Doesn't anyone think that Edwards' frustration might have been as much at a group of reporters who asked him what he thought about Hillary's overblown teary moment rather than his platform for like, ending poverty and stuff?

And does anyone think that considering the fact that his son died, his wife is dying, he's been the target of the same gendered attacks as Hillary, and the media is ignoring his urgent, and needed, message, maybe his understanding of tear-jerking moments is a bit different from theirs?

If she's allowed to show her humanity given all the stress and strain, he's allowed to show his.

That picture comparison was just nasty. Shelob-like, if we're using Middle-Earthian metaphors.

what's with the poor gender representation? Were the women writers just not making their sentences jump through hoops this year? Were they just writing plain old good stories that didn't try to beat Joyce at his own game?

Alas, where is Marisha Pessl when we need her to wow the critics with some overwrought, showoffy prose and join the ranks of the big boys wielding their mighty pens?

How is someone who ends his movie with the hero saying "not wearing a condom was the best think I ever did" qualified to be sexy? Creepy, yes. Sexy, definitely not. I just don't get the love.

...of equating AIPAC, evangelicals, or hard core right-wing Israelis with Israelis in general or even "pro-Israel" American Jews in general. That's a line straight out of the snarkified NY Times approach which questions whether pro-Palestinian sentiments wil offend "the Jews."

Sigh. There are plenty of us Jews in NY, Florida, California and Israel who believe that to be pro-Israel is to be pro-peace, to be pro-Israel is also to be pro-Palestinian. Just because we often "lobby" via secular groups or left-wing groups doesn't mean we don't exist.

Though too many American Jews and Americans in general grew hawkish in the last decades, these MSM articles always assume that there is one "Jewish" or "Israeli" position when there is strong dissent in both communities. Why not interview people from an Israeli peace group for a story like this? It would add some interesting nuance.

I think it's a bit disingenous to talk so much about Dana Stevens without quoting the most important part of her second piece:

"I didn't discuss a brief scene in which Alison's mother brings up the subject at lunch (though if memory serves, the mother never uses the word, either—instead, she euphemizes about "taking care of" the situation). ,,,the lunch scene discredits the mother's moral standing. When the mother (Joanna Kerns, who played the mother on TV's Growing Pains) goes on to tell Alison the story of an acquaintance who had an abortion and later went on to have a "real baby," the subtext is clear: Here is a woman who doesn't value human life. Why should we care about her opinion?"

When I saw Knocked Up, people in the theater gasped during that scene at the mother's callous hatefulness. By aligning the "pro-choice" position with that nasty, insensitive, shrewish (and female) character, the movie is actively anti-choice.

I think it's interesting that so many allegedly pro-choice women can't admit this fact. Maybe they share Apatow's "abortion is necessary but I condemn people who go through with it" mentality.

Also interesting that Tracy omitted the fact the Dana Stevens referred to her own abortion in her piece today.

Oh, dear, what a misreading:

"Am I mistaken? Feminist women would take this? That seems so odd. I was explicitly told it was men that were afraid of a woman's menstruation."

While many patriarchal and orthodox religions and institutions are afraid of menstruation because a) they're afraid of women's bodies in general and b) periods represent the "power" women have by being child-bearers (blah)--the whole idea of feminism is for women to have control over their bodies.

Choosing not to menstruate beause hot flashes, abdominal and back pain, and other unpleasant symptoms are completely debilitating is not the same thing as fearing menstruation.

Feminism is is about women taking ownership of their bodies away from male-dominated societies that brand them as "unclean" and untouchable (or just moody bitches) when they have their periods.

Great piece, but I'm surprised that the candidate's views on abortion--and I'm not talking about Giuliani here---didn't get more play. I believe I heard Sam Brownback say he would essentially force a woman to carry her rapist's baby to term because you know, she should. Mitt Romney said that despite the fact that botched abortions kill women, we must "respect the sanctity of life." Huh??? Have we become so blase about the fact that Repubs are white men in suits claiming to speak for women and making statements that border on the dangerously extreme that we don't find it newsworthy anymore?

I can't help but wonder how even the female viewers who are the most uncomfortable with abortion felt seeing these guys talk as if women's experiences were totally irrelevant to the issue. They couldn't have felt warm and fuzzy inside.

But maybe that's why I'm out of touch with middle America.