I'll never be able to buy another product from Levi Strauss without being reminded that I'm supporting this contemptible woman in some small way.

You're doing a hell of a marketing job for your employer Jen.

LW hasn't emotionally gotten past high school. Quite sad really.

This has nothing to do with environmentalism. Your husband is a control freak.

If he were into religion instead of environmentalism (and as your husband practices it there isn't much difference between the two), he'd be browbeating you about that. I say run...

Talk to your Dad (and your Mom too).

Huh? Get real. Salon specializes in pointless self-pitying screeds.

That sounds like a terrible situation you are in.

Unfortunately, no matter how "interesting, creative, intelligent, funny" he is, he was a lousy candidate to start a family with since what he wants apparently comes before a roof over your heads, food to eat, or even your sanity. Other than his presence, what exactly is he contributing to your household? I understand your desire to be loyal and stick with him, but you weren't put on this planet to martyr yourself and your well being to his goals.

He's an interesting, creative, intelligent and funny user, but a user nonetheless. Run.

Yes the Alfa Romeo 8C (made by Fiat) has no machismo appeal whatsoever. Gary Kamiya is an idiot.

I was feeling sympathetic until I got to the part about locking the girl out of the house until you got home. If I were the neighbor and your kid was hanging out at my house every day because you'd locked her out of the house, I'd look at you like you were a maniacal felon too.

Everything you describe her doing is par-for-the-course teenage girl behavior (trust me, it does get better in a few years). The insane one here is you.

It has been my experience that people who describe themselves that way are typically neither. Get over yourself LW.

why the migration to the suburbs might have been driven by something other than racism.

Neighbor upstairs walks too loud?!? Neighbor's children make noise?!?

It's called life in the big city kids. Deal with it.

Look, all decisions come with trade-offs. One of the trade-off for living in the city is you have to deal with other people's daily nonsense. For that you get culture, short commutes, and nightlife (among other things).

If you can't deal living in close confines with other people, then move out of the city. Sure your commute will be longer, there will be less culture, and the nightlife will suck, but you won't have to deal with some busybody downstairs who has decided that you walk around your house too loudly or too often for their tastes.

LW hasn't had steady work for 3 years. Should she pull up her big-girl pants and move to where the jobs are even if it isn't her dream location, or should she stay put and sponge off her parents? What a tough decision....

Sheesh!

Whatever you decide, please don't move to San Francisco.

If listening to tasty tunes while schlepping people around as a shuttle-bus driver is your idea of Nirvana (another unknown local band), then Seattle is the place.

Please choose the ones that aren't in California.

The guy clearly wanted a fight with someone. If it wasn't you then it would have been someone else. Perhaps someone else without the skills to defend themselves.

1) Yes, you must tell the GF.

2) Unless there are children involved, get as far away as you can from your psycho ex-wife.

So LW, when you say "significantly superior to me in terms of salary and position" do you mean "partner"?

If so then you've probably already flushed any chances for advancement at this firm. Move on.

Yeah sue 'em. That'll show 'em. (It will also likely make LW totally unemployable outside of "public interest" law, but hey there's a principle at stake.)

"And if the LW really thinks that this guy is advancing other attorneys based on sex, then report him to HR."

Report him to HR?!? You poor naive child. You haven't been out in the real world for very long (if at all), have you?

LW needs to bring a some professional detachment to the situation.

The question LW should ask him/her self is "despite his political opinions, does the guy in the next office (who admittedly has much more experience than I do) have anything he can teach me about the practice of law?" If the answer is yes then LW should suck it up, make nice, learn what can be learned from him, and consider having to listen to his blather as tuition.

If the answer is no, then LW should look around the office at the other senior attorneys and ask the same question. If the answer is 'no' for all of them then LW should start looking for another job at a place where where the answer is 'yes'.

Note: I didn't say quit your current job. I said start looking for another one. Quitting the current one can wait until a new one is found (that's how adults do it).

Welcome to the real world Lynn. First lesson, hip urban environments aren't friendly to small children.

You want to live in a place were people will give up their seats for pregnant women? Try one of those boring suburban towns that you've spent most of your life convincing yourself that you are too good for.

Sure, 60 years ago that was true.

But those people left Brooklyn years ago and they aren't coming back. The unfortunate reality Brooklyn (and other urban haunts of the "creative elite") circa 2009 is not a particularly child-friendly place. That's reality.

If Lynn wants a place that is more supportive of parents with small children, she should move to a place that's more friendly to people with small children.

(BTW. Have you ever considered what the average Brooklyn resident circa 1950 would make of the average Brooklyn resident circa 2009?)