. . . thinking they can get another boy any day of the week, having boys write poems for *them*, do things for *them*, only to be casually "dumped" without any thought of his feelings.

An essay by a man referring to "dumping" his childhood girlfriend would elicit quite a strong reaction.

Of course, Rebecca now knows how callous she was, and her essay on food and romance is on its own terms a pleasure to read. But she lets slip some realities of boy - girl (and men - women) interaction that you would never see acknowledged in Broadsheet or many other places.

Obama? "Skilled negotiator"? When did that happen?

And calling Richard Nixon a liberal shows a very shallow understanding of his presidency. Most of the "liberal" things he did were half-measures designed to defang the still-powerful liberal movement. Usually when he created a programy, he headed it with people who didn't want it to work.

. . . and of these, 87 percent are lying.

Sunday mornings used to be traffic jam time. Now, on the roads it is one of the most peaceful times of the week.

When Hillary complained about being picked on in debates, she was absolutely right. And there was only one boo. One person in a crowd of thousands.

Mike Madden knew what he was going to write before the debate even began.

There is hot dispute as to how extensive a problem rape (at least date rape) is, but if you posit very specific scenarios, e.g., what he said, what she said, what he did, what she did, I don't think you'd find much disagreement as to what is or isn't rape and, once the line is drawn and complaints are made specific, what the prevalence is.

Also:

By my age (50) I've known a number of women who have been raped. Not one of them suffered any long-term emotional scars, not even the one who ended up having a baby as a result. This not to say that rape cannot be a life-changing trauma (though it can be turned into one by a rape crisis counselor who makes the victim believe it was). The experience of rape runs the gamut from horrible trauma to mildly unpleasant.

On the average, I think a man who is falsely accused of rape (remember, this is someone who DIDN'T DO IT) suffers more than a rape victim. Remember, it's HIS name that's in the papers, and his name and reputation will be damaged for years, much to his psychological detriment.

"Many women I know have been raped or abused. For the most part you would never know it to look at or talk to them, they are professionals, mothers and wives and are able to move past being a victim. But this does not mean they do not carry that trauma somewhere deep inside. Perhaps it is an inability to connect with certain people, perhaps it is a fear of being alone, or perhaps it is the feeling of degradation and worthlessness that passes over them when they read an article that insinuates their attack was their fault."

Tell me -- how do you know this?

I'm just telling what I observe.

I can't read others' minds -- though apparently you can.

"What I decided was that I didn't give a fuck about what happens on this planet to these people. I mean, I see the nice things in people, I see the good things, but I also see what a depraved, sick species we are, the only species that kills its own for personal gain."

I suppose that explains it.

Carlin is a bitter old man who's run out of ideas and thinks that being independent boils down to being hostile to everyone and everything. He hasn't been funny in 25 years.

"My point is, it is impossible for anyone to truly know what another person is feeling inside and most pain is incredibly private. I hope you think about that before you trivialize the experiences of the women you know."

I'm not trivializing them, I'm just describing them.

My point is that one cannot assume anything about the impact something has on a person. I was trained in a college hotline (hence my name) to treat rape as the most serious trauma a caller can have (and it IS serious, if someone's calling the crisis line about it), but outside that setting, as the years went by, I found out, one by one, friends of mine who had been raped. Most (though not all) were casual in talking about it, not breaking down or tearing up. This was surprising. Because they were O.K., they led normal lives, they had normal boyfriend interactions. To assume that every victim of rape is permanently mentally traumatized, a walking emotional cripple, who is putting on a brave front even though we KNOW she's falling apart inside, is a false assumption.

Why is this important? Because the allegation of rape is so serious. It's not the accuser's name that's public; it's the accused. This factor must be weighed in, in any evaluation of what we want to define as rape, how big a problem it is, and what can be done to address it.

That is a beautiful bod on that cover.

Would the average woman want to see Sartre's bare butt?

Making fun of starving children.

Hahahahahahahaha

Making fun of ecologistis trying to save all life on the planet (NOT just human life).

Hahahahahahahaha

Making fun of people who vote. Yeah, no difference between Bush and Gore!

Hahahahahahahaha

Making fun of people who make space for you when you're trying to make a left hand turn on a crowded street -- saying "Thank you! FUCK YOU!!"

hahahahahahahaha

This is seventh-grade-hanging-out-in-the-bathroom-trying-to-be-cynical-and-cool humor. Well, fuck that shit. It isn't funny.