There was a vignette about a town with a boy who could make strange, bad things happen with his mind. Everybody spent their entire life trying to keep him happy, saying that whatever he did, whatever he liked, however horrible, was "a good thing". It seems that the media feel the same way about George W Bush. Whatever he does, they are so afraid of his disapproval that they say it is a good thing, and anything that makes him unhappy is a bad thing.

Like the people in the town with the boy, Cohen and his ilk can't even acknowledge the possibility that bush needs to be told the truth, not a parcel of gentle lies that keep him happy. The man is president of one of the most powerful nations on the planet, not a pampered child who has to be coddled. If he can't handle criticism, then maybe he should quit and go someplace where he can surround himself with "yes" men without damaging the integrity of our country.

Why should they? They have everything to gain and nothing to lose by doing to the judiciary what they did to the media. They are "working the ref" to ensure that every time judges makes decisions, they are thinking about the political implications and worrying about the headlines and the effect on their careers. If the right can actually achieve congressional oversight over sitting judges, we will see left of center judges being challenged for minor ethical violations, and they will know that if they decide cases the "wrong" way, congress will be checking their finances VERY carefully. If you want to map the trend, just look at what has happend to the media, where liberals act like conservatives just so they won't be criticized for being too liberal.

I guess it's just me, but I can't imagine sleeping separately from my husband. I don't even want to. I sometimes reach out at night just to touch him, taking pleasure in knowing that he is there. I love waking up with him, or moving about the house quietly while he sleeps in. To me, this is a very normal relationship, and I can't imagine being with someone and wanting to live separately. On the rare occasions when we sleep separately, I miss him very much. It's not that I'm afraid of being along. I've lived alone most of my life (I married in my late 30's to a confirmed bachelor in his 40's). Nor do we spend every minute together. But even when we are apart, we are somehow together. I'm not sure what this new kind of relationship means, but it seems very strange to me.

...is a searchable database of phone communications so that whenever they tag somebody as a terrorist they can then identify everybody that person has called, and anybody that those people called. If this were possible, then they could easily identify terrorist cells in the U.S. But I see two problems with this. First, the terrorists probably assume that their calls may be intercepted. They are going to use disposable (or stolen) cell phones, verbal communications, or the internet to contact other cell member. Second, the database could easily be abused. Let's say that a leak occurs about ... wiretapping. They may feel that it is a matter of national security to identify the leaker. It is now a simple matter of tracking the phone records of the reporter who researched the story. What are the odds that a leaker is going to go to the trouble of using a non-tracable cell phone for a discussion with a reporter. The mere fear of being traced by the NSA may be enough to quench most leaks (at least the unauthorized ones - we'll still get the fake leaks that are planted by the administration). This could also be used to get information that could be politically valuable.

Knowledge is power. This administration knows that. When they know everything about their enemies, they have complete power. On the freeper site they are thrilled about this. They think that this kind of knowledge would have prevented 9/11. I'm not sure how they think that the FBI would have found the terrorist cells without looking for them. The right is willing to trade security for freedom. I suspect they will, as predicted, have neither.

A big part of growing up, for me at least, was accepting my parents as human beings with human weaknesses who did the best they could in raising me. My mother was terrific, but imperfect in many ways, and my father was a jerk who made my life miserable. But as I've grown, I realize more and more that both of my parents did the best they could with what they had to give, and we have to accept people for what they try to do, not what they can't control. I'm sorry that this woman's mother died before she could come to that realization. I hope she has better luck with her own son. Chances are good that he's going to disappoint her in many ways, as well. Human beings do that. If we don't learn to accept the bad with the good, we end up with few quality relationships.

Oh, and for the people who think that nobody can be close to their mother if she is from "that" generation... I adore my mother. And she and I are very close, in a mother/daughter way, not a best friend way. I woudln't give our relationship up for anything.