Best Piece I've read on Clinton/Obama

This, to me, is the most honest and personal approach to the Democratic split I've seen so far. It focuses mostly on Hillary and is neither drooling nor overly aggressive, but instead relies on a great deal of comments from campaign advisers and friends (who speak candidly about both candidates). You can find it here:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/01/28/080128fa_fact_packer


Word of the Day: Shibboleth

n.

1. A word or pronunciation that distinguishes people of one group or class from those of another.
2.
1. A word or phrase identified with a particular group or cause; a catchword.
2. A commonplace saying or idea.
3. A custom or practice that betrays one as an outsider.

Origin

The term originates from the Hebrew word שיבולת, which literally means the part of a plant containing grains, such as an ear of corn or a stalk of grain [2] or, according to other sources, "stream, torrent"[3] [4] (the latter meaning is not in use in Modern Hebrew). It derives from an account in the Hebrew Bible, in which pronunciation of this word was used to distinguish members of a group (the Ephraimites) whose dialect lacked a /ʃ/ sound (as in shoe) from members of a group (the Gileadites) whose dialect did include such a sound.

In the Book of Judges, chapter 12, after the inhabitants of Gilead inflicted a military defeat upon the tribe of Ephraim (around 1370–1070 BC), the surviving Ephraimites tried to cross the Jordan River back into their home territory and the Gileadites secured the river's fords to stop them. In order to identify and kill these disguised refugees, the Gileadites put each refugee to a simple test:

And the Gileadites took the passages of Jordan before the Ephraimites: and it was so, that when those Ephraimites which were escaped said, Let me go over; that the men of Gilead said unto him, Art thou an Ephraimite? If he said, Nay;

Then said they unto him, Say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him, and slew him at the passages of Jordan: and there fell at that time of the Ephraimites forty and two thousand.

– Judges 12:5-6, KJV

(This info is from the "Shibboleth" article found at Answers.com)