Before we assume this story can teach us anything about any group, I feel compelled to point out that in Texas a couple beat their two-year-old to death for not saying "please." (See http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/12/12/baby.grace/ ). What lesson could we take from that? Don't let young Christians raise kids? Of course not.

Actually, we do this at my house. To lift this from my blog today (http://jasonhenderson.livejournal.com/123245.html?view=214125#t214125), where I go into more detail, we connect the laptop to the TV through a weird little device called the PC to Video EZ.

The cons: That's a mess of chords.

The Pros: It's no worse than hooking up an Xbox. And the result is a fantastic picture, and I get to keep my Netflix queue busy with things that aren't on streaming. Plus-- how would a new set-top-box be any better, other than, I guess, you'd only have to set it up once?

As to the selection at Netflix, it's nowhere near the long tail of the DVD catalog, but really delivers when it comes to old TV shows.

Camille, I'm always, always enthralled by your column, but I don't understand this theory you've posited that says that Liberals don't respect the working class and don't understand them, and further that we're not as funny as Republicans.

Let's talk about both together-- when I think of Republicans and where they stand, I think of Giuliani's and Palin's convention speeches, which were exactly what I expect from the GOP-- snide, sanctimonious, sarcastic and hateful. The very *idea* of public service, of gathering people together, that whole after-school-study-programs and skills-training scene, brought gales of malicious, dripping laughter from the audience. Go back and watch if you doubt me. That's meanness. Ain't nothing Christian or plain-spoken about that kind of meanness.

And yet these, the snideness and sanctimony, are the qualities you suggest *liberals* have cornered. Maybe it's because I live in Texas, but I don't meet that many snide liberals.

I *am* a liberal, not from a privileged background but from a two-parent home, middle class, two kids; life is okay. All of which is to say I'm not your East Coast Elite. But the way I think of it is this: when McDonald's boils coffee and burns the flesh off a woman, liberals went to her aid and Republicans, lacking the wit to imagine gradations of "hot," made jokes. When Lily Ledbetter sued her employer, liberals backed her up, and Republicans defended the employer. When asked about the case and whether women should have the opportunity to sue for unfair wages when they discover the discrepancy, John McCain responded that no, women probably still needed more training. These guys might be amusing, they might talk like country folk, but they are not a friend of the working class. I simply can't understand where that rumor got started, but it sounds to me like a con.