That Three Names didn't get the nomination. I have disagreed with her proposed implementation of ideas since she was co-president with her husband and I gave her the moniker Three Names (which arises from the fact that she wanted to be called Hillary Rodham Clinton. Whenever I heard either of my parents yell out all three of my names, I knew I was in deep shit).

But now that we appear to be at the end of this sexism laced primary season (both kinds of sexism - the flavor that suggests that gender is a factor and a woman can't qualify and the flavor that suggests that gender is a factor and because she's a woman she automatically qualifies) and the panegyrics have begun, I'd like to say what I admired in Three Names.

All too often, when girls want to play a boy's game with the boys, they want us to change the rules because they're playing. Most of us figure that's crap and if you want to play by those rules, go play by yourselves. Frequently, we aren't given that choice. But to her great credit, she played a boy's game pretty much with the boy's rules. And she almost won.

The fact that she was willing to play the games by the rules without modification and without really playing on her gender wins my admiration, if not my vote.

The news here isn't that Kucinich has formally accused Shrub of high crimes and misdemeanors but that Shrub has been committing high crimes and misdemeanors and everybody knows it and yet no one will call him to account for them.

There's much to agree and disagree with you on this but one egregious bit I must comment on. In your last sentence you have the clause starting with "... rather than consume...". If you'd left that clause out, I'd agree with your statement. However, the original, fundamental purpose of futures markets and the purpose that many, many players use the futures markets for is an effort to mitigate price risk for the future. These people are sellers (i.e. producers aka farmers) and buyers (NOT consumers but rather grain elevators and agribusiness like say Cargill and other businesses for whom the commodity is a raw material) and they buy or sell futures contracts depending on how they see the risk of price fluctuation in the future. This is the simple explanation. In practice, it is much more complex for the players (who don't include speculators)

I would agree that anyone who is in the commodities futures market who neither produces a commodity or will use the commodity is engaging in peculation. It surprises me that organizations like pension funds are engaged in this sort of activity. Commodities futures market speculation is risky business and you can lose your shirt. So why are organizations like pension funds who have a fiduciary responsibility to protect their funds assets engaging in risky speculation?

I happen to very strongly agree with you about Bud Lite but I would like to give you two pieces of information I doubt you have.

1. AB has invested in microbreweries that also make good beer (i.e. not with the AB names of Budweiser and Michelob.)

2. The "keep the Eagle flying" comment refers to a specific thing. The AB logo is has Eagle in it and on a building off US 40 in STL is a neon sign of the AB logo and the eagle periodically takes wing as if flying. The author is not referring to America in that comment.

(I lived in STL for 28 years before I was able to escape)

that none of the so-called "conservative" judges who are supposed to be strictly following the constitution, voted with the majority.

It's good to know that somebody else shares my assessment of Three Names....

It's Fascism as I've said before. It's a word fraught with emotion, I realize, but if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, its.....

We live in a PC speak world. PC speak is really nothing but the use of euphemisms to hide the true meaning of what is being said. Thus torture with all of its ugliness becomes merely "harsh interrogation techniques". Calling the Republicans authoritarian instead of fascist is yet another example of PC speak. Authoritarian sounds like a stern father. According to Wikipedia, this is what fascist means:

Fascism is a term used to describe authoritarian nationalist political ideologies or mass movements that are concerned with notions of cultural decline or decadence and seek to achieve a millenarian national rebirth by placing the nation or race above the individual and promoting cults of unity, energy and purity.

According to Shrub, we have an epic clash of cultures going on and we can't allow the Islamofascist culture to be ascendant. Shrub & Co have been placing the nation above the individual in this "clash" and promoting cults of unity, energy, and purity. Thus Darth Cheney could label Scott McClellan's recent book as traitorous.

It's way past time to call a duck a duck.

And here's something that will probably come as a surprise to you. Men find the small talk that women seem to revel in crashingly boring. On the other hand, you generally won't hear men ask the question "Are Women Boring?" I suspect that's because we know that, with any luck, you'll eventually get around to saying something worth listening to - like the Renaissance, global warming, peak oil, or the difficulties associated with getting the spark plugs out of modern cars.

voting for McCain just because Three Names lost, either. The piece of information that one needs is how many Republican women in a sexist outburst voted for Three Names just because she was a woman. Those women are almost certainly going to return to their normal voting patterns. The fact that she did best in primaries where the chance that Republicans could, would, and did vote in the Democratic primary suggests that some number of them are out there. How many?