What's up?

In the aftermath of the passing of an historic healthcare reform bill on Sunday, I am relieved that those legislators who passed the bill are holding their own -- and are safe. Seriously, it is scary out there. I read a lot of hateful, racist rhetoric in the comments section of the blogs. A message board at the sweet land of MomsRising had message after message ranting against coverage for "illegals." Rep. Ciro Rodriguez of Texas was called a "wetback" and told to "go back to Mexico" for his support of healthcare reform, according to the Plum Line blog. I can't help but think this is the Vietnam War of our time, that we have to brace ourselves until the nasty storm passes. Gah!

In the meantime, Kaiser Health News had a helpful question and answer page on what the new health care reform bill means for the uninsured, the insured and everyone in between. Yes, the facts -- what a concept!

In other news: the U.S. Supreme Court refused to listen to a case, in which a student was prohibited from playing an instrumental version of "Ave Maria" at her high school graduation, according to the Associated Press. The lower courts said it violated the separation of church and state, while conservative Supreme Court Judge Samuel Alito viewed it as censorship.  

First Lady Michelle Obama wrote a column for Newsweek about the causes of childhood obesity and what parents can do about it.

In celebrity gossip: Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and four of their children were recently spotted having a playdate with Johnny Depp, his partner Vanessa Paradis and their two children at Depp's home in Venice, Italy, according to MSN Wonderwall.

Guess what? Ari is riding a two-wheeler now! I have to take some pictures. While he was learning with Papi on Sunday, lazy Mami was napping. :)

How old were your kids when they learned to ride a two-wheeler? What's up with you? What else is in the news?

What's up?

The San Francisco Chronicle ran a Q & A with the CEO of Conceptus, maker of the Essure permanent birth control for women. The new procedure, which costs between $10 and $20, is quick and non-invasive, according to Conceptus CEO Mark Sieczkarek. Have any of you had it or even heard of it?

Doctors of a 13-year-old boy receiving court-mandated chemotherapy say the tumor in his chest has shrunk with treatment, according to the Associated Press. As the family feared, the boy does spend most of his days on a couch feeling sick and weak.

Can Brad Pitt be any sexier? He and his siblings donated $1 million to open a pediatric cancer hospital in Missouri in their mother's name, according to AP.

What else is in the news? What's up with you?

What's up? Many bloggers are still having Obama victory hangover, but I managed to find some non-political news, too.

Check out this LED Menorah for Hanukkah on Boing Boing. What do you think?

Also in Boing Boing: Ari would go nuts over these lego kitchen crafts in Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories. Very cool.

The Anti-Racist Parent blog and its readers doled out tips on how to help children combat bigotry and hate. For example, this particular letter writer said a classmate of her daughter told her if Barack Obama won the election, black people would rise up and make the country Muslim. What would you say or tell your child to say in this situation? In more belated news: Anti-Racist Parent readers responded to Obama's historical victory. Chicago Teacher Man posted more reaction from India.

Expatriate Chef posted some promising news regarding Obama and the environment. She also had a kid-friendly recipe with brussel sprouts that sounds divine.

As blogger Arredonald pointed out, if you want evidence that who is elected president matters, check out this Washington Post story. Incoming President Obama is expected to overturn hundreds of Bush policies via executive order on global warming, stem cell research and reproductive rights abroad.

Batmom, who has been documenting her battle with liver cancer, was declared cancer free with a 60 percent chance of recurrence. My heart goes out to her and her family.  

About 80 percent of rapes in the military are left unreported and even if women step forward they may have to pay for their own rape kits, according to Beacon Broadside. In better news: Beacon Broadside contributors Karen Kahn and Patricia A. Gozemba reminded disenchanted voters over the passage of anti-gay amendments this past election season that the Massachusetts LGBT community faced similar setbacks, fought -- and won.

CityMama wrote about her small children's reaction to the passage of Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in California. The Daily Beast ran more Hollywood reaction to Prop 8.

BlogHer writer Gena Haskett, who used to give out marriage licenses as part of her job in Los Angeles County, gave an historic overview of the institution of marriage. Also in BlogHer: Conservative Christians speak in favor of Proposition 8 in this blog post. BlogHer's "no_I_am_zoe" wondered why more people are not outraged over Arkansas's ban on unmarried couples adopting or acting as foster parents.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt created quite a stir at the mommy blog Strollerderby.

