I haven't read this book, but I am guessing from the title that it might indeed have something simply helpful to say about fear and how one can calm oneself - and maybe even one's warmongering culture - through the simple practice of breathing. What if we all just took a good breath now and again? It doesn't have to make the world perfect or end all war. What a revolutionary concept, no matter how many times it is said: just breathe. We have nothing to fear.

Feminism is alive, says my 60 year old, Republican-voting, church-going housewife of a mother, who taught me and my sister and brother that girls and women can do whatever they want and who wears a big pin that says "Only she who dreams the absurd can achieve the impossible" on it everyday. It is because of my mom that I am a capable, successful, strongminded woman, and I think all the bickering about "feminism(s)" and all that means is just a total waste of time AND an insult to women like her and like me, who are feminists not in some sort of post-modern, academic way (though I do have a pretty absurd education on the subject), but are feminists because we believe in equality and have been jailed defending it!! Let's just get together, ladies!

And as far as Rush Limbaugh and his friends go, yeah, sure, I got called "feminazi" in high school. I even got pee dumped on my head once by a member of the young Republican set. Advocating the cutting off penises I guess I was with my riot grrrl uniform on at the Amnesty International table.

How else are you supposed to market a totally unnecessary value added product? I don't know which is funnier: the horribly produced song rip off or the cheese bits!!!! YUM!!! Even mom is tossing them back!!!

I love Salon, I love Heather and I really love video dog. So consistent and so hilarious. I'll never have to watch tv again! Yay!

Thanks!

Mandy

After getting yelled at by someone else's supervisor for being absent from work yesterday (I had jury duty), I wanted nothing more than to take a few moments to watch Heather's favorite clips on Video Dog when I got home. This one is amazing. Thank you, Heather, you've made my day again.

Your devoted fan,

Mandy

My partner and I think sharing covers is overrated. So are spring mattresses. So here's my advice: use separate covers, buy a really nice, huge foam bed if possible and make sure no one gets their feelings hurt when one or the other of you has to leave the room. You can do this by reassuring your girlfriend that it's not that you don't love her; it's that you need some sleep.

It has worked for us for 6 restful and happy years.

Also great: Getting tucked in at night and then getting woken up by a well-rested boyfriend in the morning!!

Good luck!

Mandy

Dear Freak/Geek,

I can really relate to you and your current problem, so I want to offer you a solution that a wonderful gynocologist offered me when I was in my early twenties and had just met the man who has become the love of my life: draw a hot bath for yourself and see what develops.

What he meant was that I should try to masturbate, as he noticed that a large part of my problem (besides or maybe because of an adrenal gland meltdown I experienced in my late teens and the medical catastrophe that followed) was that I didn't yet know myself or how my body worked. What was so interesting about this was that I identified myself as a feminist, taught a Women's Health course in college and was known as the girl to go to with gynocological issues.

I had seen my friends through abortions, STDs, abusive boyfriends and more. But sexuality was not something that came "naturally" to me. It was like a foreign language that I had to learn and that I didn't at first find very compelling. But over time, sex and intimacy have become things that I really enjoy and even want. So relax, explore and see how you feel. And don't worry if you don't figure it out or if you never get turned on. Just love yourself, and life will be good either way.

I wish you all the luck in the world.