BP should be held responsible for its profound negligence, for example, with regard to systematic flaws in its equipment monitoring processes.

And – as was my chief point – publications ostensibly in support of environmental causes ought not to be involved in what I called “image laundry” (not, incidentally, my term; if memory serves, I got it from something or another by a writer named D.A. Clarke) – e.g., accepting advertising dollars from companies like BP, thus lending the latter a false sense of, in this case, “green” credibility.

But no, of course I do not include among the myriad examples of BP's negligence (nor in The Nation's arguable complicity) some harebrained, paranoid, and downright bizarre idea that they knew the oil spill would happen on April 20, and thus placed advertising in an issue of one of a (rightly) respected left-leaning news and culture publication with a date of April 19 (which also, obviously, would have gone to press well before that, and the actual advertising arranged well in advance of that).

Bottom line: I found a recent back issue of a publication I hold dear in a thrift shop's “free magazines” bin, brought it home, flipped it over, saw the BP ad on the back cover, looked again at the front cover, observed the issue date, and had a chill ran down my spine.

Not for being some whackjob conspiracy nut, imputing from an unfortunate (and, to the Left, frankly embarrassing) coincidence that it was all, somehow, “deliberate.”

I am genuinely horrified that anyone reading the initial post might have imagined otherwise, and thus extend my sincerest apologies to yourself and anyone else for whom my ideas about this matter were not expressed clearly enough, from the beginning.

I suspect you are a completely fabulous uncle. And will be, when and if that development occurs (oh please! you guys would make adorable littles! or adopt! whatever!), an equally rad parent. For reals.

I admire your unfathomable restraint in not bouncing that little fucker off the ceiling.

Dialectical and practical commitments to pacifism notwithstanding, don't imagine, for a skinny minute, that this wasn't my first impulse (alas).

It's like the real phenomenon of rape is linguistically disappeared (and minimized, and justified), while, paradoxically, it is also escalated. (Not only the grossly distorted language invoking 'rape,' but rape itself.)

Sheesh.

Anyway, very useful things for me to consider – thank you kindly.

I don't know the situation with the kid that's bullying your daughter, but I think it's very likely he's just parroting what he hears online. This is obviously NOT an excuse. I'm glad you are taking action, because if the behavior of people on Xbox Live starts to bleed into the “real” world, we're going to have a LOT of trouble. The misogyny, racism (with a focus on antisemitism for reasons passing understanding), and general lack of sympathy, empathy, or understanding really cannot be overstated.

That parent who's always in the school, tearing a strip off the teacher who just doesn't understand their precious snowflake? I don't want to be That Guy. I am probably going to be That Guy.

All of this is to say that I admire your unfathomable restraint in not bouncing that little fucker off the ceiling.