Richard Gere grabbed that actress and kissed her even though she was trying to get away. Yes, she was smiling, but it was that "oh God, the boorish frat boy is nuzzling me, maybe if I pretend to like it he'll go away," sort of smile. I feel very bad for her and am shocked at how completely the American media has ignored that Gere placed that woman in a very bad position. He could jet off back to Hollywood, she's stuck in India with the mess he created.

These have been around for almost twenty years, on Japanese and otaku sites, where they're called KiSS dolls. Guys play with KiSS dolls too, though the dolls they play with are racier than the KiSS dolls little girls play with; celebrity dolls are popular with both groups. I haven't thought of it in years, but I have a whole folder full of KiSS dolls from 2000 when a male friend noticed the Barbie doll on my bookshelf and told me where I could find lots of "dolls" that would be easier to store. I'm surprised that virtual dolls didn't become more popular in America sooner, but I figured it was because The Sims became popular first.

Here are two pages about the history of these dolls:

http://members.chello.at/theodor.lauppert/games/kiss.htm

http://www.literateweb.com/kiss/

I don't think it's so much fear of the child being kidnapped or abused. It's fear of other parents saying things like, "oh, you let your child walk to the playground on his own? I could never do that. I guess I'm just overprotective." The undertone, of course, is that you don't love your child and that you're selfish. Then, if something actually does happen to the kid, everyone picks apart the parents' to figure out why it happened and, most importantly, why it would never ever happen to their own children.

Parents who find themselves expecting multiples should selectively abort down to twins. Carrying higher-order multiples is extremely selfish.

Tina Schrier, I agree with you completely about how some women decide to be moms/SAHMs because they've realized they're never going to be stars in their careers. It's so nice to hear someone else say that! The last time I said something like that to someone (my best friend, actually), she accused me of insulting her mother, whom I had never even mentioned.

Three tests:

1. Kids do grow up, so try your chosen names out in these sentences: "the newest Supreme Court Justice, [name][surname], wrote the majority opinion," and "we named our new dog [name], it's so cute!"

2. Say just the first and last names together. Make sure they flow and sound nice even without the middle name. The might prevent some girls from getting horrible first names, because Rose or Grace won't be there to pretty it up.

3. Pretend that the baby's name is your name for a few days. If you feel like an idiot calling yourself Precious (girls #555), #Asia (girls 332), Gage (boys #156), or Xzavier (boys #617), odds are your child will as well.

Also, Brayden (boys #79) is not a name, it's a sound a donkey makes combined with a hairstyling technique and Madison (girls #3) does not mean "child of Matthew" it means "son of the great warrior woman.

Herself, I wouldn't mind a few more Johns (boys 20) in the world, but, please, no more Briannas (girls 20)!

• Social Security site on names:

http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/

• Funniest name article ever:

http://www.misanthropic-bitch.com/briandrye.html

I wonder if the judge has a provocatively expensive car parked outside the courthouse, just begging to be stolen or vandalized. He probably also wears a provocatively expensive watch. I bet I could get it off his wrist without hurting him too much, if he's bright enough to hold still. His house, I fear, may also be so attractive that any reasonable person would be unable to resist the urge to "visit," through any window he's provocativly left open. Fresh air nothing, he opened it for strangers to get in and pay him a visit.

Nobody has a God given right to be a mother, nor a government/Constitutionally given right, as far as I'm aware.

The right to raise your own children any way you like (short of abuse) a fundamental right protected by the Constitution. I'm not going to go looking for cases at this hour, but I know that was part of the Troxel v. Granville decision.

Also, back when picking on the mentally retarded was all the rage, before fat people became the more trendy targets, there was a famous case called Buck v. Bell, where the Supreme Court upheld the forcible sterilization of a mentally retarded woman because "three generations of imbeciles is enough." The prejudice masquerading as concern for children in this situation reminds me of that, even though the facts are different.

Oh, and England's courting a scandal if they really intend to take kids away from fat parents and put them in foster homes where they're more likely to actually be abused. When some kid in that situation is raped by his/her foster father, quite a few low-level scapegoats will lose their jobs and the policy will be reversed immediately. Too bad for the kid though.

and too sleepy to remember to revise my subject line *snore*

Women in Japan can already keep their own surnames after marriage. However, the rule is that both the husband and wife have to have the same last name, which can be hers, his, or a new name they create together. So for a Japanese woman to keep her last name after marriage, her husband has to take her last name, which happens in about 1% of Japanese marriages.

Considering that statistic, and that Japanese babies always get the last name of the mother, I think the Japanese are ahead of America as far as naming customs go.