I’ve been thinking, again, about the troubling, persistent problem of race and gender prejudice in art, literature and life. It arose, for me, in the context of a novel by mid-Victorian Anthony Trollope, whose dark comedy of greed and corruption –“The Way We Live Now” (For Trollopians manqués click here for a Project Guttenberg etext; if you don’t know about Project Guttenberg click there anyway and find out) I am now reading.

March is an insane month for the amount of political events you can go to. The proof is in the amount of political heavy hitters DL21C was able to wrangle during that month : Jon Kerry, Wesley Clark, John Tester, John Edwards, Bill Richardson. It is also an insane month for the amount of technology and media conferences you can get invited to, the most important (at least for me) being SXSW --but there's eTech and IDPI as well.

I missed almost all the events involving presidential candidates because of the amount of conferences I was involved in during the month of March. Once I was done with my last one, ARC's national conference on "Facing Race", I was free to enjoy a candidate or two by the end of the month. I wasn't able to make it to the John Edwards event (I was having some fun at a party with Nancy Pelosi).

So 3/26 was Bill Richardson's lucky number.

The Washigton Post reported yesterday that Hillary Clinton is fighting tooth and nail to keep her husband's impeachment out of any discussions involving her presidential bid :

Clinton Fights to Keep Impeachment Taboo - washingtonpost.com:

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has a new commandment for the 2008 presidential field: Thou shalt not mention anything related to the impeachment of her husband.

With a swift response to attacks from a former supporter last week, advisers to the New York Democrat offered a glimpse of their strategy for handling one of the most awkward chapters of her biography. They declared her husband's impeachment in 1998 -- or, more accurately, the embarrassing personal behavior that led to it -- taboo, putting her rivals on notice and all but daring other Democrats to mention the ordeal again.

Funny because at the nail salon, the republican feminist lady that was getting a french manicure was saying that it did matter to her.

A lot.

Sexism and racism are getting talked about quite a bit on our companion site Culture Kitchen. And they are getting A LOT of readers. Though my favorite discussion of race on the site right now isn't getting much attention. But I do recommend Margaret's diary down memory lane.

To me, any discussion of race or gender has to start from the realization that America was FOUNDED with racism and sexism included in its foundation. Too often excuses are made that ignore this: things like "slavery wasn't so bad," or "the Civil War wasn't about slavery," or "that is all in the past, things are equal now."

As long as people ask questions like "are we ready for a woman president" or "are we ready for a [fill in your favorite ethnic, religious or racial minority] president" we still have a long way to go. I like to point out that if we are still asking if we are ready for a woman president this long after Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, etc. have ALREADY had women presidents/prime ministers, we should be embarrassed.

About 10 years ago I was living in a great place in the Hollywood Hills. We had a dinner guest one night who identified himself as a "libertarian." Now I have known some pretty smart and well meaning libertarians. But this guy was basically a fool who used libertarianism as a way of blaming society for his own shortcomings.

We've gone to town with the news of Mary Cheney's pregnancy. We are so full of cheer we went ahead and created a whole cornucopia of baby shower gifts for the happy mom, her out-of-law wife and their baby to be.

Have the baby wear his or her mommies love and
their dissent with this most political of onesies.
It's never too early to learn how to slap one on
republicans and gay marriage haters.

There's more stuff at our Mary Cheney Baby store, but it's just a start. Would you like to add to the fun? Then go to town with your photoshop!

What are the rules for playing?

At first this was going to be about some local, NY stuff. Then Armando's outing got added on. Now some of the tiffs at My Left Wing are thrown into the mix.

I am not much on Meta-tation. To me the internet is a tool like a screwdriver, and I don't spend too much time considering the workings of a screwdriver when I use it. But events are happening that remind me that the internet is NOT just like a screwdriver so much as a telephone or megaphone and that issues that one would think we had learned long ago seem suddenly to be sweeping through the blogsphere.

