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I don’t which infuriated me more: Bob Herbert’s sanctimonious Sunday column describing American society as “saturated with misogyny,” or the unusually thoughtless, “right-on” commentary that followed it. Herbert’s thesis echoes the drumbeat of self-pity that has been coming out of paleo-feminist groups and women’s studies departments for ...

Yes, Vanessa, you are right that the Iranian elections are an argument against ''U.S. interference'' as a tool of democratization—if, by that, you mean U.S. military intervention. However, they are an excellent argument in favor of more peaceful forms U.S. democracy promotion, by which I mean radio programs like Radio Free Europe's Radio Farda, ...

Without question, this was the first serious foreign policy speech Obama has made as president. In giving it, he broke a number of taboos and slid over several potential minefields, reaffirming America's commitment to Israel as well as to Palestinian statehood in front of an Egyptian audience, and going out of his way to make statements about ...

While we are on the subject of elderly female pathbreakers, Emily—and before the 30th anniversary of her ascent to the British prime ministership passes—maybe it’s worth reflecting for a minute or two on the career of Margaret Thatcher. Long before Hillary, decades before Sarah, there was, after all, Maggie: The idea that female politicians can ...

Emily, you are absolutely right that we've known for a while, in a vague sort of way, that terrible things happened in the CIA's ''unofficial'' black-hole prisons. But you are also right that the question of what, now, we are going to to do with the legacy of American-government-sanctioned torture is not fading away. ...

You are so right, Hanna - this snow cancellation thing always drove me batty when we lived in DC, not merely because of what it said about our region's ''toughness'', but because of the scorn that those last-minute school closures - usually after one snowflake -  always demonstrated for working women.  Scrambling ...

Hanna, I agree with you that the prospect of a celebrified D.C. is deeply distressing. One of the things I've always loved most about Washington is its distinct lack of cool: only place I've ever lived where one can walk the corridors of a large office building—or the aisles of a newsroom—and find not a single woman ...

Agreed, Emily: If it's true that Palin knows less geography than most fifth graders, that says something rather awful about the McCain campaign. If it's not true, and if McCain staffers are spreading that rumor anyway, that says something rather awful about the McCain campaign too...

For those who haven’t seen it yet, this clip of Fox News political correspondent Carl Cameron talking to Bill O'Reilly is rather extraordinary, and not only for what it reveals about Sarah Palin. Cameron reports that McCain campaign insiders have told him that Palin was unaware that Africa is a continent, not a single country; ...

Step back and think about it, Dahlia, Melinda, Emily, et al.: Sarah Palin pretending to enjoy a comedy rap at her expense, McCain and Obama howling with laughter at jokes about Joe the Plumber and Obama's middle name—isn't this whole phenomenon rather odd? What other country demands that its political leaders have not ...