..."the half-white, half-black house"?

I'm really looking forward to an Obama presidency. It won't wipe out racism, but it will help a lot. Some of those racists will come to realize that Obama (and his kin - black kin, that is) isn't the bogey-man. As one of the LWs said, after a couple years in the white (or whatever) house, Obama can puke on the Japanese PM and no big whoop. So to speak.

I didn't grow up with white-sheet-wearing kinfolk, like one of the LWs, but they were rural redneck types, who didn't like Jews, blacks, furriners, etc. Not that they actually knew any. Then a black principal took over at the local school and now blacks are *okay* - Jews and furriners are still on the, um, black (?) list...

It's too bad about those Muslim women, but I for one am grateful to be spared all the phony faux-outrage on Fox (and CNN for that matter, tho CNN would be in the 'refuting' role perhaps) if a bunch of obvious Muslims had been in the background of an Obama appearance.

I don't know the statistics, but there sure seem to be a lot of women ministers in the Protestant sects that permit it. And if the Catholics allowed women priests, I imagine there would be a lot of them.

I think there are a number of factors. One of them is an influx of women into an area that was forbidden to them until recently. Haha - sort of like the great blossoming of Jews into various fields that once had been forbidden to them. Sort of a natural thing, no? But then it will ease off, I presume.

But there is also, I think, an insidious thing that men don't want to share leadership and prestige. If Hilary had won, and the next prez had been a woman too, the presidency might well have become less desirable for men. Okay, not really - the presidency is too small a class of people for the phenomenon to work.

It may be a *natural* thing - but civilization has been a process of our overcoming *naturalness* and striving towards ideals and (eventually) fairness. Which ultimately benefits even the 'losers' in the process - gentiles (is this term even current?) have benefitted greatly from letting Jews participate in general society, and men will benefit from letting women do the same. (Also blacks - with the next prez giving that whole process a bump.) One of the great disadvantages Islamic societies have is their waste of half of their human resources.

In the specific matter of religion - clergy doesn't seem to me to be a vital profession, and if men are less and less attracted, and congregations are shrinking and can't afford to pay their (women) clergy sufficiently, well, maybe there's hope that the whole religious thing will become less important. America is still riddled with religion, but Europe (except for the Muslim immigrants!) has got out from under pretty well... As a woman, I'm incensed that men may be devaluing religion because of women 'taking over' (being allowed to participate on equal footing), but whatever it takes...

Will Smith did the ear thing on Colbert, too, and I didn't get it. However, Colbert has funnier ears (one of them anyway) and did an ear-thing that over-rode Smith. However, on Colbert Smith did address his likeability factor (Colbert also), namely that he's good-looking. (Also apparently boyishly playful and fun, so non-'threatening' as a black actor.) He's just really pleasing to watch and so is a successful movie star. (P.S. I think the movie sounds colossally silly. Guess it's my XX chromosomes.)

Was that the show where the narrative character says to the camera, as the last line, "Well, I think THAT went well." For a while I adopted it as my all-purpose commentary on life...

P.S. - Yay for Shandling show! Also Larry David show.

Yes! And that Colbert comment/question really out-earred the moobie star!

...of back in the day, when young men started wearing long hair, and then amongst the hippies, bright (shock!!!) clothes, beads, EVEN EARRINGS. Straight (in the non-sexual sense) people were aghast. "How can we tell the boys from the girls?" was the cry. Even then, in my youthfulness, my reaction was, "Why do you care?" I mean, what business is it of yours or mine?

And so it is with this subject. People who proclaim that Beattie *is* a woman and how ridiculous that WE have to pretzelize our minds and speech to accommodate Those People - like, what's it TO you? Shrug and read the sports page. (I know lots of people who watch football and hockey. It's mystifying to me, but, hey, whatever floats their boat - as long as I don't have to do it, I'm cool.)

(far-out name!) If you are happy with how you are, fine. If someone else isn't, and does the surgery route, why is this any concern of yours?

I just don't understand why people think they should dictate actions and terminology to other people. I wouldn't want it done to me. Would you want it done to you? Someone ELSE's idea of how you should conduct your life and what you call yourself? (Think ghettos and yellow stars, or Jim Crow - aren't we all better off letting *others* be free?)