This shooter is mentally ill. This other shooter is a terrorist. Or perhaps this shooter cracked under economic pressures. And this other shooter cracked under anti-religious racism and the pressures of war. Whenever these violent outbursts occur, I never feel that the explanations for them are adequate. Yet how we explain them — and our [...]

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From the NYTimes article on Hillary Clinton’s “fit of pique”: As one journalist covering her trip put it: “She is a celebrity. We have a celebrity secretary of state. When you have a celebrity, you get celebrity coverage.” Well, there’s a deflection of responsibility if I ever saw one. Read: Just cuz we have treated [...]

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Not that it’s a regular feature of this blog or something. But today two tweets by friends of mine pointed out separate instances of sexist marketing. First, the stupid: Dell has created “Della,” a laptop that is also a fashion accessory. As a Mac user, I understand wanting a stylish piece of computing hardware; and [...]

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At the Washington Post, Patrick Welsh wrings his hands over the more supportive treatment pregnant teens and teen moms are receiving from some school districts. He is dismayed that teen moms are openly flaunting their motherhood. The somber statistics about teen motherhood are the reason the day-care center, run by the local nonprofit Campagna Center, [...]

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From Ann at Feministing: It’s pretty easy to see why this evolved as an insult. Douchebag is funny because it’s anachronistic. It was a device once promoted for health reasons, but as science has marched on, douching is generally just thought of as an embarrassing (and definitely not-talked-about) product for women who are paranoid about [...]

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