Kathleen Parker's racist, homophobic column isn't entirely useless. This one deserves to be clipped out and tucked away in a folder somewhere. Then, whenever you hear a newspaper-type bemoaning the decline of print media, you can pull it out and say, "Print media? You mean like this gem from 'The Washington Post'?" And that's pretty much the end of the conversation. You won't even need to point out that this is the newspaper that totally enabled--and continues to enable--the Iraq war.

I agree that Holly Hunter's Grace Hanadarko is a fantastic character, but the religious aspects of the show are simply unbelievable. Grace is like the Job of atheists--she refuses to believe in God, no matter how many miracles He throws her way. This type of person doesn't exist in real life. Grace gets drunk one night, runs some poor guy over with her car, and then asks God to help her. God promptly sends an angel to her (in the flesh), who resurrects the dead guy and then tucks Grace into bed for the night. That's all in the first episode. Her guardian angel goes on to spend the series following her around and performing random miracles from time to time, and Grace STILL refuses to believe in God. Most of the atheists I know don't believe in God because they've never seen any convincing evidence of any sort of higher power. They aren't fanatical about it, and most of them will tell you that they'd be open to changing their minds if they ever saw something truly miraculous. I think that a winged angel who raises the dead would qualify as miraculous, even to the most ardent of atheists. And I can't for the life of me figure out why it isn't convincing to Grace.

The "Clinton got away with it" talking point is one of those zombies that simply will not die. Clinton was relentlessly investigated, had his "crimes" publicized in a best-selling report, was impeached, cut a deal with the prosecutor to avoid felony charges (in which he publicly admitted that he lied under oath), and was disbarred. All this for lying about oral sex. That's not "getting away with it". It is, in fact, "being investigated", which is exactly what we're asking for of the Bush administration.

So far, the only thing that surprises me about Dr Ivins is that he bothered to use an alias to buy his porn. Must be a generational thing.

We now know that some of the anthrax letters contained a novel, highly-weaponized form of anthrax that originated from a US military laboratory. Ask yourself this question. What's more likely?

a. This form of anthrax was designed by an alcoholic deranged lunatic, who was operating by himself and whose work remained undetected, despite the fact that he was operating right under the noses of a bunch of other anthrax researchers in a supposedly secure US military facility.

b. This form of anthrax was designed as part of a clandestine (and illegal) bioweapons program at a US military facility, and the government was willing to pay millions of dollars to an unwilling scapegoat (Hatfill) in order to shut him up, and now they're willing to blame the whole thing on some guy who just committed suicide.

Take your time making your choice.

I agree that beach volleyball is getting WAY too much coverage, but I have to say that one of the few things I like about the Olympics this year is that I'm not having to sit through hours and hours of coverage of the American "Dream Team" stomping the crap out of some other team on the basketball court. I can watch Americans play basketball just about any time I want to. I watch the Olympics for the sport that I don't get to see every day.

You know, the latest "He drove all night" theory pretty much begs the question: "Did you ask his wife about this?" Not coming home until daybreak (on a weeknight, no less) is something most wives notice. Did anyone even bother to ask?

So what's with the Russian's PR team? There's been no reporting of what the Russians have said, if anything, in response to this. So either the American press just isn't covering it (possible), or the Russians think that Bush and Rice look so ridiculous that they're aren't even bothering to send someone out to roll their eyes at them.

Relevant disclosures:

1. I am adamantly pro-choice.

2. I am an MD and a board-certified geneticist in the US.

I think that people on both sides of this debate make the assumption that the ONLY reason for a pregnant woman to know if her child will have Down syndrome is to decide whether or not to have an abortion. This is not the case, and I routinely counsel high-risk patients (for Down syndrome and similar disorders) to consider prenatal testing even if they would never consider having an abortion. The reason is simple: There is a high risk for complications at the delivery, and if this happens, you need to be close to a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) to take care of the baby.

She was also borderline dishonest about the issue of whether she looked into banning books while she was Wasilla mayor, using as "proof" the fact that some people claimed she wanted to ban the "Harry Potter" series, even though it was written after she was mayor.

Um, "borderline" dishonest? Sarah Palin was mayor of Wasilla until 2002. The first four "Harry Potter" books were published in the US in 1998, 1999, 1999, and 2000, respectively. The first "Harry Potter" movie came out in 2001. There's nothing "borderline" here. She is (at best) flat-out wrong, if not outright lying.