You have to tell him it bothers you. A lot. There is a possibility that he is totally clueless, and this cluelessness might be part of the reason he's never had a serious girlfriend. It might even be charming. But you need to break through, and tell him how much it bothers you.

I had a male friend I used to eat lunch with. It was completely innocent, but when my husband finally admitted that he was jealous, I stopped. Just like that. Everybody eats, but I didn't need to eat lunch with this guy. My husband didn't even need to ask, I just stopped.

Your bf might make fun of you, pout, call you unreasonable. But if he isn't willing to change his plans (if only to sleep at a cheap motel), maybe this new girl IS more important than you are, and that's a useful thing to know as well.

Sometimes we spend so much time being modern and liberal-minded that we forget there are some things that should legitimately concern us. There are times when objecting to a bf's plans is pure shrewish unreasonableness, but this ain't one of them.

I'd say that there were probably a majority of the people there who DIDN'T think Obama was a terrorist. Like the second Young White Guy In A White T-Shirt who patently wished his friend/brother/"companion" would STFU. I'd seriously like to see the rest of the tape, where a bunch of people said No, of course not, or Go the hell away, loser! But that wouldn't have made good copy.

That said, I know these people (some personally, I work in a public library), and yeah, they're nuts. They're also the base, not swing voters. These rallies are the only things getting them out of their homes to vote for an effete liberal like McCain. But they sure to hell aren't voters who were trying to decide between McCain and Obama.

One of the truly underrated movies. "Da two yoots...."

I never understood why anyone would vote early or absentee if they didn't have to. We live in Ohio, where you can vote absentee for any damn reason you want, but I'm still waiting for the fourth. There IS a certain tribal closeness you feel to your fellow voters, and yes, it IS exciting. The only time I've ever voted absentee was in the '04 primary when we were on a cruise, and I know that I'd be disappointed if Ohio went all mail-in like Oregon.

They'll come out on the fourth, just wait.

*and please GOD, if any state effs the election up again this year, let it be Pennsylvania, Virginia, ANYWHERE but Ohio!

I think that when she realized they were going to lose anyway (and win Alaska anyway), she orchestrated a secret campaign to have everyone cast a write-in vote for her. I think it's gonna be "Palin/McCain" in Wasilla!

(You're right, nothing to go after her for, but it's still a nice little chuckle in the middle of a nail-biting day.)

Franken technically COULD waive the recount, it's one of his rights. But he's not gonna, not in a million years. He obviously has the interests of Minnesota at heart, and truly thinks he'll be a good Senator, but in a big way, he's doing this for Paul Wellstone. He wants to rip Paul's seat out of the Republicans' slimy hands and give it a good disinfecting. Losing is a possibility; conceding is NOT an option.

Run, Al. run! He's a scrappy partisan, and (I hope) part of the tail-end of the nasty political environment we've had since the Clinton administration. But I love him to death. Here's to the recount!

Didn't you see? The stripes on his tie were going a completely different direction!

(Actually, I hadn't noticed the other night that the stripes on Jindal's tie were at the exact same angle as those on the American flag behind him. Cool, Bobby, too cool.)

Yeah, it could have been funnier, but I enjoyed it all the same. Hope 30 Rock can somehow have some fun with this as well.

I haven't seen anything this classy and statesmanlike since the last City Council meeting. These people are actually respected members of a NATIONAL party? ("Respected" being a relative term, of course.)

Thank God the grown-ups are running the country. And, if this sort of childish crap goes on, will be for a long, loooong time.

Notice how even the trolls seem struck dumb?

It may be hopelessly second-wave of us, but there certainly was a firm feminist belief that "women shouldn't screw other women...unless it's consensual." So yeah, she was letting down the sisterhood, but it wasn't the spanking that was the issue.

Hope this story gets some national exposure. As a librarian, I know that circulation on challenged books goes through the ROOF when it hits the news. And that only does authors--and readers--good.

Suck to be those librarians right now, though. These fights are draining. Good for that board! I'm proud of them.