Almost immediately after Bush’s two Supreme Court nominees were approved, the final assault on a woman’s right to choice began. And South Dakota was where the right wing chose to start, though many other states are poised to follow. South Dakota is the front line in the battle for women’s rights right now. This is something that needs to be a major focus of our attention.

On March 6 of this year, South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds signed into law the most restrictive abortion ban in the nation – a total ban on abortions. Women will no longer be in control of their reproductive choices. The law is so extreme that even women who are victims of rape and incest will have no options available to them. Women whose health is in danger will no longer be able to make their own health care decisions. Doctors will go to jail. And South Dakota will spend millions in court battles for years to come.

The new South Dakota law is scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2006 unless nearly 17,000 signatures are gathered to refer it to the November ballot when voters would decide its’ fate.

As a result of the passage of this extreme new law, a coalition of leaders has formed the South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families to refer it to voters in November and to campaign for the repeal of the abortion ban. A petition drive to refer the law began on March 24.

The Healthy Families Campaign is the umbrella group for the campaign. It is co-chaired by 16 prominent South Dakota leaders from all corners of the state, from both political parties, young and old, ministers, doctors, nurses, the leader of the largest Native American tribe and two students. Many groups have endorsed this effort and are working with the Healthy Families Campaign. They include Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice America, Focus South Dakota, Democracy in Action, The Mainstream Coalition, the ACLU, Grassroots South Dakota, South Dakota Advocacy Network for Women, the National Women’s Political Caucus, Native American Women Health & Education Resource Center, Pastors for Moral Choices, Republican Majority for Choice and many other groups and individuals.

The South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families is organized as a South Dakota Ballot Committee and is registered with the South Dakota Secretary of State and the IRS. The Ballot Committee can accept unlimited

These were the words that rolled off my oldest son's lips. It's funny, but Thing #1 seems to be deciding these days he is heterosexual.

His father is quite alarmed that I made this observation impassively, diagnostically. Well, I do look at pregnancy, mothering and the whole parenting thing as one big human Wild Kingdom experience. It's like I am looking at animals in the zoo but I am one of them.

And let me tell you, there's a couple of boys that by their choices are really hell bent on liking Peter and Paul waaaay more than Mary. It really is amazing to see, how some of us are just, well, gay from the day we were born. I think it's beautiful.

This, of course, takes me to the subject of our gayest of all New Yorkers, the penguins at various of our zoos. There's Squawk and Milou, Georgey and Mickey. Then there's the most controversial couple of the bunch, the then closeted bi-sexual Roy and the now forlorn and broken hearted Silo.

Roy and Silo became notorious during the 2004 election campaign as the poster boys for the equal gay rights amendment. They even have a children's book based on their love and parenting story. Then in 2005 Roy caught the eye of a homewrecker. After refusing for 6 years to mate with anybody else but Silo (females included) AND raising a chick with him, Roy walks out on him and starts building a nest for a hussy called Scrappy. Weirdest part of the story? Tango, their chick, is one half of a lesbian couple. Her mate's name is Tazuni.

So we talked about the gay penguins this morning; about how love knows no bounds. I reminded him of his friends two moms, of some of our friends (and some of his favorite people) who are gay and lesbian.

His answer? "Oh. Right. I totally forgot."

"You see, so boys can send valentines to other boys."

"I know, but mommy ... can I give my valentines to a girl?"

"Yes honey, it's your choice."

"Great."

Next month, they'll be reporting about their homeschooling classes at Central Park and their experience with the gayest New Yorkers of all, the zoo's penguins.

Happy Valentine's Day y'all.

I can't understand how the token boooth clerk Tuesday night did not leave his plexiglass shelter to come to the aid of a woman being raped. He knew what was happening to her and even reported seeing her abudction. But he was afraid to break the rules in his employee manual - rules that forbid him from leaving his locked cave.

His union is praising him for calling an emergency number - a number that must make contact with three other sites before help is dispatched. His union also said that he acted properly.

Thank God some of the readers at the Gothamist, think differently although the posts devolved at times into union debates. Only a male dominated union would praise one of its own for following the rules, rather than acting to defend a woman as she was being raped.