Iraq War =

5 years (and counting)

3990 US soldiers' lives (and counting)

800 billion US dollars (and counting)

0 weapons of mass destruction found

0 pre-war links to Al Queda found

1 very costly mistake

Mermaid model

So I've always loved the idea of being a model for a day and doing a photo shoot, but I never imagined that I'd actually have the chance to do one, and never in my wildest dreams was it an underwater shoot. Very cool. Quite difficult and exhausting, but seeing the photo made it all worthwhile.

(Photo courtesy R. Salant)

Frightening words of ignorance and hatred

Sally Kern, an Oklahoma State Legislator, believes that gays are the biggest threat to America, and she uses God to defend her position of intolerance and fear. Please listen to this and think about what is really important.

Viva Viagra

Ok, so I'm not a man with ED. I'm not even a man. But this commercial is ridiculous. Has anybody seen it? The poor man with ED comes home every day in the same boring way in his boring car with a boring honk to his bored wife with the boring groceries until one day he discovers Viagra. He's suddenly a real man again, and everyone knows that real men drive motorcycles. He roars up the driveway on his iron horse, his wife drops the groceries, and they ride off into the sunset being all exciting and sexy. I get the fantasy aspect to this, not that it is one that I subscribe to, but I recognize that most men believe that a man on a motorcycle is a manly man. However, even if you believe that a little blue pill is going to turn you into the manly man on the motorcycle, how does the song "Viva Viagra" work here? It's from an Elvis song of course, and he didn't exactly live a long, Viagra-enhanced life. He certainly had a lot of sex before he died, but that was because he was unbelievably beautiful, ridiculously sexy, and incredibly famous. I don't see how any of this helps sell a product to the average man except, of course, if one accepts the premise that a man doesn't think with his head.