Thanks for this rational and objective explanation of this current flu situation. In contrast what's being reported for the most part in the MSM, and more to the point in the highly dramatic exploitational tone of their coverage, this is informative and reassuring, as it should be.

I think that the steps that public health officials have taken have been really quite good so far. The examples of excess are largely being amplified into public policy fiascos by ideologues and nervous nellies who are looking to either expoit fears or advance their suspicions.

If this pandemic fades away, I hope that our serious concern regarding the potential of other diseases to spread and cause death is not diminished. It really is serious and instead of feeling like we've over-reacted we should be glad we acted in a serious and effective manner.

Actually, there is ONE good excuse to not follow through with a progressive agenda...or mabye two. The progressive agenda is based on ideology, and real life is not. Secondly, a bird with only one wing can only fly in circles.

That said, if somewhat sarcastically, I will say that I am very much a supporter of many of the ideal that progressives, if such a monolithic term can be applied to such a diverse range of perspectives, but only in the sense that they need to be brought to the public forum to be tempered by counterveiling ideas that are in touch with the way people and reality really are.

Just as many freethinkers will say "there was a time when religious belief guided our society, it was called the dark ages", one could also say there was a time when progressive had controll of society, it was called China's Cultural Revolution.

If inanimate objects could tell us what is on their non-existent minds, I wouldn't be at all surprised if my car's gas pedal hated my car's brake pedal and as a result the steering wheel was getting tired of the bickering between them.

In closing, I think the lesson to be learned from the 105th congress, when Newt Gingrich finally got his wish, is that when you've been starved for a long while and are especially hungry it's wise to moderate one's intake.

Whether China emerges from this mess as the world's superpower, or some other country, or even if we enter a world where the term superpower is an irrelevant anachronism, we should consider the upside of not having the weight of the worlds problems resting on the US taxpayer. Imagine if our defense budget was in proportion to our economy the way other modern nations are. Consider the freedom we'd have overseas and the embrace we'd recieve from our fellow nations when they no longer have to deal with us as the 800 pound gorilla in the room. As nice as it all may seem to be, the costs of being a superpower are not insignificant and the benefits of working with others minus the concern of dominance could usher in a new era in cooperation, lower military expenses and a greater degree of coordination in addressing the very real problems that face us on a global scale.

...how terrible things are today with kids and sex. Why when I was young the kids never had problems with sex, tiajuanna bibles, 8 pagers, and intoxication...Oh, why can't they be like we were?

Just kidding. Parents seem to obsessed over their kids having sex the same way they always have, but one difference is that these days we've fooled ourselves into believing the tripe that sex before 18 is somehow detrimental and perverted, which is funny, cuz it makes almost everyone the grandchild of perverts.

The sociological model of sex is patterned on religious idealism, paperwork and logic...great for engineering, terrible for dealing with human impulses and instincts, especially with sex.

Throughout history the older men bonded with young, post-pubescent girls, and older women (frequently widowed or freed from her first husband) would then instruct the young men in the secret mysteries and techniques of sex. It essentially interwove the generations and created a cohesiveness that is rarely found today, much to our society's detriment.

Since "modern times" we've been attempting to "improve" on society by rejecting the way we'd been for literally tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years, as a social species. No wonder it makes us look like fools and for all the effort accomplishes next to nothing..or worse.

At 22 it's normal to want kids. Our biological imperitive and the instincts that drive it all say you are in the slot for this. So, it might impinge on your career. Well, it's easier to re-start your career than it is to deny your instincts. And when I use the pronouon "you" I do mean you, the letter writer. For someone else, with different drives and different motivations, it might be true...though keep in mind that your grandparents and all our human ancestors before them, with whom childbearing began in the early teens, would have considered you an old maid by 22, if you were even still surviving childbirth.

Of course, it's different these days, but it's not to say our instincts are. I suggest you will be happier following instincts than you will by following someone elses idea of what is right for "todays woman"...and by the way I, and probably you too, know many women who had kids while still in highschool years and now they're still active and lively enjoying grandkids and still young enough to do things, go places and share a their experiences in very real ways. Live it up.

Arousing, indeed!