But the LW became a factor in this girl's life the moment her relationship with the father went past casual dating. I've been there and dated several men with children and any woman who thinks that she can just date the guy and not have anything at all to do with his kids is an idiot. Not that you have to sign up for Mommy & Me classes, but you do generally find yourself doing a lot of things with the kids - going on family dates to the zoo or a park. I learned pretty early on that the good guys, the ones that I might want to think about in a more serious light were the ones who were watching how I interacted with their children. Did I bond with them and enjoy spending time with them, or did I resent their intrusion on my date time with the guy. The good ones didn't loose sight over the fact that if I became a regular part of his life that it would have a very profound effect on his children. I was being auditioned for the role of stepmom. The ones who weren't worth my time didn't seem to give a crap if I like his kid or not.

It's not as if the LW didn't know he had a child, that all of a sudden a sixteen year old stranger that he never knew about suddenly walked into his life and dumped her messy self all over his floor. The LW knew from the very start that he had a daughter and didn't seem to think that having someone other than a parent actually having physical custody of the girl was a problem. So now this screwed up, fucked up teenager is in her home and the LW cannot escape into her little fantasy where her BF is the perfect guy and his kid is just the occasional annoyance.

Women who don't want to be mothers or think that they could care about their partner's kids simply should not date men with children. And I really hate to break it to you, Jess, but the kids get first dibs on his time, attention, money, etc. Always. A second wife is stepping into an already existing family dynamic.

Having said that, this family dynamic is a complete and utter horror and how this man has utterly neglected his child for so many years speaks volumes about his character. He could possibly plead at least some ignorance while she was in her mother's custody, but this child was supposed to be with him for the past six years. For most of that time, he foisted the responsibility off on someone else while he went about his life, slept with his young girlfriend in a flat overlooking the sea. He's a jerk, no question about it. But the fact that the LW doesn't seem to care that this girl has suffered from having two horrible parents also speaks volumes about her own character.

I'm not going to go into a full fledged bash on the LW, though she does come across as shallow and selfish in her letter. She clearly resents the intrusion in her life by this girl, has no interest in trying to develop anything more than the most casual and distant of relations and makes it very clear that she feels this girl is lazy, sloppy, stupid, slovenly and ugly to boot. The one thing I can credit her for is being able to admit that she has no interest in trying to be a mother to this girl. If this is truly how she feels, then the right thing to do would be to end the relationship. No person should ever be cruel enough to try to force their partner to chose between them and a child, but when that choice must be made the child must win out.

Whatever flaws this girl the LW writes so disparagingly about might have, she certainly does not deserve the utterly rotten hand she's been dealt in life so far.

It's the disection of M. Obama's body and being getting a little tiresome. You would think that we've never seen an accomplished black woman in a position of authority before. Yes, she is the first black First Lady. Big deal. Can we get over the fawning astonishment and get on with the important matters facing ths administration?

Am waiting for a positively stimulating article on what happens when one of Obama girls gets braces.

One of the biggest complaints that Democrats had against Bush and the Republican majority for years was that they had been all but shut out of the poltical process. That the Republicans spoke about bipartisanship and reaching out to the opposing party, but more often than not Democrats were expected to just go along with whatever the majority dictated.

So now the shoe is on the other foot. Like the Democrats had been not all that long ago, the Republicans are limited in thier ability to push for their own agenda. They don't have the numbers to force compromise and the Democrats don't seem interested in compromising. Some might consider this payback for the years under Bush, but it's pretty discouraging for anyone who thought that electing Obama and a Democratic majority would really change things.

So we just have the roles reversed. Politics remain the same, no matter who is occupying the White House. The party that controls the numbers will get their way and the best that the opposing party can do is spout a lot of steam and stand on principle when they can. And in time, the cycle will reverse itself and we'll be right back where we started.