One and only political statement:

Love her or hate her, Sarah Palin did something none of us have. This "soccer mom" became the vice presidential nominee of arguably the most powerful nation on earth. Any self-proclaimed feminist who asserted that Palin shouldn't have been nominated, that she should have stayed in her home state, that she shouldn't even have been a governor, that she should have kept her lipsticked mouth shut, that she should have stayed home with her children, has effectively put feminism back 50 years.

By saying that Palin was somehow inadequate for the job because she is a mother of a disabled baby and a pregnant teenager, you are also saying that YOU are inadequate for any job of this level. By saying that her personality was somehow inappropriate, you are also saying that YOUR personality quirks are not good enough for a position of power.

By saying that no "soccer mom" (Palin or Clinton) deserves to be in the White House, you have effectively told the entire world that women are still inferior and aren't good for anything but looking pretty and having children.

Thank you. Thank you for your hypocrisy. Thank you for telling the world, though your cruel commentary, that the United States, much as it fights for civil rights, does not respect its own female population. Thank you for negating the status of women even further by, within weeks of her nomination, making a pornographic film about her bid for Vice President. Thank you for making fun of her clothes and condemning the GOP for spending money on new clothes in the same breath.

Thank you for setting hundreds of years of feminism and the fight for equal opportunities on its ear. Thank you for telling women that they are still not good enough. It will take a long time to recover from this, and I hope not to hear any complaining about your proportionally lower salaries, your frustration about being judged only by the brand names you wear or your breast size, and your lack of representation in our nation's capital.

As a post script, I may not have liked Hillary Clinton, but I certainly respected her efforts and was disappointed when she lost the Democratic presidential nomination. I wonder what would have happened had she been nominated? Would she have come under the same level of criticism as Palin? Would the purveyors of pornographic filth have made a series of films about her? Would she have been applauded or condemned for spending money on clothes? I think, unfortunately, that we can answer "yes" to all those questions. It makes me very sad.