I have made no secrets that I find conservative columnist and pundit Cal Thomas particularly repugnant. What bothers me most about him is that conservatives pass the guy off as some kind of reasonable intellectual, and Cal, himself, often passes himself off as an elite conservative rather than the religious whack-job that he really is.

It should have come as no surprise, then, when I saw his most recent column in my local paper, yesterday, peddling him same old smug and repugnant bullshit, but he never ceases to amaze me in this regard.

(photo by Marianne Mather/STNG)

I love to read mystery novels, for pure escapism and fun. And my special subset of interest is female protagonists, in books written by women. The absence of visible testosterone makes these books more interesting and intellectual, IMO.

One of my favs is Sara Paretsky, who authors the V. I. Warshawski series of books. But it seems she also writes some riveting non-fiction as well, about the totalitarian and authoritarian goals of the religious Right towards womens' reproductive health in her beloved Chicago:

My grandmother watched her father die when an anti-Jewish mob broke into their small home and shot him as he lay in bed with his wife. The mob was jubilant and exuberant at his death; their neighborhood priest in Vilnius, Lithuania, led the crowd through the streets chanting a Te Deum to show their thanks to the Lord at the death of someone they considered a nonbeliever.