Most people who haven't known a transgender person tend to think of the whole issue in terms of medical procedures, alterations to the body, etc. There's a temptation to visualize genitalia and to speculate on things that, frankly, aren't our business.

If you've ever watched someone struggle through the issues around this, though, struggle through them for real, then the focus changes, and fast.

I've watched three different friends go through this process. In all three cases, they truly came into their own when their lives came into harmony with the gender in their brains. They were not "sad" people, post changes (as one letter writer described Thomas Beatie) they got happier, more real, more authentic, more relaxed in their bodies.

Trolls will be trolls, but if any of you reading this are thinking "eewww" because of the strangeness of it all, or those visualizations your mind keeps trying to make, take some time to learn about the people, not just the medical details.

As for Thomas Beatie, I wonder if he and his wife have considered what all this publicity will do to their kid. Fame (even the unfriendly sort) can be rather seductive, but starting life as "The Pregnant Man's Child" sounds awfully tough to me.

The article in CNN.com (linked to Kilgore's piece here on Salon.com) said:

The black community is faced with high levels of unemployment, home foreclosures and violence, "so we have some real serious issues -- not just moral issues," he [Jackson] said.

I'm kind of blown away by the idea that someone with "Rev." in front of his name would imply that moral issues were not "serious." Perhaps if we could face the fact that unemployment, home foreclosure, and violence are all linked to moral issues -- moral issues in the country, moral issues facing people of all races -- perhaps we could make some headway with those issues.

This separation of "moral" and "real" issues is at the heart of many of our troubles. We on the left have bowed to the rightwing notion that "moral" issues all come down to sex of some kind, when in fact, nothing is farther from the truth. Poverty is a moral issue. Violence is a moral issue. The way our economy has been used and abused is a moral issue.

Read your Bible, Jesse.

Of the three front runners for the Democratic nomination, Obama was the least progressive. That was clear from Day One, from a look at their health care plans. His was the one least concerned with the "little guy," most concerned with not disturbing the status quo, despite the fact that the status quo is broken.

If we wanted a truly progressive candidate, we shouldn't have ignored John Edwards.

Sometimes it is absolutely no fun finding out your gut was right all along.

I'm truly sick of what has happened to my country. I am still planning to vote for Obama, but after FISA, that vote is on very, very thin ice.

Patrick, you've done it again -- you've explained (at least partly) one of my pet airport peeves. There used to be decent bookstores in most airports, and now I can't fine anything I want to read in an airport shop.

One would think that Hudson would know better (aren't they somehow connected with B. Dalton Booksellers?) but in both their shops and the Paradies shops, I've faced a pitiful selection of a few horror novels, a few of the usual bestsellers, some devotional material, and nothing whatsoever of interest to me. Worse, it's always the SAME dreck, so even "looking" isn't very interesting. Particularly if they want to sell to the frequent flyer crowd, seems to me that carrying some airport-themed material would be nice, especially if they changed up the displays from time to time.

Enough for now. I'm going over to Planespotters to get one of those nifty charts.

Will these turkeys ever learn that lying about this stuff is a bad idea?

I believe that the personal lives of politicians are nowhere near as important as their policies. But given the way we've seen this story play out again and again, the arrogance and stupidity of Edwards is just breathtaking. Apparently he believed he was going to be able to lie about this and get away with it, even after the Inquirer began hounding him.

I was an ardent Edwards supporter. All I can say now is thank goodness he didn't get the nomination.

Lay off the kids.

Obama's right: minor children should not be fodder for political posturing by either side. It was creepy when Limbaugh was taking shots at Chesea, and it's still creepy, no matter who does it.

I'm sick of all the beside-the-point discussions in this campaign. I want a viable health care system in the country for every American. I want an intact Constitution. I want a president with a track record that shows he/she can do the job, and a veep who can, too, because bad things happen.

It would be very nice if when a politician does something wrong he/she could just say so and not have it become a national guessing game and mudfight. However, that may be wishing for the impossible, since it's been a while since one has shown that capability.

I don't care whose baby is whose, who's pregnant, who's been abducted by aliens, who has celebrity buddies, or who had lipo/botox/a nose job/a boob job. I DON'T CARE.

I do care who lies and who tells the truth, who takes money in exchange for influence, and who thinks habeas corpus is important (or even knows what it is.)

Please: Health care. The Economy. Foreign Policy. Remember those things?