Meaning, there is no way to keep any one $-stream from commingling with all other $-streams in a given enterprise. (This currently causes all manner of havoc at med schools and other research institutions, as they must, under federal law, ensure that no proscribed work on stem-cells be supported in any way by personnel, tools, or infrastructure paid for with federal funds. Google some of the stories on this and be horrified.)

Once you've poured the tea into the ocean, there ain't no getting it back out. If LW's money offsets or makes possible in any way or to any degree her Mom's payments to church, then LW's money is going to the church. Period. Any other interepretation is sophistry -- and rationalization. LW's gut reaction, in this case, is based in sound logic. What to do about it? On that, I got nothin -- except deep sympathy for the LW. Seems to me like a no-win situation.

Oh, and q-bert? "Never" is an awfully strong term -- all it takes is one counterexample to make you wrong, and I am afraid I must give you one. In the summer of '75, a friend and I freight-hopped half way across the US & most of the way back. One night, in either Bakersfield or Stockton, CA, we spent the night at the "Sally Ann" mission -- where attendance at services was mandatory if we wanted to be fed (housed too, I think). Maybe things are no longer that way, or maybe that was a rogue operation. But either way, I'm sorry; you just can't say "never."

I'm not sure why everyone's getting so bent out of shape over the prospect of a Giuliani presidency, or a McCain one for that matter. The poll numbers that show McCain and, to a lesser extent, Giuliani as "front-runners" mean little or nothing. Even aside from the fact that, at this point, the polls reflect little more than existing name recognition, all such surveys are NATIONAL measures.

The only poll numbers that matter are those among Republicans. Before the general election, the primaries. As the Republican primaries are currently configured (most are, unlike those in, say, Massachusetts or Michigan, "closed" primaries, meaning only registered Republicans can vote in them) neither of them would be anywhere near likely to win, at least if current polls are any indication. Check out freerepublic, redstate, etc (you'll survive, nothing there is contagious... unless you have preexisting proclivities). The Xtianist right, "movement" conservatives, and many self-styled "libertarians" LOATHE McCain, and distrust Giuliani.

Now, it's not impossible that the Republican powers that be, knowing this, will re-structure their primaries in time to allow non-registered Republicans to participate (or to register as Republican on the day of voting, as is permitted in Massachusetts). But if they do so, they will almost certainly lose the evangelical vote, a bloc that has been required to form the bare-majority, and the lack thereof, that marked the last two presidential elections (dis-respectively).

Nor does the history of third parties in the country ("Connecticut for LIEberman" notwithstanding) suggest that we have a lot to worry about if either chooses to pursue a run as an independent.

BTW, a note for the copy-editors: the last word of the quote from Steve Powers, in the last line of the article, is an obvious typo; the word is of course properly spelled "fuhgeddaboudit."

Before advances in biochemistry and neuropsychology discredited it, there was a theory that "double-bind" (damned if you do, damned if you don't) demands on people, especially when younger, was a cause of schizophrenia.

And it wouldn't be surprising if requiring people of color simultaneously to represent and explain their heritages and to ignore and transcend them would be a bit of a stressor. DD's detailed the absurdity with acuity, sensitivity, sincerity, patience, and wit.

Someone asked when we'd be past the need for essays like this. One good answer was when we don't have to wake up to news reports of unarmed people getting shot at 50 times, or 41 times, or being raped with broomsticks in police stations. But another might be when double-blind experiments stop showing that resumes with African-American-sounding names must be sent in numbers 50% greater than resumes with white-sounding names to garner the same responses from the same employers. Or when African American net worths are no longer a small fraction of white net worths even when matched for incomes.

Those people who think that "the end of racism" is nigh are fooling nobody but themselves. We've got a long way to go, and it's on all of us to do the work. Navigating double-bind demands is just a small part of the workload.