Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road... As you all know, the last year and a half have been tough on the Smith family. It was beyond exhausting. But when you try keeping eighty bazillion balls in the air at one time when you have lupus? Apparently your body decides to get even with you. And, let's just say, mine is doing so at the moment.

PBS Now recently interviewed Lt. Col. Stuart Couch on our treatment of detainees and the dangers of the slippery slope of torture. Couch is incredibly honest and open in the interview, and it makes for some compelling viewing. As Couch Says: We cannot compromise our respect for the dignity of every human being.

Sesame Street has always been out in front of issues that kids want and need to talk about, but that parents might think are above their heads. I can recall watching the show as a kid and picking up cues about racial tolerance and how bigotry can hurt someone's feelings. Or giving to others instead of being greedy.

'Tis the season. No, not that one. The bowl full o' jelly man isn't due for a few more months. It's apple season. That joyous time of year when I start craving spiced cider and apple crisps and spending time with my family at a u-pick-em orchard.

So many lives lost. So many dreams shattered. So many families with empty arms. So many loved ones with aching hearts. Still.

Pillars at SCOTUS via David Paul Ohmer. The full transcript from yesterday's Citizens United arguments has been released by SCOTUS. SCOTUSblog has links to both the transcript and the tape of oral argument, made available from PBS Newshour. Depending on the outcome of the case, there could be a reversal of laws which sought to balance speech rights against a compelling interest to prevent public corruption that go all the

The Citizens United case will be re-argued today before SCOTUS. As Robert Barnes put it, this is yet another test of stare decisis in a period where that hallowed doctrine has been repeatedly tested since Justice Roberts took the helm. And, more precisely, it "raises new ones about the boldness of a court that has moved to the right with the addition of Roberts and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr."

Continuing to open yap and insert ass, the random wingnutty Obama school speech idiocy continues: After reading the text on Monday, even Jim Greer, the Florida Republican Party chairman who last week accused the president of seeking to use the speech to foist “socialist ideology” on schoolchildren, said he could find nothing to criticize in its text. "In its current form, it’s fine,” Mr. Greer said in an interview. “But it remains to be seen if it’s the speech he’s going to give.”

As a nation, we are failing the most vulnerable members of our society. The number of homeless schoolchildren, uprooted amidst the financial turmoil of the last few years is rising: There were 679,000 homeless students reported in 2006-7, a total that surpassed one million by last spring...

Some folks might have qualms or questions about our having a Republican on FDL for a book salon. Not me. It's high time we started talking to one another about the issues, rather than talking past each other in a political frenzy. Especially regarding issues which in years past were supposedly held above the political fray: national security, intelligence matters, and the rule of law.