I thought Carey had a good point about figuring out what you want with your career.

In regards to your job offer, before ruling it out, you owe it to yourself and your son to check out the area where the job is located. I've lived all over the country and there are bigots, uneducated dolts, and small minds everywhere. For those extolling the virtues of the NE, I wonder how many have gone outside of the big cities. You'll find talk radio listeners and bible thumpers in the NE too. I lived in Oxford, MS for 2 years. There are definitely areas of MS I wouldn't have wanted to live in, but Oxford was pretty nice. I also liked Huntsville, Austin, Knoxville, Asheville, Durham. I wouldn't write off the south before you actually see what it's like there. If the job is an area that doesn't feel right, then don't go. But, please don't think that the minute you move there your son's mind is going to be turned to mush.

Leaving aside the ridiculous headline, this article screamed out for some real investigative reporting. Why did the hospital release her? Why didn't the cops intervene? Perhaps they were legally prevented from doing say. In some states a person can only be held so long. Maybe her family vouched for her and took her home? What's the whole story?

Services for the mentally ill have always been bad in this country, that's nothing new. Most of our citizens don't want to pay more for a better mental health care system. That's the sad reality in which we exist. It's not going to get better any time soon.

It seems that most reviewers really enjoy the Julia half of the movie. I suspect that when they bought the film rights it was based on Powell's blog and her book hadn't even been published yet. Then when it came time to make the movie they felt they had to flesh out the Julia parts and decided to use her wonderful biography. I've never gotten much of a sense that Julie and Julia really have all that much in common. Even though the book was titled Julie & Julia, it's more about Julie than Julia. It's really too bad that someone couldn't make a movie solely about Julia as her life was quite interesting.

It seems like everyone prefers to yell their talking points at each other rather than having an intelligent conversation like mature adults. There are lots of valid points to discuss, but it can't happen when people shout down each other and when people use words like "Obamacare" and "brownshirts" to stifle discussion. I really feel sorry for the people who turn out to these town halls expecting a dialog and instead end up in the middle of political theater. The latter is going to score some points for the people who hate Obama, but it's not going to do anything to improve the lives of people who have to deal with the currently broken health care system.

I think the real button being pressed here has to do with how judgmental people on all sides of this question can be.

These types of articles always seem to bring out the antagonism in people. Childed v. childfree, breast v. bottle, SAHM v. working moms, private v. home school v. public school, the "correct" number of kids to have, etc. etc. Women need to stop beating themselves up over these decisions. Seriously, it's ridiculous. Not that people shouldn't have strong opinions, but it seems we fight these battles over and over and at the end nothing constructive seems to come of it.

For every smug childfree person who bitches and moans about a child being within 10 feet of their personal space, there is a smug parent who acts like giving birth endowed them with the gifts of perfect grace and supreme intelligence. Get over it. Women all over the world from the deepest Amazon jungle to a penthouse in Manhattan will give birth today. It's not that unique or unusual.

By the way, those people who think that having a child guarantees you'll have someone who will take care of you in your dotage, I encourage you to visit your local adult day care or assisted living center. For every person with a loving, supportive family you'll find someone whose children couldn't be bothered in some way, shape, or form. Not all families are perfect. Some parents are assholes and so are their kids.

I'm with kitchengirl in that I saw the interaction between Joan and Moneypenny as more power play than flirtation. I don't get any sense of budding romance. However, I'd love it if she dumped her jerk fiance and had a fling with Moneypenny.

In answer to a previous letter writer, yes a lot of us hicks in "flyover" country watch the show.

I appreciate the author's story and the comments from many letter writers who have real experience with "socialized" medicine, unlike the liars at Fox News.

One person said, "do you trust the government to do anything right?" Apparently, many of the people who get Medicare do. Satisfaction amongst Medicare recipients is higher than those enrolled in employee-paid insurance programs. This whole health care debate is a bit of deja vu for anyone alive during the decades before Medicare came into being, or to anyone who has read the history of those times. The opposition was convinced that Medicare would set us on a path to socialized medicine. Fast forward 40 years and people would revolt if anyone suggested elminating or reducing funding for Medicare. In fact, many on the right want more funding. For all of its faults Medicare has been a safety net for many seniors. Including my rabidly right wing grandmother and father.