If Mr. Powell were to relocate his spine and tell all about who knew what and when they knew it, resulting in (1) huge acclaim for Mr. Powell's (newfound) "courage," and (2) renewed calls for him to run for President.

Given the mighty slim pickins on the R side seeking to succeed Dubya (seriously, Fred Thompson as "savior"?), the nomination could be Powell's for the asking.

He could win, too. Not only would lots of Dems and indies vote for him, his UN performance notwithstanding, but the R's slime machine wouldn't lay a glove on him, since they care more about winning than anything.

Now if only Mrs. Powell would just get with the program (assuming , of course, that she's not already been with the program for nearly eight years already).

Unquestionably, DINOs abound, but rather than ditch the party, why not simply move it incrementally in the proper direction? That's what the Rethugs did, over the course of two decades or more, gradually weeding out moderates in primaries till most of the Rethug congressional delegation consists of crazy righty mouth-breathers.

DiFi is an anomaly in that she has great lib credentials (i.e., mayor of SF), but an increasingly shitty voting record. Given our position in the run up to the last election, it's no surprise that she was not challenged in the primaries. Now that she's been exposed, that will be different next time, in the unlikely event that she runs again. Likewise, we here in PA had to hold our nose and vote for Casey in order to be rid of little Ricky (aka the frothy mixture of lube, etc.. . .). After we send Arlen home for good, we'll do the same with Casey, Jr. -- unless he decides he likes it there and starts to see the light and vote accordingly. With any luck at all, in twenty years or so the whole Senate will be filled with crazy socialists and lefty racketeers whom the middle will reject and the cycle will start anew.

That was both the gentlest, most tender answer possible, and the right one. After reading the LWs letter, I was as upset as she was about her ne'er -do-well brother and sister in law to be. But you talked me down from there, as I hope you did the LW. I'm confident your words pried open her heart, and gave her the excuse she needed to do the right thing.

As for the rest of you, what's with the no babies or kids at the wedding thing? Babies are, ultimately, the very point of the wedding, and cheap entertainment to boot. A baby-less wedding would be a rather somber affair, I think, though I can't say for sure since I don't think I've ever been to one.

Also, as has been pointed out several times already, newborns (as her future nephew will be, if he is at all) are essentially paperweights for several months, and just as portable. So if one starts to wail at an inappropriate time, just make sure that your friends have been advised in advance that, should the parent of the offending munchkin not spirit the child away in a timely manner, they are authorized to offer to usher the screamer -- with or without parent -- to an undisclosed, soundproofed location. No point ruining Grandma's video, after all.

Honestly, no babies at weddings is like cookies or PBJ without milk -- you can choke it down, even enjoy it, but something's missing. Really, LW, you should pray that the baby has arrived come the Big Day, so he can supercharge the spirit of the occasion with his baby-magic.

Daughter needs to see that non-believers can and do behave in ways that are perfectly consistent with so-called christian works, minus the threat of eternal damnation as motivation. That means volunteering, giving to good causes, and even "praying," albeit not to an angry God (but instead to yourself as a form of meditation or, perhaps, to the collective consciousness). If that means sacrificing your sleep in, Sunday paper, another cuppa, peace-and-quiet Sunday morning, well, sorry dude.

I can see the downside to attending her or some other religious services, but think it's outweighed by the potential palliative effect on a teenage girl's fears.

If the ADL was once a worthwhile organization dedicated to, well, anti-defamation, it is no longer. Now, it is instead a card-carrying member of the Israel Lobby, the group of fringe organizations that purport to speak on behalf of all Jews and Israelis, but in fact represents the views of a tiny minority of bloodthirsty Zionists -- albeit very effectively. Witness ADL's Foxman touring the country with a book that purports to respond to Mearshimer and Walts' book on the Lobby's negative impact on US Foreign Policy, for which the Mess-oh-potamia is but Exhibit A.

isn't so much that they're racist as that they're dumb. Remember, it is they whom we have to thank for the resurrection of the moribund Kerry campaign. Thanks alot for that, Iowa.

Iowa voters do not, I think, represent the mainstream of Democratic voters' thinking, and for that reason, I'd love to see another, more Democratic state set the tone for the primary season. It's simple common sense. Why let a red state dictate who becomes the blue front-runner?

Though McCain's right about Romney being utterly integrity-free, the sweetly ironic part of all this is that McCain's punchline -- that he wouldn't sell his soul for votes -- is the opposite of the truth. Just ask Jerry Falwell or Bob Jones or whichever Krazed Kristian it was whose ass McCain kissed back in his presumed frontrunner days, thus signaling the beginning of the end for the Straight Talk Express.