It's hard to read this Washington Post profile without some seriously conflicted feelings about Emily Miller, the Republican press secretary turned gossip blogger who found herself at the center of stories about the Abramoff scandal.

A very funny, certain someone got a well-deserved shout-out in the Washington Post today. Please give her your congrats, in – where else? - the comments. [WaPo]

"[I]f you had bad hair, what did that say about you?" On Sunday, the Washington Post delved into the thorny ideas of hair politics, holding an open mic for African-American women to talk about their feelings on the subject.

Monica Hesse, Ellen McCarthy: "The way to embrace the concept of an older woman dating a younger man is not to give it a name that sounds… conjured up during a marketing meeting for cheap 1970s cologne." Agreed. [WaPo]

Remember all that coverage of media sexism aimed at Hillary Clinton last year? Well, apparently Post columnists Dana Milbank and Chris Cillizzaa forgot it, as they suggested Obama offer Hillary Clinton a Mad Bitch beer. [Politico]

• 80s supermodel-turned-businesswoman Elle MacPherson will star in the CW's Beautiful as an 80s supermodel-turned-businesswoman. The show revolves around models living in agency housing. It'll be MacPherson's first television gig since her stint on Friends. [THR]

[November 5, 2008. Cartoon by Tom Toles, via the Washington Post]

• After Palin names Escada as her fave brand, the creative director is gracious: "If she does wear Escada because she likes it, I mean, I’m honored actually. It’s not politics; it’s clothing, after all. No? She’s an attractive woman, so why not?" [New York Mag]
• Fashion's totally in the tank for Obama — but we knew that.…

Saturday, August 16, is Madonna's birthday. She will be 50 years old. Hank Stuever pondered the life of the woman often called The Material Girl in a must-read article for Sunday's Washington Post. He writes: "Madonna turning 50 is not about Madonna. As ever, it's about the rest of us, who are always caught watching…

I wrote a rebuttal to a Linda Hirshman op-ed column for the Washington Post's website and I am, uh, pimping it on this blog because it seems to be driving donations to our beer money fund to help the women's rights activists get out of Basra and also because I wrote two things that have nothing to do with this blog…

Dear Cindy, we are sorry. We did not mean to belittle your pain over being called a vagina sixteen years ago. We were just sort of distracted. Distracted by the fact that John used the word "trollop," which, in the context of a rebuttal to a subtle jab about how fucking old he was, was kind of unintentionally…

• John McCain called his wife a "cunt" sixteen years ago. The full quote, in response to Cindy's "playful" mention of his male pattern baldness, was: "At least I don't plaster on makeup like a trollop, you cunt." I have to give him bonus points for using the word "trollop" and also, calling her out on what looks to be…

Today the UK is issuing a lofty challenge to female citizens: Go A Day Without Makeup! Horrors! Thankfully, famous pundit Michael Kinsley knows this is not possible in American society. He knows because he goes on TV and has to wear makeup himself, which explains why men on TV are so much more empathetic with the…

Well, "Woman Are Stupid" advocate Charlotte Allen gave an online chat elucidating her little polemic (as well as waxing lyrical over the virtues of Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq War etc. etc. puke hurl) over at the Washington Post today, and we gave them the page view because the Washington Post not so long ago…

Susan Jacoby says Americans are dumb. Oooooh, bold thesis!! Well but, remember that book Everything Bad Is Good For You about how videogames are actually good for kids' brains? Susan says that guy is full of shit. And it's a message that seems to be striking a chord. A New York Times story about her new book The Age…

So like, sometimes I want to tell you guys about a story that's, like, too nuanced and complex to distill into a cynical one-liner. And then I think "pageviews!" and just skip it. But what the hell: it's about a small polyamory convention going down somewhere in exurban Pennsylvania, and it kind of — I know, I know —…

Ever wonder how upper middle class high school students felt about the election? Well, fuck you then bc it's the best thing in the morning papers. Today we learn that the cheerleaders are 4 Hillary because they're "feminists," and that the boys are totally feeling Ron Paul because they "hate the cops, bro." (Although…

Perhaps you remember hearing things about Uzbekistan, such as: it was catapulted to "important American ally" status after 9/11 for its border with Afghanistan; they employ torture there; by torturing I mean "boiling a man to death" torture; these and other human rights abuses were brought to light by a British…

Today's Washington Post has a thorough, intricately-detailed timeline of what happened to Megan Meier, the teenager who took her own life after being pranked on MySpace. (New research shows that the Web can actually help suicidal teens find support; it's sad Megan wasn't one of them.) You may learn things you didn't…