What's the Deal With Arianna's Last Name?

Feminism propounds that women are not appendages to men, but rather independent and unique individuals unto themselves who deserve respect and the opportunities men have historically enjoyed. Little to disagree with there.

Nonetheless, for all the feminist folderol on Huffington Post, the woman whose name adorns the site has made a curious choice in keeping the surname of her gay ex-husband, former Republican Congressman and perpetual empty suit Michael Huffington. WTF?

Arianna, as most of you know, was the daughter of a Greek journalist and was largely educated in the UK. She then married Huffington and attached herself to the Newt Gingrich Contract on America crowd, causing me to call her "Zsa Zsa Gabor with a Phd."

But once the whole GOP "revolution" turned into the same old repressive bullshit of a time long gone by, replete with corruption that was little more than just the looting of the national treasury, she bolted both the yellow elephants and Huffington. Yet, she didn't revert back to the last name she was born with, Stassinopoulos.

She had basically retrenched her life and certainly using the name her father and mother had given her would have been symbolic of that. Plus it would have been an announcement that she wasn't just going to float in the wake of a man (who was a boob to boot) and would plot her own course.

Of course, it has long been a tradition in Hollywood where actors and actresses with uncommon surnames (or, God fobid, those indicating a Jewish background) to take new identities to ease their viability as a public consummable.

However, these are more forward thinking times and such stragems are no longer necessary. Plus you now have a situation where the vapid Debbie Matanepoulos, is arguably the leading celebrity Greek-American. Well, unless you want to say Telly Savalas, but does anyone even remember him?

It is ironic that not only does the supposed feminist Arianna continue to go by her husband's last name, but she has even named her putatively progressive site after a man who was a conservative oil millionaire. Sorry if I think that's screwy.