It's my hope all Supreme Court Justices stay healthy until January, 2017. Then, with luck a GOP president will have the picks. Another Alito would be the ticket.

Yes, calm, truth. Less drama = less stress. The moving on lesson can be tough but seems necessary.

Thanks Texan. You're right- I don't want to throw out the good relationships with the bad. And hell yes kids first.

Totally get it Mary. One point though, we all deal with jerks in the family, just don't let one jerk affect your relationship with their more immediate (and your more distant) family. Better to ignore the jerk and embrace the cool sibling than to lose the family gathering altogether. Just a thought. P.S. Id always defend my kids first, as well. No shame in that.

Good post, and more than fair... happened to me at in my early 40s. Also the common denominator being me, and while there remains distance and some sadness I guess there is calm too...and a belief in truth and integrity. If people don't want to be a part of your life in a fair and respectfully way, can't make them and need to move on.... took me a long time to learn that.

True, this piece was a real missed opportunity for a left case against Obama. It was nothing, a blat. As for the writing, I guess he's usually much better than he is here. // Go ahead, call him Tom

Yeah; I've been ambivalent about Frank's writing for a while; I don't think the false consciousness argument in Kansas really holds water necessarily, for example. I think he's a good writer too...but like C.T. says, blaming Obama because there wasn't a socialist revolution is just silly (as opposed to blaming him for being awful on national secuirty, or for just basically ignoring any effort at prison reform, or for not making any effort to channel rescue funds to homeowners rather than to bit business...)// My first published essay was in the Baffler way back when, incidentally. I always feel weird talking about Frank because I kind of know him but I don't know if I know him well enough to call him "Tom" in print.

That's not Frank's view! He says Obama wanted to stop change and save the capitalist order. // Point number 2: Since when do I care about icons of the left?

There's a certain leisure in watching baseball I haven't found in any other sport. Like a vendor, I like going to games and not knowing who won or lost when I leave. It's very calming. Sold out, intense games with wild, aggressive crowds are no fun. But the grandeur of baseball parks and the affordability of cheap games makes it the best sport there is (from a non sports fan).

My younger sister is the perfect meld of your and your fathers type of baseball fandom. Appropriate since she is 35

Ray, Noah and CT: you're turning on a fellow, who until this past year, was an icon of the left! I do agree that Frank's utter despair and anger over Obama's lackluster presidency is so pitched that he gets carried away. Not so different from Krugman, who's largely shifted from economics to MSNBC-style GOP bashing. But, boiled down, Frank's view that Obama squandered an opportunity for the Democrats by his diffident, disinterested approach to politics and policy is, despite the President's steadfast cheerleaders, is sensible.

His argument made no sense. He was babbling.