Look, she’s on CNN tonight in the debates. What do you call it when a person talks about how strongly they’ve made things work legislatively, despite obstacles that men have put in their way? Wouldn’t that be the Gender card? What do you call it, when a person complains when media comments on their age, face, hairdo, manner of dress? Gender card, no? What do you call it when a person gives extra thought to dressing in a way that is careful and thought out, sort of in the Goldilocks...

The story as it came down on air and on TV was this: Old woman said, How do we beat the bit–? McCain laughed. The actual story is different. And you can see the clip (several more are on YouTube) and other persons’ ideas about what should and should not have happened here at Outside the Beltway Also here at Wonkette And, a transcript of the verbatim ‘after’ discussion of the incident on CNN in which we see how a moment in a candidate’s life is rewoven by some. As an...

Maybe you grew up in a small town like I did; my village was population 600 souls. Maybe in your hometown, like mine, truth is sometimes definitely stranger than even NON-fiction. Story Number One This week in the hometown, everyone is talking about Hundred Cat Lady. This poor soul, an ‘old before her time’ 59 year old woman out in the Township, was found to have 85 cats, two dogs, and… well, 30 additional cats. Not sure who counted the animals, but the last 30 cats were all made...

In Caracas, it may soon be time to cry, and not just for Argentina. Bad storm up on its hind legs already. When students take to the streets, whether in our country, or in Burma, in China, in Hungary, or elsewhere in the world, they have often been ‘the yellow canaries in the mines,’ the first ones to realize and to react to something being horribly wrong, unfair, deadening, illegal, unbalanced, against decency, against freedoms. A summary of this storm walking the land in Venezuela....

Once upon a time, my father and his horribly and permanently hunched-over second tailor Bodish, and me, went to see Oral Roberts because Mr. Bodish wanted a faith healing and could not drive a car. My father tried to talk him out of it, the two men having a very animated conversation that looked like they were angry, but they were both just trying to convince the other. Mr. Bodish won. And it was the first time I ever saw a preacher in a red suit preaching so hot the podium was smoking. But, that’s...

UPDATED 1:20 am MST: http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=3855133 ABC has uploaded the ad to its site. It’s a bit washed out, but it is all there. Tom Tancredo’s campaign ad is designed to be “shocking,”and it has legs, though the candidate might not…. We in his home state, Colorado, are not supposed to see Representative Tom Tancredo’s ad. Neither are you. Unless you live in Iowa. But Representative Tancredo is hoping his ‘shock’ ad will generate free publicity,...

I’ve been a military wife for two decades; my husband USAF, 21 years, retired, now working for the VA helping vets get their prosthetics. Not long ago, on a rehab ward, having gone to visit with two dozen vets recovering from injuries …I brought ice cream cones… a hit…. what laughing boy moments there still can be sometimes, the spirit of boy still deeply rooted inside the adult soldier, even though injured. Later, in the visiting room, the conversation turned more serious:...

Just the point of view of a Latina mestiza: In Spanish, as in other languages, words and phrases often carry subtext. And as we joke amongst ourselves, in Spanish, we have ‘five versions of yes that mean no,’ and ‘three versions of no, that mean yes.’ So, when a person with the diplomatic skills of a man like King Juan Carlos unleashes an epithet; it carries far more nails and broken glass flying than just the words alone. Viz: The King’s words to Chavez were, “¿Por...

Here at the Iraq War Today website, there are some great “working” pictures of our brothers and sisters in Iraq and Afghanistan, very different from many ‘news’ pictures we see daily, especially those of soldiers ordered away from their real work and told to ‘stand there’ behind visiting dignitaries, as well as different from those pictures of soldiers acting egregiously with prisoners. These photos are very different; a montage of the day to day, and the rare...

Homeless Women Veterans Excerpt from the statement of Vietnam Veterans of America submitted by Marsha Tansey Four, RN, Chair, Women Veterans Committee before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Committee on Veterans Affairs. “Approximately 3 to 4% of the 275,00 homeless veterans across this county are women. Homeless women veterans present different needs with reference to privacy, gender related care, treatment for physical and sexual trauma, and care for dependent children. Due...

The Night of The Shattering Glass, otherwise known as Kristallnacht, took place November 9, 1938, marking to that date, the most widespread attack against Jews in peacetime Germany and Austria. In France, two days prior, a 17 year old Jew had shot a German embassy staffer in retaliation for the egregious treatment of his father and family at the hands of Nazis in Germany. Hitler seized on that event as opportunity to enact his long planned desire to destroy Jewish houses of worship and the Jews…....

If Musharraf is trying to demonstrate how well he supports a democracy wherein other candidates are free to campaign regarding forthcoming elections, he is failing in full public sight. An order for the house arrest of Benazir Bhutto was given and executed Friday (the middle of the night, here in the USA). To many, Bhutto is attempting to run a campaign. But, to others, Bhutto is said to be by her very presence, purposely inflammatory, and is trying to rouse an insurrection to overthrow Musharraf....

The above cartoon, Suggestive Dream, from My Extra Life drawn by Scott Johnson ©2007 All Rights Reserved. Congratulations to all. A cartoon/ comic may seem simple to readers of them. Ah, that’s the deceptive magic of the one who draws them… Inking a comic actually requires the skills of writing believable dialog, finding a wry storytelling style, developing a drafting style, being able to conceptualize each frame and the overall concept. The talents required are not just a joke...

Congratulations to Girl Genius, written by Professors Phil & Kaja Foglio of TPU, with drawings by Prof. P. Foglio! beautifully drawn magna/ fantasy style, highly imaginative language. http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/ This artwork ©2007 Professors Phil & Kaja Foglio of TPU, All Rights Reserved

Congratulations to Day by Day by Chris Muir! a twist of lemon with wry humor… http://www.daybydaycartoon.com/ ©2007 Chris Muir, All Rights Reserved

Laughter really can be some of the very best medicine. Congratulations: xkcd! http://xkcd.com/88/ ©2007 xkcd, All Rights Reserved: reprinted by Creative Commons license.

Rev. Bob Graetz, friend of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr., has criss-crossed the country, preaching and teaching, including in the heartland of America, the Midwest, which is mis-touted by some as a bastion of conservatism that is purported to condemn and freeze-out anyone who doesn’t conform to a narrow principle. But, no one informed The Gateway-St. Louis Chapter of Lutherans Concerned, and other churches and convocations which have invited pastor Rev. Graetz to be celebrant at...

I had a night dream long ago about how hard it was to get to earth. For those of us who get pregnant when just passing through a room where a man is reading a newspaper and no more, it has sometimes seemed as though women becoming pregnant, carrying to term, and laboring to bring a living baby into this world is easy, common, like falling out of a ground floor window. But, it isn’t. It is hard to get to earth, more than a one in a million odds, I think with certainty. Those souls who make...

Norman Rockwell, American painter, was known for gathering archetypal representations of people and creatures together in one scene, all of them wearing expressions or carrying hopes or fears that each of us have felt somewhere in time. What we see: This amazing archetypal photograph sent me by a correspondent this morning, ran in the NYT, with the title: “Police officers beating a lawyer outside provincial High Courts in Lahore today.” There in the photo is a Pakistani lawyer, center,...