Dear, LW:

It’s simple – just put your baby in a basket and leave it on the doorstep of some local dwarves to look after her. Someday, she’ll grow up to be a beautiful princess who’ll eventually meet her Prince Charming… assuming the local evil witch doesn’t get her first!!!

Meanwhile, this frees you up to either a.) search for Aladin’s magic lamp and get 3 wonderful wishes, b.) find the Blue Fairy to make you into a real, live person!! , or c.) end up on Sunset Strip, turning tricks for crack (astrology permitting, of course)

Lady, you're obviously too much of self-absorbed air-head to have kids. Hopefully, somebody close to you will report you to CPS and either have that child given to the father or a real adult. Wow.

Before this thread closes, I'd like an opportunity to thank these three posters for providing me with a very thought-provoking, even-handed, sensical dicussion that was easy to follow and very informative.

I wish there was someway we could have more of these types of discussions in place of the current "debate"... especially without all the shrill, histrionic, name-calling and ad-hominem attacks that do nothing to address the facts at hand.

I wish publications like Salon would showcase these types of discussions instead of just dismissing the other side as "Crazy", "Stupid", "Retarded", or whatever the insult-du-jour.

I also wish that other posters would do more to recognize and/or emulate these three posters. Iknow I will

Thank you, guys/gals. I mean that sincerely.

Hey, ease up! TypicalBoss is actually writting in a succinct, non-threatening, rational form that is easy to read and doesn't insult everybody with every other word.

I'm enjoying his postings because I find them informative and thought provoking... without the name-calling or shrill, baseless accussations.

His "back and forth" dialogue with the other posters are extremely helpful to me and I would appreciate it if you would please stop insulting him.

Thank you.

My God, Joan, you're right! That "Death Panel" thing... why, that's just CRAZY!

And those "Town Hell's"... they're CRAZY, too!!

And those "Birthers"... they're CRAZY!

And those "Beer Summits"... that's just CRAZY!

And that other thing, whatever it is that you don't agree with but don't care to really care to discuss at a really substantive level beyond one column because to do so would require a level of depth you're simply incapable of... THAT'S CRAZY, TOO!!!!

p.s.(btw, I was fascinated to find out that "part of you" was a fan of Gingrich... UNTIL YOU FOUND HOW CRAZY HE WAS!!!)

Crazy!!!

Ouch! Ok, well for the sake of those of us like me who haven't been witnesses to Elephantman's horrendous and disgusting flaws, let's try to address the points w/o regard to the poster.

Suppose it was Joan Walsh, and not Elephantman, who asked the following:

"Where does Gates stand? Was he right about this being a case of serious and outrageous racial profiling? Or not? If it was, why is Gates in retreat on enforcing his legal rights? If Gates was wrong, where's the apology?

What would be your response?

Why all the hostility? I thought Elephantman's points were clear and succinct.

He was clearly presenting a genuine point on the minds of many people from both sides of the debate, without malice, name-calling, or personal attacks on other posters.

So why all the hate?

"Anyone who'd equate Joan with Rush Limbaugh, in any manner, has another agenda at play."

Damn... foiled again!!! You got me, Rocky. Yes, as you've so perceptively pointed out, I do have an agenda.

It's this: Joan's followers tend to be people like her - people who immediately engage in ad-hominem attacks rather than discuss the issues at hand even-handedly.

They focus more on the person than on the issue being discussed. It always devolves into some form of name-calling by the end of it because it distracts from the actual facts.

Joan's columns are merely an outlet for her to engage in playground name-calling of anybody the least bit critical of her. Arbitrarily pick any column she's written to see if that's true.

As for her followers,... well, just look at your response. The minute I said anything the least bit critical of Joan, you FURIOUSLY STARTED TYPING AWAY AT YOUR KEYBOARD TO RESPOND TO MY COMMENT.

Wow. Relax a little.

It's fun watching two arrogant, pompous, presumptious blowhards go at it in the media. Joan and Rush are actually alike in more ways than either cares to admit... which is probably why, when they characterize the other, they are usually dead-on.

For Rush, one only needs to listen for 2 minutes before they realize who's at the top of *his* X-Mas list.

For Joan, it's usually the occasional gems like this that make her columns so gosh-darn entertaining: "I'm tempted to suggest that the president invite me and Rush over for some beer-garden diplomacy, but I like Obama, I wouldn't wish that on him or me."

... Joan, honey, what makes you think Obama would be able to stand you any better?

ROFLMAO!!!

Anyway, please don't ever change. Cheers!!

Please tell me this is just one of many installments of this exciting oyster story.

*

Dear LW: This is too serious an issue to simply write to an online forum... especially one that has just dedicated 4 or 5 gushy frontline articles to a mentally umbalanced child molester/abuser... just because he was a "terrific artist".

There will be some good advice, bad advice, and really, really horrific advice wrapped in some sort of "compassion" blanket to make it go down easier.

If you're reading this for entertainment value, that's one thing.

But if you're reading this because you're genuinely trying to make a critical decision that will have life or death consequences for your kids, please turn off your computer right now and consult a qualified proffessional immediately.

Your kids will thank you.

p.s.(if you don't believe me, observer the responses to this post)