Abortions are, like . . . a wrong thing?

Maybe Italian physicians take the Hippocratic Oath seriously. One of the first things on Hippocrates's list of dos-and-don't is, "I will not perform an abortion."

Neither the "original" nor the "classic" version of the Hippocratic Oath mention keeping women from practicing medicine. If you can find a version that says that, show me.

As for surgery ("cutting with a Stone"), it leaves that to the "practitioner of that art".

Even if it *did* keep women out of the profession, and *did* prohibit surgery, such provisions simply reflected the attitudes (and medical dangers) of a much earlier time.

By contrast, opposition to abortion was the near-unanimous viewpoint of both physicians *and* feminists, up until the last generation or so.

I agree with everything you said, about Miley, about Liebovitz.

But Miley doesn't seem to be "stupid" to me. She's just a normal 15-year-old, as normal as can be considering she's famous.

Her show isn't bad either (which I watch with my 10-year-old daughter). And it's nice to see a southern white kid being embraced by kids as cool, instead of as stereotypically stupid, uneducated and racist.

The commenters here, that is.

Jesus, she's only 15. If you can't deal with a 15-year-old rock star, or take such a cynical view of someone like Miley Cyrus, or worse yet, keep your kid from watching her show, you have no business being a parent.

The cynical one here is Liebovitz. I agree with the article Sarah linked to. "Someone had to be the adult here." The father had left the shooting when Annie got Miley to make that pose -- *knowing* it would be controversial. Even if Billy Ray should have vetoed the photo, I blame Liebovitz for planning and executing it.

Whatever Liebovitz has done in the past, she *is* a publicity-seeking hack.

The first line in Dr. Spock's book was:

"You know more than you think you do."

This was a good article, full of good ideas and down-to-earth observations. My wife and I have taken the same commonsense approaches with our kids and it's worked out fine. Thanks.

Anyone who's actually *raised* a teenage daughter will see nothing wrong with Billy Ray and Miley. My own daughter and I were like that from the time she was a little girl.

Some people just can't stop thinking about incest, I suppose . . .

But I need a pill . . . actually my wife and I *both* need it . . .that would stop time for 8 hours a night, and put our kids in suspended animation, so we can spend 4 of those hours getting extra sleep, and the other 4 screwing.

Actually, make that *6* hours extra sleep . . .

Horses' ankles are not supposed to break.

If a horse suffers such an injury, it means it was driven too hard.

. . . from a sound mind. Thanks!

Again, Tracy refuses to be a "hysterical feminist" and is thoughtful. Good post.

because it makes black people look like idiots.

And it's not just the videos or the bad influence of gangsta rap. I've never seen a hip hop lyric that impressed me or touched me. Now, if anyone can show me different, I'll listen.

Speaking as a parent, I'm very *very* thankful for bottled water.

Before bottled water, kids tended to drink soda. Now they tend to drink water. It's a godsend to be able to send them to soccer games or other activities with a bottle of water instead of Coke. As a result, now kids see water as the normal thing to drink, unlike say 25 years ago.

And don't tell me that you can send them with a re-usable bottle that you fill up at the tap. Very quickly, such a bottle gets an unpleasant odor due to old spit -- an odor which is masked by other liquids, but cannot be masked by odorless, tasteless water.

Thingswesaid is correct about the word "homophobia". A phobia is an irrational fear. Just because someone's opposed to something doesn't mean they have an irrational fear of it. I don't agree with them, but there are perfectly rational reasons to be opposed to homosexuality.

Just because something disturbs you, turns you off, disgusts you, makes you turn away, or even makes you puke. . . doesn't mean that it's wrong.

. . . is something I'll never figure out.

Liberals hold that homosexuality is innate. Why? Simply as a reaction to the fundamentalist idea that it's a product of upbringing and something that can be avoided. This is not thinking. This is being a knee-jerk reactionary.

Some guys are leg men, some are breast men. It probably has to do with early childhood. A standard theory, for example, was that a guy gets fixated on breasts because he didn't get enough breast-feeding as a baby. This does not make his attraction to large breasts any less valid. It's simply part of what he is. Sexual desire, for whatever reason, is a good thing, folks. There is no reason why homosexuality cannot be similarly explained . . . and celebrated.

BUT . . . we can't go down this road, can we? That would play right into the hands of the fundamentalists. So we say homosexuality is genetic. Well, now you see what you get. If you say it's genetic, you are playing right into the hands of eugenics.

You've bought into the false dichotomy: that homosexuality is *either* innate *or* a "choice". Well, no. What turns us on sexually is probably the product of early childhood. It is time to revisit Freud and admit that he was onto something. And, as he recognized, you can't control what turns you on.

As for your experience of being gay, I just don't believe you. You don't know why you're gay any more than I know why I'm straight.

That humans get the ability to procreate before they get the maturity to procreate responsibly. That is the basic problem here and there is no way to fix it.