orichalcum

First, Cute Toddler Story of the Morning:
We're getting ready to go off to school, and I put my book in my briefcase.
Mac: "I Need Book!" (starts to pull a random book of ours off the shelf)
Me: "Okay, why don't we bring one of your books? How about "That's Not My Dragon"?"
Mac: "It's Mommy's Dragon!" (taking the book happily)
Later, from the back seat of the car: "Dragon no eat mouse. Mouse yucky. Not Clean."

We've been trying to teach him about property rights and possession, and this has turned into, apparently, a need to assign something to everyone - even dragons.

Also, this morning, I was lying in bed feeling tired and icky, and Mac came running in.
"Mommy no cuddle bed!"
"Mac, I'm tired. Go play for a bit."
He ran off, and came back with one of my skirts.
"Mommy skirt! Mommy no cuddle bed!" At this point, he started yanking the quilt off of me and trying to put my skirt on top of my legs. It was cute...if slightly unhelpful.

Also, he has taken to reproaching Arf, his sea lion, for "falling asleep" on the pillow before the bedtime ritual is done. Arf is a hand puppet, and from Mac's perspective, whenever he's not actively being animated by Mom or Dad, he's asleep.

First, of all, get all your juicy insider gossip here, from the Newsweek reporters embedded with each campaign who got extra access on the condition of not publishing anything till after Election Day. Some of it is a little TMI (I don't need to know about Todd Palin's boxer shorts), but a lot of it is really interesting backstage stuff. Predictably, the Obama campaign comes across as remarkably sane and self-aware compared to Clinton's or McCain's.

Two people who must be incredibly selfishly happy this week: John Paul Stevens and Will Smith. Stevens because he can retire now if he wants, and Will Smith because he long ago optioned both of Obama's memoirs and is totally planning to be Obama in the film versions. And hey - it's a pretty darn cinematic story, even so far; it practically writes itself.

One last random shallow-yet-insightful comparison between the two candidates, coming out of the Newsweek article: It turns out that McCain is a big Star Wars fan, whereas Obama is a Trekker. Yep, that fits; Mr. Good vs. Evil Yay-Rebels versus Mr. IDIC Team-Builder, perhaps more in the Picard model than the Kirk one.

And a last musing on the defeat of same-sex marriage in CA:
I was upset by the No-on-Prop-8 campaign, both in ads and phonebanking scripts, because, fundamentally, they ceded the ground of normality. Nearly all of the ads or script had language like "even if you don't support gay marriage..." And yes, civil rights and anti-discrimination are important, but let's be realistic here. If you don't support gay marriage, you should have voted Yes on 8.

The innate presumption of the No campaign was that gays and lesbians still needed to apologize for needing rights - that they were not normal.

I thought about this also in reference to people's anger at the Yes-on-8 campaign which claimed that homosexuality would be taught in public schools. Because, you know what? I _do_ think that it should be taught in public schools. Ideally, I'd like Mac to be taught at school as well as at home that there are many kinds of families, and that, when he grows up, he may fall in love with a man or a woman or different people at different times. Certainly, in sex ed class, I want him to be educated about different kinds of sexualities, and when he learns about important figures of local or state history, Harvey Milk or the Stonewall Riots should be up there with other civil rights leaders. And when he learns about genetic bases for behavior or mental traits in science, I'd love a unit which explored the current state of thinking on the biology of orientation.

And yes, maybe my point of view is in the minority, and is currently a losing one. But it's the honest stance, and the brave one, not one that begs for crumbs but one that says hey, gays and lesbians deserve this because they're just as much American citizens as everyone else. Despite the fact that perhaps a majority of people in the country were racist, I still got taught in public schools that people were equal regardless of the color of their skin - and that mattered. It didn't erase all prejudice, no, but it meant that the official, textbook lesson that I got was one of tolerance for diversity.