the thing I do find most remarkable is the outrage coming from the same people clamoring most loudly about how the government needs to get out of people’s lives. And they don’t see the disconnect between that statement and their insistence on being inside the wombs of women.

Because women aren’t people to them. They are (currently uppity) chattel.

See, it’s very, very simple.

I believe that is “mounds of restitution” currently supplied, as opposed to the ‘mounds of retribution” already heaped upon them by foreclosure.

But your title RHYMES!

Booze, Broads, Bass—
ets and Shakira’s Ass.

So, FTW.

I find it impossible to read Dickens. Love any dramatization of same, but find the man’s books unreadable. Not sure why, as I usually adore wordy Victorian fiction. Just not his.

It’s a win-win!

we have to put the past behind us and look to the future.

When we hear that ‘look to the future’ crap, I want someone to ask

1. Why? No really. Why?…and listen to the word salad stupid reply, and repeat, “Why?”

2. Ask if when murders and rapes and terrorist attacks occur, we should similarly ‘put the past behind us’ rather than seek investigation and justice.

I hear crickets to this total bullshit. Any real journalists out there?

Yep. The whole country would be like Wisconsin right now, and we’d be at war with Iran as well. Good Times!

That said, what a huge, incredible disappointment Obama has been. If only there were actually someone to vote FOR.

Well, you summed it up vividly and perfectly, IMHO. My youngest daughter concurs, through laughter.

My husband is a bit techy about the whole thing, but will not let himself admit to being a bit hurt with all the feminine Heinlein derogation.

And FWIW, we here chez Weavrmom do not think that Catcher in the Rye is the bestest book ever written. It’s old, it was written by a reclusive creep who had affairs with near-jailbait, and drank his own urine/made himself vomit. Every older guy I run into thinks this is the ultimate coming of age story. I find few women who give a hoot. The fact that CinR and Lord of the Flies continue on the ‘must read in HS’ list confounds me. Must be an unwillingness to change lesson plans, or find things that have subtler symbolism?

Oh, and Huck Finn is not the greatest American novel ever written. I will now go directly to Hell for writing that.

Anyhoo, just my 2 cents. And now, back to SF…..

I find very few young women like Heinlein. My husband is forever trying to push it onto my girls, who just refuse to look at it, though they love other stuff. In fact, he suggests it to young guys, and they don’t seem to want to look at it, either.

I think it’s time for older guys to admit that Heinlein is for them, and let it rest. I liked his stuff some when I was a young girl and there wasn’t as much other stuff to read. Now I could care less, and I’ve never found a young woman in the last 20 years who enjoyed him either. Just my personal experience.

I highly, highly recommend The Sparrow. Absolutely amazing and moving.

Most of Le Guin’s adult books. A quirky fav of mine is Cordwainer Smith. Of current writers, Vinge, Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun and Fifth Head of Cerberus,, all of Octavia Butler’s stuff. Oh, and Jack Vance is great for witty dialogue, lovely writing, and fabulous descriptions of other cultures. And I’ve really enjoyed the space opera of Peter Hamilton recently–not great, but fun. Oh, and Dan Simmon’s Hyperion is another fun space opera; I admit it, I was gripped!

My advice as long time female reader of SF, is to figure out what type of SF you like. I am personally not a huge hard sf fan, and find that my preferences often differ sharply from the men around me. I love anthropological and cultural extrapolations, whether of aliens, or other ‘future’ human worlds. Knowing this, it’s easier for me to find what I like.

There’s so much more good stuff, but find out what it is that you enjoy, and then go for it! Happy reading.

Anna Russell did a hilarious Gilbert and Sullivan pastiche, skewering New York society, the “village wanna be aristocracy” of her time. Listen to here at 1:43 in this Youtube recording.

One example:

And it’s very, very funny
When you’ve lots and lots of money
To be horrible to those with none!

Of course, the current sort of monstrous psychopathy is rather out of her range, but worth a listen, IMHO.