My MySpace profile lists my age as 90. I did this at some point in 2005 to avoid the amount of messages I was receiving from men using the site to find prospective dates. This is my choice, and one that worked very well for me, even if I was, in fact, in direct violation of MySpace's terms of service, which state that all users must submit “truthful and accurate” information about themselves.

"I long to hear that you have declared an Independency - and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors...If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation." ---Abigail Adams

Honduras is in turmoil. A military coup there this morning deposed Pres. Manuel Zelaya, pre-empting a controversial referendum that would have allowed the leftist ruler to run for a second term. The Honduran Congress has stripped Zelaya of his office and appointed the president of the Congress, Robert Micheletti, to be head of state. The US and the Organization of the Americas criticized the move,  

The governor of South Carolina went missing this week, has been recovered, and then, once recovered, managed to totally make up a story about where he'd been, a story which was quickly disputed by those nasty things: facts. It turns out that he wasn't so much hiking on the Appalachian Trail by himself as he was visiting a mistress he's had in Argentina for some time, that his wife recently discovered and kicked him out of the house over.

It seems the top domestic news story in the United States this week is the concern among Congressional leaders that draft legislation aimed at overhauling the health care system is doomed because of its projected $1 trillion price tag (.pdf) But the Obama administration hasn't even offered its plan, so the hard bargaining hasen't begun yet. When it does, one of the big challenges for consumers seeking reliable information will be a dearth of independent, knowledgeable reporters.

By now you might have seen the wrenching YouTube video: A young woman shot dead on the streets of Tehran as she and her father (some reports say he was one of her professors) watched a crowd of protestors on Saturday. You see her standing; you see her fall; you see the desparate effort to save her as blood spurts from her nose and mouth and streams down her beautiful, youthful face.

Today I had the opportunity to attend the Equal Rights Advocates (ERA) 35th Anniversary Luncheon and to hear Donna Brazile speak. I was thrilled to learn about the work they are doing to advance civil rights.

Not the salt of the earth but the sugar of affluent youth, Abercrombie & Fitch with its image of sexy college prep gods and goddesses is the bastion of unabashed elitism, promoting the perfect clothes, the perfect fit, and the perfect body. It's alleged that this image goes beyond its slick print ads to the brick and mortar floor of its stores from which a disabled employee shouts that A&F discriminates against mortals such as she.From the UK's Daily Mail:

The string of 19 (by some counts, 33) cat mutilation killings that have terrorized South Miami-Dade for the past month have hopefully, come to an end. Police have finally arrested a suspect and he's not exactly the angry, freaky loner that many were expecting. Instead, he's a dog-loving class clown, a swim class instructor and a local teenager known by all his neighbors. He was taken into custody while at a party and even flashed a smile for his mug shot.

The streets of Iran are now quiet after thousands of protestors took to the streets there for a second day after Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed a landslide victory in last week's presidential election. The results, which put Ahmadinejad ahead of his rival, former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi by a margin of 67 to 34 percent, have sparked widespread charges of voting irregularities. Voter turnout was reportedly as high as 80 percent; analysts had thought a high turnout would benefit the opposition.

Once in a while, I forget that women are an aberration since we are not men, who are the norm. Fortunately, the media is there to screw me head back on straight! Just last week, the New York Times ran a story titled, "Debate on Whether Female Judges Decide Different Arises Anew." Huh. What could that mean?

On Monday, in a closed trial, the a North Korean court convicted two American journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, of "grave crimes" of an unspecified nature and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor. The women have been detained since March 17 as they worked on a story for Current TV about Chinese refugees in North Korea.