no. 90 - Roman Polanski

Roman, a cursory glance at the events of your life tell us it has been a cruel and ugly world for you. The horrors that seem to have surrounded your life would devastate any of us. But that you have suffered does not mean you are not and would not always have been a wretch.

The terrible death of your wife at the hands of the Mason lunatics pushed you, somehow, into the company and younger and younger women and girls. That you have admitted you were unfaithful to Sharon Tate does little to shed a flattering light on you, but rather makes her life and death all the more awful and tragic. I am unable to comprehend how her death lead you down the road of pedophilia, unless your understandable nihilism led you to feel you should do whatever you wished, regardless of right or wrong. But this could have led you down any road. The trouble is in what desires you found at your own core.

You may want to pretend that fleeing for 30 years entitles you to some sort of victory over consequences for the things that you have done, but it does not. You may want to cloak yourself in the story of your life - that fleeing makes you feel safe, but your behavior remains deplorable and your unwillingness to face the music looks like nothing but cowardice to me.

More than anything, I think you want to refuse to speak of what you have done, because you are smart and clever enough to know you may then have to face yourself. Your lawyer hopes you will soon "obtain your freedom," but that does not mean it is deserved.

no. 89 - Swine flu

Thanks swine flu. Swell of you to stop by the states. So glad to have you.

Thanks for teaching me to wash my hands like I'm scrubbing in for surgery.

Also nice of you to correct the image of pigs as filthy, disease festering animals who wallow in their own filth.

And let me congratulate you on requiring a double vaccination! Outstanding! Measles, mumps and rubella have nothing on you.

no. 88 - Joe Wilson

If you think for one moment Joe Wilson's outburst was an error of passion, you are mistaken.

The most charitable analysis I can give for his unacceptable and unprecedented breach is that it was an act of racism he is not conscious of. This is the same racism that has spurred the "birther" movement - a group of people who want to impeach Obama because they claim he is not a citizen, though all the facts show that he is.

I think it more likely, however, that Joe Wilson knew exactly what he was doing. He knew his words would help further undermine the president in the weak and trembling minds of those who believe health care reform is a conspiracy.

Where were Joe Wilson's shouts when we discovered the Bush administration had concocted the myth of weapons of mass destruction?