Daddy, Papa and Me

That's what my 5-year-old daughter said to me this weekend.

It hurt the the core of my heart. I and Guy work hard to raise our daughter with a sense of pride in her heritage, a love for herself and understanding of what it means to be "black" in this country and still remain hopeful.

We thought we were succeeding.

Well, i changed themes to see what they would look like.

and now my orginal theme is gone.

and I can't fix this one.

HELP! anyone know MT enough to be able to fix this? CSS?

[update] Well, looks like I got that fixed. sort of. It's not my favorite template and I've lost my old one somehow. So this will have to do for a while...

Obama won the Iowa caucus if you haven't heard already. First time a man of color has one the Iowa caucus (a state where >92% of the populace is white). Admittedly, my support for Obama has wavered, but I support him and the more I hear him, the more I think he'd be the exact president this country, and this family, needs at this time.

A storm is passing through San Francisco. Quite a doozy. The rain is heavy (though I've seen heavier), it's the wind that makes the difference. Already three trees on our street are down (damaging two cars) and a fourth is threatening.

Well, we needed the precipitation, the farmers (crops), the ski resorts (snow), us (drinking water).

His legislative record in Illinois is impressive.

Reaction around the world to his Iowa victory. Even Nigeria, Australia, India and many others.

ANother link to the reaction of his relatives in Kenya and other places in the world.

And a moving reaction from Harlem.

If this is the reaction to the win of one caucus/primary out of 50 in a small state, imagine the reaction if he won the presidency.

So, yesterday Emma was taking her bath. Now that's she's older, I don't have to be right there making sure she doesn't hurt herself. I usually stay in the kitchen (bathroom is off the kitchen... though it's being torn out soon to make way for a breakfast nook) and do some work.

This isn't to say I don't go in there a lot! Last night seemed particularly so. She called me in a lot "Papa, can I have a spoon?" (she wanted to mix things), "Papa, look at this!" (she had made a beard with the bubbles), etc, etc. It was about a half dozen such interruptions when I finally got a little exasperated and said plaintively "Emma, PLEASE give me at least 2 minutes so I can do something!!! Pleeeeease..."

A couple minutes later I hear Emma call out again "Papa!!" I go in to see what she wants "Yeees Emma?"

Emma says with a devious grin: "Oh, just calling you. It's been two minutes"

She's too smart (alecky) for her own good.

So, another political season (if you were reading in 2004, you'd have noticed a lot of such posts :). You'll see me posting more politics, mainly because this blog is for Emma. I want her and our descendents to be able to look back and see what life was like as we grew up... (just warning you :).

Group A: Average age 62.2, average net worth 61 million, 100% white, 100% male

Group B: Average age 56.2, average net worth 19 million, 60% white/20% black/20% hispanic, 80% male/20% female.

So, Obama speaks to the hope of a new century.

Clinton says in the most recent debate that he shouldn't bring 'false hopes' of what can be done, or what he can do.

Obama counters with:

Obama told his audience that hope made President Kennedy aim to put a man on the moon and Martin Luther King Jr. to imagine the end of segregation.

"If anything crystallized what this campaign is about, it was that right there," Obama said of Clinton's comment in the debate. "Some are thinking in terms of our constraints, and some are thinking about our limitless possibilities."

And then Clinton, in what might be later looked back on as the moment she lost a lot of support and lost the nomination, says...

I'm a biologist, forgive me.. I think this way. I've argued before that homosexuality probably genetically arises and persists in the human population for several reasons from genetic drift to kin selection. The last, kin selection, is a bit speculative to say the least.

Well, E.O. Wilson took me one step further! He suggests: Is Homosexuality an Evolutionary Step Towards the Superorganism?

Eusocial, you know, like bees and ants, 99% of the population working for the whole as one single organism while the other 1% is reproducing, or something like that. Naked Mole Rats are the mammalian equivalent. Hmm, maybe we are on the road to becoming eusocial Naked Builder Apes, kind of doubt it though.

So, I'm going to look at the positions of Clinton, Obama and Edwards when it comes to equal rights for our family. Frankly, they are similar and none are bad, but not perfect either. What I want to do is look at their positions in what they CAN do as president and not some "for or against gay marriage" statement. Since marriage laws are decided by states (courts, legislatures, governors) and not presidents or congress, whether a presidential candidate supports full marriage equality or not, isn't an issue. It's how they view the issues that THEY can do something about.

