Being a sex-positive male, and believing that separating a woman from her panties is a desirable social goal in general, I totally support Panties for Peace. I hope its mission will expand to include ending the Iraq war, and that Bush, Cheney and their Congressional co-neocons will be deluged in panties, hopefully recently worn post-coitus. Let their olfactory sense remind them what the important things in life are.

throw out the s'more stuff? It makes for a good story, but here's what I think really happened: you put those makings aside for a day or two, or maybe till your Mom left. Then you examined the wrappings; if obviously sealed in cellophane with no signs of tampering, you kept it. If the chocolate was wrapped, you sniffed it and if you didn't die or get really sick in an hour or two or overnight, you decided it was OK too. And you made the s'mores.

I mean, this is s'mores we're talking about. And you had conflicting guidance from you Mom, who like all moms used to say, Waste not, want not.

Don't worry. You did the right thing. Now all you have to do is admit it.

It is a bad idea for authors to keep talking past the end of the book, fictional ones, at least. It's like a chef presenting a wonderful, visually impressive dessert, and then offering to let you lick the bowl it came out of.

Fortunately for Rowling, if this becomes a nasty literary cause celebre, she can cry all the way to the bank, which she probably owns by now.

Nobody is paying attention to the story the other day that the GOP is also punishing Florida Republicans for the early primary. The sanctions don't appear to be as severe, but the principle is exactly the same -- whether states get to practice democracy their way in the absence of a federal scheme, or must bend their knees to party edicts. So it's time to deal with the general principle and stop playing this story as if it were just a Democratic soap opera.

The issue is mixed with another, whether we need presidential election campaigns that are now two years long. Because of the guaranteed tenure of the office, we need more than the six weeks would-be British prime ministers get, but we really don't need more than the year we have had in the second half of the 20th century. A federally mandated national primary in June leaves plenty of time for a thorough post-nomination campaign, and it solves the problems of states jockeying for primacy.

It may take a constitutional amendment, but it would be worth it.

Then if we could only get a new presidential election upon a vote of no confidence in the Congress, we'd be almost civilized.

In reply to Anonymous, just last week there was a report of a scientific study saying that conservatives have difficulty with accepting new data which challenges concepts they thought they had nailed down. Liberals can accept the data and change course accordingly. It wasn't clear to me whether they were saying that conservatism is a result of the brain we are given, rather like sexual orientation, or is simply a mental habit learned as part of a general philosophy. Now I am curious to know more.

I do know that 45% of Americans (vs. 20% of Canadians and 15% of West Europeans) refuse to accept evolution or deep time at all, even the version of evolution which the Pope OK'd, that it happened but was steered by God. That is, they adhere to a few 3000-year-old pronouncements by Jewish sheepherders who thought the earth was flat rather than accept 2 billion years worth of fossil evidence and 12 billion years worth of star observations to the contrary. Now, that is hanging on to your beliefs, folks.

. . .he can teach her how to be a principled liberal.

It always surprises me when I run across liberals who are sexually prudish. I don't know what porn the other commenters are referring to in "Weeds", apart from Nancy getting boned on a conference table, which I thought was rather fun. I hope the day will soon come when liberals are more comfortable with sex.

I concede that the conference room scene was just a bit out of character for Nancy, whom I see as a basically sweet and cautious person making bad choices, as a whole lot of us do from time to time. And when you're pretty desperate and have a family depending on you, sometimes the pressure to continue in a bad direction is just too much to resist. That's her tragedy, not a reason to loathe her as Hravilesky does. It would be hard to loathe Mary-Louise Parker anyway, outside a really demonic role, and her Nancy is irresistible.

In fact, as for bad choices, many of us who don't regard marijuana as a tool of Satan can easily empathize her situation. Many of us have bought marijuana, and perhaps now and then sold a bit to a friend. How big a step is it morally to selling in quantity, knowing that it is less harmful than legal alcohol? Or illegal, for that matter. It sort of reminds me of Robert Mitchum's famous moonshine movie, "Thunder Road", only a lot more complicated and interesting, and funny.

Please let us not forget that it is funny, and that while bad things happen in "Weeds", it is an excellent example of the human comedy. When you aren't crying, you gotta laugh.

You're complaining about intrusion, not music. It's like boom boxes instead of Walkman or iPods. Advocate for civility, not silence.

You're also complaining about urban life. Go start an Internet business on ten acres in the country.

To some extent you're also complaining about the quality of the music. Go where there is good music.

But never silence the music. Never.