grothman

After years of trying to forge a relationship with my daughter, I have nothing but an angry and hateful teen who is completely self-absorbed, selfish and frankly, disturbed. (she thinks she is in a Hanna Montana episode 24x7) Her Mother has poisoned her to the point that the kid enjoys sending spiteful, mean emails. I continue to support her financially but can not handle the undiluted hate emails. She does not want me in her life. She's 15. There is no abuse here, nor do I drink, do drugs, run around with women or do anything than being her Dad. But I do not want to be her punching bag anymore. After the last rant email I told her not to contact me anymore....the letters are too painful to read. Can I be sued for child abandonment if I stop communicating with her, even if I continue the child support payments? What are my options.

My first girl friend gave me this book by Erica Jong in college right before we broke off for Summer break. The book is about the sexual liberation of a woman who was in a bad marriage...My questions is the sexual liberation me, or was this an announcement that she was seeking other partners? Neither of us had been with anyone else.

I recently visited my old college campus--first time in a long, long time. I wasn't prepared for the emotional crash that occurred when I approached my old dorm--and a tree outside where I met my first love. My knees were weak and my throat swelled up---30 years later and the emotions are still raw and rapturous--and agonizing. I have no interest in looking her up...she's happily married and has kids..We ended badly...she thought I was a huge mistake...and she was right..and I just want to purge these freaking feelings. Even now, days later I feel like I've been kicked in the head. Jeez...

NIXON OVER BUSH?

Forgetting about Watergate for a moment, Richard M. Nixon was perhaps the savviest politician since Benjamin Franklin when it came to foreign affairs.

Do you think Nixon would have handled 9/11 better? Do you think he would have been pulled in by the Neoconservatives obsession to remove Saddam Hussein? Would he have followed the path of faith-based policy making? Was Nixon better in foreign affairs than GW?

When SNL aired for the first time in late 1975 my parents were absolutely dumbfounded by it. They couldn't get over the irreverent themes--a sitting president spoofed, drugs, heavy drinking, --they felt the Carol Burnett Show was funnier.

But SNL hit a cord with me, and the kids my age. Also, my teachers, many of them just out of college were enamored by SNL. Every monday kids on the bus and home room went on and on about the SNL program the previous Saturday. At Halloween everyone wanted to be a Killer Bee or a Samaria.

My parents eventually banned SNL from our family TV dismissing it as juvenile and irrelevant.

But for me, SNL was the first show for me and my generation. It heralded in the Disco era and the Baby Boomers generation.

What do you think?

The GOP has created a new litmus test for being a true-blue patriot. Who loves Israel, and who doesn’t?

When asked if voting for Obama was a vote for killing Israel, Joe the plumber, the GOP poster boy who by the way, isn’t a plumber or named Joe, said, “yes.” This officially pinned Obama as a leftist, terrorist-sympathizing anti-American—conservatives love demonizing their opponents.

Sarah Palin, in her VP speeches often evoked the Israel State and in at least one debate opened her position by announcing in a non sequester “I love Israel.” Its’ the new code word for the New American. You can love or leave America, but you better adore the Jewish State or are painted a traitor.

If you listen to FOX News, Newsmax or any other conservative, right turning media outlet the references to Israel are grossly patronizing and more prominent than references to America.

I don’t love Israel. I am of Spanish decent but I don’t love Spain either, or Canada, or England or any other Nation other than the one I was born in.

But today, It’s not enough to side with Israel against Hamas or support it’s survival against the onslaught of Muslim hatred. You have to love her.

So what do you think? Should you love American first and only or should you, as the conservatives do, hold Israel in as much or in higher esteem as the US?

Do you think that people with duel citizenship in American and Israel (Paul Wolfowitz and the Neoconservative crowd) have too much influence in Washington’s National Policy and does their constant voice for Israel violate the separation of Church and State?

I am a fifty year old formerly married man. I've had 85-90 sex partners--I am disease free and wonder if that number would scare women. Many of these 'conquests' were one night stands in the seventies, eighties and nineties. I am much more conservative now and have passed on opportunities for recreational sex. Thoughts?

I have been taking two cups of decaffeinated green tea at night to help me sleep but when I wake up in the morning I'm drowsy, as if I was drugged. Has anyone else had this problem?