The couple donated $2 million to open a center in Ethiopia for children affected by AIDS and tuberculosis, according to Reuters. They named the center after their adopted Ethiopian daughter, Zahara.

The ladies over at Strollerderby had no problem with the donation or even name of the center. But they took issue with Jolie and Pitt making plans for their three-year-old daughter, who they expect to "take responsibility for the clinic and continue its mission" when she is older.

leahsmom said:
This bothers me. I will say, I'm generally in favor of the charitable giving. It's not the gift that bothers me, it's the comment about their child.

I've been trying to think of exactly what it is that bothers me about the comment. I'm still not sure, but here are some thoughts:

• Zahara is an adopted child. Unlike some of her five brothers and sisters, she's also a child of a different race than her parents (and some siblings). None of Zahara's brothers and sisters have been tasked, at the age of 3, with carrying on their parents' charitable activities towards the country of their birth. This statement seems to me to be distinguishing between their children on the basis of race and/or biological relationship - not something that I, as an adopted child with an adopted sibling of a different race, am at all comfortable with.
• It also smacks a bit of, Zahara must be responsible for this because her parents rescued her from her Ethiopian life. So, in gratitude for that, she owes it to them to make her birth country better. Again, it is a nuance that wouldn't arise with their biological children. I don't necessarily believe that children need to be grateful for being adopted any more than they do for being born - I think we all need to be grateful and cognizant of our opportunities and luck. But not more so because we are adopted.

I guess I mean - would they donate money to help the homeless in America, or victims of AIDS, or any other good cause, and hope their biological kids would take it on? Or does this only apply to the adopted, differently colored kids? Did they say the same for Maddox, with the Cambodian foundation? Or only for their black child?

September 15, 2008 3:54 PM

Lucia said:
What if she has no interest in living in Ethiopia? What if she has no interest in any of this plan her parents have set for her at age 3?

What's up with our fellow beings in the blogosphere?

I loved this bumper sticker posted by Arredonald. What other interesting bumper stickers have you seen lately?

Yes, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt had their twins Saturday night. They had a boy, Knox Leon, and girl, Vivienne Marcheline, born in Nice, France, according to that bastion of journalistic integrity PerezHilton.

Via BlogHer: Judi Sohn, the mother of a daughter with special needs, just lost a court case against the public school district, in which attorneys used her blog entries against her as evidence. The "blog posts were taken out of context and presented as 'evidence' against me in the hearing in December 2007/January 2008 where we sought to show that the district’s proposed program for Laini was inappropriate," she wrote in her blog A View from Judi Sohn. "We were seeking reimbursement for the private school, and we lost. We didn’t lose the decision because of the blog posts. There are other reasons that the hearing officer decided against us which aren’t necessary to elaborate. I have no idea if the hearing officer cared about the blog post because he never mentioned them in the decision, but I’m sure those words taken completely out of context didn’t help my case." Doesn't this make you less inclined to write about your children? Yikes!

Also, the BlogHer conference will take place on Friday, July 18 to Saturday, July 19, in San Francisco. It's a great conference and this will be the first year I will miss it. But I will be at Netroots Nation -- meeting with fellow MTers! Don't forget our lunch on Thursday, ladies. I will post a reminder.

Mable Yee wrote an inspiring piece about our Congresswoman here in Berkeley, Barbara Lee, in her blog EngageHer.

Check out Expatriate Chef's rant on why junk food should be taxed. It's worth a read and a bag of chips.

Via Feministing: "I think that we’ve proven that both parents are important in the success of a family so, no, I don’t believe in gay adoption,” Sen. John McCain told the New York Times. So it's better to leave children in limbo than hand them over to a committed same-sex couple? Oh-kay.

Our Stacey wrote about a Time magazine interview, in which an experienced couple's counselor said honesty is not always the best policy when it comes to cheating on your spouse. As long as the spouse doesn't know about it, the counselor said confession of an affair would only destroy the relationship, Stacey wrote on her blog Fussbucket.

Our Dana pointed out this hilarious kid's book Good Night Bush. Here is a sample line of the book, which is a parody of the book Good Night Moon, that she ran on her blog Mombian: "A grand old party to war in a rush/And a quiet Dick Cheney whispering hush.” Ha!