In the room of clerks again. Discussion begins with the huge deal that is being made about Katie Couric's departure from "The Today Show" and heads to anchor CBS Evening News. Meanwhile, someone says, women's groups are giving Elizabeth Vargas a hard time. One bright young women gets a hard edge in her voice. "Wasn't the woman's movement about getting maternity leave so women could choose to have a family? Isn't the women's movement about giving women choices?"

What is wrong with me? I don't like most music performed by women unless it's Heart or a group like that. Women are too sappy for me. Tori Amos makes me shudder. ZZ Top? Half of Eminem? Kid Rock? That's part of what I listen to. And I feel like I should be embarrassed about it, but I'm not. And something tells me I should be embarrassed for thinking Adam Ant and Prince are sexy on a stick. What self-respecting feminist is going to admit to liking ZZ Top with their fast cars, long-legged women and songs full of not so cleverly hidden metaphors? And Eminem? He's too busy writing songs about killing people, especially his wife. Loads of anger up in there baby.

From AP writer Tom Gardner, comes this story (via Salon):

A war widow who wants the government to put a Wiccan religious symbol on her husband's memorial plaque held an alternative service Monday as a protest, hours before an official Memorial Day ceremony nearby.

The story concludes with:

Approximately 1,800 active-duty service members identify themselves as Wiccans, according to 2005 Defense Department statistics.

Not to put to fine a point on it, but... ...because GWB was not permitted to grieve the death of a younger sister, at least 1600 American children must now mourn the loss of a parent. And who knows how many more children will lose a parent before this ill-begotten war has ended? Update: just one more example of the federal government's » read more | Karen M's diary | 1 comment

A number of women's groups are protesting Elizabeth Vargas's stepping down as co-anchor of ABC's "World News Tonight." I wish them good luck, but I think they may be taking the wrong approach. For one thing, it may be that Vargas actually prefers to step down. But how can we know? Pregnancy, both pre- and post-, is still such an unmentionable in this country-- except when we want to offer unsolicited and unwanted advice to a pregnant woman-- that one wonders how so many women manage to work while pregnant or breastfeeding as well as they do. And then there's the question of how many of us would be willing to run the post-pregnancy gauntlet of millions of critical eyes calculating how many more pounds we still need to lose?

...check out this site: Republicans for Humility.

I can't believe it, a month ago I wrote this about women's underwear. A whole month. I am here to tell you there is hope for comfort. A package arrived from Decent Exposures and it occurred to me that I needed to share with the world, the place that makes some of the most comfortable undergarments in my world. First, all their literature reads: "Designed for women by women." That's what drew me in years and years ago. Each garment is handsewn, made to order. If you are looking for lacy, frilly, underwire bras with straps that slip and give you that "torpedo tit" look, this is not the place for you. If, however, you are looking for comfort that comes in an array of pretty colours in cotton or cotton/lycra this is definitely the place for you.

Back in the room full of clerks. Chatting about this, that and the other thing. The new guy is trying to find a room to rent and the clerks are offering suggestions. His horror stories are truly appalling. The couple who wanted to rent the room but didn't want anyone to know he lived there, promising to hold onto his check until he returns with cash a week later and then cashing the check anyway. Or the man who signed a written agreement and then reneged when new guy said he was gay. Appalling what people do to each other without a thought. Outrage was expressed. He fixed his sweet young face with those blue eyes on the person facing him and told the story of his friend's roommate who is ready to call the housing authority on the last landlord. "She's all super feminist like you ..."

While GWB may have been recently reconsidering his tone, if not his policy, others with far less culpability have been expressing both their own regrets and ours far more poignantly.

A man in a roomful of clerks went on a tirade about illegal immigrants. Of course, living in California, he meant Mexicans. "I think we ought to tattoo their foreheads orange before we deport them. Of course that will never work because they'll just turn around and come back." Forget solutions like helping Mexico, and South America, with economic growth so people who live in abject poverty don't have to risk their lives coming to America to take jobs no one wants in order to help their families who live in villages with no electricity, no indoor plumbing and no paved roads. Let's just label everybody that's different like Hitler did with his pink and yellow pieces of cloth that made homosexuals and Jews targets. Let's just put people we don't like on the edge of pits and shoot them so their bodies will fall backwards into them, why don't we?