Ms. Schuler decided to drive. She also decided to drink, for whatever reason. She then, as the drive progressed, decided to drink more. And, as they say, the drink took a drink. Before long, Diane Schuler was blind drunk, with five kids in the car, and not long after that she was killing seven people, in addition to herself. Pretty fucked up, but it's the way alcohol can work. Was Diane Schuler a monster? Probably not, but her behavior was monstrous. And, too, alcohol is monstrous.

I think I get where the author is coming from. I don't drive, so the extent of my drunken damage is limited to drunken fights at wedding parties and taking off my shirt at bars. These are both things I'd know not to do if sober. If I had access to a car, would I act, when drunk, as irresponsibly with that as I do with other things? God, I hope not, but alcohol does have a way of making ridiculous things seem like just dandy ideas. My own brother, a fellow drunk, was pulled over at the exact same blood alcohol level as Ms. Schuler. There were no other occupants in his car, and he harmed no one- still, I shudder to think of what could have happened (he has since mended his ways). It's hard to say what was going through Diane Schuler's head during this drive. I find the excuses her husband makes particularly bizarre, but, well, typical of a co-dependent.

to see the pure naked gratitude of these women landing in the U.S. I don't think commentators can get over their use of Clinton to write snarky columns so easily, though.

My God, he's an old man. His hair is so WHITE.

Your kids were, and are, lucky to have you as a mother.

Excellent post- you covered everything I was thinking of. I don't have goats, but I grew up with them, and vividly recall the de-horning (I remember holding one baby that had just been de-horned, and it bleated anew as it heard its' twin being de-horned), and the slaughter of male goats (I was never present for that, but my siblings were there, and it sounded like a very silence of the lambs type situation, complete with my sister trying to run off with one of the goats to save it from death). Brutal is about the right word for it. If you want to harvest an animal's milk, you're going to have to deal with that brutality. Is it wrong? I don't think so. It is difficult- particularly, I think, as baby goats are about the most endearing thing on the planet. Goats in general are rivaled in the domestic animal kingdom only by cats in terms of personality- which makes them all the harder to deal with as livestock.

DurianJoe- I never saw a goat eat tin cans (or anyone's homework), but we did have a goat who loved banannas and leftover spaghetti. She also once bit my toddler brother for licking her salt block- showed him good.

I agree with the posters who say that, while it may be conventional opinion to condemn someone who cheats on a partner who is seriously ill, such cheating is really more understandable than that committed against a healthy partner. That John Edwards cheated on his wife when she was fighting cancer is probably what I find most sympathetic about his story. The other stuff? Choosing to continue running even after he'd confessed to his wife AND she'd relapsed? His seeming love affair with himself? And, yeah, it's hard to know what to think of Elizabeth now. Referring to as "it" a child even a glancing encounter with MSM journalism will inform you is a "she" is pretty puzzling.

What a great story! I'm not surprised your daughter has turned out so well- what's better for a kid than starting out with parents who refuse to fear? I saw, recently, someone suggest as a baby gift (for a presumably healthy infant), one of those apnea-detecting mats, and it just kind of depressed me.

I agree with Gozer, too- to be "free range" with your kids does not mean you're expecting them to do boring chores for themselves. I think it's important to both expect kids to know how to do their own laundry (or suffer their own consequences), and to let them walk home by themselves (circumstances allowing, of course). It's important to take into account the LONG TERM safety and well-being of kids when making decisions- it's threatening to the long term safety of people to not let them have some independence as kids.

I also have to wonder how it affects parents to feel they have to keep an eye on their kids every second. I think my parents were able to keep a semblance of sanity by, when I was getting on their nerves, being able to open the door and say, "Out."