Monday's Daily Brief

Monday, August 1, 2011 Arianna Huffington: Love, Sex, Careers, and Modern Parenting: Introducing HuffPost Women and HuffPost Parents (Plus, We Reach a Cool Community Milestone!) Arianna Huffington: So much of the news and information directed at women these days seems determined to make us feel that our lives are somehow lacking. We are constantly made to feel that we should be prettier, thinner, sexier, more successful, better moms, better wives, better lovers, etc. Though often wrapped in a you-go-girl! message, the subtext is clear: we should feel bad because we have tummies, not abs; bad because we don't always feel like sex kittens, or bad because we do; bad because we don't have a color-coded filing system for our recipes. Not at HuffPost Women, which launches today. It is designed to be a place where women can come to be informed, inspired, entertained, and celebrated. Check it out here. I also want to announce a cool milestone: This weekend, HuffPost received our 100,000,000th comment! That's a staggering number, and we are really grateful to you, our community, for such amazing engagement and participation. POLITICS Debt Ceiling Deal That Cuts Trillions, Creates 'Super Congress' Announced By Party Leaders BUSINESS Despite Debt Deal, Nation's AAA Credit Rating Still In Danger Of Downgrade WOMEN Sex For Sale: College Students Using 'Sugar Daddies' To Pay Off Loan Debt MEDIA Al Jazeera English Breaks Into NYC Market SPORTS Serena Wins 1st Title In Comeback BLOG POSTS Marlo Thomas: Growing Feminism For The Next Generation It seems like a good time to take stock of how far women have come in this world. From my vantage point, I can't think of a more exciting time to be a woman: We've finally reached our era of great expectations. Robert Kuttner: The Goons of August The United States has been rendered ungovernable except on the extortionate terms of the far-right. For the first time in modern history, one of the two major parties is in the hands of a faction so extreme that it is willing to destroy the economy if it doesn't get its way. Andrew Reinbach: Default or No, Real Economics Ahead Just talking about a possible default has triggered likely credit downgrades of US Treasury debt that will drive up the cost of money worldwide, slow the global economy, and also, for us, raise unemployment -- and the deficit. Russell Bishop: Could You Be One Small Step Away From a Better Future? Simply taking a step toward your desired future won't make that future magically appear; however, it could be enough to produce just a little spark of energy. Linda Leaming: The Debt Ceiling, Happiness and Bhutan Late at night, alone in the dark, we'll concede that happiness is the thing we want most. But happiness and a centered life elude us. Happiness is always the target, the reason we do what we do. But we seem to be shooting in the dark.

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