This quote: "Gender equality will not be achieved until...race and class biases no longer conspire to allow some women to gain career and social mobility while others hover on the margins of American society perhaps, cleaning houses or working as nannies just to scrape by."

Excuse me, but this could be said to true of men as well. Not every man can be a Bill Gates, some become garbagemen. I simply don't see the point of this in a review. It is gender-biased itself as well as blind to the socio-economic realities of American life.

As for chooing between homemaking and policymaking, then it seems that

one member of a relationship must give up something in order to have and raise children, if gender equality is to be reached. Is it anymore fair to expect a husband to give up his career to raise children than it is to expect a woman to do the same? Of course, there is the "have kids, put them in day care as soon as possible, and go on with business as usual" scenario, but that's another topic, too.

Babies don't belong in bars. Parents who drink in a bar shouldn't drive around with their kids in cars afterwards. And, perhaps, they shouldn't be pushing strollers either. Those things are hazards.

I live in Mississippi. It's nice to know that the state is looking out for the nursing mother - the mothers are going to need it.

Because of the cutting of Federal programs that aid poor women access to commodity foods and WIC milk programs, there will be less money to pay for baby formulas and fresh milk for families in need. There will less money to provide food and milk for children and babies. There will less money to provide affordable pre-natal care and pre-natal vitamins. At this point in time,living in Mississippi, being poor and being pregnant puts such a woman on the same level as many women in Third World countries in terms of infant mortality - 10.1 deaths per 1000 live births. To quote an old Beatles tune "Lady Madonna, baby at your breast/Wonder how you are going to feed the rest?"

I loved this comment: "the fact that some young men flounder in college because they have "laundry problems" and don't know how "to wake up on time without a mom," as Greg Williams, a sophmore at Dickinson College lamented." It could be interpreted to mean: they finally have to take responsibility for their own welfare and can't manage it. Of course, that would be mean and sexist, wouldn't it?

Part of the reason women work harder in college than men continues to be because they have to work twice as hard to get half as far in the real world - and they know it. Watching "The Devil Wears Prada" this weekend, I was struck by this thought: Would Meryl Streep's character have risen to the top as she did if she had chosen to go into politics, broadcasting, or some other male-dominated field instead of choosing fashion?

From a letter from "friendly advice""commenting on my post about seeing "The Devil Wears Prada":

"Well, I guess it would depend on who wrote the script for the movie wherein actors read their lines while pretending to be someone else, now wouldn't it, mgkonyx?

Next time you're struck by a thought, fight the urge to share it with so many people"

Perhaps you need to read more. The screenplay is derived from a book based on a real-life fashion magazine editor- a matter of which many people who read Salon are already aware. So the next time, friendly advice, you want to get snarky, perhaps you should think about it before your ignorance becomes evident to the rest of us.

This article details much of what I'm being told by the people I write and send packages to in Iraq. They aren't afraid to say what a mess they are in. Yet they still have some glimmer of hope. It amazes me.

Not too long ago, I went to Anysoldier.com and picked out a group of Marines to whom I could send packages. Stuff they want - and stuff they need. They wanted junk food and something to keep their minds occupied - Sudoku and Find-A-Word books are popular. The coloring books and crayons were a big hit too. But they needed pens, paper, rulers and small calulators. Things they couldn't get supplied to them. They didn't need Starbucks, they didn't need Baskin-Robbins...They needed shaving equipment, shampoo and hand sanitizer.

It broke my heart to read some of their emails and letters. So grateful for so little.

I am so ashamed that they are being treated like that. Essential bits and bobs to make their jobs a little easier are impossible to get - unless someone from home sends them. How pathetic that our troops have to beg strangers for such things.

The time is coming when our government will be forced to look at what is happening, and admit they made grave errors in judgment. I hope it will be soon - my guys are getting tired.

Thanks to the new CW, I finally have been able to watch VM. After the first episode, I was hooked, and bought the first two seasons, just so I could catch up. For the first time in a very long time, there is a show that offers a set of characters that come across as people who have some depth beneath the cliches of the settings in which they are placed.

That the show is in danger shouldn't come as a surprise - but it would still be a pity. I think VM has a lot more to say. And I would love to see the characters' transitions as they move through the ellipses of the show.