I'm heading up to Northeast Texas for Christmas with my family, including my Bill O'Reilly-loving father and uncle. After a couple of glasses of wine, they both like to bring up my ties to the ACLU (I was on the Board in Houston) and how stupid liberals are.

I am so glad I'm not the only one. I, too, want to remind my father that he raised an intelligent, compassionate, thoughtful, critical thinker daughter who fulfilled his unfulfilled dream of becoming a lawyer. Not my conservative brothers, me. That smart, liberal girl (as I was known in law school).

And I'm 43, Wil. It doesn't get that much better. But we love them, don't we?

Do we need pet photos? No. I understand that someone is glad that Scout is alive (I noted the shaved kitty arm for an iv). However, there are plenty of websites devoted to pet pics, and Salon shouldn't be one of them.

My cats are cuter, anyway.

I was mortified, ashamed, righteously indignant--you name it--by Abramoff's attire. An MOT, I recognized the hat immediately. And I interpreted his reason for wearing it as hypocritcal.

While I'm not the judge here, I think it's going to take more than davening and a couple of intense Yom Kippurs for Abramoff to get right with G-d.

Shabbat shalom, y'all!

That interview rocks. I'll go enjoy changing my own diapers now.

What's most interesting in this clip is the utterly blank look, that "just went up on his lines" look that Tom gives when Diane asks him what Katie does that drives him crazy. Wow. He even looked at the floor. This is all so sad. Not that I've ever been a fan, but sad-creepy.

A former proud resident of Beirut, no article touched me the way Chef Bourdain's truthful article did. His rough eloquence expresses the helplessnes, anger, sorrow and other swirling nameless emotions I feel every day. I was planning a return to my old hometown, to be a part of the joy and rebirth. Now I just stare at a recent photo of the neighborhood where I lived, Ramlet el Baida, taken just a couple of weeks prior to Hizbollah's idiotic act.

I had an abortion and I signed the petition.

Yes, it was a private decision. No, I am not "celebrating" what I did. I was shocked to read that so many people are couching the petition in those terms.

I signed because a woman's right to choose is slowly and surely being eroded. Women are viewed as vessels to carry children, not as distinct beings, seperate from their body parts.

Abortion is a choice and should remain so. It is not the best option for every woman. It was for me. The government does not have a right to tell me what to do in case of an unplanned pregnancy. That is between me and my God.

We miss you, Ann, and we'll never forget you. God bless you and the Great State of Texas.

So why did you buy a new diamond rather than an antique or vintage diamond and dipense with the whole blood diamond issue, and why did you spend so much? I am sure you beloved would have loved whatever ring with which you had presented her as a sign of her love.

Osama bin Ladin is a dire threat to lives across the world. That is an easy point for Dinesh D'Souza to make. What escapes him, however, are the even more dire assaults on our American way of life, our freedoms, even our formerly fluid class structure that President Bush and his fellow Fifth Columnists have sought to undermine for years. I do not use the term "Fifth Columnists" lightly. The attacks launched from within our Executive Branch that are intended to undermine way of life of 300 million people may be bloodless, but their effects may be every bit as devastating on our country as bin Ladin's unforgivable acts.

As Winston Churchill said in 1940:

"There is, however, another class for which I feel not the slightest sympathy. Parliament has given us powers to put down fifth column activities with the strongest hand, and we shall use those powers subject to the supervision and correcting of the House without hesitation until we are satisfied and more than satisfied that this malignancy in our midst has been effectually stamped out." June 4, 1940 Speech before the Commons

I feel sure (although I haven't googled it) that Churchill's speech was used to justify the suspension of many of the rights guaranteed to both citizens and non-citizens by our Constitution. The irony is not lost on me, nor should it be lost on D'Souza.