that if people don't have confidence, they don't spend.

Those who have a job know plenty who don't.

Those who don't have a job are strapped.

Those who do have a job are paying down debt, saving their money, and are worried about when their job may go "poof" into the recession.

How many brilliant Wall Street types does it take to figure this out? No one's borrowing nothin', because we don't know if we can pay it back. Those very same highly-paid Wall Street dudes who are laying off their staffs in the thousands to make the balance sheets better are contributing to the problem.

The interest rate can go hang itself. It's jobs that matter. Mine, here, now, and my prospects of getting another if this one goes kaput.

"She said mean things about me to her friends, so I said mean things about her."

Every day, every time, my answer is always the same. The universal parent answer. You are ONLY responsible for your own behavior. Whatever anyone else did, right, wrong, or otherwise, doesn't count. What counts is what YOU did. Worry about yourself, and what YOU do, not about what someone else did to you.

Every parent I know has this discussion. International political leaders could learn a lot from the conversations in their own kitchens.

Torture is NEVER justified. It is NEVER right. "Yeah but" doesn't apply.

Just like my son hitting his sister is NEVER justified.

Parking garages all over the suburbs, to make riding mass transit easier.

Everyone likes to bemoan the suburbs and say how awful they are, how the sprawl is a blight, yadda yadda. They're probably right.

However, we're stuck with them. We can't exactly tear down millions and millions of homes because the neighborhoods weren't designed properly.

So let's put in parking garages for park-and-ride commuters (bus, train, etc.) all over suburban America. Strategically located. Decent looking, say, with retail on the ground floor. To get people out of their cars and off the freeway, we have to get them out of their car-designed neighborhoods.

What if every suburban strip-mall or small community shopping center had a park-and-ride garage added in?

All-time favorite.

We could just as easily say "Oh dear, what will happen to music without corporate american music companies? Will good music cease to exist?"

Of course not. Good writing, like good music, will survive this. We are muddling our way to new channels, new ways of getting paid, new ways of sifting the wheat from the chaff. Good writing cease to exist? Not hardly. Editing as a profession on the way out? Nope. No one becomes a writer (or a musician) to get rich. A few do, a few more make a living at it, and a vast herd of wannabes strives to reach the next rung. As it always has been.

Major record labels went through this ten years ago. Now, with the advent of iTunes, digital music downloads, and a host of other technology, the major music labels have proved their own obsolescence. Musicians are still making music. Fans are still listening. Musicians are still getting paid, one way or another. Musicians don't NEED the major labels any more.

I don't think anyone can truly predict where this will end. But it's not the end of good writing. It's the evolving of a business model. Enough with "The Sky Is Falling" mentality. The sky is changing, not falling. Writers will continue writing, and readers will continue reading.

What if the Amazon Kindle becomes as open as iTunes, and I can go look up my favorite author's latest offering, pay a reasonable fee, and get it? Why not? If a song is $1, how much for a short story?

Can't remember where I read it, but think about the idea that any society is only seven missed meals away from anarchy.

Kinda scary.

And now he's back in. And yes, it was hard. It's hard for women, for men, for ANYBODY with a thin resume and a few years at home changing diapers and driving to preschool.

My husband went back to school. Worked his butt off. We spent three years accumulating debt and schlepping the kids to day care while I worked and he studied. And now he's working again.

That's the way it is for anybody who took time off. We never assumed he'd get any pats on the back for being an at-home dad (unless it was from the kids).

I agree with Ms. Traister entirely. If Caroline Kennedy was anyone else, she'd be a laughingstock. No, it's not possible for her to mount a campaign at this time, and it is the governor's job to appoint a senator to an open seat. However, I'd bet there are several elected officials (house members, mayors, various state and/or local offices) who have won an election or two and have some experience in government. To pick Caroline Kennedy is nothing but nepotism.

Not sexy or interesting, but very much needed.

We can't plow under the suburban sprawl and say "oops, bad idea, let's do it over." Good or bad, we're stuck with the suburbs. And there are a lot of them.

We need strategically placed parking garages so that suburbanites can more easily ride transit. They need to be in existing suburban centers like strip malls, next to libraries, in the suburban regional shopping/commercial areas. Put retail on the ground floor. Make it architecturally interesting and walkable (not just a big ugly cement block). So that people can drive there from their homes, and easily catch the bus or train, and do their grocery shopping before going home.

Then of course, fund the transit systems to take advantage of them. Add express buses and re-routed transit to take advantage of these park-and-ride lots.

More people would take transit if it were easier to get to, and didn't double commute time.