Mr. Ross seems to be tragically unaware that he himself, passed his expiration date when he turned twelve.

Perhaps charming in youth, when he hit puberty he unaccountably started seeing women as so many cartons of milk. "Use 'em up before they turn sour on ya!" "If they aren't creatin' babies, thays useless; git rid of 'em!" "They don't call 'em jugs fer nuttin"!

Yes, Mr. Ross has turned into what most women would call - a moron.

Some members of my family are -ists of one kind or another including my step-mother who is anti-semitic. I love my family, and I feel embarrassed and shocked by their attitudes, largely because they are, paradoxically, in addition to being racists, good people too.

With my step-mother, I have a lot of difficulty, perhaps because I don't love her, perhaps because she's so virulent and vocal in her beliefs, perhaps because the "angels of her better nature" seem to be permanently on vacation in most areas of life.

Before you agree to marry, I would try to find out more about my boyfriends attitudes and whether he has ever expressed his feelings to his family. I would make it clear to him about how you feel about the subject of bigotry, that it's important to you and that you want to raise your children to be tolerant and kind people. I agree with other posters that, while it would be desireable for your boyfriend to let his family know how he feels, for many, bringing up these kinds of issues with a bigoted family can be difficult. However, I think it will be important for you and your boyfriend to eventually set boundries around the issue, especially once you have children.

I differ with the posters who say that if you feel comfortable talking about the rape, to tell his family, because they then might put you in the category of "deserving" being raped. I would however, let them know in a generic way that you disagree and try to educate them about the realities of rape, ie. that it's an act of violence that has nothing to do with sexiness. Old women and nuns, for example, get raped too.

Best of luck.

As someone who was strongly opposed to the war (and a life-long Democrat) I have major misgivings about simply leaving the Iraqi's to whatever insanity that was unleashed by our invasion.

Starting with India in 1947, and up through innumerable tribal wars in Africa all the way up to Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, millions have been killed and mutilated in sectarian violence. Does anyone doubt that Iraq will turn into a bloodbath the moment we leave? We're not talking about broken pottery, but innocent's lives.

Our war turned into their war, at no fault of their own. I find it extremely disturbing that some of the politicans I admire most, simply ignore that little detail.

On a forum in at the NYTimes web site, an E. Indian poster wrote that he was sure that the Americans would leave because they always act in ways that feel good for the. It felt good to invade, so they did it, now it feels good to leave, so they'll do that, and damn the consequences.

I keep hearing Democratic party politicans, bloggers and pundits talk about "ending the war", as though the violence will stop if we leave. But on the Charlie Rose program, every journalist I've seen on that show, who actually reports from Iraq, says that our withdrawal it would be a disaster for the Iraqi's, especially the Sunni's.

If wee leave, the war may end for us, but it will turn into a killing field for the Iraqi's.

Right now, the US Military is the glue the that's holding the country together.

If all of the cops in NY city were to disappear, except for a few raw recuits, what do you think would happen?

As much as I'd love to see Bush and Cheney punished for the war the Dems shouldn't confuse payback for responsible action.

Let's say the Dems were to have their way and the troops were pulled as soon as possible, and the result was a bloodbath. The Dems would be blamed and would lose their lead for the '08 elections.

The Republican meme for the '08 campaign would be relentless. They'd blame the Dems for all manner of ills and probably succeed in turning back all of the Dems gains.

Leaving Iraq too soon, is not only irresponsible toward the Iraqi's it's very risky politically.

We may or may not be able to satbilize Iraq at this stage of the game, but I belive that we have a moral obligation, to do everything in power to bring back some sense of normalcy into the Iraqi's lives; and that will take time.

Jimmy Breslin once described Rudi as "a small man in search of balcony."

Adolf Hitler was a dog lover, but that doesn't make him a candidate for a "Humanitarian of the Year Award".

Imus is obviously a complex person, with many issues. The tendency in this country to pigeon hole people, makes deeper understanding, next to impossible.

According to the Wikipedia definition of "splitting", it's an "area of personality psychology, splitting is a term referring to as a cognitive error that is often considered the hallmark of borderline personality disorder. It is characterized by the propensity to either completely idealize or completely devalue other people, places, ideas, or objects; that is, to see them as either all good or all bad."

According to his friends, Imus is a good guy who does good works, which may actually be true, as far as it goes. But obviously he has a dark side (no pun intended) which he deals with by projecting it on to others.