What the hell is wrong with MEN?

Japan's health minister calls women 'birth-giving machines'

Japan's health minister described women as "birth-giving machines" in a speech on the country's falling birthrate, but later retracted the remarks, news reports said Sunday.

"The number of women between the ages of 15 and 50 is fixed. The number of birth-giving machines (and) devices is fixed, so all we can ask is that they do their best per head,  Read more 

The scandal that is the state of Healthcare in America is coming to the Department of Transportation! Evil privatization! The Feds are selling (well, leasing, really, but what else is a long lease, of, say 75 years?) our Interstate Highways, bit by bit, to private corporations. From MotherJones The Highwayman: DeFazio to Take on Privatization:

Even though [Senator Pete] DeFazio has now ascended to the key post on the Highways committee, it remains to be seen whether or not his efforts will slow the privatization trend, which has the enthusiastic backing of the Bush administration. To this end, the president recently nominated D.J. Gribbin to be general counsel to the Department of Transportation. Who is Gribbin you might wonder? A former general counsel to the Federal Highway Administration, he has most recently been working on behalf of Macquarie Holdings, Inc., a branch of the very same company that has been so avidly buying up the nation's highways

This is worse than just selling the "naming rights" for stadiums (stadia?) and arenas!  Read more 

Blame it on Paul Krugman—he started it! (explanation below)

FWIW, by Buffalo Springfield  Read more 

Last week, a songwriter here in Nashville asked our DFA group, "Where are OUR war protest songs? They're being written and recorded—but the radio still won't play them!"

In Federal Way, Washington, a suburb of Seattle, in a region of America that is perceived to be Liberal, the school board has a poorly worded policy that is preventing the showing of "An Inconvenient Truth" in classrooms! From the Seattle Post Intelligencer:

School Board members adopted a three-point policy that says teachers who want to show the movie must ensure that a "credible, legitimate opposing view will be presented," that they must get the OK of the principal and the superintendent, and that any teachers who have shown the film must now present an "opposing view."  Read more 

Confession time…

In 2006, I ran for the US House against an unholy a far-right DINO and lost in the Primary. I drop the phrase, "I placed second in a three-way race", to either joke-it or to save face—it could be either. In reality, the incumbent got 86.2%, I got 10.0% and Mr.Last Place got 3.8%.  Read more 

(Sigh)  Men don't quite understand it.  And one woman deliberately spins it.

From the blog, Halfway There, the post Saucing the Goose highlights Colin Powell's "Pottery Barn Rule"—but neither one see the Truth:  Read more 

VastLeft (you gotta love him!) has a new blog, Bible Study for Atheists. As an atheist, I thought I'd hate it but I visited it (out of courtesy, I guess). At first, there was that "there ain't nothing new here" feeling. I've avoided the bible for years—same old/same old… BUT—  Read more 

Lest we forget, more than just our soldiers will be returning from Iraq. Read A Bad Homecoming? for some rational fears on what we will be facing when DoD-sanctioned thugs come back.  Read more 

The World's Tidiest Orgasm?

A couple earlier posts here (and one on our lubricious sister site Sex Drive Daily) looked at a male contraceptive pill that's under development in the U.K. News stories didn't make it clear if the proposed pill would just stop sperm in its tracks — sperm is just a tiny part of an ejaculation, so guys might not notice — or bring a halt to the entire Semen Production Industrial Complex.  Read more 

First, it was: "Brownie, you're doin' a heckuva job!"

Then it was" "Rumsfeldt will remain my Secretary of Defense through the end of my term."

Now we're told: "He's the right guy for Iraq and we're going to help him and it's in our interest to help him."  Read more 

For a dire prediction, read what Dale R. Davis, a Middle East Specialist and former Marine Counterterrorism officer who knows the Middle East well, has to say about “The Perfect Storm in the Middle East”:  Read more