So there are no American women fighting in Iraq? No female soldiers being killed or maimed? The mothers of killed or wounded soldiers (of both sexes) aren't suffering? How about wives of male soldiers who are casualties of this war that Hillary authorized - they don't suffer?

Are you telling me that there aren't hundreds, maybe thousands of women who are suffering abuse at the hands of their military husbands or fathers who are experiencing PTSD thanks to this war?

And what about Iraqi women - don't they count? Aren't they suffering? Does sisterhood stop at our borders?

What about the loss to American women of their rights to privacy, as well as other basic human rights via the Patriot Act? Doesn't that matter to women?

Are women not suffering economically these days? Does the virtual elimination of the option of bankruptcy not affect women? One side-effect of the bankruptcy bill has been to drive even more families out of their homes than would otherwise have been the case. Don't women need shelter too?

And won't women suffer even more if Bush and Cheney enmesh us in a war with Iran?

You have a strange view of women, AKA Smith. You seem to see them as nothing more than walking, talking wombs for whom reproductive rights are the only rights. And you call me sexist?

"Maybe that is how you lost your friend."

Thanks for your concern, but I haven't lost my friend. I don't discuss politics with her these days; it's a loss, but not as great a loss as her friendship would be.

Hillary's got a gun...

OpenOffice.org offers similar functionality to Microsoft Office programs such as Excel, Word, and yes, Access. It will open and save in .doc, .xls, and .mdb formats - in other words, it's highly compatible with MS Office. It's even more compatible than older versions of MS Office, since it's open source and frequently updated; as Microsoft changes their file formats, Open Office is changed to work with them.

And Open Office is free free free free free.

I installed it recently at the advice of a computer-savvy friend. I love it! My old installation of MS Office had all sorts of problems. Open Office, by contrast, works beautifully with nary a glitch.

Joan, you've crossed over the line from punditry with a point of view to out-and-out...well...I'm looking for some other word than "shilling". And I'm not having much luck.

I don't think I've criticized you in the past, but this piece was just awful. It's one thing to prefer a particular candidate in your publication. It's quite another to disconnect from reality and start scolding readers for making an utterly reasonable interpretation of Hillary's public statements.

This was inappropriate behavior. I might have expected such naked advocacy from a Murdoch or a Scaife. But that's why I don't subscribe to their ventures.

I do subscribe to Salon. And I won't threaten to stop; I'm with you for the long haul. But this sort of shoddy, shabby and intellectually weak punditry makes me rather ashamed to be a subscriber.

Please do better than this. Your readers expect more, and deserve more.

Just shut up. Keep your hands in clear sight. Move away from the keyboard. You're overwrought. I said don't touch that keyboard!

Okay. Stand up. Go outside. Get some fresh air, dammit. You've been doing this too long, and frankly you're losing your perspective - not to mention your mind.

It'll be okay. Just take a couple of days offline. Avoid the news. It'll only make you crazy.

Life's too short for this sort of craziness.

@tbrandel: I didn't think anyone else in the world would have made that connection! Yes, every time I see Hillary all I can think of is Mortimer Duke screaming that he owns the stock exchange. :D