I can't believe I spent so many years blithely pouring cheap food into my cats' dishes without thinking about what was in it. It was only after my cat Uma developed digestive issues that I thought hey, maybe I should read the ingredient list on the stuff. Uma stopped puking and put on a good pound after I switched my guys to foods (Wellness, Innova) without wheat or corn. I still worry about pet food contamination, though.

My knee-jerk reaction is to be irritated by all parties involved in this problem- the neo-hippie pot enthusiast, the ultimatum-yielding kid, the concerned "aunt" (why does she go into such detail about how they're not friends; they're family!?), and fucking Tennis, with his/her speech about how neglectful Mommy is being. There really isn't enough information in the letter for me to have an opinion on this case (didn't stop Tennis, obviously). Maybe pot enthusiast mother walks around stoned all the time, neglecting responsibilities, in which case I don't blame her kid at all for making threats. Or maybe the kid is just being a judgmental prick. I know that I, from the time I was a very little kid, was bothered by my parents' pot smoking (at age 7 or so, I negotiated with my father for him to confine his toking to one day a week). Perpetually stoned parents are indeed a drag, for reasons you might not even be able to fully articulate when you're a kid. But then, so are drunk parents, and parents with any number of other weaknesses, none of which are generally grounds for the loss of parental rights. You can't neglect the back pain angle, either. Pot is a vastly preferable pain killer than vicodin or oxycontin.

More than anything, I feel that there's not enough information in the letter (perhaps because the LW spent so much time talking about they're family, not friends?), to make a judgment, and I think Tennis was a douchebag for doing so, unless there's more information in the letter that he/she isn't making public. Until there's further evidence, my sympathies lie with the mother. Maybe her kid DOES need to move out, so he can see the rest of the world isn't the model of non-dependency he's so enamored with.

I'm not a mother, nor will I ever be, in all likelihood, but punitive American pregnancy guidelines leave me enraged nonetheless. I wouldn't ever encourage a woman who has a problem controlling her alcohol intake to keep drinking while pregnant, but there are tons of women out there for whom drinking is simply an occasional pleasure. The medical evidence does not back up prohibiting such women from drinking. When my sister (who has a healthy attitude toward drinking) was somewhat ambivalently pregnant with her third, I encouraged her to go ahead and have the margarita she was craving. She did, and kept raving to me afterwards about how good it tasted. She grew into her pregnancy, fell in love with what wound up being a 9 pound, extremely healthy little boy. I think excessive prohibitions on pregnant women only makes them separate and even become resentful of their babies.

Congragulations to Barack- and you know what? The U.S. will never elect a female President. It's embarassing to me, but I bet anyone that it will not happen in the next 50 years. I was pre-pubescent when Ferarro lost in '84. Now, I'm edging on menopause, and it's exactly the same deal. I remember being so impressed by Benazir Bhutto as a teenager. I will never be so impressed by the states, because however liberated we proclaim ourselves, we will not allow ourselves to be led by women. Ever. Mark my words.

Yeah, I was impressed by Bhutto as a teenager. I was a teenager, with no female political role models in my own, supposedly liberated country. Get back to me in fifty years if the U.S. has its own female president, will ya? Tell me it's going to happen here, in a country that bypasses brilliant female leaders for men in the dull normal range (I'm talking the big picture here). Tell me I'm whining then, ya douches. Because I hope you can do that. In the meanwhile, feel free to fuck yourselves when you tell me I should get over the fact I have never had my country led by a person of my own gender, because you know, that matters to me. It leaves me feeling alienated.

Present a non-ethically bankrupt female, you say, is the answer? Right, like Bush 2 (1 was stellar too) or Nixon? Reagan with his progressive, second term senility (I know his alzheimer's was no doubt kicking in then, and that's too bad, but the fact was it was a danger to the country) Face it. We retards in the states are willing to put any number of fuckheaded men into power, but a woman apparently has to be FDR Jr.- otherwise we're just voting for her because she's a chick. Think about what you're saying. Think about how it feels to be a woman in this country watching other women lead so many other countries while here it just doesn't happen, again and again and again. Because, apparently, the likes of a dry drunk ex-baseball comissioner is just so much better for us!

Erica, thanks for understanding me. I was, I think 15 when Bhutto came into power? I wasn't aware of all her failings then, just knew she was a girl like me, leading a country. I felt similar pride when Corazon Aquino came into power in the Phillipines. It empowered me to think women could be leaders, an empowerment the U.S. has never, ever, given me.

Never did I refer to Hillary as "beloved". Your assessment of me is simply inaccurate.

I'm pretty sure I'm accurate in assessing you as an unmitigated dildo, however.

Feeling better now.

Hey, you never know. Where would we be without hope?