Someone sent me a wildly off-the-mark email about the "Trading Places" cartoon from two weeks ago, but it seems I accidentally deleted it. So I'll have to paraphrase.

You'll recall that cartoon was about the Senate bill which criminalized those who help a minor cross state lines to obtain an abortion without getting parental consent. The third panel showed a Senator having to seek permission to leave his state from a group of "abusive, alcoholic, mentally-ill, drug-addicted parents."

Well, this particular reader seemed to think I was suggesting that all anti-abortion parents are abusive, alcoholic, mentally-ill, etc. He accused me of demeaning millions of decent American families.

It never occurred to me that I would have to spell this out, but I was not in any way suggesting that all parents opposed to abortion are, as Axl Rose might say, on the Night Train. Nor are they loaded like a freight train, or flyin' like an aeroplane, or speedin' like a space brain one more time tonight. No, I was simply pointing out the obvious, which is that a teenage girl should not have to seek permission from some totally messed-up parent. The grandparent or clergy member or friend who helps her should not be put in jail, for heaven's sake. Sheesh!