The Republicans have been using this as a tactic more and more, recently: say the exact opposite of the truth. If your opponents want to enrich poor people, tell the poor people they will take their money away. War is peace, hatred is love, fear is courage. It's difficult to rebut because it's so insane, yet we must rebut it.

I do believe it's possible to be a good Christian and a Republican... if you're a gullible idiot trapped in the Republican echo chamber. Even then, there's usually an undercurrent of nastiness beneath the "Christianity." I know many kindly and well-intentioned old ladies, for example, who are convinced that Obama is a Muslim who will eat them in their sleep. This isn't Christianity, it's bigotry. I know many blue-collar workers who are convinced Obama will give all their money to the poor. Not only are they confused (because they ARE the poor Obama is planning to help out) but they've forgotten that Christ told Christians to care for the poor.

The only way to say that the Republicans are the party of Christ is to believe that abortion and gay marriage are the only issues. And even then - how many words did Christ devote to lambasting gay people? None. How many did he spend bewailing abortion (which was common in his day, as we know from Roman documents) as murder? None. On the other hand, he did say that anyone who failed to feed, clothe, and shelter even the least among us would be turned away from the gates of paradise with the words, "I never knew you."

Funny how the Republicans don't quote that part!

I was fighting a troll on these forums the other day who claimed to know for certain what Jesus "would" have said about abortion if he had ever gotten around to it. I don't claim that. I can't speak for Jesus. I can tell you what I think personally, though. I think that just as Jesus's standards for adultery were too harsh for any human to live with (according to him, even looking at a woman with lust was adultery) and just as his actual treatment of adulterers was compassionate and not punitive (he freed a woman who was about to be stoned) he would acknowledge that it's difficult to end up pregnant without wanting to be without someone doing something wrong at some point. And I think he would be aware that it's an act of pure evil similar to smashing an adulteress's head with a stone to force a woman to carry a child in her body when she doesn't want to.

I was more than a little put off by the Broadsheet ladies failing to notice that Baldwin's reaction was a joke and part of the skit, and even more put off by the suggestion that Fey and Poehler would be so unprofessional as to snub Palin after inviting her to the show.

I've been reading the other letters and I'm not seeing what seems to me the obvious advice - maybe because so many of the people writing in have the same problem you have, so they have no idea how to fix it. I will tell you how to fix it.

You have to be hot yourself.

Hot is an indefinable quality. It's not determined by genetics. It's not determined by makeup or clothing. It's an attitude. Studies have shown that men tend to date women about as attractive as they themselves are. Hot men like hot women and average men know their limits and don't want to get beaten down any more than you do. If you want to move up on the food chain, you are going to have to work on yourself.

You say other people describe you as pretty, but you describe yourself as ugly. That ain't gonna cut it. Mister Handsome does not want to be approached by an ugly girl. He thinks you are yucky. Your babbling is a protective reflex which is keeping you from getting your feelings hurt when he slides his eyes to the exit sign and says, "Uh, have to wash my hair, sorry."

What can you do to make yourself a beauty, the type who doesn't have to worry? First of all, the most attractive quality a woman can have is confidence. I'm 40 and somewhat overweight, and I get "that look" more often than I did when I was 20 and a model, because I've learned to be happy in my own skin. Think good thoughts. You want to see a hot guy and think, "I'll make his day by smiling at him," not "Geez, don't let him look at me, I look terrible." You want to think, "Hmm, I think we'd go well together," not "This guy is so far above me that I have no chance."

Cary's advice isn't as bad as some people are making it out to be. It's hard to go wrong by saying, "You wouldn't think it but I get really nervous around attractive men." Damn, I can't imagine a guy who would walk away from that one! Who says people have to play stupid games to get dates?