Does texting ruin your love life? This woman on BlabberMash says yes.

Moxie reveals why you date a) guys who don’t want a relationship b) dudes that are assholes and c) women who are crazy.

The top 5 sex scenes involving food, via Nerve.

Suzanne Portnoy writes about the four numbers in her phone listed as “another wacko.”

How not to get laid.

Last week’s links.

Check it out: Huffington Post has a photo gallery and a bio of Sarah Palin, John McCain’s newly anointed VP running mate. She’s a former beauty queen who is currently serving her first term as governor of Alaska.

We’ll learn more about Palin’s marriage in a Tango feature next month, so for now we’ll present some fact and speculation based on HuffPo’s post.

Fact: Palin married her high school sweetheart, Todd, and the two danced together at the Alaska Governor’s Inaugural Ball this past January.

Speculation: As they were dancing Palin whispered, “Honey, that’s inappropriate! Does my power turn you on?”

Fact: Palin likes to hunt and fish and she eats caribou.

Speculation: Her affinity for “manly” activities helps hold the Palin marriage together, although the spousal competition gets tough when Palin catches bigger fish than her husband.

Fact: Palin won the Miss Wasilla competition but failed to clinch the Miss Alaska crown.

Speculation: Todd Palin loves that his wife is a former beauty queen, and they sometimes role play Beauty Queen and the Beast.

Click over to HuffPo for photos of the VP nominee, and check out Tango this September for complete coverage of both the Palin and Biden marriages.

In many families, brothers from different mothers (or fathers) never give a second thought to the “half” nature of their relationship.

Not so with Cindy McCain and half-sister Kathleen Hensley Portalski. The pair, daughters of Jim Hensley, founder of the beer company that Cindy oversees, sit on opposite sides of the political fence.

In an interview with US Weekly, Portalski voiced her support for Barack Obama, saying that she and her half-sister share different political viewpoints. Portalski, whose mother was Hensley’s first wife, described Cindy as “standoffish” to the weekly. She also said the potential First Lady had never made efforts to reconcile a relationship, though there was no mention of what the original beef between the two had been.

Cindy referred to herself as an only child in a recent NPR interview, though she has another half-sibling from her mother’s first marriage in addition to Portalski.

Half-siblings abound in the ‘08 election. Obama has seven, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Research has shown that half-siblings who share a mother tend to have stronger bonds than those who share a father. One British psychoanalyst explained to the Guardian:

“In polygamous societies, fathers come and go, and what they call siblings are in reality half-siblings. The only ones that tend to be really intimate are those that share a mother.” Anxiety about sharing an inheritance might also play a part.

Political leanings can be a divisive factor in relationships between colleagues, friends, family and certainly lovers. But, like Republican Mary Matalin and husband, Democrat James Carville, and this couple shows us, bipartisan love is possible.

The Democratic convention ended last night, so we thought we’d check in to see if conventioneers got nookie in the mile high city. And what better place to find out than the online repository of fantasy, cock shots and misspellings: Craig’s List Denver. Below, a sampling of political booty-hunters, a rating of their post, and our guess about the likelihood that they scored.

Republican with a big one looking for cry baby NObama gal
Grade: C. “I can make you scream ‘George Bush! George Bush!’ and then reduce you to a monosyllabic, quivering mess wishing for a Hummer.” Is that a double entendre?
Lay Likelihood: 30%. You get points for not posting a picture of your penis, but screaming “George Bush” is not our bag.

Gentleman available
Grade:  B+. You seem like a very nice man.
Lay Likelihood: 20%. Because you don’t want sex! You just want “to sample the post-acceptance-speech chaos downtown” with “no expectations,” which is very sweet.

Cute Latina Young Democrat in town!!
Grade: B. Like that you’re a lady looking for some CL love, but be careful, sister–Craig’s got some weird friends.
Lay Likelihood: 95%. Your post is short, sweet and to the point. Plus, you’re a woman.

Dinner on 16th st (on me) Obama speech tickets (on you)
Grade: A-. You had us at “I’m a social studies teacher” and you sealed the deal with “write me and make me compose an essay for you.”
Lay Likelihood: 75%. If we were there it could be 100%…

Check back next week for RNC sex scoring!

Your period: do you hide it from your boy or not?  Jezebel asks the tough questions:

…there’s one final frontier of unpleasantness that means you’re really close: changing your pads and tampons in front of your boyfriend. (I say “boyfriend,” because I’m assuming this isn’t as much of an issue in lesbian relationships.) Some guys are apparently squeamish about this sort of thing, probably the same ones who are weird about period sex. But can you really have a lasting relationship with someone if you have to hide bloody cotton from them?

No, you can’t. At least that’s been my experience! Men who’re squeamish about period stuff ascribe to the “porcelain doll” theory of womanhood: we wear makeup all the time, our armpits don’t sweat and nothing happens “down there” unrelated to fooling around.  Fertile women bleed (unless you skip your period on purpose), it’s a beautiful life process—but some men just think it’s dirty, icky and embarrassing!  These are probably the same guys who’ll be too red-faced to run to the store for you and pick up a box of tampons (and that emergency box of Mallomars).

Of course, a guy doesn’t need to see your period moments at all—you could boot him out of the bathroom for 30 seconds of privacy.  I’m sure he would be happy to oblige.  But knowing you and your boy are, in fact, that close is truly a comforting thought. It sounds silly to admit, but I almost want to do “bathroom stuff” in front of a guy to confirm that he really likes me—since if he doesn’t like me, he’ll probably get all hinky and uncomfortable.

Is it unfair to make that a litmus test?  I don’t think so.  Two people who barely know each other sleep together all the time—but showering, shaving (face or legs or whatever), or pulling out a tampon in front of another person?  That’s intimate.  Sisters do that, roommates do that, couples do that.

What do you think—is dealing with your period in front of a guy a sign of true intimacy?