I was seventeen and living in New York State on 9/11. During the following week, in which the newspapers and TV stations and radio ran nothing but stories on survivors, victims, culprits, and responses (and played Enrique Iglesias's "Hero" and Jewel's "My Hands" on endless repeat), I distinctly remember thinking,…

Yes, this. I would love to be part of a sustained, years-long effort to kick the dumbasses out of office. Too often it seems like there's an initial outcry, and then everyone moves on to the next atrocity. In order for this to matter, people have to still be upset about SB1 a year or two or three from now.

He seems to be kind of the lynchpin, right? If someone more reasonable (coughDemcough) were in office, this terrible bill would get to her desk and she'd just throw it in the trash. So how do we get Perry out of Texas?

Didn't the Supreme Court just kill that? I mean yes, I'm all for the VRA, but I thought they gutted the most important part of it last month. It seems like a lot of states went to work immediately to take advantage of that, which will only make it harder for people to vote.

Ooh! Perfect. Thank you for clarifying!

What's the bigger picture, though? I want to help, but I want to help effectively and right now I'm operating solely on rage. What's the smarter strategy that actually gets the power out of the hands of the Texas GOP? When money goes to the state central campaign fund, does it just get equally distributed? Is it more…

I'm with you, but I think that is the broad-strokes answer. I want the Nate Silver answer. I want to know which gerrymandered-to-fuck district in Texas I should move to. I want to know exactly how many of my dollars Wendy Davis needs in order to make a serious bid for Governor. I want to know which arguments I should…

Okay, I'm done. I'm full of rage. I want to take Texas from the GOP in 2016. I want to light it up blue. I want to see apocalyptic Facebook posts as the GOP watches its cornerstone state, the bedrock of its craziness, crumble into a sea of orange-T-shirt-wearing ladies waving tampons and maxipads in the air. I want…

Okay, this whole thing annoys me enough that I'm probably going to start a convo about it in tonight's open forum. What sort of unholy hell do we have to unleash in Texas to turn it blue in the 2016 election? It seems like the people and the will are there, it's just that there are major roadblocks in place to keep…

This should seriously be a thing. (And by "seriously" I mean I want someone to try it so I can watch the Texas lawmakers twist themselves in circles trying to reject it while upholding the logic they used on SB1.)

Seems like this thread turned into "house parties" instead of options other than house parties. My two cents:

I'm so sorry for your loss. My humble suggestion is to start with lighthearted dates instead of more serious/romantic ones. If a woman has seen you laugh - not just smile, but really laugh until you snort or cry - it will reinforce that you aren't stuck in grief without you having to convince her with words. By…

I have a lot of opinions on this, so hopefully I can condense them into something concise. And obviously it's just one person's opinion, so grains of salt and all.

Glad to hear it! (Well not the seizing pain part, but the getting better part.)

In case you are not a frequent victim of sunburn, my remedy: a basic aloe vera + vitamin E lotion, applied every 30 minutes (or as often as you feel the skin dry out again). The moisture is the key part, the other ingredients just seem to help me heal faster and with less skin damage. You will still be sunburned…

Depending on how broadly you define paranormal, there's a lot out there that's well-written, aimed at adults, and deals in strange goings-on.

I've never gotten a request for an encore post before, so thanks! My ego's all happy.

I went on vacation with a friend and we took a lot of goofy pics in our dirty hiking clothing. All of that was fine and good, until I went through the photos she'd posted on FB and found one where I was squatting to look at something and fully six inches of my buttcrack were exposed. Not a coin slot. Six inches.

Truth. Although I think people (guys and girls) know this. The reason they avoid having The Talk isn't really because they're trying to spare the other person. It's because it sucks immensely to cause someone else pain and then deal with the tears, the pleading for explanations, the anger. It's uncomfortable and makes…

I know a lot of single women. I would say most of us, the instant we meet a guy, do a quick gut-check to determine whether he's dating material. Even if we don't, the second a male friend does something remotely romantic, we talk about it over brunch to get a consensus as to whether he's being platonic or is in Secret…