@CalleeGirl I totally understand your sadness. Watching the direction my country has taken in the past years breaks my heart. I am sad, nearly to the point of being ill, and all my family says is, "Don't take things so seriously." I know every generation is reported as saying the new one is gone to blazes, but it is quite easy to make a list of the drastic changes since about 1960. Most of the changes seem to come back to the issue of what is considered moral today. Now that our government is so much into this "whatever I can do" mindset, I don't see much room for hope any more.

@Jenn12 I am happy to see your post. For some reason (could it be intentional?) the history of Sanger and her original purpose of Planned Parenthood seems to stay waaaay hidden. This is a fact that needs to be stressed firmly by pro-life Americans. It should also be carefully explained that the idea was to "get rid of" as many people as possible who had birth defects or even skin of "unacceptable" color. Sanger was quite proud of the idea and its success.

How did you arrive at 2 years? Children are much older before they "choose" to be human. Well, actually, I don't know how they ever do that. I have heard the argument that they are human when they have some value that exceeds what has been invested in them. Isn't that weird? When will my value be gone again because I am too old and others have to invest in me?

Richard 19 I think you should have gone with your first sentence. As Jeff Jacoby discusses, thoughts should be off limits for trials. But you went a bit far saying "Ravi did not really do anything wrong." Any interference to right to privacy is wrong. This gets trickier when events occur in public, of course, but as I understand this particular issue was in a dorm room. A person should have a reasonable expectation of privacy under that circumstance.

@SoldierMomX2 Incredible, isn't it, how uninformed some people old enough to type can be? If Fort Hood can so quickly turn into "an active war zone" the way it did, how can anyone think that a base in Afghanistan is not "active?"

Do you have the slightest idea what a military base in a war zone is like? If this group had included your son or daughter would you think it correct for him or her to be told to lay down weapons? After what has been happening there--even in secure areas--in the last few weeks? This is NOT the norm, nor should it be. If this group couldn't get together without danger to Panetta, don't have a get-together for photo ops!

Did you ever read your benefit statement from Medicare? It has a space where it says how important it is to fight fraud, to please report any of which you are aware or suspicious. I tried that when an issue arose that I knew was not correct. I called the suggested number. The woman on the phone could not have been less interested. She didn't want to hear about it. By government standards it was "small beans," but thousands of dollars, as this was, repeated with many Medicare recipients would add up quickly.

@Paul Jacob This is a good post; reminding Americans that life is about choices is an excellent point. An awful lot of people today don't want to have to make the decisions.

@Michael Tanner As soon as the progressives manage to swing the argument to "contraception" rather than assault against religious freedom, conservatives (and the religious on the left) begin to lose. The argument is NOT contraception. Why can't these supposedly intelligent candidates see that they are being drawn off point?

Students who were on free lunch could get their usual lunches from the cafeteria but they never did. That always turned out to be a fun experience. Kids were allowed to trade food from their lunches (never done in the cafeteria) so long as they were trading in the same food group.