So, marriage equality on a federal level. There is one thing a president can practically do for my family: Support and sign a law repealing ALL of the "Defense of Marriage" act (signed by Bill Clinton). This law allows states to ignore other states' (Mass for now) laws on full marriage equality in one section and forbids the federal government from recognizing gay marriage from a state. For my family to realize full equality, be able to get married in Massachusetts and have that marriage not only be recognized by the federal government but also by other states (so I could move!), than both sections of the law need to be repealed. How do the top three candidates stand?

Yesterday could have been a disaster, by a confluence of events and scheduling we had a very loaded schedule. Emma is a sweeting and most of the time good-natured, but she can...well.. have her moments, especially when stressed.

So, first it was school.
Then at 2-3 was a dentist appointment for Emma to fill two cavities.
Then at 3:30-4:15 was a make-up music class (from a class she took last semester)
Then at 4:30-5:30 was her first 'Acrosports' fitness class (kind of a pre-gymnastics she takes with her two friends)
Then from 5:30-7:00 was getting home and eating supper
Then at 7:30-9:00 was my Tae Kwon Do class she wanted to go to with me (to watch and see if she liked it.)
Then bed time.

It could have not gone so well...

Or at least it would have been 50 years ago. Today is the 50 year anniversary of the Supreme Court decision to allow "One," the first mailed gay periodical, to publish and send their publication through the U.S. mail. A quote from this fascinating history about One and this case at Box Turtle Bulletin:

Yep, we've got them.

But we have two kinds. Oh, they are the same species: Rattus norvegicus, but one kind inhabits our basement walls and ceilings. I hear them occasionally as they run across in my office in the basement. Shiver. Everyone in San Francisco has them. Shiver. We have lots of interesting (or disgusting depending on your outlook) stories about rats during the major rains of the 1997-8 el nino when the rats decided they better leave their nests under the flooded grounds. Double shiver. Most of the time though, they stay deep in the bowels of the sewer systems or basements. Shiver.

The second kind is in a cage in Emma's room.

Haven't done a supper talk in a while. Here goes. Tomorrow for supper I'm making Sweet Potato Ravioli w/ Sage butter sauce. We've had it before and everyone loves it.

So, all the linky goodness:

When Columbus and the Europeans came upon this continent they brought back with them potatoes, tomatoes, pumpkins, turkeys and so much more. Like syphilis. It's always been suspected that syphilis came from here, carried back by Columbus' men, but new genomic research suggests it did indeed.

More links. Gay emperors, chocolate, melting ice....

Apparently Emma had it yesterday. I was driving Emma home from School. We were talking about how clean the car was (Daddy just got it cleaned) and Emma said something about the school day and then said, with a bit of surprise in her voice:

"Did I dream this?"

Heath Ledger died today. He was found dead in his apartment, but not cause of death has been determined.

Heath Ledger's performance in Brokeback Mountain was amazing. I loved him as an actor and that movie was amazing. He looked like he had a wonderful future in front of him with a great career, girlfriend, child.

Very sad.

Obama's speech on Martin Luther King day. If you haven't listened to it, you should. Listen to the entire thing. I want this man to be the next President of the United States of America. It would make me PROUD.

Towleroad reports that a Politico article. They are, along with a lot of other bloggers, criticizing Obama for being endorsed by a minister who plans to campaign for him. What is the criticism? That on the minister's church's website there is a link to an ex-gay ministry.

As much as I despise ex-gay ministries, for I've had my own horrible experiences with reparative therapy, but really are we going to start criticizing candidates for links of their supporters, links buried on extensive websites run by others of their organizations? Links that the supporter IMMEDIATELY apologizes for, is embarrassed by, acknowledges HE does not support and scrubs from the web site?

Listen, this is amazing that he is getting this criticism.

Overheard from Emma talking to her two friends about the presidential election (they were talking about who their parents were supporting :):

Why are they all men but that one woman?

Good question. I wish I had a good answer.

I've been gone for a while again (and will be back in force after 2/5) THis time it's Barack Obama's and my company's fault. I've been campaigning hard for Obama as a precinct captain (and went to a fundraiser yesterday), so until February 5th (our primary), I'll be kind of busy. Also, my company started a new blog and since I'm CSO (chief scientific officer), I was the one setting it up and getting the ball rolling (two other scientist bloggers in addition to me. But I haven't forgot you all! (though I'm not getting the comments and traffic of the past.. hmm, could be related you think?).

Anyway, here is an interesting photo, you know.. just for visual interest.

Shannon at Peter's Cross Station has an excellent post on the propose stimulus plan and how it, like so much else, values our families so much less than straight families.