@didntmeanto: Woah woah, woah. We can't have any government competition horning in on our capitalist insurance system! That's clearly not what America is about, you communist.

@Ailatan: It's my understanding that, as with all things, we need to have just enough to pay for our own shit, but not enough (read: more) to be threatening. The same point, apparently, can be made for looks, sexual experience, or any other form of social currency. The main issue when dating an AskMen dude seems to…

So, does my AskMen dude want me to get my ass off the couch with minimal coaching from him, or he want me to spend all my time huddled safely on it, lest I pick up too many scary sexin' skills? What if in the process of de-smelling myself, I become too good-looking? WHAT THEN, AskMen?

If this is like that time mrteenwordpower bought me that bowling ball with HIS name engraved on it, he's probably going to need the XL.

@Flackette Goes Retro: Okay, the only things babies do are poop, and vomit, and rub food in their hair. MY children are going to be wearing trash bag outfits (carefully taped on, of course) for the first five years of their lives.

@NefariousNewt a.k.a. General Awesomesauce: Yeah, I don't know why this is such a screamingly big deal. Kids come home and say, "hey mom and dad, why can't *I* get gay married? Our super-cool president says I should!" Can't parents take that opportunity to, you know, explain their views? Wouldn't that be a lovely…

Because when Obama needs DOMA repealed, he's going right to those titans of political power: schoolchildren. That wily trickster!

@colligate: Actually, it being "the closest thing to god" sounded to me like "because it's so awesome, it's as near to heaven as I'm going to get while still alive." I don't get why that doesn't count as, "because I wanted to have sex—now please go study an actual sexual problem, sex researchers."

@Penny: The fundamental trouble with all this to me is the fact that homeschooling is well-regulated exactly nowhere. Which is how homeschoolers like and want it, clearly (a desire to which I'm ascribing no necessarily sinister motive), but which then of course can arguably come into conflict with the child/student's…

@missteenwordpower: "Warren" was so confusing for people to hear in reference to a small child, however, that I called him "the baby" in outside conversation for the first seven or so years of his life.

@unmoldednicole: My little brother's name is "Warren". After ten years, it still feels faintly ridiculous, but I also couldn't imagine it any other way.

"Exasperation, coffee, notebook paper, pizza, slightly bitter notes tempered with occasional bits of warmth"

@ameliabearhart: This makes my day. Which is awesome, because my day, and my week, and my month, have been a soul-suck of stress. Thanks!

@LaComtesse: I think mushrooms are pretty unacceptable. Let's not only ban them, but pretend they don't exist.

"The publishers of the New International Version Bible will release a revised edition that will 'undo the damage' of an earlier version that tried to be more inclusive by substituting words like 'he,' 'father,' and 'son' with more gender-neutral terms.

Dear Steve Anderson,

*tear* My day, she is made.

@questionable: Because I pay for the pill, mrteenwordpower buys all the condoms. Yes, we're redundant, but also thus far totally unpregnant.

Does Brian Brown definitely have a PhD? I read "completed course work for a doctorate" as a rhetorical dance around the fact that he did not actually hold one.

I went to a women's college, with many extremely intelligent and confident women. And there was still LOTS of verbal tentativeness. There were entire facebook groups titled "Students Against the Use of 'I Feel' In Class" because of the number of times the phrase came up in courses like...chemistry. And physics. The…