Geraldine Ferraro, the first and to this day only qualified female (and first Italian-American???) on a major-party presidential ticket, has passed away of blood cancer at the age of 75.

I realize "housekeeper" is the preferred term these days (I've gotta get with it—I'm old enough to still think of "flight attendants" as "stewardesses," though not old enough to go with "air hostesses"), but I gotta believe the Bushes' longtime housekeeper was once called their maid.

Via Joe.My.God.: Screw propriety, I love the linked video of George H.W. Bush being heckled. [UPDATE: Somehow, I missed the "murderous, Zionist" part in the beginning. This, I do not love. I think it's perfectly fair to criticize Israel and America's sometimes self-sabotaging fealty to all of Israel's goals, but "Zionist" = not cool for me. Israel is criticizable, but is not an evil enemy. Sorry for this lapse.] Reminds me of a more committed version of when I saw John McCain, got his attention and gave him a thumbs-down.