It's wonderful. Charity Navigator rates it very highly, as well. I always end up putting my repayments right back into it, too, so it continues to grow and build. Makes me feel good but not overly patronizing.

I hope they keep a box of Kleenex next to the cash registers.

Well if that's not the most emotionally manipulative way for me to feel good about myself, I don't know what is.

You can make a micro-loan to small business owners for $25 and still have enough leftover to buy a burrito!

I had someone try to tell me that Marlon Brando turned out to be gay the other night (while we were perusing through his copy of a gay photography book) and although I was pretty sure that was Rock Hudson, I had this terrible moment of fear (but joy for the gays! You bastards!) that he was right.

Ugh, I know that feel. I'm housesitting right now and although I have no issues with a galley kitchen (secretly, I love galley kitchens. They're so snug!), but my 'host' has the crappiest kitchen accessories. Old, sad pans, one good knife, and almost no baking equipment. It's enough to break your heart.

I don't disagree with you about concepts of agency and consent. Of course it would be preferable if women were able to have an equal level of agency and consent with the men in their society. Your basic argument is fantastic.

Not only is your response rather insensitive (why would the circumstances of her death be 'happier' if she had decided she didn't want to get married?), but you contradict yourself. Sure, young adults can get married as young as 15 here—but with parental consent. Geesa did not have parental consent, and as she was a…

Well, I must be the manliest man in the world, if the ability to grow a 'stache is indicative of such things. Why yes, that is a tiny picture of me to the left. Why yes, I am a freakishly pale white woman. Why yes, I do wax the shit out of my upper lip. And pluck my chin hairs. And tweeze my eyebrows twice a week,…

Oh, I know what you mean with the angry people! I used to do phone customer service for a fancy catalog company. We had this one customer who had a special note attached to her name about how precisely her order had to be taken, lest she lose her dang mind. I went through her order with her very efficiently and…

Yes! And when the Grim Reaper came to take her back, I would clutch onto her a la Lili Von Schtupp when Bart tells her that she is making a German spectacle of herself.

I can't think of a better present for myself than not being pregnant for Christmas.

I think you're comparing apples and oranges. This article specifically targets an ad campaign that would have been featured in a number of nations that have histories of oppression of people of color and blackface (or some derivative)—be it Australia, the United States, Canada, or the UK. As you stated, an advertiser…

Damn, you go away for two days and everybody is going crazy, telling you you're the worst type of feminist because you posted a fairly level-headed comment that suggested at the possibility that rape can happen in circumstances where people are drunk.

I have to say, I winced pretty hard reading your comment because drunken sex is not really consenting sex. I know you weren't necessarily going for that, but just a thought.

It's a company based in Massachusetts—Webs, so it's pretty legit. And I hear their warehouse is amazing. Oh, yarn, sweet, sweet yarn.

Have you tried yarn.com? I rarely order yarn online, preferring to feel it and see it before I purchase it, but I've only heard good things about them. Good luck!

How soft are you looking? Cascade Eco + has tons of colors, is very pleasant to work with, and is very affordable. However, it's not soft.

Hm, with a hole in it, too, that might have been the way the wool was spun. In both machine and handspun wool there is always a possibility of a weaker ply that would have been compromised in the course of knitting and then wearing it.

That's my plan for the disposal of my body in 71 years when I die! Go out with a last hurrah of gin and a good meal before I let the cats eat me.