85 years of suffrage

August 26, 1920, women in America gained the right to vote. Eighty-five years later, I say three cheers for that significant achievement, but now get yourselves back barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen where you belong, poppin' out more babies to die serve in President Bush's next little war. That's the message I'll be carrying to Camp Casey, you betcha.

The history of women's suffrage [right to vote] is actually rather more complex than just Susan B. Anthony marching in the streets, demanding a coin that looks just like a quarter. Women actually had the right to vote in several states at the time of the founding of our Republic, but gradually lost that right in the 19th century. It wasn't until 1868 that voting citizens were defined as male. Back in 1911, Mrs. Arthur Dodge, the intellectual forerunner of Phyllis Schlafly, formed the National Association Opposed to Women's Suffrage, or N.A.O.W.S. (pronounced "NOW") to promote the inalienable right of a woman to get married and not own property in her own name, or something like that. I gather it's very popular in certain parts of Iraq today.

One last jab at Susan B.: how do you tell the difference between a quarter and a Susan B. Anthony dollar coin? Easy — if it has a picture of a woman, that's George Washington on the quarter; if it has a picture of a drag queen with a bad wig, that's Susan B. Anthony.