It's embarrassingly retrograde and puritanical that we consider the private sex lives of politicians relevant for their fitness in office. Every time a story like this breaks, I cringe. When will America grow up?

Cary, nice thoughts on presence and absence. So true. This phenomenon even extends to the past, where people who gracefully faded from our lives as intended resurface virtually to observe our present lives.

Salon,

Some time back, you took a number of measures to control Salon's misogynistic troll problem. It's time to reassess the effectiveness of your initial effort, because things haven't improved. The letters section is a reflection on your site and content. Every time I read an article by or about women on Salon, esp. where sex or reproduction is concerned, I know it is immediately followed by hate speech directed at women. Every time. I believe that you need to define what is acceptable and draw the line-- Men who repeatedly abuse the letters forum to direct hate at women need to be stopped dead. Blocked accounts. Shut out. End of story.

Please take a stand on this and set an example. Show these sick, sad men the door.

I would like to officially turn on the Mute setting for posts from misogynist nut-jobs in this thread.

**activating mute setting now***

I also love bassare's advice. It is true and wonderful.

I'd like a dollop of vegan sanctimony on top of my Jello, please.

Thanks!

I'm not sure why people are having such a mild reaction to this. It is disturbing, and the LW is showing traits common to abusive men. This kind of behavior is NOT normal, NOT acceptable, ever. No two ways about it. I dearly hope all men reading this understand that.

I think if you’re (I mean, of course, your wife is) really planning on home-schooling your kids beyond kindergarten, you’re going to have to come up with a more nuanced and less judgmental view about education and other parents, or you’re going to send a very denim-jumper-fundamentalist message about the world to your kids (of course, whatever the “creative-class” version of that might resemble). Let’s start with “The angry and puritanical razorback hog that is the American Internet-reading public.” Ok, let’s not. It’s so silly, I don’t know where to begin. Moving on: “We're not ready to surrender our kids, and ourselves, to a 10-month-a-year, all-day institution whose primary goal, at least at this age, seems to be teaching kids how to function within a 10-month-a-year, all-day institution.” Is this what you want to teach your kids about all institutions that exist outside of your living room? I’ll tell you right now, this doesn’t describe my kid’s school even a little bit. And this: “Our home-school cadre mostly consists of creative professionals with flexible work lives -- writers, actors, artists, musicians, academics -- both because those are people who can conceivably accommodate home schooling in their lives and because those are people who share a nonconformist attitude toward work, authority and institutions.” Do you really think that everyone who sends their child to school outside the kitchen table has a “conformist attitude toward work, authority, and institutions”? Really? Is that what you want your kids to think about everyone who isn’t a Park Slope graphic designer?

Oh boy.