I will never understand other women. Why do they do this to themselves? You want to understand your body? Lift weights, go for a walk, masturbate, go swimming, or just put on some good music and stretch. Your body is right there and you don't need permission from other women to like yourself.

...but it seems appropriate now. A lot of people don't have the money to pay an attorney to draw up all the documents needed to give them some of the rights and benefits of marriage. There are a lot of working class and poor gays and lesbians. Wouldn't you prefer to see them pay $30 for a marriage license rather than thousands for a sheaf of documents that will do far less for them?

You're both on the mortgage, great. Are you tenants by the entirety or joint tenants with right of survivorship? The former gives a spouse protection from the other spouse's creditors, the latter does not. You have joint checking accounts, great. If he drains that account, what recourse do you have?

Marriage is a contract. It changes your closest relative from your parents/siblings/etc. to your spouse. It gives more than a thousand other benefits. Marriage does not have anything to do with religion, it can be done at a courthouse. The state doesn't give a "blessing" to marriages. The state gives legal recognition to a contract, not out of the kindness of its heart, but to streamline routine legal matters. You're perfectly free to not get married, but please don't denigrate a change that will make life easier for many people.

V. Ryan, according to the California Dept. of Health site, California doesn't have a residency clause for marriage licenses. Massachusetts has been hiding behind a 1913 racist law to avoid issuing marriage licenses to couples from states where their marriage would not be allowed. Scalia (of all people) said in Lawrence that he thought the Full Faith and Credit clause could probably be used to declare DOMA unconstitutional.

Annavalon, did you you teach them how to confront the sexism in their own religion and how to lead a movement to change it? Did you encourage and empower them to consider joining a religion that would allow them to take true leadership positions?

Anna.bella, it's an all-girls school. These are girls who are less experienced at dealing with boys. Now they're put in a position where they need something and have to, as supplicants, approach the very group their school has kept them from mixing with normally.

Annavalon, so these "passionate feminists" stayed with a religion that treats them as second-class citizens. They may have talked about these issues, but by their actions they taught those students that that treatment is not enough of a reason to walk away. It's called learned helplessness. You may "desire to see [the Catholic Church] change", but you know that won't do a thing. The leaders don't want your opinions. In fact, they consider you unworthy of even being part of the discussion at anything other than the local level (and that's only grudgingly allowed).

He's using a buzzword to manipulate you. It's perfectly reasonable for you to exercise your best judgment about what you do. He's accusing you of being judgmental because you won't do what he wants. Of the two of you, who do you think should be making judgments about what you do with your body?

Fetishes and kinks are great, but manipulating others into fulfilling those fantasies is wrong. Sex, and marriage, is supposed to be about both people's needs being met. He seems to disappear or find a way out every time you need his help with real-life responsibilites (such as pregnancy and moving).

Let's try an old Dear Abby trick: Are you better off with him or without him?

Terry is wrong. You don't have to "test yourself", you have to take care of yourself and do what makes you happy. You matter more than your mother or your brother. Spend the day at the movies or an amusement park, something fun and active that you and your kids can enjoy. You don't need your mother to understand why this is important to you, you just need to tell her 'no'. Give up on her ever being supportive and considerate, it will never happen.

You want your mother to have a happy anniversary. She wants you and your children to spend time with a child abuser. You are normal. She is sick.

Think about it, would you force one of your children to spend time with him? No, of course not. So why would you hurt yourself in that way? Take care of yourself as well as you'd take care of your kids.

I hope he chooses Kathleen Sebelius or Claire McCaskill. Otherwise, Hillary will spend the next four years walking around like the Queen of the Democratic Women.

I'd love to play Spore, but I haven't purchased an EA product since they started using SecuRom.

SecuRom was added to the last two Sims 2 expansions. In the Sims 2 community, many players dismissed concerns about SecuRom at first, or posted that they weren't having problems with it. Nine months later, most of those players have been back to ask for help in uninstalling SecuRom because it eventually did cause problems. Ironically, the only way to play the Sims 2 with those expansions and without SecuRom is to get a no-cd hack. EA's heavy-handed security paranoia is driving a good number of their customers to warez sites, in a desperate attempt to play a game they've already paid for.