Holly, what you really can see when you analyze many who support preemptive strikes, etc., is they are truly afraid of the "Muslim hordes" that will force all women to where burkas, convert us all to Muslim and suicide bomb all our malls.

There is a second group, and that is the sociopaths/psycopaths that will exploit these fears for their own benefit.

I'm not sure that you can show that an average adult (even a sedentary or injured one) that eats 800 calories a day of junk, or protein, or carbs, etc. would gain weight. In fact, many of the low carb diets that do work (even without exercise), are in truth just low calorie diets when you look at them closely...even the ones that say you can have bacon for breakfast. I'm not talking health, I'm talking pure weight loss/gain.

I would never advocate eating Oreo's as a staple, or even a snack...it was just a comment that it's all about calories in the end. And shitting your pants to save 30 calories a meal like this new "miracle" drug allows doesn't seem worth it, just cut back a little to save the same 30. The previous poster that advises barfing it up was right, it's more efficient, a hell of lot cheaper and saves you even more calories if you overeat. I think that's a sick philosophy...it's better to eat healthy and not overindulge..and if you do overindulge, work out a little harder for a week or two and cut back a little bit for awhile.

As for meth heads looking healthy, I agree, they don't. But I don't think that Nicole Richie looks good now either. I didn't think that Jennifer Anniston was fat when Friends was first aired either, though she ended up "needing" to lose 20 lbs as the show progressed.

I'm not particularly sensitive about my own weight, I have to work to keep it in line and it's not the end of the world, it's just not AS easy as when I was 20. But I do see people that have to work much harder than me to get similar results. I did have poor habits in college, but I'm a grown up now and can deal with it.

p.s. I'd much rather have overweight Gore in office than the lean, mean, work out machine that is our President now. Fat and lazy American can be a pretty superficial stereotype.

I liked Sniper's reply to the oh so disdainful Gary Owen as much as I liked the cartoon.

BB, I for one liked your strip last week and I like the follow up today. Thanks.

Just because you're bored today, or sometimes restless, does NOT mean you've settled for less. I hate that so many think that.

Just because you fantasize, doesn't mean you will cheat, our senses do not fail just because we are in a long term relationship. Boy, I did some fun and wild thing in my 20's, I don't regret any of it, but would not risk my relationship today to repeat it. I still can appreciate a hot looking guy or steamy scene in a movie.

Even when you are truly in love, over the course of years it will not always be wild passion and butterflies in the stomach. Look at the happy couples in their 70's, they like each other, they know each other, warts and all.

Your man seems like he's there for you and knows you at your best and worst and will be there for you in the long run. You may not find that ever again, and it is something that is truly of value.

One person can not provide everything you need in your life. Maybe you need to find others to be involved in "art world", and then go home to the security and love that waits for you at home and relish it.

I didn't settle, and am very lucky to be in a long term & happy relationship. I'm probably a bit older than people assume.

I'm just saying that over the course of years that you will have ups and downs, years of passion a year of less than that now and then. If you run every time you question your life, your goals, your relationship, you'll be running your whole life.

You will never have a "perfect" relationship. There is NO ONE who is exactly compatible with you an every topic every day, but there are a number of people that you could have a go of it with.

My husband jokes that you pick the person that you want to annoy for the rest of your life to marry and he says that I'm uniquely suited to that task. I'm lucky & happy and the only "settling" I've done is settling down to a damn good life.

oops, I guess it wasn't my last letter...

"all i'm hearing from these posts is that men are crap in general so hang on to whomever you can find to be there for you, and that this guy is nice so lw is going to regret leaving him."

I didn't hear anyone say that men were crap.

What I heard, and tried to say, is that you should put value on someone being kind, supportive, strong (and someone who is there for you when things are bad IS strength) is something to be valued highly and respected.

I know that some people miss the drama of the unknown, the thrill of the chase, etc. and that's fine. But the gentleman that said you should use cold calculation before leaving a good thing for the chance of a little excitement was spot on.

I remember hearing Cher (not a particularly happy person, though no doubt she's had some serious drama & passion in her life) say years ago the reason she made so many bad choices was that she married guys that were fun to party with, and they didn't always make the best husbands.