Look, I understand that Al Gore might have lost some of his passion for the ugliest bloodsport known to man. BUT the advantage to it is an unparalleled ability to create change. All of the talks Al Gore makes about global climate change won't have anywhere near the significance 100 years from now than legislation and treaties he can enact as president. The reason these people are willing to get in the mud is that the payoff is unbelievable!

Al Gore can say things like "I am out of love with politics" but the thing is, he doesn't say "Nope, no way, I will never ever run for president again! As god is my witness it'll never happen." He is simply being the smart politician he has been trained to be---trained every second of his life. He sees the rules have changed and the game is uglier than it EVER was. The thing the Democrats have lacked since Clinton was president is someone who is a strategist. Clinton was cunning in that role. Al has learned some of that.

Why should he run NOW? Why should he go through the hassle of raising money NOW and spending it? All of those guys running now are spending millions to do what he already has. People know who he is, they know where he stands, and they really like him and trust him. Can you say that about any of the other runners? So they raise millions and millions and look for photo ops and meanwhile, Gore just waits.

If Gore makes enters the fray in October, and he runs against say Mitt Romney, or Rudy Giuliani, or John McCain, can you even see this as a race?

It just ain't over till the fat lady sings.

I grew up in Chicago where my parents had a bakery. In the summer, it cooled off to perhaps 85 degrees in August, at night when we baked, and the ovens at 500 degrees certainly made it all unbearable. The humidity was always at about 90%. It was brutal. I became positively PHOBIC about heat. Seriously, heat would send me into panic attacks.

Then I moved west. You know how people always say "It's not the heat, it's the humidity?" Well that'true, but 110 degrees is hot no matter what. And when it is nighttime, and you are lying in your bed naked and still sweating and sweating and you've taken a cool bath and you don't have air conditioning, you begin to think, "Damn! I need a window unit at LEAST!".

The thing is, it's the electricity we're using to cool the room so we can sleep that is creating the miserable and lasting heat in the first place. Sooner or later we are going to be forced to step off this vicious cycle. It's like dieting. No one likes it, but the fact is, you have to take control of yourself! It's just the grown-up way to be.

The heat doesn't last all THAT long. Even with our own global warming soup we're living in, by September, it's bearable. So. take a cool bath, sleep in the back yard, open all the windows, keep the shades drawn during the day and realize that in the vast majority of the world, where they have to suffer this heat too and never HAD the joy of using air conditioning to cause global warming in the FIRST place, they are making do. If they can do it, so can we.

Why are people assuming the letter writer is a man? It seems so clearly a female behavior pattern. A man would never offer to let his friend have his room when he has the flu and sleep on the couch. A woman would do that.

I suspect they would think twice about evicting a man.

All of the suggestions that she has the upper hand if it's her name on the lease are right on target. If she put her friend on the lease, I suspect the fact that she was there first does give her SOME authority.

I disagree with Cary's lawyer friend. Don't be a dope. It's a hell of alot easier to get a new roommate than to get a great new apartment. Frankly, your scuzzoid friends seem to know this too.

That the girlfriend is pregnant is not your problem.

I have been checking Riverbend's blog every now and again since last April when she announced they were leaving Iraq. I was overjoyed to see she had posted a few days ago, though heartbroken to read about them leaving their home. Worried for the relatives safe-guarding their house. Wondering how many millions of times this scenario had been repeated.

Today Bush and the world were silent about Israel's bombing of Syria, --- bombing on the grounds of Syria's "having" nuclear weapons, ostensibly procured from North Korea. I think of the refugess from Iraq living in Syria and wonder, will this follow them? Will they suffer even more? Are their weapons of mass destruction being concocted now, so that we can "liberate" them next? Is Syria a gateway into Iran?

Until we can get Democrats to stand up and FIGHT and force republicans and George Bush to choke on their own evil rhetoric, I see no hope. We will be at war forever, for the benefit of Cheney's and Bush's corporate friends. We are there so that they can be guaranteed the opportunity to gorge at the public trough for generations to come. It is all about money and oil. Oil companies, Blackwater, Halliburton....... those are the only people will vested interests in seeing this madness continue. (We pay Blackwater $27 million a year on security for Crocker alone! It is beyond insanity!)

Riverbend's writing forces us to see the faces that mirror the horrors we inflict. This young woman is so smart, so sophisticated, so genuine --- how many more like her? How many more lives of smart, genuine hip Iraqis are ruined because we let an idiot madman have his way with the world?