BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

(a powerful piece for and about women... everywhere) by Michele Toomey, PhD They said not a word, yet their deafening silence blocked out any sound. They did not stir, but their immobility stopped all movement. They were invisible, but in their view, nothing could be seen. They were the shamed. Piled each on top of each. They lay there face to face. A fitting way for shamed and shame to meet. Across the continents they reached. They covered all the earth. Their suffocating presence sucking out all the air. No one could breathe. No one could move. Life stopped and time stood still. Only their mind's eye could look. Only their inner voice could speak. But what to see or what to say? Better to stay asleep. For years they slept and never moved, frozen in time and space. For years their blank forgetfulness hid them from the shame. Exposure could not catch them as long as they weren't awake. Who would desire to know such shame? Better to stay asleep. Years passed and buried them in t...

From Hillary or Bust: With the latest Sarah Palin hatefest happening among female comics (Sandra Bernhard wants Palin to be raped by a gang of black men; a confused Margaret Cho hates her but wants to have sex with her) , I have had it. Listen to me, crazy liberal Palin-hatin’ women, and listen to me good: Keep it up. Because if this sort of misogyny, from women, by women, against Sarah Palin continues, I will not only vote for Palin this November, I will vote for her in 2012 if Hillary is not the Democratic nominee. I will then vote for Palin AGAIN as long as she is on the Republican ticket and there is no female Democrat to vote for. I have had it. I am absolutely shocked, disgusted, appalled, and sickened by the far left right now. As a former member of not only NOW but the very radical Women’s Action Coalition (WAC) in the 1990s, I am amazed at how far the feminist movement has fallen. If this misogyny is what you really stand for, I will fight against it with my vote. And not only...

By S.E. Cupp Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin arriving at the Orlando, Fla. airport on Friday, with son Trig, 5 months, in her arms. Palin has been assailed by women for many of her views. I have a message for the self-styled guardians of womanhood who have decided that Sarah Palin is public enemy No. 1 - please stop talking. You're embarrassing yourselves and women all over the country. You are making otherwise thoughtful, careful, intelligent, tolerant and modern American women of every political bent look and sound ridiculous. As a woman myself, I'm begging you to stop. Put the pen down, close out the blog, push the E! microphone away. Your trash-talking is disturbing and humiliating. In fact, it's setting back the true cause of feminism - the advancement of women - far more than your imagined nemesis. Stop using and abusing Palin to pump up your own overweening egos. You are not the next Sojourner Truth, and Palin is not your next punch line. She's...

Lynette Long wrote a wonderful article in the Baltimore Sun today . I am not at my best today, on top of the fact that this is a great article. Here's just one of the comments from a reader of the article: I can't adequately express the dismay, disgust and disillusionment I have felt in the Democrats' handling of Hillary throughout this election cycle. My husband and I are independents whose values and outlook have traditionally been more in sync with those of the Democrats, but we will both vote Republican this year. Just to illustrate the magnitude of that decision: I am a vegetarian, pro-choice, feminist immigrant - and I will not vote for Barack Obama, nor for his party of sycophantic hypocrites who so gleefully turned upon the very people who had promoted their ideals and fought their battles so successfully eight short years ago. My vote was cast the moment Mr. Obama told me - and eighteen millions others like me - to "get over it." I've charted my cour...