There's no longer any question about whether the "enhanced interrogation" techniques disclosed in the torture memos were ... torture.

They are.

There's no longer any question about whether the United States tortured people.

We did.

There's no longer any question about whether the torture was directed from the highest level of the government.

It was.

There's no longer any question that those in charge sought the flimsiest of fig leaf justifications from paid hack lawyers to cover themselves politically in case they got caught.

They did.

There's no question that those in charge lied to cover their actions until lying was no longer possible, and then continued to maintain that torture was justified long after that lie had been exposed.

They did.

The ONLY question that remains today is: "Will the United States call its own people to account for having committed torture?"

So that's the only question left to answer: What is the US response once the US has uncontrovertable evidence that torture was authorized from the highest level of the US government?

In the eyes of the world, if nothing is done, then it will be the citizens of the United States who have condoned this conduct. Personally, I don't need that on my conscience.

Personally, I think I can honestly say I've seen that ad for "Natural Male Enhancement" enough now. Granted, it was mildly amusing the first 25,000 times, but Smiling Bob has worn out his welcome in my house. I have no idea what the product actually does. My husband claims "Natural Male Enhancement" is a length of string and a brick.

Thank you for pointing this much out: Miss California is being ridiculed because she came off sounding like a complete, absolute babbling idiot. It's not the opinion she expressed, it's the way she expressed it.

Now, I felt the question was a set-up ... but there are far more articulate and gracious ways to respond to it, even for people who are opposed to same-sex marriage. I assume they must have learned at least this much from the Miss Teen South Carolina Debacle: if you can't be articulate, at least be brief.

And, Mary Beth, you know better than to accept as an item of faith that the substance of her opinion cost her the crown. There's not a shred of evidence that this is the case. Isn't it at least as likely that her Bushian stumbling over the English language cost her the crown? I thought the whole point of asking questions was test the contestants' ability to articulate a well-reasoned opinion. Take another look at the tape -- how do you think the judges scored her response?

I'm as feminist as anybody, but you have to sit back and laugh at the whole sideshow, sometimes.

I'm going way out on a limb here, but I'm gonna guess we'll see lots and lots of nasty ads featuring children. I'm going on record here to say I think they did focus-group testing of these images, and discovered that there's still a lingering discomfort over the idea of those disgusting gays getting their nasty contaminated hands on our Most Precious Resource. I'm gonna bet here that there doesn't need to be any logical nexus between the substance of gay rights and the substance of these ads, so long as we get to see lots of helpless, impotent parents seething in despair as their children are taken from them and indoctrinated with ... something.

For example: in California, it is somewhat true that schoolchildren attended a lesbian wedding as guests (at their own request, and with their parents' assent). But, the "Gathering Storm" advertisement presents the entire incident in the most sinister light: parents either ignorant or helplessly watching from the sidelines, wringing their hands in utter despair; bewildered innocent little white children looking for all the world as though they were being dragged off to state-run reeducation camps. In a state where the school can't even take your child for a healthy walk off school grounds without a signed permission slip from BOTH legal guardians, and medical consent, and no fewer than THREE emergency contact numbers ... this ad wants us to believe that children can be removed from school, either without their parents' knowledge or over their strenuous objections, to attend a "teachable moment" wedding.

I'm guessing every single ad you see will come back to the issue of children, and children being indoctrinated, and children being exposed to homosexuality over their parents' objections, and children being (gasp) adopted and even raised by gays!

Thankfully, most (but not all) of the readers who posted comments were able to see through the hype. There's nothing sinister about reinforcing a friendship with a hug. I remember a few years back, I met up for lunch with a friend who had lived in Paris for years. As we walked home from the restaurant, she took my arm. I remember realizing how relaxing and reassuring that kind of physical contact can be.

I wouldn't really call it a trend at all, since I've notice this going on ever since my daughter was in preschool. Sure, it's now happening in middle school, but these kids didn't just start doing it last week or something.