but lord, do I love this essay.

Thanks for being such a concise laserbeam of truth this time, a-hole. You made me spit my coffee.

Maher,

Do you even have a kid?

Mom and Dad does everything wrong. That's why we look to politicians and pediatricians and the f'ing "leave no child behind" school systems.

I remember three years before my son was diagnosed with autism, taking him in to the pediatrician's office. It took myself and a nurse to pry off his shoes, he screamed the whole time. Later he chilled out and whirled in circles in front of the Dr.

The Doctor looked at him and frowned. He said, "well, he doesn't have a weight problem now, but you'll want to keep an eye out".

The scientists in the Bush administration claim the increase in autism is due to better screening. Oh, yes.

How about this? The bullshit "weight crisis"- is not all that different from the "the terrorists are out to steal out freedom"?

I'm not over weight, my children are not over weight. Occasionally (and I live in the deep South where it's much more likely to see people go 200+ on a regular basis). Occasionaly, one does see a pathetically over weight kid. (always with the parent/s who are 200-300+).

I'm a nurse. I work in geriatrics. You know who's overweight? Old people. Too freakin' late for them. Although maybe not for their 50-40 year old children. Yell at those people, eh?

There's a bunch of insanity in America. Let's keep our eye on the insanity that leads to blowing people up for no reason. Maybe some of that we can control?

The weight thing is assinine and just way off the subject.

Thank you,

Anne

Bill Maher can get into my pants anytime.....

I do agree with you that Mark Foley is likely our least worry regarding "The Children".

I just hate how people fetishize childhood and look to The KIDs to save us- and how that will only happen if their parents find a way to raise their children so that they might save society from ourselves.

Do you see my point? We're the adults here! If we can imagine our children being better (or say some super-amazing parents able to raise children better)- How come we can't just do it ourselves?

We're the adults. The one's in charge. Remember?

Okay, Bill Maher, I won't worry about Foley. I wasn't really worrying about Foley anywyay.

But could you do us all a big favor and let Howard Dean and Nancy Pelosi know that nobody should be worrying about Foley?

As for the debate as to whether the United States is the best nation in which to live in the history of the planet -- the most free, the happiest, the richest, and with the finest health care system and pharmeceutical research industry in the history of mankind -- when you want that debate, you just round up Howard Dean and Nancy Pelosi and BRING IT ON!!!

Bill Maher is a menace to childen because he upsets the social order. Without that, society could not fight wars, lead Mexicans to independence over our border or develop gameplaying skills that will one day protect our planet and rule the universe.

If children watched more TV, they would eventually become hating little commies, just like Nixon predicted. The red states are basically communist enclaves that cater to lockstep command over soccer, dance, karate and even music lessons. There is no freeform jazz in Ohio anymore.

If civil rights and Jeffersonian liberty were to ever go over in this country, children would stop accusing each other of cheating, and instead help to rebuild community parks and crack/meth houses after completing their unchaperoned two hours of sexual intercourse after school each day.

As everyone recalls, Nixon was thin (but not as bad as Pat who chainsmoked) and poor, and so he opened the door for China to export all this crap into our society - for 1 million dollars.

No Nixon - never a WalMart! When jobs and kids are exported to another land - real or virtual - problems arrive that parents simply cannot manage with their high school diploma or Brown degree.

Instead of prescribing mall shopping tours and medication extravaganzas, why not force children to run around in small gangs of "do-gooders" who pester neighbors into joining the "safe-child" protection league in their hometown?

Why not?! Nixon - that's why not. He and his henchmen broke into democratic headquarters and stole the Constitution - so that Today we cannot form free, organized resistance groups to the fast-food and convenience network controlled by commie infiltrators! One small soccer practice for kids - one large leap for 711 and other sympathizers!!

Instead of blaming innocent, hardworking parents who simply forgot that sex leads to a baby, why not condemn those who are truly the root cause of our modern plight?! Remember this slogan for all time, Americans... "Nixon's the one!"

Hooray for Bill Maher! We pay extra for HBO to get his show, so it's great to see him on Salon. Keep it up!

Of course we focus on the wrong things. Noticing that corporate superstars are shaking our overweight, overmedicated, and underbrained preteens upside down until all their pocket money falls out is so much more difficult than pointing a finger at a revolting Congressional pervert. Skanky email confessions! Boxer clad underage page lust! And Foley was the head of the Congressional committee on missing and exploited children--you couldn't make that up, and if you did, no one would believe it. Possibly we should have noticed when Foley said "there are sexual predators targeting your children" that he was admiring his own reflection in Congress's men's room mirror.

You can't fully blame our dazed media morons for what they cover in this case(though I do). Naked chubby right-wing Republican congressman lusting after our teenage best and brightest (argh) vs. much more complicated, hard to explain, pesticide glazed apples and pill-popping junior varsity kids. Now if only one of the Congressional pages had been on Ritalin--then we'd have a story!