I'm tired of people who look down on anyone who's chosen a different way than they did to take care of their young children.

I'm tired of working mothers who claim that stay-at-home mothers are wasting their minds and are either lazy Dorito-munching Oprah-obsessed losers or frivolous trophy wives who spend all their time at Pilates classes.

I'm tired of stay-at-home mothers who claim that working mothers are heartless materialists who don't give a damn about their kids and constantly play "Mary Martyr" about the sacrifices they've made.

I'm tired of parents with nannies and au pairs who sneer at the great unwashed masses who have their kids in day care and blame the daycare if the kids are the least bit aggressive.

I'm tired of parents whose kids are in daycare who think kids with nannies are spoiled, manipulative and unsocialized.

I'm tired of parents whose relatives watch their kids who don't understand that many people lack this option: they live far away from their families, do not have extended families to call upon, or do not have relatives who are willing, trusted enough, and able to watch their children.

You get the picture.

There is no perfect solution to the problem of taking care of babies and young kids. Believe me, we've tried most of them. My husband was "Mr. Mom" when he was in grad school. My parents watched the kids. We had our kids in daycare/preschool. I stayed at home for a while. I also worked part-time. Now we're back to both of us working full-time and having my parents keep an eye on the kids when they're not in school. About the only thing we didn't do was hire a nanny, but it was definitely something we would have considered if we lived in a different city from my parents or if they were unable to care for our kids.

My experience is that all childcare decisions are situational and depend on the needs of the individual family. There is no one right answer. All are fraught with promise and peril. Both parents working is great until your boss penalizes you for missing work to take care of your sick child. Having one parent work while the other stays home is great until the breadwinner's job is "rightsized" and your family loses its sole income and medical benefits. Hiring a nanny is great until you enter the minefield that this book described. Daycare is great except that good ones cost a bundle and you're locked into the daycare's schedule. Having family members watch your kids is great until their lives intrude: they have other responsibilities, they get sick, they take vacations, and so on.

What's needed is an end to the mommy wars. Let's accept that families of all stripes love their children but have different ideas about how best to take care of them. We need to work for things that benefit all children and families and give us the option to do what each of us think is best. Better job security, medical benefits that aren't tied to employment, better schools and preschools, flexible work arrangements, and other policies that support families would be a great start.

They work pretty well. I trapped six mice over Labor Day weekend last year with them. The traps with a little "mouse motel" on the front worked best for me. Block the mouse holes with steel wool, which is difficult for them to chew through. Long term, you can use bait stations -- just be careful not to put them where children or pets can get at them.

This has been a bumper year for vermin at my house. I had a couple of smaller mouse infestations (including a mouse that electrocuted itself on the furnace air cleaner), an enormous rat moved in under my bird feeder, a groundhog family dug a burrow in a corner of my garden and munched my lettuce, pairs of chipmunks took up residence in my garage and under my back porch, and there's a good complement of squirrels, rabbits and moles. A 6-foot long black snake has also moved in, perhaps attracted by the other residents of the yard.

I think the snake got the rat and some of the chipmunks. The remaining chipmunks and squirrels aren't a huge problem; in fact, their gymnastic attempts to get at the bird feeder provide endless amusement. I live-trapped the groundhogs and let them out in a park across the river, where they were unlikely to find their way back. Local law prohibits discharging firearms in my town (disappointing my dad, who was itching to shoot the groundhogs with his .22) and their location in the garden made me leery of poison bait. Still trying to figure out what to do about the moles, though.

Bush (and his movement) may sincerely desire to do what they believe is best for the country. But curiously enough, this has turned into doing what they believe is best for themselves.

During the "Scramble for Africa" (when the European colonial powers carved up Africa, about 1880 - 1914), only two African countries weren't taken over: Liberia and Ethiopia. Liberia may have maintained its independence because of its ties with the United States. But I wasn't sure how Ethiopia had managed until I found it on a 3D relief map of Africa. Ethiopia is very mountainous and isolated, which provided excellent defenses against 19th and early 20th century colonial armies. (Mussolini finally got his hands on it in 1936 using heavy weapons, air power, and poison gas.)

Surely we can collectively soak up part of this surplus.

Good for Elizabeth Edwards! Maybe this will encourage Coulter's other targets to rip her a new one. And why shouldn't she use it for fundraising? Any other Democratic candidate would have done the same in her place.

Seriously, though, his authoritarian tendencies would have been a better fit with Rome than America. On the down side, he would have single-handedly soured entire parishes on the Catholic faith.