NOBODY DIED FROM CLINTON'S MISSTEP.

Byline: Carol Rock valleynews.com

Sex is so much better than violence.

There, I've said it. Deal with it.

I don't go see movies that deal with mobs or bloodthirsty villains or any horror flick where the primary color is red. I also don't watch movies with much knock-the-scenery-down lust because I'm a little more conservative than I look.

Despite the critics' accolades, I won't be seeing ``Babel'' anytime soon. I will, however, find time to see ``Little Miss Sunshine.'' I'm just a sucker for dysfunctional comedy.

Which brings me to the State of the Union address.

A friend of mine said she and her husband were watching the president tell the nation about our adventures in Iraq and his plans to wield an even bigger stick in somebody else's civil war, when her husband asked ``Why do they call this the State of the Union? He's not telling us how we're doing here in the union, he's talking about what we're going to do to somebody in another country.''

Good point. I remember hearing bits about health care and the requisite parade of human evidence that something is right somewhere. But the overwhelming thing I heard was that he was going forward with his plan to deploy even more troops in Iraq, regardless of the number of senators or representatives who might try to veto the effort.

Here's the state of our union. It's a circus out there, and the clowns have taken over.

According to the latest reports (Jan. 25), 3,063 Americans have died in Iraq. That's 46 more than the last time I brought up the subject two weeks ago. Forty-six more families have been dealt bone-crushing grief while the country's commander blithely makes up his own rules, calling his actions impervious to veto.

I think it's time to take back the country, don't you? One of my heroes, Rosie O'Donnell (there goes my chance to be an ``Apprentice'') said it best on ``The View'' this week. Let's impeach President Bush.

I'd like to suggest we consider a two-fer, because I don't really want Dick Cheney running the country, although he does get big props from me for standing up for his daughter during a recent Wolf Blitzer interview. But let's see how this Scooter Libby thing pans out before we endorse his continued service.

Impeachment too severe, you say? What about all the people who wanted to impeach Bill Clinton because of his indiscretions with Monica Lewinsky, his eager-to-please intern?

There was a large segment of partisan politicos who seriously wanted to impeach the president over sex, but no one is entertaining the idea of impeaching the current officeholder over the senseless deaths of 3,063 men and women. What are you people smoking?

How can sex trump violence? Both involve an overload of testosterone, but you can count the victims of Clinton's extremely bad judgment call on one hand.

And there is one little detail I'd like to point out: nobody died.

When our kids were little, we went to the movies as a family. If there was an unexpectedly passionate sex scene, my husband and I were quick to explain that sex is a natural thing, driven by affection and normal desires.

But if the next scene involved a hit man mowing down a restaurant full of people, we were flummoxed. There is no explaining away violence or killing.

Just like there's no good explanation why our country must continue on this juggernaut of death in the Middle East.