"Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"

Today marks the 55th anniversary of Army counsel Joseph N. Welch's reply to Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy during the latter's notorious witch hunt that was part of a terrorism program meant to emasculate the labor movement in America.

In the more than a half century since that time, it is almost impossible to believe that anyone in Washington or your state capitol or, for that matter, in your county seat has much sense of decency.

ABORTION: What would the argument be if MEN as well as women could become pregnant?

The murder of Dr. George Tiller, in the lobby of his church, has brought the right-wing's favorite political issue back into the forefront, just when most of us had hoped the recent election had finally marginalized it.

Abortion has been practiced for thousands of years. Only in recent years has it been relatively safe—no medical procedure is completely safe.

We live in a grossly overcrowded world, with a population that continues to explode. The next important issue looming before us is how we can possibly feed the world's population, provided we don't choke ourselves to death through global warming first.

The answer to the question is that if men became pregnant abortion would have always been legal, with no restrictions. But you already knew that, didn't you.

It Ain't Gonna Happen:

Many of us want to see Bush administration people go to jail for the mess they've made and the crimes committed during the past eight years, but this just ain't going to happen. Following the vote to impeach Nixon three decades ago, many of us then hoped that he would be tried for his many crimes, but Gerald Ford rushed in to pardon him, arguing that putting the former president on trial would distract the government and divide the country.

The real reason Nixon wasn't tried and Bush will not be tried is that everyone who anticipates holding the office of president is fearful that should one x-president be tried for high crimes and misdemeanors every president will face the same action once he or, someday, she will face the same action. (See Jeffrey Smith's Washington Post article.)