Thanks for the excellent post! You just described what I'm doing, more or less (although I have a hormone imbalance, and was told that I would have difficulty getting pregnant). I'm mostly pretty healthy, but I am going to really think over whether getting pregnant accidentally would be welcome or not.

Seriously. If I can bring my puppy until s/he's old enough to "hold it" all day, then you can bring your baby.

My attitude has always been "I'll put up with yours if you put up with mine". Next door neighbor's rock band practices in his living room? Fine. If my dog barks at 6:00 AM when I let him out, next door neighbor had better not complain.

It's worked so far.

1. Trap the cat (this is usually pretty easy).

2. Does the cat have ID? If it does, return the cat to the owners and explain that it is misbehaving in your yard and you would really appreciate their keeping it in. If you don't want to do that, ask animal control to do it. There are usually leash laws even for cats.

Otherwise

3. Take the cat to a local shelter. Hopefully you will be able to find a no-kill shelter. If you can't, you'll have to take it to the county. Hopefully the cat will be adopted by someone who lives nowhere near you.

But most suburban areas have leash laws, so IF the cat is owned, someone is violating the law. If the LW is concerned about laws about trapping the cat, the LW should call animal control, explain the situation, and have THEM set the humane trap and deal with the owners, if the cat is discovered to HAVE owners. Personally, if the cat has no ID then I would assume the cat was not owned and proceed accordingly, but that's just me.

I am a dog owner, and travel quite often with my dogs for Agility and Flyball competitions. We are required to clean up after our dogs, because if we don't, we might ruin it for the next group that wants to stay at that hotel, and have a competition at that venue. So it really fries me when people just let their animals use other people's yards as their toilet without cleaning it up.

They didn't vote "yes" to the amendment. They voted for cloture.

I remember seeing in a previous column that you were going to review it, and have been anxiously awaiting your comments. WHEN?

And also say that the singer looks like John Waters.

Lots of reasons for not having children besides being a "hedonistic a**hole". Among other things, sometimes it's NOT a choice. Sometimes, for whatever reason (fertility problems, never met the right partner, etc.) it just doesn't happen.

You've made the same argument before in other discussions of this type--the "you hedonistic a**hole childless people won't have anyone to take care of you when you're old" sort of argument. As other posters point out, having children is no guarantee that you'll have someone. I personally know of older people so thoroughly disliked by their children (with good reason) that I can guarantee the kids WON'T take care of them. And I know people with children who love their children, but if they had it to do all over again would NOT have them.

I think all anyone is asking is that single people be treated like people with lives, just as people with children are, and not be asked to continually pick up the slack for parents.

Who says...

... are you willing to forgo whatever eldercare, Medicare and Social Security that my children will be generating as workers/taxpayers 20-40 years from now?

If not, then this is not about your selxife or your free time. It's about childlessness as parasitism.

I don't know about Sharon, but *I* expect to be subsidized in my turn just as I currently subsidize those who came before me. And I expect that I might have put MORE money into the system than your average woman with children, as there has been no interruption in my working life, and I regularly work longer hours than those with children around me.

Your argument makes no sense whatsoever.

After all, your mouth (and teeth) are on the most vulnerable part of his body. Unless a weapon is being held to your head, that's a pretty powerful position to be in. You can choose to give him pleasure, or you can choose to hurt him irreparably (it IS possible to inflict major damage with your teeth).

For the record, I enjoy giving blow jobs in moderation (i.e. every couple of weeks or so). I don't see what the big deal is, or why we ought to inquire closely into what other people want to do in bed. Smacks of the sex police.