the way the future unfolds.

During the past two centuries, I can't imagine any American generation that looked to their future without feeling trepidation. That's inherent in the unknown and there has always been gathering clouds dark enough to aggrevate the fears of every generation. Compared with the traumas of WWI, the Great Depression, WWII, Korea and the Cold War, Vietnam and the draft, Watergate, Carter and Bush I, anxiety over $10,000 credit card bills, education loans and lousy current demand for liberal arts degrees seems more than a little melodramatic. But those are the dark clouds over the future of today's 20-somethings and, humans being how humans are, they're going to fixate on those worries.

While worrying, though, do keep in mind that things mostly always work out. Maybe not on the individual level where individual choice and circumstance can override general trends. But as a whole, Americans (who have NOT expected to inherit the world for generations upon generations, as the author commented) have been "blessed" with prosperous futures.

Yes, houses are too expensive today with a job market that's been pretty chilly for the last five or so years . But extrapolating on that limited perspective is a conceit of youth that will pass. If Americans facing (insert significant historical issue here) survived the financial penalty imposed by their looming circumstances go on to flourish over time, it's a fair bet that today's twenty-somethings will survive their self-imposed financial penalties of ill-advised spring vacations, latte entitlements and the indulgence of four+ years spent chasing degrees in Renaissance Art, Greek Philosophy or whatever else tickled their fancy. Not only surviving but, I'm betting, flourshing. How? I don't know... it's magic.

On a different vein, I WAS dismayed by the author's questioning the value of pursuing a college degree. Her points are well made but tainted by her lack of perspective. Putting aside the irony that her comments are those of a Yale graduate who's parents paid for her education, there's a competitive imperative to having a degree. This is based on my extensive hindsight as someone who didn't. I've learned that a degree is an entry gate to future opportunity and that the degree does not necessarily relate to the gate. Companies run by college graduates expect that someone taking any entry-level position-with-a-future meet certain entry-level requirements including that of having a degree. The majority of successful individuals in our society have degrees, they do the hiring and they expect that you too belong to the club of college graduates.

Not that having just any degree is as good as having the right degree or a degree from the right place. Math, science and engineering degree holders have an initial advantage over English or Philosophy majors. And MIT engineering graduates will have few job mobility issues compared with engineering graduates from a small college. But, in time, even those initial advantages are outweighed by individual talent, accomplishments and contributions. Having any college degree from any school is often the difference between being given a shot and being shown the door. So, please, in a society where high-school dropout rates are climing and college students are taking longer and longer to graduate (if they do), don't rain on higher education with appropriate but short-term concerns about the financial future.

Rocky

Actually, I can tell you I did the sigmoidoscopy, and it wasn't that bad. The colonoscopy isn't bad either, so I have heard. It's way, way better than getting cancer.

Can't say anything about a sigmoidoscopy but I can speak to the colonoscopy. It's not bad at all. You're during the procedure given a drug cocktail that, if you could buy it on the street, would quickly become all the rage. Put differently, you get to enjoy the first 10 seconds of the procedure and then you wake up asking if they're done. An hour or so later, you go home.

Frankly, it was less "distressing" than a digital exam.

My wife, in contrast, found out that she could stay awake for it if she wanted to. She was curious, did stay awake and was fascinated by the things she saw. Unfortunately, she wouldn't shut up about it for three weeks afterward. The doctor did warn that there would be some pain/discomfort at times but he told her during the procedure when "the next few seconds are going to be uncomfortable", they were and she appreciated being warning about it.

Of all the medical procedures I've come to be familiar with (wisdom tooth removal, root canal, "full physical exam", surgical fracture reduction, broken baby toes, flu, head colds, cardiac stress tests), the colonoscopy rates toward the bottom of the list in terms of discomfort and after effects. Honest.

Mr. Blumenthal's analysis is, as always, spot on... for the most part. The one area I quibble with is the suggestion that Mr. Bush actually believes in, tries to follow or relies on a higher authority. Such claims play well to his base but duping church-goers with easy rhetoric does not make him a Christian. He is revealed by his actions and those actions loudly proclaim that he is no follower of Jesus Christ.

is how kids (teens and preteens) cope with their parents when the parents hold all the power. As the kids pass into adulthood, the parents lose all power over their kids (a very painful process for some) and, not surprisingly, some may resort to the same childish power tactics their kids used on them (and they used on their parents)). One difference, though, is that fully grown adults tend to have more stamina for maintaining the silent treatment.

FWIW, this all sounds like your typical and typically dysfunctional family interactions. Considering that your parents haven't been able to fix you, don't expect to fix your parents. This is simply how it is; deal with it.