[Soapbox] 
I'm a girl who'll take a good beer over almost anything. I could be crawling out of Death Valley, dehydrated, nearing my demise ... I'd still take a refreshing IPA over water, given the choice.
[Soapbox] 
As Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama solider on in this endless campaign,
[Soapbox] 
The mental health industry is the latest victim of our addiction to corner-cutting, now that computer programs threaten to replace traditional talk-therapy. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence in London gave the big thumbs up to two computer-based applications; one of them, FearFighter, teaches "patients"—can we call them that at this juncture?—to recognize the signs that trigger panic attacks and phobias and then cope with them. FearFighter is being flaunted as "perfect for the time-crunched."
[Soapbox] 
Ugh, every time I go out to eat and think about where I'm going to spend my hard earned $$$, there are alwayz a few things that come in2 mind b4 I end up sitting @ a table @ some waspy shithole. I'm not cheap, I just like blowing cash on DEVO records and cocktailz vs. smoked apple chutney on my chicken tenderz.
A few things I keep in mind:
[Soapbox] 
I'm intensely intrigued, but mostly terrified, by the apocalypse. A fighter jet might roar overhead and the first thought that crosses my mind is: The end is here, we're screwed.
[Soapbox] 
We've been together for a while now. And I really like you. I've told you embarrassing stories about my awkward high school years, and you've shown me some crazy stuff from your past. I admit that things were a little rocky at first. But isn't that how all great relationships start? I mean, yeah, I was kind of pissed when I moved here from North Carolina in February and spent the next two months shoveling snow and downing DayQuil.
[Soapbox] 
The Big Brother 1984 analogy has withered gray. We all realize our library records are scanned, our phones are tapped, our internet purchases reviewed and ridiculed by some suit in a windowless office somewhere in Washington DC.
[Soapbox] 
Earlier this month, the California Supreme Court considered the issue of gay marriage. The arguments for marriage looked like they did here in Massachusetts in 2003: equal rights, the inadequacy of domestic partnerships and civil unions, comparisons to interracial marriage and Loving v. Virginia. But as a gay woman who'd like to see every argument made on behalf of my right to enter into an institution with a nearly 50 percent failure rate, I can't help but notice that the gay marriage advocates once again missed a huge one. Gay marriage is great for straight people.
[Soapbox] 
The occupation of Iraq began when I was in Marine Corps basic training in the spring of 2003. Never did I imagine that my country could be betrayed so blatantly, yet react so passively.
[Soapbox] 
A misinformed media and a general distaste for youth culture have fostered the stereotype of gamers as misanthropes going blind as moles in their mothers' basements. News stories profiling these hobbyists reek of negativity. There's the ten-year-old Floridian who punched his mother's face because she curbed his Halo 3 addiction, and Snowly, the Beijing gamer who perished after playing World of Warcraft nonstop for several days.
