Some convictions are questionable. Some are not. I am really really sick of hearing right wing talking heads and mewling quills spewing about how Libby was convicted for "misremembering" or "remembering differently"

From the U.S. Code

TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 79 > § 1621

§ 1621. Perjury generally

Whoever—

(1) having taken an oath before a competent tribunal, officer, or person, in any case in which a law of the United States authorizes an oath to be administered, that he will testify, declare, depose, or certify truly, or that any written testimony, declaration, deposition, or certificate by him subscribed, is true, willfully and contrary to such oath states or subscribes any material matter which he does not believe to be true; or

(2) in any declaration, certificate, verification, or statement under penalty of perjury as permitted under section 1746 of title 28, United States Code, willfully subscribes as true any material matter which he does not believe to be true;

is guilty of perjury...

He was not convicted of misremebering - faulty memory is no crime. He was convicted of "willfully" misleading an impaneled body of the state before which he had sworn an oath. This was not some innocent little peccadillo of memory, as the neo-cons and Libby apologists would have you believe.

I am not sure whether he deserved the jail sentence or not, as I have no familiarity with sentencing guidelines (do people convicted of perjury normally receive prison sentences? would seem like a fine type of punishment thing to me), but the man was red-handed guilty of a felony and should not be coddled.

Also, Glenn, not to be style police or anything - but the phrasing that introduces the quote from RightSaidFred makes it sound like he was a participant in the same speech from which you took the quotes from the column of Sowell. I don't know if you would edit this at such a late time after it has been on the site for a while, but for some reason it irked me when I read it, as you are normally clearer in your phrasing.

...a great guy in so many ways -- smart, creative, kind to animals, etc. ... My frequent requests for him to contribute to the rent and utilities often result in his losing his temper and yelling at me that all I care about is money. He spends his salary on himself ... The fact that he seems to feel it's all right to sponge off me hurts; it shows a serious lack of love and respect for me. And yet, he does seem to love and respect me.

I think you are raising a serial killer. you know, one of those guys who , after they find the 270 dismembered corpses dressed up in pokemon cards and Mardi Gras regalia the neighbors always say," he was quiet, smart, creative, and always kind to animals..."

I am only about half joking on this, by the way.

You say that "...he does seem to love and respect me...", but I, for one, don't see any evidence of this at all. I think he knows how to play off your loneliness and insecurities well enough to keep sponging off of you till the last possible moment. Being able to hold up his end of a conversation on a topic you consider of interest is not love and respect. It is manipulation and disingenuousness.

This is not to say that he can't love you, or that he doesn't now, but to give you a clue that, to an outsider, you have not mentioned anything that might be an actual demonstration of love. For example, putting your anxiety towards the future ahead of his own desire for "clothes, movies, computer accessories..." would be a start. And if he is really that much of an asshole (I tried to think of a more diplomatic way to say that, but nothing came to mind) when you do ask for some contribution to the household as to suggest that you only worry about money, I have a rejoinder for you: if all you cared about was money you would have gotten rid of your non-rent paying tenant years ago.

Boot him out. I like Cary's suggestions as being a healthy way to do so, but do it. Sooner rather than later.

Glenn -

every once in a while, when I open your column here at Salon, I get a series of thick black lines across the screen. I am using FIrefox on a Windows XP Machine. It seems like the kind of mistake caused by some malfunction in CSS code maybe?

If you could just pass that along to someone at Salon, it would be much appreciated.

Thx,

nick