Catherine has written regularly about the harassment she faces from random assholes on the street–guys cat-calling or yelling out all sorts of sexually explicit, aggressive, and violent things at her as she walks around. Her experience, sadly, is far from unusual–it happens to women all the time. It happens often enough when I’m walking with a female friend (or even in a group with both genders), at any time of day, in any populated area. I shudder to think about how it goes for women alone in sketchy areas at night. It’s not just winos in alleys (although it is them); it’s not just construction workers (them, too); it’s not just drunk teenagers and college students (although man, it seems like they comprise the gross majority of harassers); it’s dickheads from all walks of life.

If I were a woman, the prospect of being subjected to this kind of abuse (or, worse, the kind of abuse it forebodes) would scare the hell out of me. I wouldn’t feel safe. And the fact that for half of my friends and family this is not idle, hypothetical speculation–that it is, for all women, a very real problem–that really horrifies me.

So it’s really starting to look like we’re about to have another Clinton in the White House. It’s easy to forget about how bizarre this is but every month or two I think about it again and marvel. Just think about how entertaining it will be to chronicle Bill Clinton’s constant meddlingcounseling on world affairs (not to mention his eight years of access to interns who answer to his wife). Maybe it will be a return to the good old days of economic prosperity and moral depravity.