I agree with most of what I read. Our kids are preparing to give us grandkids, I hope, so I will add some things I have not seen.

We bought a roll of butcher paper and our kids used it for years - whenever they needed it - for drawing and for homework. We provided materials for drawing or whatever and left them alone.

When possible, we would expose our children to art and encourage them to read.

I am convinced that children mostly raise themselves. We parents are there to keep them safe from what they are not ready for and to encourage them when they are ready.

gary

Progress might have been all right once, but it has gone on too long.

Ogden Nash

US humorist & poet (1902 - 1971)

How I long for the days when we had a real Foreign Service department that made well-thought-out recommendations and plans. Then engaged with the people in spirited debate. Or am I mis-remembering?

Replacing that (perhaps, imaginary) process with a Wing-Nut echo chamber does not seem to be serving us very well. The credence given to half-baked ideas of people who worship the noise and blast of mega-weapons is not in proportion to their wisdom. Power never comes from the mouth of a gun for long enough.

'Kill everyone else' sounds about 5 or 10,000 years out-of-date.

It used to be that we had Red Meat Conservatives and Tofu-Eating Liberals. Now, it seems that those comestibles are too pricey and we are reduced to poultry; the Right Wing and the Left Wing, to be precise. Thus have the arguments diminished. Soon they will be printable on toilet paper rolls for use in the general election.

Sad, really. Hating takes a LOT of energy and Chicken Wings, no matter how spicy, just will not get the job done.

Give me a nice, thick, juicy scandal any day.

Why can't McCain or these other Uber Alles types discover some sort of useful Super Power like the ability to stop runaway trains or lift cars off trapped people? Why must they always turn new technology against us as quickly as possible? Remember when using infrared imaging against Pot growers seemed extreme?

McCain proved that he will say anything to anyone in order to get one more vote. The Straight Talk Express crashed in 2000. The steering now pulls hard right.

P.S. I miss Bobby

Are these the same telecoms that removed illegal wiretaps when the bills were unpaid? THEY are what stands between us and chaos. Oh, lordy.

Didn't we already see this movie? It was supposed to be fictitious. Something about a World War?

But it take a Gingrich to raze a city.

People have already mentioned New Orleans,Louisiana. Bit of irony, what?

There were cities burned during the Civil War - a war fought over civil rights and fairness.

Destroying cities is a historical thing - plowing them under and sowing salt so no crops will grow. Now we have nukes. Progress is something, isn't it.

HABEAS CORPUS. A writ by which a man may be taken out of jail when confined for the wrong crime.

Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

US author & satirist (1842 - 1914)

It is handy to know just about when our National soul left our body Politic. Thanks for that.

As to the justification - and all the "24" scenarios: in the 6 years chronicled can anyone point to any really brilliant piece of information that made a material difference to the fiasco in Iraq or the fizzle in Afghanistan? Are all the rare and wonderful success stories so classified that we cannot know of them? This is a White House that leaks information that makes it look good like a garden hose. Come on.

Or - could the current administration just be a historical collection of psychopaths with a world view that is so slanted toward cheesy westerns scenarios and Sunday morning religious fables that the rest of us must just stand and watch, mouth agape?

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (Juvenal)

I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy - but that could change.

Dan Quayle, 5/22/89

US Republican politician (1947 - )

Let's call the whole thing off.

I sent an e-mail to what I thought was the Democratic leader in the House, Nancy Pelosi, castigating her for her craven submission. For what later issue on what later day are we waiting to fight that justifies running away today?

I tried sending e-mails to Obama but keep getting back meaningless form-letters. I guess any contributions are better sent to the group you suggest or straight to the ACLU. Time to join them, I guess. Belonging to the Democratic party isn't working out so well after 39 years of, yes, unquestioning loyalty. While there is no discernible good from electing McCain the Flip Flop Artist Extrordinare, any good from Obama is rapidly shrinking. It looks like an election to sit out. Then I can avoid any blame - just like these people.

If the Constitution if not worth fighting for then just what is?

We are no longer the Land of the Free nor the Home of the Brave.

Play Ball!

Maybe Starkist will take him now.

As the San Francisco Chronicle extends its somewhat justified but way too long celebration of Gay Weddings, it barely found space to relegate this topic to an inside page. One inalienable right is more alienable than the other, perhaps? But, as was pointed out, these are Real Journalists working here.

Oh, to be sure, there were letters of protest but no editorials. Today, their hard-hitting (and harder-to-find) opinion section bravely covers Sex and the City and the Clinton Campaign. It also includes the rather large number of 'token' Right Wing columnists - to, you know, balance those other controversial positions.

You remember Nancy Pelosi is from SF, Yes? Liberal bastion of the Left Coast, etc..