Dear World,

Cokie Roberts does NOT speak for me.

The Bible is America’s favorite book, followed by The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons. My head hurts. I suppose it could be worse. America’s favorite book could be Mein Kampf or something written by Danielle Steel.

First Lori Gottlieb got a book deal to expand on her article advising women to settle for whichever men they can. Now that book will be turned into a movie. I can actually understand this, too. The more outrageous your idea is, the more attention it gets. The more attention, the more views and hits. Then the more ad revenue, the more profit. This is a cash cow — of course they’re going to milk it. If any man or woman will take advice on something like whom they will vow to spend their lives with and create children with from a spoiled Beverly Hills dabbler, that’s their problem. Adults make even worse decisions than that everyday. But I wonder how Gottlieb, or anyone, would feel after finding out after a time that they had been the settled for — the person his or her spouse looks at and thinks, "Well, she’s all right enough, I guess."

Single people are being blamed for the bad environment. Because they cohabitate separately, they use more electricity than if they were in a single household. That’s the new theory, anyway. It wouldn’t have anything to do with the fact that families now live in McMansions full of electrical appliances. Or that most households have more than one TV, including one per child’s room. Not to mention more than one computer, cell phones and iPods charging, outdoor lights lining the walkway, etc. It also wouldn’t have to do with the fact that there are now SIX BILLION PEOPLE in the world!

Six teenage girls and two teenage boys in Florida will be charged as adults after videotaping themselves beating a 16-year-old girl unconscious for insulting them online. Oh honey, you should see what they do to you in prison.

Cyber bullying is one thing, a whole other post, a separate crime on its own. But this was a single girl writing things online. As the police chief said, writing childish insults on MySpace does not justify being beaten unconscious, beaten again when you come to, permanently losing hearing and sight on one side, and having it all filmed for the entertainment of others.

I can actually understand the mothers who defend their criminal offspring. Think about it. They’re not defending their children — they’re defending themselves as parents. They’ve created the monster, much like Bush created the war; now they can’t admit that they’ve failed.

Consider the first thing the mother said in the Today Show interview, clarifying that she does have custody of her daughter. She wanted to clear up her own reputation first: she is not an unfit mother who has lost custody or would give up her daughter. She wants you to know that she alone raised one of these girls.

As for their kids, these parents cling to tiny details about the attack because they need to somehow justify having raised a pack animal, an adult-in-training, who plans, carries out, and participates in these uncivilized, illegal acts. That involves cruelty, apathy, a lack of self-control, and ignoring right from wrong. At the very least, you’ve raised a coward who would stand by and watch a girl get beaten unconscious.

Every parent involved will have an excuse: "My child didn’t hit. My child warned her not to come in the house. My child was insulted online. My son didn’t know what was happening behind the door he was guarding." Because to admit that your child did this, you admit that you failed as a parent. They can’t admit that to the world; more importantly, they can’t admit it to themselves. And if the parents cannot own up to their own mistakes, their kids never will.

Jennifer Leblanc