We know that gestational diabetes is a problem with some women, so doctors routinely test for it. We routinely test older women to determine if their child has Down Syndrome. With AIDS, we have a disease that can be transmitted from mother to child during childbirth, and we have tests to find out if she has the disease, and we have treatments that can dramatically reduce the liklihood of the child getting the disease if the mother has it. How on earth can we justify not testing for this disease routinely? It's time that AIDS lost it's social stigma and became what it should be - a treatable, but not curable, disease that can be prevented with adequate care. AIDS should not be in a special category all it's own. It's a disease, not a social problem.

There is nothing that terrorists could do to this nation that would be as bad as the consequences if politicians cease to be held accountable for their actions. Even if the terrorists somehow managed to destroy a city with a nuclear weapon (a longshot prospect, I'll grant), then they would only be destroying one city. Our system of government would remain intact. But if our leaders are allowed to be corrupt, then our entire system of government will collapse. We will become the proverbial "tin-pot dictatorship" where the way to get ahead is to bribe the right people and the poor have to scrounge for whatever scraps they can find because they have no voice.

I guess that's the difference between liberals and conservatives nowadays. We believe in the strength of our government to survive this crisis. They believe that our government is weak, and that the terrorists will destroy us if we do not change our system of government.

... there was no recording industry. Singers earned money by singing in front of crowds. Composers sold sheets of music for people to play in their living rooms, or found rich sponsors. Some people even made money as traveling singers, going from bar to bar. There were a few memorable pieces of music written, even without recording contracts. Even nowadays, there are a lot of musical groups making good music and decent money without "the music industry" being involved. I, for one, will not mourn the demise of the music industry, which is shoving garbage into the ears of teenagers everywhere and calling it "art" and which has made the ability to look good on a video an essential part of a music career. I'm actually looking forward to music being music, not "pop". There are some incredibly talented people out there who just don't look good in spandex. Maybe they'll get a chance to shine when the fake stars fall from the sky.

Don't let the turkeys get you down. I guess I grew up in a world more like yours. In San Francisco, where I grew up, Gay and Lesbian people were not freaks (unless they wanted to be - and some did!). I read and re-read your story last week and never did get the insult. It was pretty clear to to me that you were commenting on the tendency of Americans to stereotype gay men, not trying to stereotype them yourself. Please don't stop being you just because some people choose to use the comments on Salon as weapons. There are many of us out here who appreciate your humor and your ability to make even the creepiest parts of the past (like the cold war) seem nostalgic.

I am married to a person who is bipolar. I am very aware of the hells that are lows, and the hells (sometime masquerading as heavens) that are highs. My wife would very much like a cure for bipolarity if it's available... please, and thank you very much. I would seriously give all four limbs if they could find one and make her as "normal" as she believes everyone else is. But we walk through each day together through the raging infernos at both extremities of her emotional journey, she feeling the heat much more than I can, and I feeling the pain of not being able to help her beyond that act of simply being with her and listening.

Which brings me to my point: In lieu of a cure, she'll take understanding, or at least any sort of honest attempt to understand. She'll take a pursed-lip nod of comprehension (and perhaps relief at not being so inflicted) over a shallow plate of platitudes washed down with a large mug of gossip drunk behind her back later on. Those who have not been personally exposed to bipolar darkness, or who have chosen to embrace the creed of cynicism as their faith, will have no concept or understanding of what this living hell is like. But Mitch and Cynthia, my wife and I, and thousands of others get through each day with the appropriate medications, perhaps some cognitive therapy, and a dollop of human compassion. And most get to live what appears to be a normal life despite a disease that is more debilitating than it's sufferers would allow themselves to reveal. Reading a story like that of Mitch and Cynthia's will give other bipolar sufferers two things: The true knowledge that they can function as "regular" human beings, and the true hope that others will understand.

EJB

I can just imagine the questions. Do you really think you can be president during such challenging times? There are a lot of global tensions... do you think you'll be able to focus on world problems when your own health is fragile? Do you really think you'll be able to finish your term of office? If the world then had been as shallow as the world now, we would have been cheated out of a truly great President at a time when we especially needed him.