To AKA Smith

I remember being really pissed off by Dukakis's answer to "what would he do if his wife was raped" question. His reply was wooden, and completely devoid of human emotion. Even then, when I was 14, I was a huge self defense gun freak, and I remember raving; If it was my wife, I would have hunted the man who raped her down like he was vermin, and killed him with my bare hands. But then later I thought, as a man of honor and principle I cannot condone that a man take on the rules of law enforcement, judge, jury, and executioner all at the same time. Without honor and principles we are little more than animals.

Hillary Clinton was recently asked a similar trap question about torture. I thought she answered it right. to paraphrase her; In the unlikely 1 in a trillion chance that we had a terrorist in custody who possessed knowledge of a ticking nuclear bomb, of course we would want (and would) torture the guy in the most disturbing manner imaginable, but despite that sense of raw emotion that we all feel, we as a nation are founded upon honor and principles, and we cannot have torture as a policy, because torture goes against everything America stands for.

Completely off topic I know, sorry.

Thanks for your in-field perspective, but Ms. Currier's antics are not the issue. If she fails the test with the extra 60 minutes of break, I won't shed a tear for her, but the alternative is unacceptable. Regardless of her character, Ms. Currier should not be forced to suffer because she is lactating. Avoiding having to force a woman (any woman) to suffer through 9 hours of an exam due to insufficient break time to breast pump is the issue, and the appeals court saw that forcing a lactating woman to suffer was unfair, unreasonable, and wrong. Principle trumps character issues.

If Ms. Currier was a model citizen, would you still be against her receiving an extra 60 minutes of break time to breast pump? Or are you going to tell all lactating women, "tuff shit," you have to suffer?

When it comes to protecting civil liberties, a lot of people who are harmed by the system are not the most appealing people (the Gitmo detainees come to mind), but if a select group of people’s civil liberties are not respected, then no one’s are.

When reading this article, one asks; what really is retirement?

Technically it means drawing a pension, but in the military it means going into inactive reserve, for life.

As a man, retirement for me means becoming a full time writer, but I would love to teach as well. No way am I going to sit on my ass all day after I pass 70 (which I expect will be the age of retirement for me), and I do not fear working in my twilight days, as long as the work that I am doing is not back breaking, I have Universal Health Care coverage, and it's meaningful work. The only difference is that today I am willing to break my back (figuratively).

As a young man I can honestly say I have learned more from senior citizens than I have any other age group, and for that I am extremely grateful. The seniors of societies can contribute, and they contribute everyday, so it needs to be assured that they are not forced to do back breaking work, that their Health Care is covered, and that the meaningful work that they do is respected.

"Heaven forbid USA embraces some socialist policy.. for them its Screw the kids, family values and corporations are more important"

Actually it's; screw the kids, corporations are more important. Opposing an increase on cigarette taxes to pay for health care for kids of families of $80,000 a year or less, is a family values loser, big time.

It may be a trend, but the deciding factor is still the woman's decision. Unless there are women out there who get married only because their father and boyfriend agreed that a marriage is a good idea, then the trend is really irrelevant to women's issues. As I understand matters, most couples these days actually live together before they get married, and I believe that is the real trend that is on the rise. A lot of boyfriends probably ask for their girlfriend's father's blessing, not so much as a request for their daughter, but for acceptance into the family. Such was the case for me, but I asked my mother-in-law, because I knew her acceptance was what I really needed if her family was ever going to accept me (she did). But my then girlfriend, now wife, and I had been living together for more than a year before I proposed to her (actually it seems like she was the one that made a proposal to me; "lets take this relationship to the next level, or I am moving out").