Viagra, Breasts & Your House

It's time, once again, for me to share some of the readers' responses I've gotten to recent columns. To protect their privacy, I've not revealed the full identity of any of these people, but I promise you that Karl Rove is not one of my sources.

In Sex, Drugs, And Congress I wrote about the House of Representatives banning Medicare and Medicaid from paying for Viagra and similar medications.

EWORTH: "My tax dollars aren't here to make sure each American male reaches his erectile potential."

RHON: "You are so far off on this subject. Child predators are receiving Viagra with Medicare or Medicaid funding."

ROBAD: "Your commentary about the government not paying for it was by far one of the dumbest and most illogical articles I've ever read."

GERA: "This legislation is just plain cruel to older men."

In Faking It, I wrote about the growing number of people who pretend to be engaged in cell phone conversations when they're not.

JACK: "There are times I want to rip the cell phone off their ear and toss it in the nearest drink!"

MRPRE: "I work for the counseling and rape crisis hotline. We often advise women (and men) who are afraid to walk alone at night to pretend they're talking on their cell phones. This increases safety by letting potential violent perpetrators know that their would-be victims have a lifeline."

In Get Fatter, Live Longer? I discussed the new food guidelines and pyramid.

DAN: "Reading parts of your column was like hearing an echo. They keep changing Their minds about what's healthy and unhealthy."

CARL: "We don't need a pyramid ... we need good old-fashioned common sense.

In Embracing Liberals, I wrote about a support group for liberals.

BALVER: "Hurrah and thank you for your article. Maybe there is still hope for this country."

STEVE: "With public opinion and the power of Congress on our side, liberals will need more than therapy — they should seek political asylum — LOL!!!"

In Deep Throat Disappointment, I expressed that I would have been happier if this had remained a mystery.

GAPON: "If there's anything to be learned from this, it's that's you're right on. Flawed, regular people can and are often heroes. And, right now, we need all we can get. Deep, mid or shallow."

GMET: "Clearly Felt was/is a reluctant, conflicted, and perhaps, troubled individual. An imperfect hero to be sure. But a hero nonetheless."

DAN: "We know he [Felt] became a traitor when Nixon bypassed him, selecting Mr. Gray, to succeed Hoover as the director of the FBI. This happened in old China many times over the last 2500 years. There were many Mr. Felts in China's long history."

In Breasts That Aren't A Bust, I spoke about the latest trend of women wanting to look like they have breast implants.

TRIN: "It amazes me that while our society is bombarded with messages of tolerance, embracing diversity and celebrating our differences, no one wants to stay the way they were created ... The group who truly suffers in all this is the American teenage girl."

In Live Long And Procrastinate, I wrote about how difficult it is for some of us to sit down and make some hard decisions and write a living will.

FRED: "My Living Will is titled, 'Put a fork in me when I'm done.'"

In Don't Take My House!, I discussed the Supreme Court's recent decision allowing local governments to invoke Eminent Domain to take private homes and sell them to other private individuals.

JUNE: "The whole American dream is to own your own home. And now for the courts to pass such a ruling is absurd. Let's take away their homes and see what they would say."

BAUT: "You failed to point out that the majority of the Supreme Court justices who ruled in favor of taking away our homes were liberals. This among other things demonstrates a liberal bias in your story, typical of CBS and the mainstream media."

GLOVE:"I was shocked and appalled when I heard the opinion as I'm sure millions of other Americans also were. We have been encouraging, certainly by example, the benefits of private property ownership to Russia, and now we are discouraging it here in America."

In Rogue Preschoolers?, I talked about the latest trend of expelling preschoolers for pulling hair and kicking others.

RJACHE: "Your piece was ridiculous and predictable ... Having no immediate consistent consequences for your actions eventually ends up with a society in which they have a place in the desert were you go and 'what happens there stays there.'"

JWILL: "It's time parents stepped forward and accepted responsibility ... and it's time for the Feds to consider making quality early child care a universal right."

CHARLES: "This is just another product of over-legislation and under-funding, zero tolerance and all other politically correct status symbols. We need to just let the kids be kids and learn on their own instead of being overprotective."

DJSIM: "If a child is repeatedly disruptive, he should be expelled so that the consequences of his behavior fall on his irresponsible parents rather than the teachers, the other children and their parents. If you were being sarcastic, never mind."

I appreciate all of your responses, and hope that you will continue to let me know what you think. And I'm not being sarcastic.

By Lloyd Garver