Out of the three types of lies -- "lies, damn lies, and statistics" -- guess which one this number falls under?

This is going to backfire. As soon as Rush lets loose about the methodology, all numbers about casualties will become suspect. Even if you lined up the bodies and counted them, the Bushies will point to this 655,000 number and say that nothing the media reports can be trusted.

... and it tends to come from the mouths of folks who can't even name the commandments.

Fine. You think the following list is the basis of the U.S. legal system:

1) "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments."

-- Not illegal

2) "You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name."

-- Not illegal

3) "Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day."

-- Not illegal

4) "Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God commanded you, so that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you."

-- Not illegal

5*) "You shall not murder."

-- Illegal, though it's interesting that this has no asterisks attached to it, where U.S. law does. Where'd the notion of "justifiable homicide" come from?

6) "Neither shall you commit adultery."

-- Not illegal

7*) "Neither shall you steal."

-- Illegal

8*) "Neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbor."

-- Illegal, though rarely prosecuted

9) "Neither shall you covet your neighbor's wife."

-- Not illegal

10) "Neither shall you desire your neighbor's house, or field, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

-- Not only is this not illegal, it's the basis of our economic system

So out of 10 commandments, only three (*) are codified in U.S. law -- and one of those isn't as cut and dried as the commandment states. How does 33% = basis for U.S. law?

...but this isn't one of them. Viagra and other drugs of its kind are meant to counter a medical dysfunction. Birth control, when used to avoid pregnancy, is not countering a dysfunction -- rather, it's creating a medical dysfunction. That's why people have different attitudes about the pill when used for acne or endometriosis as opposed to birth control.

Frankly, whether it's hypocritical or not, the pill should definitely be covered. It's just the right thing to do. My fellow Catholics who disagree can feel free to not get a prescription.

...is that there's nothing in the sauce pan. She's not stirring anything! How fake.

And that today, a government that prioritizes embryonic stem cells over needy children, say, all too often blames -- if not incarcerates -- "bad" mothers rather than offering the support they need.

In all seriousness, what support could the government have given Yates that would have saved those children?

When a guy says, "I don't want my babies to be raised by anybody else," chances are he means that, all things being equal, and since he's got the choice, he'd rather stay at home than send his kids to daycare. Period. He doesn't mean, "Working dads are idiots." He doesn't mean, "I'm trying to start a broader sociological discussion by simultaneously praising my decision to stay at home while subtly deriding those who decide otherwise."

Take him at his word. And don't project your insecurities.

-- Working Dad

so I'm having a hard time raising up the same level of condemnation of "the system" as other letter writers.

I've got to ask one thing, though. If Jenkins actually had been taking pornographic pictures of his kids, doesn't the whole process he endured seem -- well, for lack of a better word -- "adequate?" For example, a parent accused of abusing a child shouldn't be able to retain a lawyer for the child, since a paid advocate is paid to advocate for the person doing the paying.

I'm also worried about about quotations like this one:

As I felt my anger rising, I told her I couldn't believe anybody would find a photograph of a 3-year-old making her way into a lake to skinny-dip titillating.

I'm glad he doesn't find such things titillating, but there are people out there who do. That's why "the system" acts the way it does.

I'm willing to wager that if an Eckerd employee had called the cops because similar pictures of Jenkins' kids had been found on a camera that didn't belong to Jenkins, he'd want the camera owner to go through the same ordeal.