In the last 4 weeks, I have received not 1, but 2, automated phone surveys ('press 1 for yes, 2 for no') that end with a question about whether or not Jeb Bush should run for president.

Failing to discuss abortion as an option truly misses the reality of the situation. I imagine that any thinking woman who is not automatically against abortion would seriously consider it as an option, especially if she knows next to nothing about the father. The likelihood of being a single parent, the wide-ranging adjustments one would have to make in one's life, the responsibilities one might end up having to take on alone, would all figure into the equation. Even in the rosiest assessment--that the baby is not premature and is healthy (neither of which can be guaranteed)--and with daycare and baby-sitting support from family and friends, tackling parenthood by oneself is a huge challenge. Leaving abortion out of the discussion passes judgment on it as either bad or unimportant in a passive way. Better to address it directly and make the decision from there.

I enjoyed reading your account of your visit to Turkey with your family. My husband and I visited Turkey two and a half years ago --it was my first time--and I had very much the same reaction you did to the ruins. I particularly fell in love with Miletus. We had the whole place to ourselves when we visited on a gloomy, misty day in March. Climbing over the ruins I could just imagine myself attending events in the theater or relaxing in the baths. There's a half-submerged temple on the grounds, too, that gives the place a surreal air. We had traveled there by dolmus (the small buses that locals take from town to town in Turkey) and since the ruins are a fair distance from the main road, we had a bit of a walk in front of us when we were done. True to their nature, however, a local driver took pity on us dragging our luggage down the gravel road and gave us a ride to to the closest bus stop.

Another event that sticks in my mind is our visit to the chimera. We had taken the dolmus to the bus stop at the head of the trail leading to the chimera, where a cafe was located (which is the case at many of the bus stops). An elderly gentleman and his family ran the cafe and welcomed us with tea (of course) and conversation about our and their dislike of Bush through a combination of Arabic, English, and Turkish. We decided to walk the few miles down the trail but arranged to pay his son to pick us up at an agreed-upon spot on the way back. The walk took longer than anticipated and we got to the chimera near dusk. After a half hour visit during which some local high school students offered us some of the wine they had brought to the site, we left to meet our driver, but to our surprise, we met him on the path, instead. His family had been worried that we'd be stranded in the dark and sent him to look for us.

Knidos, where the Aegean and Mediterranean meet, is a ruin that is more buried than excavated. There you can wander along hillsides covered in shards from clay pots scattered among the wildflowers. It was as if the pieces hadn't been touched since the vessels they came from had broken.

Thank you for your thoughtful and knowledgeable comments. I learned something new from each of your postings on this topic and I appreciated the time you took to seriously consider and address some very vitriolic entries. It shows a true sensitivity to both your own experiences and to others'.

In a word: no. Commentators would not be enjoining interviewers to 'go easy on her' or lower their expectations about how well she should be able to answer questions about the economy or foreign policy. We wouldn't be labeling as 'tough' the questions that Katie Couric and Charlie Gibson asked (as NPR did this morning). They were softball, one-on-one interviews. The fact is that Sarah Palin is incapable of answering the questions because she has no understanding of the context of the issues--and memorizing sound bite responses can't make up for it.

Jon Stewart included some great footage of Bush talking tough on being ready to defend the nation on his show Wednesday 12/3 in which Bush states that if terrorists attack us, 'our response will be devastating': http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=212822&title=end-times-countdown-bush-exit. The relevant section starts at about minute 6:00 of the 6:49 minute segment.

Believe it or not, people are not obsessing about your child all the time. They might notice when someone is rude about taking up too much space with a stroller, but really, most of the time they're not thinking about you. That your article is as long as it is when you could have made your point in much less space just makes you look self-absorbed. In the end, I wouldn't get so worked up about it. "Other people's behavior says something about them, not about me."