I would be all about polygamy, if it went both ways, with polyandry also being an option. Polyamory, we call it, out here in the Real World. Women should be allowed to have more than one husband, too. If it only goes one way, it's just another form of patriarchy.

... as is the LW's apparent inability to say "no." No one MADE you prepare a Thanksgiving dinner 3 days after a C-section. And your husband is an ass for tolerating his mother's treatment of you. Say no, tell him he needs to start standing up for you, and watch your anger dissipate, as if by magic. It will become HER problem, if she doesn't like it when you want to hold your own child... HER problem, if she can't have Thanksgiving dinner when she wants it... HER problem, if she can't see that you are indeed a PhD with your own family. Sheesh. I don't mean to sound unsympathetic, but the first thing to do is address your husband's lack of "stance." Not acceptable.

Maybe therapy would help you let go of the anger, but so would standing up for yourself, and getting your husband to stand up for his wife, too. :)

I haven't seen a post reflecting my main thought, which is this: If someone dumps me solely because he thinks I slept with him "too soon," then he isn't the kind of person I want to ultimately be with, anyway. Some people like sex, y'all. Some people even think it's fun, and doesn't always have to be this giant emotional bonding experience. I plan to marry one of those people. If you don't respect someone because s/he slept with you, then what does that say about you?? It takes two to tango. If a relationship ends, the "emotional upset" of the breakup is NOT necessarily worse if you had sex. Not if you keep the sex in perspective.

There, that's my two cents. Dating education in general seems like a good idea, but not if it just makes people more afraid of their own sexuality.

You know what, "a parent?" I'll GRANT you that it's a baby. A person. And I still say, it's the pregnant woman's body that has to house it for 9 months, and SHE gets to decide whether or not to do that. Not you, and not the goverment. Her. Because she is a person, and she doesn't have to let another person grow inside her body if she doesn't want to.

I refer y'all to this essay by Judith Jarvis Thomson:

http://www.utdallas.edu/~jfg021000/thomson.html

which is a GREAT rebuttal to the whole "life begins at conception" argument. (Which is most definitely debatable.) I first read it in college, and it continues to make an impression on me.

Women are people, y'all. Even if a two-day-old fetus is a person too, what about the person who houses it? Her rights matter. Her life matters. She is the one who decides those priorities.

If the Democrats would get their shit together just ONCE about taxes, and acknowledge that our tax system is messed up, or if ONE Democrat would get behind a flat tax or consumption tax... the Democrats would win everything, hands down. Most people are social libertarians, and we've got the Republicans beat on that issue by a mile, but many people who say they are socially liberal are convinced that the Republicans are better with money. That's not true, but let's convince them! Come on!

The question that we should be asking is: Why does no one ever criticize, or debate, or have "wars" over, fathers' choices? Why are mothers the only ones who are supposed to stay home, or feel guilty, or worry about balancing work and family life? Why are gender roles in parenting still so rigidly defined?

As soon as I see a "Working Father" magazine, or as soon as I hear any new father's ability to do his job questioned, I'll know we've made some real progress.

... what ABOUT the rest of Leviticus? How come you get to be "fundamentalist" about one or two verses in the Bible, but not all the rest of them? Do you think women who are menstruating should have to sit out in the barn for a week? Do you indeed stone adulterers?

Fundamentalists piss me off because they are only "literal" about the verses in the Bible that suit their particular bigotries. I'm amazed at what they're able to get away with. The same Bible was used to justify slavery, for thousands of years. Got any slaves there, Poco?

I have always wondered why no one in the media has criticized Mr. Yates. His wife should never have had more babies, after it was clear that she had severe post-partum issues. She was also home-schooling them, and pretty much home alone with them all day, every day. Where was he? Why wasn't he more concerned about her, and the welfare of his children while they were with her? Her doctors recommended against her having more children. Her husband's conduct was nothing short of abusive.

If they're going to consider making EMERGENCY contraception available OTC, why not just make ALL contraception over-the-counter? Why not just let women go pick up ALL birth control pills, and not just the emergency kind, without having to get a doctor's prescription?

I have not analyzed the pros and cons, just posing that question.

Thank you Ohy. That accent of hers is just... atrocious. I'd like the show SO much more if she just wouldn't talk like that. NO ONE, no one, no one, talks like she does. I am a native Georgian and have lived in the south all my life, excluding college. Seriously. Who taught her that accent? It's worse than the ones on "Designing Women."