Well, I guess as usual, this leaves me out.

My woman has a girlish sense of humor. She will tell me things that are funny but she can't stop laughing long enough to tell me. She gets my dark and twisted humor even though it's very different from hers. That's a smart lady. In addition, she has a master's degree, is an accomplished and highly creative educator, and is pretty damned easy on the eyes. She hates humor at the expense of others, and she abhors gossip. She is one of the kindest, most loving and pure souls I have ever known. We've been together for over 16 years now, and if she were one of those pretty-and-that's-their-day women our romance would've been over a long time ago. I appreciate intelligent women. A sense of humor is one clear and obvious sign of intelligence and to me that's damned sexy. So tell those researchers what they can do with their so-called "evidence".

Well, I must say that I am as disappointed with the appointment of Justice Sam Alito as many progressives are. I'm also disappointed with the lame ass response to his nomination by Democrats. Next to signing off on the authorization to use force in Iraq, this was a prime example of basically laying down and letting the zealots of the right wing carry the day. While I cannot say with certainty that this is the end of legalized abortion as we've known it, I certainly think it's time for a meaningful discussion about responsible sex, safe sex, and what relationships are really about. There is a mindset that a lot of us on the progressive side have not looked at; and that's the idea that some have that if a boy wants sex, a girl should give it to him. Like it's some kind of obligation or a trade off for love. Tie that in with the lack of education around contraception and you have a dangerous mix and what you end up with is a young woman in an untenable situation and another opportunity for a bunch of old men in black robes to decide what should be an individual decision. We should stop giving a bunch of out-of-touch old men the ability to decide about our individual lives and freedom and take that power back for ourselves. In this case, this means teaching kids about relationships and respect as well as safe, responsible sex. As long as girls have the idea that it's their "obligation" to give it up and boys have the idea that they're "entitled" to have it without caring about the person they're sleeping with, we've got a long way to go when it comes to protecting a woman's health and privacy and freedom. While I firmly believe that the law should protect a woman's right to choose, the law can only do so much. The responsibility for learning to see a woman's distinctive humanity and individuality while in a relationship is something we need to learn collectively. There's no law that can fix that. Once we learn that, the need for an abortion will be much less because unwanted pregnancies will be less of an issue.

We will collectively know that one should not carelessly place that burden on a woman who might have entirely other plans and would've gone ahead with them but for this unplanned event. We will learn to be responsible and considerate and not self-centered about something this big. I hope I'm making sense here.

I am one of those who believes that our culture is light years ahead of our politics. Particularly in this case.

It's heartening to see the debate expanded so that we're talking about things like better access to health care, child care, and economic security so that abortions are "safe, legal, and rare" for women. I agree 100% with the poster who says the Religious Right's real agenda is to punish women for having sex outside of wedlock (which is just a religiously inspired, state sanctioned way of controlling women's sexuality; another conversation), for being fully human, fully sexual beings. Having had that autonomy for a generation and having it passed on to the next generation of girls, it will become increasingly difficult for the Puritans to put that back in Pandora's box. You cannot un-ring that bell. The notion of a woman's full humanity is a fact that we live with every day of our lives, law or no law. I speak as a man, and I would frankly be more wary of giving my power as an individual away to Justice Alito, President Bush, or anyone in Congress than of losing my right to be who I am. Let's not do that. It will become painfully obvious for all to see that the tide of progress and evolution is not something you can hold back with something as limited as an ill-advised opinion held by a bunch of black robed old men.

The law will catch up to the culture. It has to. If even Bush can declare that America is addicted to oil (even though he continues to mainline it), that's at least a sign that you can twist perceptions, but reality won't budge. Women are full human beings. We need them to be. Or we won't survive. That's the reality. You cannot "spin" that. You can only acknowledge it and deal with it.