Caitlin says...

"Does George Bush poison the trees?"

Yes, honey, yes he does.

Political conversations with a 5 year old can be very interesting. It started off with "Who is George Bush?" and I replied, "He is our president and he is a bad man."

Caitlin, looked concerned and then asked, "Does George Bush poison the trees?", to which I responded with: "Yes he does, but not directly. He doesn't creep up to trees with a bottle of poison and pour it on them while cackling, but as president, he has the ability to create laws. He has created laws that let bad polluting companies pollute even more and they are the ones that are poisoning the trees."

"Does he poison teddy bears?"

No, that he doesn't do.

Eric cackled to himself about how I probably wished I could have answered Yes to that question as well. I just wish we had Al Gore as president so that I didn't have to have this conversation.

A note for sticklers: Eric wants me to let you know that I've simplified things for Caitlin. GWB doesn't actually have the ability to create laws himself, but I didn't feel the need to get into the long form explanation of the three branches of government. Schoolhouse Rock can explain that better than me, anyway.

By the way, having your 5 year old read and help edit your posts is also strange.