Montana is 0.3% of the population of the United States. It has very little in common with either the places most Republicans live (namely, the inner suburbs of large cities in the South and interior West, and the outer suburbs of large cities on the coasts and in the Midwest) or the places most Democrats live. The…

Whatever tiny shred of hope I had in American democracy is gone now. There are no longer any standards. It’s just whether the candidate has a D or an R next to their name. Why bother voting anymore? What a joke.

The Texas legislature meets for 140 days every 2 years. The pay isn’t great, but you get to make bad decisions that have deleterious effects on the lives of millions of people. If you stick around for 8 years you even get a pension.

I consolidated with Nelnet, and when I called to get information about the forgiveness program for nonprofit workers of 10+ years, I was told that “because of how my loans distributed”, I can’t utilize that program.

Oh god. I have two student loans. Private and Federal. I curse myself everyday for not knowing ANYTHING about student loans when I applied for the private one (loan for my first year of grad school). They are awful to deal with. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve been on the phone with them, reduced to tears after…

Your story reminds me of where I was 20 years, at age 32. It finally dawned on me that it wasn’t being without a mate that was making me miserable, it was the pursuit of it, the endless yearning. I stopped looking, stopped dating in fact. I’m an introvert like you. I’ve lived alone almost all of my adult life. (I have…

That is the key to my marriage: I do not make my husband watch Sci-Fi movies, and he does not make me watch WWII documentaries . . and lots of other things like that. We are a team, but we give each other space to have our own interests as well.

On the flip side of this, there are some guys out there who are terrified of wasting a woman’s time, and the fear of not ever being good enough. I’ve already resigned myself to the single life.

Yes. Women now can work and rent their own apartments and don’t have to put up with abuse anymore. And let’s not forget divorce was nearly impossible to get back then. Wives were property of a man and they couldn’t leave. Now everyone leaves whenever they wish. Vast improvement. Marriage is one of the most…

This can’t be said enough. 100 years ago marriage was a great choice for women, because your only other option was living with your parents forever. Women couldn’t legally sign a lease to get an apartment, and generally couldn’t get steady jobs that paid well. Marriage was an institution designed for a society with…

You have a point WRT differences between media aimed at woman vs media men. But I also feel that the popular conception of monogamy is a little distorted. Too many people seem to see it as a business contract, when authentic monogamy is in fact the emotional result of deeply connecting with someone on an emotional,…

I think you’re onto it here. The expectation that marriage be “the final answer” to living: and they lived happily ever after. No further growth required. No more change needed. No further expansion/discovery of self necessary. Our partner becomes our one-stop-only human connection. No need to put effort into…

47 here, been single since ‘11 divorced w/ 11 yr old daughter, single by choice, because honestly a lot of baggage out there, i have very minimal and I like my routines and total freedom............its priceless.......if someone happens to surface..........there’s always fun to be had, places to go, things to see etc…

This is such an astute comparison, thank you! Women’s magazines encourage us to “lock it down” whereas men’s magazines encourage them to “win over” as many chicks as they possibly can. It’s unfortunate, really, but that’s where we are...

EXACTLY.

They don’t *try* to get into politics. They do it, because ‘murica lives via its TV screen now and fear anything that is unfamiliar.

Their chosen profession is not so much of an issue for me (we are supposed to be living in a democracy after all, so everyone’s voice counts) it’s that these people who are not in politics want to gun straight for the highest office in the land. You should at least be required to have represented a community in…