You'd think that post-partum depression and psychosis would be enough to rally the troops and get a bill passed. It says a lot for the current anti-choice crowd that is isn't. Women killing themselves or murdering their children in depressed or psychotic fugues is not enough to rally them to vote for a bill that will provide funds to find out why this is happening and, maybe, eventually, stop it. Apparently, murdering children isn't a problem to them - they're more worried about abortion.

One option would be to simply let the right wingers vote against the bill and then bash them over the heads with it. But I think this issue is too important to use as a political tool. If it takes a symbolic concession to the anti-choice crowd to get this passed, then so be it. When I think of women like Andrea Yates and her children, my heart breaks. If there is any way to help people like them in the future, we are obligated as a society to do that. To hell with politics.

I've asked for raises twice in my life, both times when I was being underpaid significantly for the work I was doing. Both times, my male bosses seemed surprised and displeased when I asked. Although I got the raise both times, my take home lesson was that asking for a raise negatively impacts your relationship with your boss. It never occurred to me that there might be bosses out there who don't react negatively to being asked for more money. It also never occurred to me that the problem might be that a "nice" woman was asking for something. I don't have a problem with my current pay, but it doesn't seem right that I would be penalized for asking for more.

Okay, I havne't been there since somebody made a pass at me and I freaked out. When they come up with a virtual wedding ring and work out some speed issues, I'll go back. But the concept is astounding. Ever since the first time I read "Snow Crash", I've been wondering how long it would be before we saw something like this. Right now it's mostly a social site, but I can't wait until we can go to Second Life universities, and sit in classrooms with students from all over the world being taught by real experts in the field. The Daily Kos conference is already being duplicated in Second Life. Is it the same as really being there? Probably not, but if you can't afford the air fare, time off work, and hotel expenses, it's a pretty good option. Second life will open up entire new opportunities... how about virtual meetings with avatars instead of speaker phones? What about being able to go on-line and visit a virtual doctor?

This is a terrific use of Second Life resources. I'm just glad that it's originating in the UK. I don't even want to think about what our administration would do to promote sex ed in the virtual world.

On the down side, it's one more nudge moving the media to the right. On the plus side, it's another nail in the coffin of the liberal media meme. Whatever people think of Murdoch, they will have a hard time believing that he doesn't support and promote right-wing economic policiy. And now the premiere newspaper in the U.S. dedicated to informing financial leaders is owned by someone who is decidedly NOT liberal.

...but it caused the boom, which resulted in the bust. Without subprime lending I doubt that the housing boom we just experienced would have been as long or as steep.

Some women are compelled to give up their babies because adoption is an option, and they suffer as a result. If there aren't enough local adopting families, then the babies are raised by families of different ethnic backgrounds. They may not experience their heritage in the same way as a child raised by parents of the same ethnic background.

Then there is the other side. Women who want to give up babies who don't have adoption available to them. They end up abandoning them, raising them with little real affection, or giving them to public facilities to raise. Does anybody really believe that an orphanage is as good at raising children as a loving family? If they are, I haven't seen examples of these facilities.

Either way, children will sometimes lose out. But how much of a loss is it? Children whose parents move from one nation to another often lose much of their culture. Children whose parents move far away from their extended family lose family ties. Children who are born to families who want them, but do not know how to nurture them, lose opportunities to enrich themselves socially.

Some adopted babies will have wonderful families and grow up happy. Some will have wonderful families and grow up unhappy. And the opposite is true as well. Until we find a way to make human beings perfect, there will be no perfect solutions.

I don't feel that I have the right to criticize people's decisions about what they do with their body. I don't understand the motivations behind multiple body piercings, extensive tattoos, cosmetic surgery, or sex-reassignment surgery, but I strongly believe that rational people have a right to do what they want to with their bodies. That said... I believe that in a few hundred years, when we understand the human mind completely, they will look back at gender reassignment surgery as a barbaric practice. I believe they will also look upon cosmetic surgery as barbaric. People who are unhappy with their bodies will be treated so that they can be happy with who they are instead of undergoing radical surgery to change their appearance. Tattoos and piercings (and probably some new tricks) may still be undertaken as body art, but bodies will be modified only for self-expression, not because people are dissatisfied with their bodies.