On Facebook they have different "debate" topics on different issues, and I ran into "Would a female president be as effective as a male president" sponsored by ABC as a topic. It totally makes me sick that they can even ask that question and it can be interpreted by some as a valid issue. They would never openly debate, "would a black president be as effective as a male president" or "would a Mormon president be as effective as a WASP president" or "would a cross-dressing president be as effective as a gender-consistent-dressing president". Notably, many, many more males responded with "no" than females, using absolutely horrendous reasoning skills ("if you take their periods into account then we'll be dropping atomics bombs once a month!!!!" or "they just wouldn't be able to garner the respect from all the sexists in the world (but I'm not one of them, I SWEAR)!!!!"). I hate people.

And then there are the people who answered "yes" but then said "but NOT Hills". Like somehow they're hiding their sexism by purporting to actually have weighed the issues. I call bullshit. She's honestly not a whole lot different than the other candidates. She's just one of the bunch, really, playing politics like the game that it is...just like everyone else she's' up against.

She's the only female that, in my opinion, it would be POSSIBLE to elect in the U.S. given her, you know, 8 years of experience being the closest adviser to the most popular president of our time. Not to mention the fact that Bills (like that?) would be an equal adviser to her if she were elected.

Yet again a woman who is more than qualified than the competition but will have an uphill battle the entire way. Well she has my fucking vote. The same way she will bring out thousands of men to vote against her gender, I will be there to vote for it.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

If I had remembered before I came home, I would have put up a christmas theme for the blog, but I am laaaaaazzzzzzzzzzzzzyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.

I saw Erica at Copps yesterday. First, I saw Justin, but figured that it was just someone that looked like Justin because he was looking right at me and didn't make an indication that he knew who I was (at least, from my perspective). Plus, I think I have mild face-blindness. Then, anyway, Erica said hi. You were all so well dressed.

Guess who had another baby? I can't remember - would that be #2 or #3? I know he had 1 son while we were in college, and I thought he had another in between, but not sure. Can you believe Christmas is almost here?! I feel like a little kid getting so excited about it! Now that Ella can understand things she's so excited and I'm even more excited for her. It's going to be weird signing 'Santa' on the gifts :) (I'm getting old!!)

Christmas, war. On a drive to my local mall, while flipping through the stations, I settled on that old John Lennon Christmas song - you know the one "So this is Christmas, and what have you done? Another year over, and a new one just begun." Happy enough, sure, and I sang along, but maybe the song isn't so happy, because I started to cry as the children sang "War is over, if you want it". Lets hope its a good one, without any tears. Christmas is a truly poignant time for me, and for all westerners. It is clear to me that the holiday loses none of its meaning and power by being separated from an ancient myth.

In the northern hemisphere, where most of earth's land mass has accumulated, starting in September, the sun begins to drift south, the direction we call down. It goes down, down, down further and further, plunging the earth into the cold - a cold like that of outer space, where we would have no sun to warm us. Then on December 21, it stops going down, and it sits there. On the southern edge of the horizon. We're left to build fire, wrap ourselves in cloaks, and huddle, hoping that the sun will rise again and the days will lengthen, and we can grow crops and live again. Three days and no change. Then, like a miracle, the sun begins to creep northward on December 25. It is no wonder that a very powerful cult on the global stage has taken this date as its biggest holiday. Biggest, yes, but perhaps not the most important. That tells us something as well. Christmas does not celebrate the act of Jesus saving everyone from original sin. Presumably, that should be the biggest one. But the fact is that in dark times, we want light.

They didn't have Christmas in Vietnam, and they don't have it in Iraq, but it might just be the best ideological export to the rest of the world. Join hands, give of yourself, and love. And so Happy Christmas, I can't stop crying.

And Billy Joel has a new Christmas Song, for the soldiers, I guess. Some say it is insensitive, since over there they practice Islam. My colleague spent two months in Kuwait and said there were two Christian churches in the entire country. She got there on the first day of Ramadan. She accidentally drank some water outside the airport and got some weird looks. Only later did she realize that she could have been arrested. But thats not the point. M*A*S*H featured it - what is a holiday in a war zone? What is the holiday of peace and love - what can it mean in a place where every horror you can think of happens, every day.

War is not over, we cannot take it anymore. It's Christmas in Falluja.

I'm ridiculously excited to go home for Christmas.

This is funny.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22129627/?GT1=10645

We should all go see this for old time's sake!