Absolutely brilliant. And it blunts McCain’s intended message that Obama, Spears, and Hilton are celebrities without substance. Hilton is obviously smart, and heck, although Britney has been a punchline lately, she’s worked hard for her money and status, and has brains to spare (with perhaps a bit of emotional instability on the side). So perhaps it will have the opposite effect to the one intended. In any case, very funny—Paris for President!

Will try to stay up and watch Nightline. Child soldiers are indeed one of the worst horrors of human society. I also suggest Song for Night by Chris Abani, a novel about a child soldier. The author is from Nigeria, and knows the subject well.

Glad to see I’m far from alone in having many favorite poems. A couple of my favs are below. I would not exchange the laughter of my heart for the fortunes of the multitudes. -Kahlil Gibran We have fallen into the place where everything is music. -Rumi My fancies are fireflies,—— specks of living light twinkling in the dark. -Tagore

Nothing against Cindy McCain, but it disturbs me how many people seem to love her as she projects the old-fashioned ideal of a woman, beautiful, well-dressed, submissive, quiet, supportive, fragile yet strong. I’m not saying she is these things, but that is the image many have and what she projects. Have we really not learned anything, grown as a people? To be honest, I don’t believe she wants to be 1st Lady. Its not her ideal or desired life. I think she’ll be happier if her husband doesn’t win.

Liza—I think you display the same insularity shown by the editors of the New Yorker—that all that was needed for context was the masthead, that it was clear what was intended. The last week has shown that’s not so, and although I have read the New Yorker many times, and consider myself well educated, the cover stopped me, I thought—what is this? Then I thought about it, and although I “got it” it didn’t make me laugh or smile—I found it disturbing, and immediately thought—how will this be received across the country, what does it say. According to the New Yorker editors it says—this is ridiculous, see how silly these misconceptions are. To many it said —see this is what will happen if Obama wins. Somewhere I read that the critical mistake the New Yorker made was in not realizing in this day and age they no longer have control over where their content goes—they thought of their core audience, not realizing that today things are broadcast across the world almost instantly. I’m with the group that thinks it would have worked easily if they had just inserted a sleeping Rush Limbaugh or Carl Rove and put the image inside a balloon—as their dream. I know I would have laughed then. As many have said, if you have to explain a joke, satire, whatever, it wasn’t done well.

His best advice was to look at problems as opportunities and challenges. He’d say we have a challenge here, or here’s an opportunity for us. And he always said -Make today a good day. Thanks Dad — I love you and miss you still.

Can’t live my life in fear. Last night listened to in-depth report on this on PBS’ Newshour. Important points for me in the story were that A. the outbreak started in April, the warning only came last week (over a month later), B. that in most of these outbreaks, the CDC and FDA don’t know about it until its over, and C. Salmonella is killed by heat, so all cooked tomato products are ok. So what I got is that the only way to be 100% safe is know where all your food comes from, ie grow your own, and even then I imagine bugs could get in. But your chances are much better if you buy from local sources, grow your own, than in the supermarket.

I think you’re giving the media too much credit. Obama won due to his grass-roots organization and charisma, not because of media bias.

You may be right Monica. AP reported she would be conceding tonight, then her campaign manager said the AP report is 100 % wrong. Hold onto your hats folks!

All I can say is, I’ve always had a wandering brain, and never figured out where it goes. I think it gets bored with the usual stuff, work, conversation, etc., and goes walkabout.

I’d like to see you say that after some serious job hunting. Women are still hired for less money, the thinking that men need more to support their families still holds. I know, this has happened to me, and I’ve heard men admit this bias in their hiring. One male manager I talked to still held onto his preconceptions that men needed higher salaries to support their families even after I told him I had three close female friends, all married, who were the main breadwinners of their family. I don’t think he could take in this information, would have shook his worldview way too much.

Good point Margo. Chile elected Michelle Bachelet in 2006, she is a single mom of three, one child conceived out of wedlock (or if she were technically still married to someone who was not her husband), and identifies as an agnostic. Can you imagine the U.S. electing an agnostic single mom who had extra-marital relationships? I can’t, not in the foreseeable future. Hillary makes me realize we could elect a woman president, but I think she had to try so hard to ‘overcome’ being female that she came across as inauthentic to many voters. Plus of course the historic Clinton baggage. I do think sexism is alive and well, and both men and women can be sexist. But I don’t believe sexism sunk Hillary, I think rather the phenomenon of Obama combined with campaign miscues and missteps did her in.

DeAnne said “Let’s be real here - I think anyone would be lying if having a person of color in the race hasn’t phased them in the least. ” Well DeAnne, it hasn’t phased me at all, at least in a cautionary way, which is what I think you intended to say. I think its exciting and time for skin color or gender to give way to the best person and policies to prevail. I won’t vote for Hillary because she’s a woman, or for Obama because he’s black, but the fact that they are a woman and black, respectively, does not negatively impact my preferences.

She has a slim chance of winning, but should stay in, the remaining states deserve a choice. And her base of support is huge, if she loses, it won’t be by much. The party and country need her, whether as the nominee, VP or strong senator.

I have three that resonate the most, although like many people who have posted, books are a big part of my life, and I read as many as I can. To Kill a Mockingbird-read in high school, was so enthralled I read it all the way through (we were supposed to read by chapters for class) and it taught me so much about relationships, prejudice, honor, courage, and more. I later bought my own copy of the book and have reread it, it is still absorbing after all these years. King Lear by Shakespeare—took a class in Shakespeare tragedies, and this was my favorite, also seemed the most complex and deep one. Or perhaps it just spoke to me. I refer to it sometimes to explain present day events, think many of us do use Shakespeare this way, he got to the heart of human nature. And third, One Hundred Years of Solitude —read before then again during a trip to South America. When I first read it, I was confused, I couldn’t understand the book. After being in SA for two months, when I reread it, it all made sense, a big Aha moment as I realized Marquez had in a way captured what life was life in latin america.