I'm a Jersey girl (sans big hair) and lesbian now living across the river in PA. When McGreevey came out with his ridiculous statement about being a "gay American", it felt like the whole episode was meant to pre-empt media reports about his gay relationship with his unqualified homeland security bud. That he called himself a "gay American" seemed out-of-place and, well, creepy in a way. Almost insulting. (Why not say, "gay New Jerseyan", though no one uses that phrase either.)

The bottom line: It struck me as disingenuous and kinda sleazy. His book deal feels the same. I don't get why some pockets of the gay community wants to embrace him. People: he came out because he was being squeezed out by pending news reports. Not because he felt in his heart-of-hearts that he needed to claim his gayness in the wake of gay discrimination. Or because he had fallen in love with a man and felt he owed it to his family and state to acknowledge this.

I won't buy his book anymore than I would buy Mary Cheney's--for similar reasons. Both are disingenuous, make-a-buck attempts to set straight (no pun intended) history that is just smoke and mirrors. And both authors (the ones whose names are in big font on the covers)have completely blown opportunities to improve the lives of gay Americans and the rest of the country's understanding of us.

A pox on both of them.

..."gay" isn't half as bad in most places as "pedophile", except in places like Rick Santorum's Pennsyltucky where they're lumped together.

And won't it be great when Foley gets out of his 28-days of treatment right before Election Day? If the GOP is smart, it'll pay the extra bucks to keep him in an extended program.

A friend of mine, who has two sons now in their early 20s, swears she "shudda stuck with goldfish". Mostly half-kiddingly. Then, when she describes how the younger son has found a career at which he's excelling and how well he's doing (after some rough times), it's wonderful to see her pride and love.

Me, I'm someone who knew from the first week of kindergarten that I didn't want kids, just animal friends. I don't regret it. I'm a great animal "mom", and my furry kids have taught me so much about life, living and loving.

Heather: anyone who's as anxious as you about doing the right thing for your "lamprey" is very likely to be a good parent. So enjoy all you can (and I'll bet there's a LOT!) of your baby and helping it grow into the most wonderful person you can imagine.

that the folks from the party that espouses "jail is rehab" are often the first to find their way to a rehab program?

Good for Brian Ross for not agreeing to Foley's request.

...they're not from Hollywood or, more precisely, the Hollywood mindset of how actors/actresses should look. Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet and Helen Mirren are all English and began their careers in the UK, where it seems a more accepting mindset reigns regarding how thin, etc. a woman should be.

These are, by the way, three of my favorite actors to watch. Kate Burton and Blythe Danner, among others, are up there, too. They are smart, witty, thoughtful individuals who happen to be excellent at a broad range of acting roles to boot. They believe in honing their craft...not in relying on which club they should be seen at on which night, etc. to land plum roles. And that makes them incredibly sexy and beautiful as well as being Oscar-caliber performers.

...if it wasn't so inane and coming out of the mouth of the guy in the White House: "I meet with him a lot."

Memo to Denny: Clean out the Speaker's office, bubba. Yer on yer way outta there. But don't worry, you won't have to go far. Darth's friends at Halliburton'll find you a job in the land of misfit politicians. Jacka$$es like you don't fade away, they just find cushy jobs on K Street.

As a long-time cancer survivor, I'm of two minds (or more) re: the hub-bub about the Pink month (which seems to go on all year now):

- I appreciate and respect breast-cancer survivors who have come out having had the disease and encouraged more women (and men) to get regular mammograms, do self-exams, etc. Anything that builds communication, awareness and acceptance is positive.

- It is worth noting that, in raising funds for their disease, however, that they're not the first on the block to become activists. The HIV/AIDs populations were. And they became in-your-face, bonafide

activists out of a dire need for treatment options. Nowadays the kinder-gentler term is "advocate"--perhaps most of us survivors don't have/feel the same sense of outrage and urgency that those early AIDs activists did. (Who did the ribbons first? Remember the red AIDS ribbons everyone wore to the Oscars years and years ago?)

- However, I do cringe when it's all breast cancer all the time...ONLY because other cancers and life-threatening diseases/conditions don't get the same treatment. Until a year or so ago, the FDA had only approved a couple of drugs to treat renal cell carcinoma (the most common form of kidney cancer), the type of cancer from which I'm in remission. Let me be blunt: how many kidney cancer patients (and those with more obscure but equally deadly diseases) died because research funds that could have gone to their disease went to yet another marginally effective, palliative treatment option for breast cancer?

- So I do give to breast cancer causes. But I request birthday and Christmas donations in my name to the Kidney Cancer Association in lieu of presents and have contributed recipes for a fund-raising cookbook.

And, most of all, I hope for a day when walk-a-thons and other fundraisers for cancer are no longer needed because we're no longer losing good women and men to this horrific collection of diseases.