will scream and curse and insult and defame her, but then they will quietly attempt to do what she says. She's right. They know it. But will the religious crazies actually leave? I don't think so. If they do, then the Repugs have two small parties rather than one.

But the sexiest man living lives at my house.

Here is how the desert religions work: The infant is brought into the religious community and indoctrinated and trained from the earliest possible age using ceremony, gifts, fear, and threats. The child makes the connection promoted by the church--that God is the father and the father is God. The pathways of the child's brain are conditioned to have certain responses when stimulated by fathers, authority, certain types of words and music and images. This works, in practical terms, as a fetish--the properly reared child makes a fetish of authority. Many of the proscriptions have to do with sex, so sexuality becomes part of the fetishization of feelings of authority and love. The properly reared child grows up to be a productive member of the community, which means that he goes out and earns money, which he gives to the church. He becomes a tool of the church--promoting doctrine and conformity, giving wealth, getting advice and an unfulfillable promise of "eternal life". He also gets to hate and fear others--that's an important part. Faith is subjective, religion is about conformity, power, and wealth. If you can't distinguish between the two, you will never understand what religion is for--it is for the consolidation of power, just like government, the military, etc.

http://www.italianharvest.com/subcategory.php?prodID=599&subcatID=4

THis is walnut pasta sauce. You roast a head of garlic, then saute some medallions of chicken or veal. Remove the medallions temporarily from the olive oil and whisk in the roasted garlic cloves and 2 Tb. of this sauce. Whisk until smooth, then add about 6 oz. of heavy cream. When that is bubbling slightly, squeeze in the juice of one half a lemon. Put the medallions back into the sauce and warm everything. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve over brown rice or with mashed potatoes.

Then have a couple of these:

http://www.italianharvest.com/subcategory.php?prodID=95

article! Go to Washington! Make them do what you suggest!

THis brings up my longstanding question about the handicapped stall--if we are not handicapped, and there is no one in the bathroom (or outside of the bathroom) may we use the handicapped stall or not? Is the handicapped stall only for a handicapped person? Truly, I have never fully understood this.

Also, in Missouri, they used to tell jokes about Hoosiers, but I'm not sure they realized they were talking about people from Indiana. I can still hear my grandfather say, "So, there were a coupla Hoosiers walkin' down the street..."

about this article and the Kuczynski article made me glad I don't hang out with women very much. AK made a valid attempt to be honest about her feelings and not sugar them over. She exposed herself as a fallible person. I thought she was brave and was using herself as a guinea pig for writing about an interesting topic. The Times editorial staff--photo staff, really--stuck it to her and to Cathy. AK had all kinds of mixed feelings that she was willing to reveal. I gather that the readers of her article either don't ever have mixed feelings or don't admit to them. Another thing--she wrote under her own name and with pictures. Most of those who have responded to her article are posting anonymously. So, she is braver than we are, don't you think?

come and vandalize my 1998 Chevy Diesel pick-up truck? It is one ugly mf, gets about 14 miles to the gallon, and always has had one thing or another wrong with it (though it has never actually given out on the road, like my friend's Fords do). I put about six thousand miles on it every year (our other family cars are a Prius and a Honda Civic hybrid). I don't dare sell it because it is such a dog, and even though I need a truck for certain things, I hate to buy another one, because I hear such bad things about all of them. So, if I leave it out of the garage, would someone please come paint environmental slogans on it and beat it with hammers?

Remember Ayelet Waldman? Debra Dickerson? Salon frequently hires writers who then get attacked by Salon readers. Camille Paglia is hardly the only one. The few times I've dared to read readers comments on AW and DD, I've been appalled by the mean spirited venom of anonymity. What Waldman, Kuczynski, and Dickerson have going for them is that they at least try to be honest under their own names. Salon sets them up, the readers knock them down. Fun, huh? And the original expression is "to the manor born", that is, with an aristocratic bearing and manner of speech. Noone in the US is "to the manor born."

feelings! One thing they say in AA is "fake it till you make it". This is because your patterns of behavior are giving you certain feelings that are leading you in the wrong direction. So, for a while, you do what your reason says you should do (open those emails, keep up with your boyfriend) even though your "heart" isn't in it. And then your pattern changes, and your feelings loosen up, too. Everyone has patterns, if not the same as yours. All of these patterns eventually become empty or self defeating. Then your mind kicks in and shows you a different way, but at first that way doesn't feel right. So keep doing what you think you should do. Also, I agree about looking up some of those old friends. It isn't guaranteed to be fun, but it could be, and the gamble is worth it.