Shit like this is why I still love Camille Paglia. The lady can spin a sentence! But wake up, girlfriend--right-wing talk radio has been a one-note absurdity for a long time.

As for the rest of it, I'll take my analysis of the role that sexism played in HRC's campaign from the letters threads, which contain better arguments for than Paglia has mustered against, as well as countless examples of woman-hating in action.

I also think an Obama-Clinton ticket would help no one and hurt us all. I am hoping the chatter is a fever of pandering that will burn off soon.

Seriously?

I meant all the rape and revenge and blood and human misery. Childish? Hardly.

I loved my Strawberry Shortcake dolls when I was young, but looking at this drawing, I can't imagine why. I must have liked the way the smell came out when you squeezed them. She certainly doesn't look like she'd be fun at a party. The new one is cuter (and if she's a tart, you need to re-up your concept of tart) but sort of generic.

Nice to know one's newly image perfected dolls are coming with values. Strawberry Mermaid may have a cell phone, the better to stay on the treadmill, but at least she eats FRUIT.

I'm psyched about this. But let's call it, "it's about fucking time marriage" (over time, we can shorten it to just plain marriage).

I think kids usually grow out of this kind of hyper-focus on princess-like beauty. Average gender development stuff? If it's mixed with good enough parenting, I'm not sure it's automatically harmful.

But then, I'm not against beauty, either, as an aesthetic good that is unequally distributed. Like it or not, we're not all beautiful "just the way we are." (Not *physically* anyway.) I wish I knew something about how to apply make-up. Because while I'm happy enough with the way I look most of the time, there's the odd day or week when I look like crap. Or think that I do, which amounts to the same thing.

If you get yourself to the polls, even to make a point by writing in Hillary, Kucinich, or your kitty, you can vote a democratic ticket for the remainder. The legislative branch, people.

I'm voting for Obama, by the way. Once I saw that Clinton wasn't going to make it, I was never tempted for a second to do otherwise.

There is some evidence that gay men and straight women have "similar" brains (in certain areas the researchers happen to be looking at). There's also evidence that gay men's brains look pretty much like straight men's brains. That kind of evidence isn't as culturally interesting or provocative, so it gets reported much less frequently. The difference in reporting has more to do with the built-in audience for posts like this one than with the quality of research.

Veruco Salt is, well, kind of a dick/ette, but I sure agree with the above sentiment. The (manufactured and otherwise) divide between Obama and Clinton supporters can rage on until November, get uglier than it got, Michelle Obama could actually call someone a whitey, instead of just being the target of rumors that she once might have, and I'm still going to vote for the democratic candidate for president.

The fact that I don't watch broadcast or cable news is apparently my good fortune--the outrage out there washes over me without getting my shoes dirty or my hair wet.

Politicians (and their underlings, whatever) do stuff like this. They stage photo-ops. They troll for softie questions. They are forced to take questions during badly moderated debates about EFFING FLAG PINS. (That woman who they got to ask the question, I wish I thought she was an actress, but I don't. She was real...which means that at least one person out there truly cared.)

Given that his fist-bump--a gesture so old, it's been appropriated by, well, me--was posited as a "terrorist fist jab," is it any fucking wonder that this happened? Ooooo! Obama acted like a politician. That's what he is. Such a good one that people think he's a light-bringer, or whatever, but get real. He's a politician, after all. I'll give him a pass on just about anything from here on out. Just get to the white house, buddy.

I like your idea that the two ladies were Republican saboteurs in the first place. I have been flagrantly assuming anyone whose posts I rilly rilly don't like is a republiplant, mostly to keep from losing my mind. Also, I half expect a manufactured terrorist attack shortly before the election to ensure that McCain wins. So obviously, I am open to believing low-down conspiracies of this kind.

However, I'm not convinced that these two women aren't just real-life democrats who also happen to be whiny and happy to play the victim. People can be bad without really being BAD, you know?

As I say when I'm drunk, you can be fat if you're pretty or ugly if you're thin, but it's a cold, hard world out there if you're not pretty OR thin.

And less of a politician. Bet that's part of the problem. Also part of the problem...? Let me think...oh, yes: sexism. I imagine that as a black woman, she has her own razor-thin line to walk. Good luck, Michelle.

Or people who would ordinarily vote for a Republican, anyway. Not all--I recognize a couple of names as consistent and seemingly authentic voices, who are raising important questions. But November is a long way away, and anger, if not fed constantly, tends to fade.