A wonderful op-ed on sexuality in nature:

There's a rainbow of diverse beauty out there but our culture teaches kids a different story. We don't know how to tell children the story of a Bambi who might grow up to be both prince and princess of the forest. Real life isn't about Disney categories of prince and princess. It's wild, chaotic, undefinable and beautiful. If we learn this of our kin, we may better appreciate the diversity within our own species.

Everywhere is the possibility of beauty, of creatures born to be loved for what they are. This diversity is our gift to claim. We have but to accept it. Wherever beauty is held at bay, oppression looms.

Many human lives have been harmed by an unnatural insistence that there are only two distinct gender identities, two distinct sexual orientations and body types. The truth is that humans have never been distinctly two genders. The history is long and detailed. Check it out some time.

Link:http://tinyurl.com/yr89zz

It is truly disturbing that religious fundamentalists have decided that they are the only arbiters of sexual morality. Clearly, even from their own list published here, those with sociopathic tendencies such as pedophilia are not restricted to any particular gender identification. It seems to me that if school boards were more interested in protecting children than in protecting themselves and fundamentalist ideology, they would move quickly to remove and report any teacher found to be involved in improper activity with a student. Sexual orientation would have nothing to do with this decision if handled with only the child's interest as the motivating factor.

Not only is there a large difference in the frequency of lying on the left and right, but there also is a huge difference in the consequences when such issues arise.

Example 1. When Dan Rather rushed to press with a memo of dubious origin, he promptly was removed from a job he had held for 24 years. Yet, although the provenance of the memo was questionable, the underlying facts still have not been refuted.

Example 2. Rush Limbaugh refers to "phony soldiers". When confronted with audio recordings and accurate transcripts, he continues to lie and state that he was taken out of context, when that clearly is not the case. No impact at all on his job and he then goes on raise money (for charity?!) on a letter of rebuke.

My head explodes over issues like this on a daily basis, I have given it much thought and yet I remain entirely clueless on how any semblance of balance can be restored to our society.

A number of points in an article AP just put up on Iraq are interesting in light of Chris' post here.

Regarding the drop in US deaths:

Keaveny attributes the startling decline to a decrease in attacks by militants who are being rounded up in big numbers on information provided by the citizen force — which has literally doubled the number of eyes and ears available to the military.

Not only are civilians targets for bombing, they also are targets for being "rounded up", based on reports from "citizens". Let's see, that most recently happened in Iraq under....Saddam.

While U.S. death figures appear to be in sharp decline, the number of Iraqi civilians and security forces show a less dramatic drop. And any significant attack — by insurgents or civilians caught in the crossfire — could quickly wipe out the downward trend.

Yep, those danged innocents always seem to be getting caught in "crossfire". Someday, maybe we can do something about that...

On to Hasaw, down a road known for Iranian-made roadside bombs, a Kiowa gunship clattered protectively above. Back at division headquarters, public affairs officers were hammering out more press statements about how Concerned Citizens were leading soldiers to militant weapons caches and turning in extremists fighters.

'Nuff said.

Link: http://tinyurl.com/ystu4l

FireDogLake hosted a live chat today with Chris Dodd to discuss his hold on the FISA legislation. It is well worth a listen. Dodd states that over 22,000 people have signed up on his website since he announced that he would try to block retroactive immunity. At least some people are paying attention, but there is still a very long way to go...

Link: http://tinyurl.com/2emq5c

Thanks for the update, that's very encouraging news. It will be wonderful if the Constitution can be turned into an actual campaign issue.

Glenn,

Thanks again for your diligence on restoring the Constitution. It will be quite interesting to see if this effort today can lead to a strengthening of the comments Obama and Clinton put out last night.

I would add that in the Dodd video, he makes the case that it also is important to contact members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. This committee is also going to have a "mark-up" session on the bill, so it will have a chance to remove retroactive immunity. The roster of this committee is here:
http://judiciary.senate.gov/members.cfm

Contact information is here:
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm