By BETSY HART, Scripps Howard News Service

One New York governor resigns because it was discovered he was involved with prostitutes; his replacement admits to numerous past extramarital affairs, and his wife says she was unfaithful as well; a former New Jersey governor claims he and his wife were involved in sexual threesomes with his male aide; the mayor of Detroit is involved in a sex-and-corruption scandal.

The hit movie "Enchanted" came out on DVD this week and with three daughters -- and their mom -- who loved the film when it was in theaters, I couldn't buy it fast enough. (My 13-year-old son, who dutifully sat through it with us in the theater, announced that his obligation to his family of women had been met and excused himself from another viewing.)

When I was 14, this was my "sexual" fantasy:I would go to a concert featuring Paul McCartney. He would spy me from the stage, think I was cute and ask to meet me after the concert. We would talk, hold hands, maybe even snuggle a bit.That was my fantasy. All of it.

I was treated to my first "POS" the other night. As in, a child's computer-speak for "parent over shoulder/can't talk/gotta go," etc.

I don't write much about politics anymore. Having four young kids has changed my focus a good bit.But there are times that, well, politics is personal, and so it was when I heard Wednesday about William F. Buckley's death. I was quite stunned and sad, realizing that someone who had shaped my worldview, and because of that impacts my family's life to this day, is gone.

When I was little, my bedroom faced the front of the house. Our neighborhood swarmed with kids. In the summer, the window was always open -- we had no air conditioning, of course -- and I remember my dad liking to take naps there on long Sunday afternoons. Why? Because, he said, he loved so much to hear the happy sounds of the children playing outside.

So, it's all about the "headwinds."That's according to The Wall Street Journal this week, which noted that in a difficult economy, top business people are now consistently adopting the weather metaphor as an explanation for less-than-stellar performance.This could be my new family catchphrase. It's positively seductive.

Valentine's Day is next week. And that means love is in the air.Or maybe in the pheromones.That's one finding of a recent and fascinating Time magazine cover story, "The Science of Romance: Why We Need Love to Survive."

I've finally given up my BlackBerry, or rather my "CrackBerry."Actually, in my case I owned a Treo, but the point is the same: I had become addicted to e-mail anywhere and anytime. I had to let go.

Maybe the kids who "have it all" don't "have it all" -- after all.That's what Madeline Levine, a practicing psychologist in Northern California, chronicles in her new book, "The Price of Privilege: How Parental Pressure and Material Advantage are Creating a Generation of Disconnected and Unhappy Kids" (HarperCollins).