Let me start with a brief story: I have breast-fed two babies. My oldest actually refused to nurse for 4 months (who knows why?), so I pumped every 3 hours round the clock and bottle fed her until one day she just "got it." I had gone to a La Leche League meeting, and I think my kiddo saw all those other babies nursing and thought "Oh! That's what my mom has been trying to get me to do!"

I share this story simply because pumping round the clock was exhausting and demoralizing. If there had been a wet nurse handy, I might have considered using her. (And when I think o all the extra milk I produced fro all that pumping, but was unable to donate it to milk banks, I would have been thrilled to give it to another baby.)

But, I probably would have been that woman's worst nightmare: "Let me see your blood test results. Your urine test results. Here's a breathalizer: what's your BAC today? Is that an espresso you're drinking? I see you're sniffling, you're not taking any Advil for that, are you? Let's look at those test reasults again...." I probably would have been insufferable!

So, I hope these modern-day wet nurses are easy-going, thick-skinned, and come with enough paperwork to keep the paranoid mommies at bay. So long as they're not being harassed by their clients, and can guarentee safe milk, what's the fuss?

"But I do find it rather bizarre that people would accept breast milk from an unknown donor rather than use formula. So many outside influences can affect the makeup and safety of breast milk; at least with formula, you have a list of ingredients."

As recent news stories have shown (tracking down e coli in green onions and spinach), the product label does not guarantee the safety of the product. The label may not even be accurate in some cases (remember the pharmacist who was watering down cancer meds to make more $$$?)

Yes, the FDA can inspect the plants, and yes, we have expiration dates on the cans. But still, even good intentions can fail to protect (how about that melamine in the petfood: that may now be in human food as well? How about that hospital that accidentally added a fatal amount salt to its formula?)

And, while I'm not attacking formula makers, nobody should be fooled: these are companies selling a product. They make claims that may or may not be true: those DHA and RHA proteins promote brain and eye growth as they occur in nature, but have not been proven to be effective as they are extracted from seaweed and inserted into formula. Formula companies have a vested interest in selling more formula: more breast feeding moms means a smaller formula market. Those "breast is best" labels are on formula cans at the insistence of the AAP and the FDA, just as those warning labels are on packs of cigarettes. (No, I'm not saying formula = cigarettes. I'm saying the labels on their packages were not their idea).

I think it's rather bizarre that anyone would trust a manufactured, artificial substance as "better" than the substance Mother Nature intended we feed our young. Of course getting anything from an unknown source is dangerous, but it is possible to be trustworthy enough to feed a child, even if it's not your own. As a previous poster has saif, you do what works best for you and your baby. How nice to know that some moms have rediscovered cross-nursing as a possible solution.

"Unfortunately, there is nothing inaccurate in stating that if you do not have sex, then you will not get STD's."

Of course that's inaccurate! How many people died from that STD AIDS from blood transfusions? AIDS and Hapatitus from unclean needles? Genital warts from non-intercourse interplay?

You are protected from STDs if you do not exchange contaminated body fluids with an infected individual, or come in contact with contaminated equipment and objects.

Did the article mention the mercury that iscontained in every CFL? And that this means they shouldn't go into the regular trash, but need to be recycled asa "hazardous material?" This is what makes me hesitate to go 100% CFL. I won't put them in table lamps, which are so easily knocked over and broken in my house with small children.

Like an earlier poster said, I'm waiting for 60 or 75 watt equivelant white light LED bulbs.

Until then, it seems like incandesant and CFLs are both flawed choices.

As for my husband .... there's no one I'd rather have around in a crisis, but lightbulbs? We've been married 10 years and he doesn't even know where they are stored in the house! I can't imagine him sneaking around changing them. (Unless he could do it with a remotr control ...)

I agree whole-heartedly that the money from Tenet's book should go to some charity or foundation that begins to mitigate the immense damage Tenet has caused. Whether it's a veteran's foundation, a widows-and-orphans fund, or a relief program for Iraqis matters less to me.

As for the Medal of Freedom, like everything else this administration has touched, it's tarnished. He can keep it.

I wish Miss D the best of luck with her case. She has a tough precedent to overcome.

As grim as this news bite is, I still found something to chuckle over (through the horror): I think It's clear that Senator Napoli has attended a faith-based sex ed seminar if he thinks a woman gets pregnant by being sodomized.

that Congress exists, but it's clear that he doesn't know what it exists for. And at this point, I'm not sure that Congress does ether.

Congress is there to create and pass laws. Congress is there to represent the will of the American people by state and district. And Congress is there to prevent the executive branch from becoming a despot.