Well, leaving aside the mathematical conundrums (math is hard) posed by the piece, the thing I don't get is that there are "sex" scandals at all. Scandals are when a politician takes a bribe or hires a relative or whatnot. Where and with whom he or she chooses to bump uglies, well, who cares.

Indeed, I would go beyond that. If you are elected to be the "most powerful person in the world," I would think of it as one of the perqs of office, frankly, whether it was oral sex from an intern or a command performance from Elton John. I know that if I were in the oval office it would be a matter of minutes before I was standing there with my pants around my ankles bellowing for an intern, though I do hope I would have better taste than Clinton did.

I've always assumed that politicians were doing that, that it goes with the job. Just as long as they do a good job with the politics and governing stuff, I don't care if they choose to exercise their prerogatives, whether it is with their genitalia or choice of interior decorators. I mean hell, being a politician is a horrible job, what with having to worry about the soy bean market or shake hands with tin pot despots or listen to CNN obsessively, they deserve a little joy.

As do the women politicians. I do hope our first female president selects a really buff pool-boy. You need to RELAX after a day of dealing with Congress, I mean really.

Blocks flash, but easily lets you run any particular thing you want. You will be shocked at how much flash crap is on every single page. You will be amazed at how much the internet speeds up. After adblockers, flashblocker is the single most valuable add-on to my mind.

This is factually untrue, but because it is "fiction" you can beg off that it is a character's opinion, not a fact:

If you ask me to name the proudest distinction of Americans, I would choose -- because it contains all the others -- the fact that they were the people who created the phrase to make money."

In actual fact, the phrase in English has been around since at least Shakespeare and considerably pre-dates America, as a search of the first play I thought of proves:

"Make all the money thou canst."

Othello Act I Scene 3 Line 350

and

"Thou art sure of me. Go make money."

Othellor, Act I Scene 3 Line 359

and is common in a LOT of other languages. (Just fool around on Babelfish if you don't believe me).

One thing about Rand, she was liar through and through. Probably why Wall Streeters feel comfortable with her.

I remember during the "reasonable accommodation" hearings in Quebec (what is it with francophones and obsessing over otherness?) they were only able to find I think five women in all of Quebec that were interested in wearing the full burqa. Is this really an issue? Are there millions of women living in Western countries clamoring to be fully veiled? Are there millions of men living in the developed world, wanting their wives, daughters, mothers and grandmothers to be wearing tents?

I don't think so.

When you pass laws against the behaviour of a subset of a minority, there is a word for it: bigotry.

I suppose that Sarkozy will win many (white, christian) votes, solving this major (invisible) problem.

Incidentally, we should perhaps also ban fetish clothing. All that leather and rubber is pretty clearly about submission and slavery, and we can't have that, you know. Throw the bastards in jail and throw the key away, I say.

In fact, we should take this to its logical conclusion: all women should be forced to be naked from now on. That will surely free them, from the shackles of consumerism as much as from the misogynist patriarchy. Whip them off, ladies! You have nothing to lose but your garments!

Well, I spent most of this evening as a single dad trying to field fairly direct and explicit questions from my teenage daughters. Trying to tell them the truth as I understand it without getting into gross ick territory. And they love pushing my boundaries, I think. I don't really have the option of telling them to ask their mom, when that stuff comes up over supper (and invariably leads to penis jokes). I'm not too sure how well I did, but it was a little nerve-wracking.

But no, even though they have always been the princesses of my heart, I have never told them that, or tried to make them feel like that. I've mostly just tried to let them know how proud of them I am (and I am), and that I am paying attention (supportively) to what is going on in their lives that they care to share.

But I do hate Father's Day. On many different levels.

It isn't about stepping up and being responsible and manly and all and suffering and working and all the rest of that shit. Something you never ever hear about is the dad that actually wants children, and delights in them when he gets them.

That would be me.

I went into the marriage thing specifically to have children (I didn't figure that you needed to be married to have sex or cohabit, and neither did their eventual mother). I adore my children, difficult complex beasts they can be at times.

How come you never hear about that? Men seeing children as a pleasure and asset instead of a liability and vulnerability? When on earth did 'macho' come to equate with 'not liking children'?