Thanks for doing the dirty work of tuning in and reporting on the Fox coverage. After 8 years of Shrub (and already a bellyful of our own 'Shrub Lite', Stephen Harper), I'm maxed out on the blinkered, unprincipled, mealy-mouthed, callous, dissembling arseholes ruling our continent. I just don't have the stomach to listen to them or the talking heads who prop them up.

Even as a Canadian who was not able to cast a vote, I am beyond relieved that McCain/Palin didn't win, not so much out of fear of McCain as for Palin. This was like potential Shrub deja vu all over again, someone coasting to the top on nothing more than a bit of folksy baloney and self-deluding, overweaning ambition. I kept shaking my head and thinking, please, stop the madness. And did anyone notice, last night, during McCain's concession speech, how she grudgingly stepped back to let the man speak? She didn't deserve to be on the same stage as McCain. Give her the hook! I kept thinking. (And Tod looked like he'd had enough of the dog-and-pony show and couldn't wait to head back home and jump on the snowmobile.)

I am relieved that Obama won, and stayed up late to watch his speech. Finally, after years of appalling buffoonery, someone I don't have to mute! Someone who seems actually to have thought about things, who has worked for what he has, who had a track record of doing good things before the thought of running for President had crossed his mind. What a concept.

So here's his chance and he's earned it. I wish him all the luck in the world. (And I'm also really looking forward to the intelligence, poise and self-confidence of the future First Lady.)

Well done.

then, I guess, by that measure, Salon has succeeded.

I confess, I don't even read her anymore. I look at the headline, shake my head, and wonder why she still appears in print.

Please, Salon, find someone who has something meaningful to say.

thanks,

As a divorced, middle-aged, childless woman who was a stepmom to just such a child, I'm just shaking my head at this 'advice'. Unless the LW's husband buys a clue very soon -- and this seems highly unlikely -- there is no way this situation will turn around. And why, oh why, is the responsibility for this teenager being laid at the feet of an adult who never signed up for this anyway?

I completely agree with those who say the problem lies with the husband. He has shown a complete lack of regard for his wife. Since when is it ever OK to tell a wife she has no say about whatever dysfunction a husband wants to bring into her home?

The key to this whole letter is when the LW mentions she's thinking about divorce anyway. Obviously, there were problems there well before the kid showed up. IMHO, her husband's trying to force the LW to enable his emotionally incestuous relationship with his niece....this would be my cue to leave, quickly.

It's funny you should write that....

I'm in my late 40's and have been celibate for 5 years (I'm starting to totally relate to the article's author); was married for 5 before that, most of those pretty dreary on the sex scale. I don't regret the experience, but am relieved to be divorced.

Now that I'm back on the 'market', I see and experience some of what you describe. In fact, I work at a college where I'm surrounded by nerdy male faculty who are in various stages of singledom. A few, like you, probably think they've died and gone to dating heaven. They're tenured, making the bucks, graying nicely at the temples, at the height of their so-called male master-of-the-universe 'power', I guess, according to someone's measuring stick. They can and do go out with younger women, sometimes two at once. And you know what? After a while, many of them start to act callously. There's a swagger that wasn't there before. Pretty soon, the nice, respectful, intelligent, hard-working, middle-aged guy who could have attracted many women worth having....starts to look like someone any woman with a brain knows enough to avoid. You don't want to be a notch on the bedpost. You don't want to feed Captain Conquest's ego. But mostly, you know that you're better off alone than to be with a guy whose self-worth is tied to how "well" he does with the ladies. Or how young he can go.

As for young women who go out with older men...Sure there are always gold-diggers. But I can tell you that many, many young women (and I was one of them) prefer older men because guys their own age are almost always lagging in the emotional maturity department.