Maybe more men would take advantage and take time off after the birth of their children.

I'm lucky. I work part-time for a small company so I don't feel like I've sacrificed time with my newborn son. But I'm not fooling myself--if I worked for a larger company with less understanding bosses, I'd have to make that choice too. I'm glad I don't have to.

My son was born three weeks ago via a C-section that would be considered elective. Our OB was ready to support whatever decision we were ready to make, but after considering the risk factors we were facing--mild but very slowly worsening pre-eclampsia foremost among them--we decided to schedule a C-section.

Our son was 9 pounds when he was born, about a week ahead of his due date. There is a very good possibility that, had my wife and I elected to try natural childbirth, we'd have ended up in the operating room anyway. Given that I'm looking at a happy and very healthy boy as a I type this, I have no doubts that we made the right decision, and on good advice from our doctor.

All throughout the Connecticut Senate race, the activists in the progressive blogosphere were being told by others, both in the Democratic Party and the mainstream media, that Harry Reid and other Democratic leaders in the Senate weren't going to throw their support to Ned Lamont or even threaten to strip Lieberman of his seniority and committee assignments because they didn't want to burn bridges.

Well, those bridges are intact and Lieberman is so grateful he's gone right back to doing what he's always done, namely, toeing the party line. The Republican Party line. And there's probably jack that Reid can now do to punish Lieberman during this congress.

Well, Sens. Reid, Schumer, and others who backed you're old buddy Joe--I and a lot of others, especially within the state of Connecticut told you so. Hopefully after Democratic gains are solidified after the 2008 elections, you can give Lieberman his just desserts. The chairmanship of the subcommittee dealing with prairie grass would be an excellent start. You can give Lieberman's current committee chairmanship at Homeland Security to the independent who actually does support the Democrats, the always outstanding Bernie Sanders. He may not want it, but he deserves your support and rewards far more than Joe Lieberman.

To the Bears fans who induced labor so as not to miss the NFC Championship:

I've only been a dad since Tuesday, but I've already learned this--the baby will not operate on your schedule. If you expect your kid to operate at your convenience, you'll be in big trouble.

Heather, read Suetonius's The Twelve Caesars and then re-watch Rome. Then you will get it, I think, and appreciate the series daring historical accuracy.

I watched season one on DVD and became an instant addict. There were very few false notes, down to the decayed grandeur of Egypt in "Caesarion." One of the series' creators put it best--their intention was to get away from what they termed "Holly-Rome" and present Roman life and the Roman mindset as honestly as it is possible 2000 years later. It's an alien, brutal and frightening world that makes the Current Unpleasantness in Washington seem like kindergarten.

Anyone who wants "Holly-Rome" can rent a Cecil B. DeMille movie. I'll be waiting, impatiently, for season 2 of Rome on DVD.

My hesitation with Obama, I'm coming to realize, has less to do with the experience issue than waiting for his actions to match his glowing rhetoric.

I can't expect Obama to solve the country's problems in just two years as a Senator, and in the minority no less, but with the Democrats in control I think Obama will have to spend 2007 on at least one piece of signature legislation if he really wants the White House.

...when it becomes worth their while to do so.

It's not a perfect analogy, but I think of the settlement of Texas, back it was still governed by Mexico. The Mexican goverment had this vast territory that needed settlers (in the government's view). Not enough Mexican citizens wanted to settle in Texas, and who could blame them? The solution for the Mexican government was to open the frontier to anyone, as long as they were Catholic. Plenty of Germans and Czechs were willing to brave the harsh frontier because it had been made worth their while to do so, because they got to own land.

Similarly, I would imagine that a few generations from now, a means will be found to make it worthwhile for humans to colonize Mars, if conditions on Earth are dire enough, and technology makes it possible.

I'm old enough (just) to remember how Indiana foolishly cast Evan Bayh's father, Birch, aside for (ugh) Dan Quayle. Birch was a great Senator and Democrat, but unfortunately the apple fell a little too far from the tree.

If only it was Birch, not Evan, running for president.

The only reason I stuck with MSNBC, at least until The Daily Show/Colbert Report's "Midterm Midtacular," was that the talking heads on CNN were even worse. Tweety started hectoring Howard Dean about Iraq early in the evening and it just went down hill from there.

MSNBC, please give us a lot more Olbermann, and a lot less Matthews in 2008. Pretty please?

I'm finishing up a three year vestry term at my Episcopal church--we're luckier than some parishes; I think the tension between the traditional and progressive members of our congregation has been overall constructive. We're moving forward, but not too fast.

For the church as a whole, if there are people that can't handle Jefferts Schori as bishop or want to keep the ECUSA stagnantly rooted in the past, then, well, go with God.