We are all a little too tough on each other these days. It’s become fashionable to demand the very best from everyone. Where is the compassion and empathy?

This man isn't just your hairdresser, he's your friend. He's stood by you when you needed him. After our partners and children, who could be more important in our lives than friends such as these? Good friends are rare.

Sometimes we must indulge our friends. Yes, he is a hairdresser and he should know the importance of a good haircut. However, we are a little delusional about things we care deeply about. Telling him that you don’t like his haircut will be interpreted as you don’t think he’s a good hairdresser.

The LW should find a way to get a good haircut without breaking her friend’s heart. Maybe she could take a picture of her head after the good haircut and show it to the friend as a guide. In any case, find a way to spare the friend’s feelings. Losing a good friend is much worse than a less than perfect haircut.

The democrats should have won the White House in 2004. Instead, they ran Kerry, a candidate that smelled wealthy, out of touch, and uncertain to working and middle class swing voters. Furthermore, they let the republicans turn his biggest asset, a distinguished war record, into a weapon against him. The growing disaster in Iraq was hardly an issue in the election. Can anyone tell me why democrats thought it would be a good idea to run a liberal senator from Massachusetts against Bush?

Perhaps this is mainly the fault of the primary system. Why should primaries in a few states decide who everyone in the country votes for? Democrats were hurt by the choice of Kerry, just like republicans were hurt by the choice of Dole in an earlier election. Maybe its time for us to go back to candidate decisions being made by party insiders in “smoke-filled back rooms?”

What does everyone else think?

As a liberal and an atheist, I am overjoyed that such a prominent person on the religious right has been exposed as a hypocrite. Hopefully, those who looked up to this person will begin to question their leaders motives.

However, I think that the community of free-thinking people should wish him no ill will. We should hope that he can come to grips with his homosexuality and become an openly gay person. That would be the best thing for him, his family, and his “flock.”

The LW is full of B.S. Federal and state financial aid is available at all accredited colleges. The LW may not qualify for Pell Grants, but students loans are available to just about anyone. It certainly doesn't allow one to live an extravagent life, but you can get by. I know many students who are doing it sucussfully. Certainly, those whose parents foot the bill have it easier. However, no one every promised that life would be fair. My own observation is that those who pay for their own college often get more out of it and actually do better than those that don't have to work.

Sleeping with a professor isn't going to pay the bills. They don't pay us enough to keep a mistress. In any case, what make you think that a professor would even sleep with you? Even if you could get one to do that, what makes you think that they'd really give you anything in return?

Instead of trying to find a way to use a man a means of financial support, try to be independent. Stop making excuses.

No one is destined to do anything. We are makers of our own lives.

You have some money and a degree from an Ivy League school. Your father gave you these gifts. Go do something meaningful with your life. Life is short and it can end suddenly. Don't sit around that dusty old town any more. Find your passion and pursue it, wherever it takes you.

If the doctor loves you, he will follow. (Why does it matter that he's a doctor anyway?) Doctors are needed everywhere. You are younger than he and he should understand your need to get out of your hometown.

You wish you were Al Franken or Noam Chomsky. They are both much smarter and more interesting than you.

Fresh ideas? Like yours? Like the idea that without religion we'd all be living like the Lord of the Flies, or that Chomsky just hates America? Yeah, those are fresh ideas.

Its seems to me that your idea of being fresh is just being contrary.

Fate? Is this a Greek tragedy where the gods play with mortals lives?

She cheated and maybe got pregnant. This mess is her own doing.

If at all possible, she should have the blood test done without the husband knowing (the BF will want to know). If it’s not his, then she needs to tell him. Maybe he will stay, maybe not. He'd be justified in either decision. But, he needs to know if the child is not his. Also, the kid deserves to know which man is his biological father.

Yes, if you flunk out, you lose the tuition money. You pay for the privilege to attend the school, not for your grades. There is no money-back guarantee at college.

One other responder did mention the option of getting money paid for future semesters. This should be an option for the LW.

A 10% failure rate is actually pretty low. Only about 50% of those starting a 4-year undergraduate degree eventually earn it. Ph.D.-level graduate programs have about the same success rate.