But I don't relish having a needle stuck into my breast for unnecessary reasons. If it makes other women feel better to do it, more power to you. I think I'll take the new guidelines, thank you.

So to me it isn't a big deal that some of the children were re-telling "Cinderella" and the "Little Mermaid." While I'm sure some writers have managed to become great without reading anybody else's work, most writers are voracious readers. And we can't know whether the little girl re-telling "Cinderella" was referring to the old fairy tale or the Disney version, so cut her some slack. I myself read my mom's beat-up but beautifully illustrated copy of "Cinderella" many times when I was a child.

At any rate it is often exposure to magical stories by other writers that stokes the creativity of children (and adults!). Whether those are delivered via nighttime story or movies is irrelevant. And I thought the Dinosaur story was fantastic, as was the seashell story. Squeak!

This movie was one of the funniest things I've seen in a really long time. Unexpected things are continually happening and the characters are all interesting (particularly Woody's character). It was nice to see Abigail Breslin in something so fun too, after a string of kind of sappy movies.

It's kind of a mixture between a road trip movie and Shawn of the Dead. Every one of our party of 10 loved it. Awesome, hilarious, cleverly written fun.

The very day my friend related to me the story of Mark Funkhouser and Gloria making out and groping each other in front of the local supermarket. Not only has Funkhouser let his bizarre relationship with his wife cloud his judgement to the extreme, but talk about inappropriate behavior for a city mayor. As a KC resident I can say that everything in this article about resident disillusionment with the mayor is true. It's very sad.

Stupid people all flock together, right?

Owning the Kindle is about convenience. I got mine last year as a gift and I have to say, it's about the most useful gadget I've ever gotten. I buy far more books now because of the ease -- particularly serial books -- and when I go on vacation, I can carry the 25+ books I've purchased all in something the weight and size of a slim paperback. Reading in bed is a breeze, especially those really heavy books that were always kind of a pain to work with. Sadly, I'm less likely to buy paper books because I want to have my library at my fingertips all the time, and Kindle provides that. I also have the Kindle app for my iPhone and it's amazing -- when I'm getting my oil changed or waiting for someone at a restaurant, I have all my Kindle books with me in my tiny phone. If I had known how much I'd love it, I would have bought one for myself rather than waiting for my birthday.

There is an issue though with the durability of the Kindle. I have the first version but I hear that the screen is just as delicate on the second generation. I've dropped mine and it's been OK, but I dropped a dog toy on the screen and it screwed up one of the upper corners. Apparently there is no way to fix this -- Amazon just offers a $180 refurbished Kindle instead. If I ever really damage my Kindle, so that I can't read on it anymore, that will definitely be a problem. For such an expensive device, they need a much better way of dealing with damages, etc.

This is a weekly article. It is published every Sunday, much in the same way that Salon publishes movie reviews. If you do don't want to read it, DON'T.

The dems DID give a free pass to Roberts. Just sayin'.

You are making an agreement with your voters that you will serve them throughout the duration of your term. Quitting when your term is nearly up, if there isn't in fact a good reason (and quitting to spend more time with your kids, when your term is just about up, isn't a good enough reason in my opinion), is setting a bad example to all kids, not just Palin's. I'd think the same thing if Palin was a man. If she does have ambitions towards the presidency she's certainly shown that she can't cut it when things get hard. If there were some sort of terrible family emergency I'd think differently but right now it just looks like a flighty decision typical of the inexperienced moron Palin has proven to be.

And anyway, I think Palin's a crappy mom (and a crappy person) for many more reasons than her premature exit from the Alaska Governor's office.

"This trial separation was agreed to with the goal of ultimately strengthening our marriage. During this short separation it was agreed that Mark would not contact us. I kept this separation quiet out of respect of his public office and reputation, and in hopes of keeping our children from just this type of public exposure. Because of this separation, I did not know where he was in the past week.

I believe enduring love is primarily a commitment and an act of will, and for a marriage to be successful, that commitment must be reciprocal. I believe Mark has earned a chance to resurrect our marriage."

Nothing says, "I'm committed to strengthening my marriage" more than than jetting to Argentina to sleep with your mistress during your short trial separation. If that's what it takes to earn back Jenny's trust, I've no doubt these two crazy kids will patch up their marriage in no time.

I can say please, please, please keep Sam Brownback, Republicans. We certainly don't want him.

And who knew something as small as supporting a Democratic HHS Sec. nominee was enough for Rush kick somebody out of the Repug party! Yet somehow torture IS ok....