This afternoon’s book salon at 5 pm ET/2 pm PT, will be with Bruce Kluger and David Tabatsky.

For a compilation book they’ve put together entitled "Dear President Obama: Letters of Hope From Children Across America."  The letters are refreshingly frank, full of the same issues that adults are trying to manage…but with a kid’s ability to cut through the social niceties to the heart of the issue at hand.

 From racial tension to the environment, from gay marriage to the economy, and back again — the book runs the gamut.

I’ll be hosting the discussion and hope you can join us.

Bowl of flowers at spa via BadrNaseem.

This morning, I’m finally putting my spa gift certificate to good use.

It’s a pretty sad commentary when you get a "spa day" as a Valentine’s Day present and don’t get around to actually using it until nearly June, but there you are.  Such is life at our house these days.

Which is a good argument for the gift of the spa day in the first place.

I recently found a live performance piece of Raglan Road (YouTube), as sung by Loreena McKennitt, which is lovely. Thought folks would enjoy it.

It’s been a hectic week, and I still haven’t gotten to travel stories from New Orleans with all the SCOTUS chatter this week. Promise I’ll get to that this weekend.

In the meantime, what’s going on with you? Do tell.

Pull up a chair…

Photo via SkipSteuart.

Today’s quote comes from Abigail Adams, in a letter which was a series of correspondence between her and John Adams.

I cannot say that I think you are very generous to the ladies; for, whilst you are proclaiming peace and good-will to men, emancipating all nations, you insist upon retaining an absolute power over wives.

But you must remember that arbitrary power is like most other things which are very hard, very liable to be broken; and, notwithstanding all your wise laws and maxims, we have it in our power, not only to free ourselves, but to subdue our masters, and without violence, throw both your natural and legal authority at our feet.

Thought you would get a kick out of it. For any number of reasons, not the least of which that it’s always been clear that Abigail shared the pants in her family.

Miss Piggy and Raquel Welch compete.

Singing “Woman.”

No particular reason, why do you ask?

Enjoy — it’s a good one.

Well, why not just come out and say what you are really insinuating, NYTimes?Judge Sotomayor’s sharp-tongued and occasionally combative manner — some lawyers have described her as “difficult” and “nasty” — raises questions about her judicial temperament and willingness to listen. Her demeanor on the bench is an issue that conservatives opposed to her nomination see as a potential vulnerability — and one that Mr.

An anti-Sotomayor ad has hit the airwaves and it piqued my interest on who was really behind it.

It’s an odd ad, edited narrowly to portray a very stilted picture of Sotomayor — in short, it’s a classic political hit piece. Watch for yourself:

It’s from the Judicial Confirmation Network, headed by Gary Marx and Wendy Long.

From hurling labels of racism to claims of Sonia Sotomayor being an “affirmative action hire,” it’s been a show of dismal stupidity the last day and a half from far too many in the GOP. That the contradiction between the two epithets isn’t patently obvious makes it all the more ludicrous.

A former clerk of Judge Sonia Sotomayor has written an opinion piece in the NYTimes regarding the questions of “temperament” that keep getting floated. Funny how those sorts of questions only seem to come up in a negative connotation for female judges, isn’t it? Any of the lawyers in the crowd want to tell me about their experiences with milque-toasty judges…