We know people like Vitter and Craig are pretty icky; their duplicitous and elastic morality is simply a given. But with someone like Spitzer the fall is just that much more painful and absolute because Spitzer's currency IS his integrity - resign or not the damage is done. When you pick fights with the super powerful the way he has (and bless his heart for that!) you simply must live your life beyond reproach regardless of your own personal peccadillos. Surely a sad day. Spitzer has let down way more than just his wife and family.

*double sigh*

I agree completely with h_lance on this one. This idea of Omar Fekeiki is a perfect recipe for the ugliest despotism one can only imagine; and would no doubt bring about nothing other than a greater disaster, but possibly exponentially worse.

The faster we get out, and the faster we open up multilateral diplomacy involving the surrounding nations - especially Iran - the faster some kind of solution will arrive for this pandora's box.

When a politician like Spitzer makes their own personal integrity their political currency, to then be revealed as an hypocrite the damage is exponential. The higher the standard you hold yourself, by implication, the higher the standard you expect from others. Spitzer, unlike Ted Kennedy, no longer smells like a rose, he smells like shit. Do us a favor Spitzer: go away.

Another analogy: If we as Americans claim that to torture people is unethical, then to proceed to have places like GTMO, we can never call others out on their lack of ethical behavior... It's as simple as that.

This is tremendously sad, but Spitzer did the right thing. When your whole political power and credibility lies completely in your own integrity - or at least the image thereof - any hypocrisy is doubly, if not exponentially damaging. if this were Bill Clinton, well... We all know he's a horn dog, but an effective one. If you're going to bust prostitution rings (prostitution IMO should be decriminalized) then you better not get your nooky from whores, period.

Especially what Hedges has to say about Christopher Hitchens, who I find a completely self serving schmuck; except Hedges describes Hitchens a whole lot better.

The one thing I may contest with him is the assertion that atheist, regardless of how fundie they may be, are dangerous. Atheists and atheism, at least in capitalist culture, is so completely marginalized as to pose anything that could be considered dangerous. Now religious fundies? Well that's another story.

Maybe this "correction" underway will do exactly that.

That's what Cokie Roberts screamed at the top of her lungs on this political debate show called 'Capital Gang' on CNN, I think, to justify the correctness of whatever previously came out of her mouth. That Cokie is such an incredible bag on methane, she makes me cringe right down to the bone whenever I hear her on NPR... I usually turn-off the radio.

But there's no doubt it that humanity now has a new "little friend" that humanity for the foreseeable future will be forced to relate to and live with. Will it be a parasitic relationship? A commensal relationship? Or a simbiotic one? That, of course, time will only tell.

I think, since no human on earth should be without modern plumbing - not to mention every other modern convenience I take for granted - I say full steam ahead, and let's find out what happens.

Please! Please! Get rid of that cheesy soundtrack behind your commentary. It's very distracting.

Thanks!

It's really wonderful that Ms. Hood's and Annabelle's story has a happy ending. I think one of the first things in successful parenting is to really, really want your child. That, in and of itself, sends a very powerful positive message to the child. We really need more parents who really want their children as opposed to parents that have their children just to fulfill some kind of social obligation, or have them as accidents.

On the other hand, there is something really disturbing about all this to me. One person actually spent a hundred grand to acquire a baby? Can you imagine a woman in an impoverished third-world country (where the vast majority of women live) doing this? Then there is the more extreme version of this represented by people like Mia Farrow and André Previn, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, and of course Madonna: children as social statements and fashion accessories. This is just another form of conspicuous consumption. It's decadent.

I just finished reading "Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Geopolitics of Energy", by Michael T. Klare. Yup, it's a scary book.

I finally figured out how I wake up in the morning and face the world: denial and massive amounts of self-delusion.

*sigh* There is a whole laundry list of things we can thank Reagan for... One that easily come to mind: all the valuable time we lost fighting HIV 'cause it was a disease that junkies, Haitians and "fags" got.

Thanks Ronald Reagan!!!

Gun control is not anymore antithetical to the second amendment than getting a driver's license is to your right to own and drive a car.

P.S. There's an old riddle... Question: What does a roll of toilet paper have in common with the Starship Enterprise? Answer: both circle Uranus and pickup the Klingons. Now, would somebody pleeeease flush the Turd Blossom down the toilet already!! Thanks.

It's the tallest tree which gets chopped down first.

Maybe that was the problem. I imagine we do too much of that and we'll end-up with mono-culture and mediocrity.

If I were John McCain, I'd be kinda' worried about that button Mean Mr. Potato Head is sporting on his lapel.

...Just sayin'.