You make it sound like Edwards initiated the attack on his own, rather than fall into it (stupidly, in my opinion) in response to a reporter's question. He then backed off of it.

From ABC:

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/01/rival-reacts-to.html

"However, in an interview with ABC News' David Muir, Elizabeth Edwards offered more compassion than her husband. She noted that everyone on the campaign trail can relate to how grueling the task can be. In the end, Elizabeth Edwards did not pass on the political opportunity and added that voters will decide whether or not they want to see watery eyes."

"Later, at another campaign stop, Edwards appeared to adopt his wife's more sympathetic tone."

"'These campaigns are very grueling,' he said, 'they're tough and difficult affairs, running for president is a tough process.' "

... but if he makes it to the general election, that YouTube of him saying that we should stay in Iraq for a hundred years is going to sink him.

There's no reason to make one-seater toilets gender-specific. For a small facility with two one-seater johns, just take off the gender-specific signs (many places have already done this, and in others, at least around where I live, people tend to ignore the gender sign if only one of the two rooms is in use). For a larger facility, add some one-seater stalls with full doors and a common washroom; it's also possible to do a hybrid approach, with small gender-specific rooms and a big room with a lot of the private one-seaters.

No disrespect to Ms. Lay if her current artistic interests have changed, but I was a huge fan of her old "Story Minute" strips, and much less moved by her more recent work. While this strip makes it explicit, in almost all of them there was an almost mythological element, as the artist imposed cosmic justice on her imaginary subjects, or punished them for their hubris, or even gave them a break in an unexpected way.

Before age 10, boys and girls are the same size; at age 11, girls are bigger, sometimes much bigger. My daughter, for instance, is just about to turn 10; she was over ten pounds when she was born and is almost 5'2"; she's a head taller than her friends, and when she was younger she used to play rough without realizing it. Am I supposed to say to a boy half her size that he can't hit her, but she can hit him? If you try to teach the lesson about not hitting girls, ever, to children age 10 or younger, it will be perceived as unjust by the kids, especially since girls today are a lot less dainty than they used to be. Instead, let's just make it "don't hit" (defending against an attack is a different matter; at least don't hit first).

What we need to teach all children (of both genders) is that you don't use your superior strength to hurt people smaller and weaker than yourself. Ever. Regardless of whether it's a boy or a girl. This is just not how you get your way.

Women get the brunt of abuse because we don't teach this, and they are on average smaller and weaker. Stopping violence against the weak by the strong will protect everyone.

Hamas's leaders have said for some time, quite openly, that this is their plan: wait 20 years, and take power in all of Palestine based on being the majority. The Israeli right has been playing into their hands by making a fair two-state solution impossible. They don't shoot their crappy little missiles at Israel because they think that this will defeat the Israelis. Rather, they are counting on the Israelis to overreact and tighten its grip, entangling the two peoples further and further, making Gaza into a giant jail. They are playing a long-term game, encouraging their followers to have eight kids each while Israelis who can get out emigrate to the US or elsewhere to get away from the nightmare. They are waging a war of demographics. They think that once the Jews become a minority, the same logic that worked in South Africa will work for them, and they will get it all.

The Israelis practically created Hamas as a counterweight to the secular Hamas leadership. They now get to live with what they have created.

I was listening to NPR last night.

After McCain's speech last night, when he attacked Obama for talking about hope and called war opponents naive, Mara Liasson gave the speech a rave and talked about it was somehow setting up McCain to run from the center. I suppose that if you also work for Fox News, then McCain might look like a centrist to you.

But the press has decided that McCain is a maverick, a straight talker, a natural leader, a military expert, and no amount of reality will shake this conviction.

... or, to be more precise, a Sufi origin. The Sufi poets inspired the troubadour love poets from the south of France in the 12th century, and that's where we got our ideas of courtly love, chivalry and the rest. At the time, the south of France was on the border with Andalusia, which is what Spain was called when it was Muslim.

If you don't believe me, go read Rumi's poetry. There's lots of it online.

Both the Sufis and the Troubadours were big on unattainable love, so I'm afraid that's where we get the Madonna-vs-whore thing too. See, you're supposed to be unattainable, at least for a decent interval anyway. Or at least, that's the tradition.

... those women who believe that they should submit to their husbands, aren't going to vote (rather, won't be directed to vote) for Obama or Clinton. Those that voted so far went for Huckabee, and in the general they will either stay home or vote for McCain.

So that kind of thing is a non-issue in the primary.