered to be a good provider and breadwinner. A woman who has the same kind of job is considered to be a neglectful mother who's only interested in status and money.

A man who brings up potential problems with a project is realistic. A woman is negative.

A man who gets his way is assertive. A woman is confrontational.

A man who shows anger in the workplace is tempermental. A woman is bitchy.

A man who bosses others around is forceful. A woman is a ball-buster.

A man who leaves work early to take his kids to the doctor is thought to be a good father. A woman who does this is thought to lack commitment to her job and the company.

Dump your BFF, who apparently still believes she is in middle school. You are both too old to be indulging in the kind of one-upmanship you describe in your letter.

You also need to reflect on what is really important in your life.

Maybe American kids are a bit slow on the uptake, but even the not-so-bright ones are pretty good at spotting phonies.