@rah29: Most of my experience is in middle schools, both low- and high-income, urban and suburban—I have yet to encounter the sort of privilege you're talking about. :) In my experience the kids who are earning Fs are doing so because they have no support structure or help at home. An F doesn't encourage them, it…

@rah29: I don't know. When I was working as a teacher (and had all my time swallowed up) (fuck Chris Christie, BTW) I always felt that it was less important to send some kind of society-approved message than to make sure the kid fuckin' Got It. Fs really are pretty devastating to a kid's self-perception, and for…

@Yedman: So...you've slept with Codename before? :)

@BeckySharper: I feel like people like her, who try to put a friendly face on conservatism (especially the current iteration of the GOP) are basically PR people for Count Dracula, at this point. She might not be hateful, but she's providing cover to people who are. McCain doesn't represent conservatives, and will…

@American as Apple Pie: There's a lot of cash to be made in the celebrity conservative market. I find it really difficult to take ANYone seriously who courts that demographic, including McCain. 99% of the time it's marketing and snake-oil in the service of screwing over non-white, non-straight, non-male,…

@my_fiction: Nobody ever claims in an animal cruelty suit that the bitch asked for it. Or is crazy. Or is a slutty slut who's been hit by a lot of other guys in the neighborhood, so what's one more? Trying those two kinds of cases is very, very different, from both sides of the argument.

@englishbreakfasttasteslikedarj...: It's an awesome intersection of privilege and power, innit? Every sport has its problems (and its great people, too...baseball had John Rocker but it also had Roberto Celemente) but the modern NFL has so much money coursing through it that nothing shy of being caught in bed with a…

@VooDooDollhouse: I kind of feel like Chris Rock here whenever the subject of being not-rapey comes up. Wanting some credit for some shit we're supposed to do.... "'I take care of my kids!' You're supposed to, ya dumb motherfucker! Whattaya want, a cookie?"

@cadenlaguna: The two most frustrating issues for me so far:

@boxspelunker: Agreed. Friendly is much more important than Nice, I think. Nice is usually insincere and dismissive, not to mention kind of wimpy. Friendly's a whole different game—understanding, open, confident. When people like someone who's "nice" I think they usually mean "friendly," which makes them nice to…

@BellaBellini: Yeah, these stockings apparently have the power to sap men of all free will. (Now there's a selling point!) Look at the dreamy expressions on their faces as they cuddle up blissfully to the stockings...total infantilazation! Which we're not mentioning....

@Acquanetta: Sweet! I've had three girlfriends who were, but the majority issued an immediate and very definite "ick" to the idea.

@Acquanetta: Indeed there are. I feel like it's not as popular an idea among the ladies, though.

I have been using Plex for more than a year, and it's been pretty great. I have it on my MBP, with my movies/TV shows on a bus-powered external drive, and I set up a Mac Mini as a HTPC/DVD-ripping/BitTorrenting machine plugged into a 42" HDTV. the biggest hassle with the setup is the mouse and keyboard. We tried…

@Highsmith: Hey, there are a lot of dudes who are (so to speak) into that. Or so I heard...

@junior ghoul: Saline solution will help the stinging.

@NewsBunny: That's fine advice....but for some assholes, this IS their Self. Whenever my 7th grade students would ask me about girls (which is a hilARRRRious conversation every time, lemme tell you!) that's pretty much what I'd say. You can't make a girl (or boy!) like you...do stuff you like and be friendly and cop…

@Atomic B: That is the most depressing shit ever. Patriarchy hurts us all, motherfuckers.

@BellaBellini: This commercial seems like a case study in how fetishes are formed. :) The power dynamic between the women and the helpless-to-resist men alone....

@Hedgeworth: Nay, I say Sonja Sohn! Dueling petitions! (Katanas by moonlight would be appropriate...)