Thank you for your 179 comments this week! Some of you thought we missed the main point of the stories we passed along to you this week. Three examples:

In the post "Parents Put Baby Up for Sale on eBay,"
we said the crime was . . . joking about selling a child.
You thought it was . . . "naming the kid Merlin."

Wow, you don't check your comment emails for a while and then you have 561 messages accusing you of being anti-Christian. To recap, recently we brought you news of a new trend in the abstinence movement: father-daughter purity balls.

One wrote: "Look, Ada, we get it: you are apparently anti-Christian. This isn't even your business much less anything to write an article on."

We just cleaned out our week's inbox, and here's what we learned: Most of you think the drinking age should stay where it is; kids should be taught moderation; and that incest cellar guy should be, let's see . . . ah yes: "tortured until he is dead."

Thanks for sharing! And thanks in particular to the reader who posted this insightful comment: "Ada makes such common sense it is hard to imagine those who disagree with her having any." It's probably some relative of ours in disguise, but hey, we'll take it!

Every Wednesday, we bring you our favorite comment-emails. Here are this week's:

"It's not the blanket, it's the lipstick!" - Cecil on the Miley photos

"We have never witnessed people making out in hot tubs or has anyone been "felt up" that we have known. - Sallie on cruise ship hijinks.

You sent us 280 comment-emails this week, and a surprising number of them sought to educate us in the ways of the world.

On our post about Angela Merkel's cleavage, you wrote: "Europe has different values, Ada. They have different ideas of what is acceptable and not acceptable. They have topless beaches."

On our post about the 'Wife's Bill of Rights,' you wrote: "Gimme a break, lady. You're dreaming if you think 'we all do dishes,' and when you're a little wiser you might realize life IS a bad sit-com....do you think they make that up?"

On our post about the Pope, you wrote: "It is time to do away with the celibate priesthood. Anglicans and Orthodox have had a married priesthood for 2000 years -- in fact, when Catholicism was Orthodox (prior to the celebration of the daily Mass) it still had the option of a married priesthood available."

Some weeks, doing this blog is like taking a continuing education class.

Every Wednesday we highlight some of your comments, which drop like rays of sunshine into our email inbox. This week, we noticed your primary emotion was "aghast."

In response to our post about the "Thank God I . . . Have AIDS/Cancer/Anorexia" series: "Unbelievable!!!!!! I'm mortified. That's why we need a strong conservative in the White House."

In response to our post about the polygamist cult raid: "What were they thinking moving to TEXAS anyway?"

In response to our post about the "I was raped" T-shirt: "What's next? 'My father used to beat me with a tire iron when he was drunk' baseball caps?"

Every Wednesday, we take a look at your comments (which are emailed to us automatically) and highlight a few of our favorites. This week, we honor 3 of the 282 we received:

Best Stand-Up Joke (on the Kid Riding the Subway Alone):
Your question: Is 9 Too Young To Ride the NYC Subway Alone?
My response: Not if you're packin' heat.

Best Typo (on the Pregnant Man):
That poor baby is going to be dramatized for the rest of it's life!

Best Ad Hominem Attack (on the Toddler TV Debate):
My kids watch television; So what, you probably watch porn flicks.

In response to our post about Helen Thomas's support of Hillary, you called her the following:

"One of the best reporters in the country."
"An old goat."
"An old dog who needs some new tricks."
"The only broad with the guts to stand up to the best of them."
"A walking ad for euthanasia."
"Right."
"Wrong."

Let's all give thanks that we aren't on a jury together!

The Seemingly Random Poem award goes to Tomtrifik for his meditation on "Obama Girl Blasts Hillary":

With tenths of THOUSANDS of baby turtles
being killed daily on our nations highways,
why is this even a topic of discussion!
Alert your local Postmaster,
Something Must Be Done!
NOW and Very Soon!
Poor Baby Turtles.
Hurting Sadness,
Suffering and
Endless Pain
or Squish.

Or maybe there's a connection here we're missing? Perhaps it's an analogy, and the turtles and highways symbolize something? Clinton supporters and primaries? Northeast governors and tabloids? Poor baby turtles.

This week you sent us 498 comments. Some things on which almost all of you agreed: Eliot Spitzer is not a handsome man. Silda should not have stood by him at the podium. Cindy Adams is a little bit crazy. Gambling addicts should not be able to sue casinos. Road House is an awesome movie. We're cuter than Ann Coulter (Gee, thanks!). And there was one excellent inside joke within the Obama race speech discussion: "We need to get past this division, Ada... If only there were a place we could all come together and shop for cars... Anyone know of such a place?" [It was a big week for car-dealership spam.]

One of the things that has shocked us most about News Bloggers is how over-the-top vicious you are to each other. (Sure, we get called a bimbo at least once a week, most recently by Amy, and if we make a grammatical error you write like 500 comments telling us to go work at Starbucks, but we're cool with that.) Here's an example from earlier today of some creatively aggressive friendly fire, in response to a kind of crazy story about feet washing up on a beach:

Why don't you get into real reporting and get some real info out there? If I had your job I would go after the jerks who try to take from people and give to themselves. $650 million and the collection of $150. per $500. collected. That should pay for the state of Georgia's senators pay raises, Wonder how it is going for the other 49 states? Could you find out and report how they are doing?

TINNINPIM at 11:47AM on Mar 5th 2008

You had a lot to say about the pre-show Ann Coulter video, but this was our favorite observation:

"If Coulter chews that gum any harder, smoke is going to start pouring out of her mouth."

We got 326 comment / emails this week! We're just going to ignore the suuuuper long rants some of you guys sent us about the origins of life. Instead, here's one of the more creative (and succinct!) evolution observations, from Erm: "The reason new life is not found in the peanut butter jar is because the right elements were not present to make DNA, or DeoxyriboNucleic Acid."

Also, we'd like to tip our hat to plusbabysissy, whose comment + signature suggests she is a multi-faceted woman: "I like Ulysses Grant because he was a brilliant war strategist - to me, he seems like the kind of president that people don't mess with. I think he is often overlooked. I am Sissy, a beautiful plus woman and part-time model from US."

DavidG says of our evolution-arguments post: "Be careful, Ms. Calhoun. Soon, Dinesh D'Souza will be calling you a 'leading athiest' and demanding that you debate him." Oh, readers, it's so cute when you worry about our leading-atheist status.

Every week, we highlight the most notable comments we receive. (Through the magic of the blog system, they arrive in our email inbox - 875 this week!) . Often, we use this forum to mock the people who were most abusive to us, but this week, hats off to three readers who made us laugh out loud:

On the stolen Jesus statue: "Was he returned after three days?"

On the "obscene" Abercrombie & Fitch ads: " You know, sometimes you just want to buy a pair of pants without some guy putting his ass in your face."

On the radio-controlled male contraceptive implant: " Where can I get my ex fitted for one of these? And can I have the remote?"