I am much more naturally drawn towards honest, real-world expressions of religious thought & experience than predictable, dogma-driven sermons. (I don't really think it's Salon's responsibility to provide that sort of thing anyway.) I can really identify with some of Ms. Steinke's feelings, and her struggle to reconcile the horrors of human existence with its joys and simple pleasures... all of which are seemingly given to us by the same God. I especially appreciated the taxi cab driver's thoughts: "Religions are not directly from God. Religion is finite. God is not finite, but infinite." Even though I am an evangelical Christian, I find more and more truth in this point of view as I grow older. People are all too eager to imprison God within a doctrinal framework. But I don't think that's where God is. He's outside of the boxes we construct for him, not inside them. A discomfiting thought, perhaps; but in my opinion, ultimately a liberating one.

that's all I wanted to say

...just not by crushing their skulls.

Jesus Christ. I can't understand how anyone could not be completely revolted at such a barbaric and inhuman procedure. There's a difference between supporting a woman's right to choose and supporting a particular method by which that choice is exercised. I'm in favor of gun control, but I don't advocate running violaters over with steamrollers.

So, imagine you (or your partner or daughter) are 18 weeks pregnant. You turn up for your first routine ultrasound and discover that your baby will be born without a brain. Or you're 20 weeks pregant and you find a lump in your breast and are told you must treat the cancer right away if you want to live.

Congress would like a word with you about what you do next.

Yeah, that's a different issue... though I understand that the concern is that the two issues of "availability" and "method" might now overlap uncomfortably. I just don't know how anyone can be okay with fetal death by blunt trauma -- or dismemberment, for that matter. Is that a death with dignity? I'm not even addressing personhood issues; let's just say it's the moral equivalent of a duck or a fish or something. Is gruesome and painful death in any case something that we can condone as a society?

Of course, there are situations like the ones you describe, and there are no easy answers to them. But it seems to me that not enough consideration is given to the fetus, which would undoubtedly feel its own death at or after 20 weeks. We give convicted killers lethal injections, we don't smash their brains in. Is there no concern about this issue?

"A Day in the Life" is a phenomenal song, but there's not much else about the album that really stands out to me. In other words, it's the music, stupid. Themes and concepts are great, but they only provide a framework that has to be filled in with the actual material. Sgt. Pepper isn't a bad album at all, but it's not really very revolutionary on a musical level. (Hello, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Pink Floyd...) It has no edge to it. It's a safe album that doesn't really challenge the listener. (With the exception of "A Day in the Life," of course.) This album, Magical Mystery Tour, and Yellow Submarine just sound like the Beatles were fucking around in the studio and had lost sight of the craft of songwriting.

Thank goodness for the White Album.

Why not let the states decide the issue? A monolithic Supreme Court ruling is clearly not tenable as a long-term solution, given how extraordinarily divisive the abortion issue is. Let the people vote on the issue at the local level.

I can only hope that justice is eventually served, and he pays for his crimes against the United States of America.

You have offended my honor, sirs / madams!

I get tired of reading the same stuff in this column day after day. Is it any wonder that Republicans think that the left wants us to fail in Iraq, when all you ever see is attempt after attempt to draw absolutely anything that could conceivably be interpreted as negative out of the news concerning Iraq? We get it already. George Bush is a colossal idiot who screwed our country and our reputation in the world. Agreed. The war has been handled atrociously. Yes, we understand this. But come on. Can we just lay off the "gotchas" for a minute?

Ultimately, shouldn't we *want* us to succeed in Iraq, no matter who takes credit for it? People's lives are infinitely more important than scoring a few stupid political points.

That it would take more than a few months to un-screw Iraq? Yes, patience with the Bush administration in general and with this war in particular is at an all-time low, but we must look beyond our own short-term desires and truly consider what must responsibly be done at this point. For we are responsible for the future of Iraq, whether or not we ever should have been. Of course the US military is not going to be able to directly affect the Iraqi government in any way; nobody should believe that such is the case. But we are still very much needed, if the Iraqi government is ever to get its act together and start some bona-fide governing. Of course it's maddeningly frustrating, but that does not give us a reason to up and leave, simply because we want to up and leave. As Colin Powell said, "you break it, you bought it." That is the situation we face, and we must do the best we can within that situation.