"Turns out that your mother's feelings for you may not be the unconditional things you always assumed. It's possible, researchers say, that the prettier you were when you were born, the more she loved you."

I suppose this isn't a definite sign she should move out—it is, however, a definite sign she should avoid listening to him, or speaking to him, or making eye contact with him.

@pugh: There's a long long list for nice white babies. Try being a little black boy whose mother can't care for him.

@pugh: But what do we do with the child we didn't allow to be aborted for "superficial" reasons? Assuming the parents don't want it, do we place it in the foster system? There are already so many children languishing there—children who are never permanently adopted, who bounce from foster home to foster home until…

@uncola: YES.

Arguments like these seem to forget that what is legal and what is moral never overlap completely, and there's always room on either side of that Venn diagram. This means that people can participate in legal activities for "immoral" reasons, and that's not a good enough reason to make them illegal.

@sara-without-an-h: @Rare Affinity: Hey all: condoms? They BREAK. Condoms aren't an impenetrable wall of magic.

Instinctive? Please. Girls are given baby dolls from birth. I've been babysitting since I was 12, camp-counseling since I was 13, tutoring since I was 15, and doing everything you can think of for my 9 (dear god, almost 10)-year-old brother since the day he was born. I have been training for motherhood for over a…

Well, but Carnival, Thanksgiving, and other food-heavy celebrations are also rigid in their traditions. You might overindulge insanely, but only during THIS time-frame, on THESE special foods, in THIS way. That's much more structured than wandering into a TGI Friday's once or twice a week, which we do in addition to…

@undefined: Win seconded.

How the hell does Maureen Dowd know what Obama "really wants"? Sometimes, I *really* want steamed fish, and sometimes, I *really* want a burger. Sometimes I *really* want tofu and broccoli, followed by pie and ice cream.

"She argues against casual sex - at least for women - so assiduously on the grounds that it hurts us. That it diminishes our self-esteem and numbs us to real love. But since when is a relationship any prophylactic against heartbreak?"

@Jello Mix: I thought about that too, and maybe that's the point? That her own looks were never an issue for her when she was a cute book-nerdy peasant, but then suddenly she was royalty?

@Lainface: Uh, Huck Finn, anyone?

You do not hav@missteenwordpower is your sexy Ms. Magoo.: "You do NOT have the right TO disappear...". Crap.

The name "Christian Civil Liberties Union", especially in this context, continues to gall me. You do NOT have the right not to disappear everything that offends you. Just as I do not have the right to disappear the gag-inducingly ironic title of your organization.

@ElviraGooch: I love the magical thinking involved in pretending that not aknowledging the possibility of a girl will prevent it from happening. It's like sticking your fingers in your ears and shouting "LALALALA!JOHNJAMESWILLIAMCHRISTOPHER!"

@jigglyball: You're my favorite.

@mass romantic: "lollerskates" is my new favorite.

@inabook: THIS. You might not like sex-selective abortions and I might not like Bill O'Reilly's continued existence, but that's not a good enough reason to make either illegal.