Yes, Sasha and Malia Obama are adorable. Yes, I'm very happy they're finally getting a puppy.

Now, drop it.

There has been something increasingly distrubing about the cult of personality that is growing around the new First Family. It's fine to be excited about such an attractive family representing ou… Read full post »

Michelle Obama's Narciso Rodriguez outfit -- the red-splotched black dress she wore at the Grant Park celebration on Tuesday night -- was ugly.

That is the vote of 65% of respondents at people.com, and I find no reason to demand a recount.

Her choice of dress for Election Night has been the… Read full post »

Hours away from the next presidential debate and with just 28 days to go until the election, I have come to one immutable opinion about the candidates and their running mates:

I have come to loathe each and every one of them.

Seriously....I have started to hate all four… Read full post »

I spent about five years living in Sedona, not all the far up the road from John McCain's ranch.

There are a lot of people out there who believe that the red rocks of Sedona are rich in the phenomena called “vortexes,” areas of spiraling spiritual energy that… Read full post »

A good deal of the conversation around the household last night revolved around squirrels.

I was debating the merits of fighting the squirrels for the acorns falling from our front-yard oak tree and hording them in the crawlspace versus letting the little critters get really plump and juicy in/… Read full post »

Joe Bageant, author of the wonderful book "Deer Hunting With Jesus" made an excellent point on his blog today: if you're going to spend $700 billion, why not spend it on forgiving credit card debt, college loans, and uncovered medical expenses? Wouldn't that remove a huge burden from American consume… Read full post »

For once, I agree with John McCain.

Postpone the debate. Cancel it.

Hell, cancel them all. Presidential debates long ago stopped being debates: they are now little more than platforms for the regurgitation of chunks of stump speeches and the landing of pre-crafted “zingers.” Post-debate a… Read full post »

 If I had the money, I would head over to Kinko's and print up 535 copies of this 1939 British government poster -- and then put one on the desk of every member of the House and Senate before the debate on the Bailout Act begins this week.… Read full post »

Well, the roar of the crowd has faded away, the stadium lights are out, the Styrofoam Greek columns have been hauled back to the studio lot, Andrea Mitchell has been released from her balloon prison....and silly season has officially returned.

The latest kerfuffle is over lipstick.

Both Joe Biden and… Read full post »

I'm off-line for one day and what happens? MSNBC demotes Olbermann and Matthews from anchoring future election coverage...? See, this is why there should be free, universal Wi-Fi.

Joking aside, I think this was a wise move for MSNBC.

 While the constant cat-fighting during the Democratic Conven… Read full post »

As the American media focuses on the inner workings of the various Palin women's uteri and their potential impact on world peace, in Pakistan, an attempt is underway to buck thousands of years of tradition and find justice for five women laying dead in the remote deserts of Balochistan.

On July 13… Read full post »

Wow. It took maybe three hours for the various pundits on the tee-vee to ask The Question: is a woman with five children, including a newborn with special needs, really fit to be Vice President?

Newly-minted Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin has a lot going against her. She's unknown… Read full post »

In honor of the 88th anniversary of the 19th Amendement, granting women the right to vote, I thought I'd share a selection of pro-suffrage poetry published during the final push for ratification in 1919-20. "Are Women People? A Book of Rhyme For Suffrage Times," by Alice Duer Miller is not… Read full post »

As officials in Beijing finally relax after more than two weeks of exhaustively stage-managing one of the most perfectly produced Olympics in history, it is hard to imagine that just over a century ago there was an Olympics so disorganized, so chaotic, that some athletes wandered into the record book… Read full post »

Most people aren't familiar with the life of Aisha bint Abu Bakr -- and that is a shame, because it was quite a life.

Daughter of one of the earliest converts to Islam, she was married to the Prophet Muhammad at the age of nine. The child bride quickly… Read full post »