Presidential hopeful George Allen (previously featured on this space) has been busy apologizing for welcoming the non-white fellow at a campaign appearance to America and calling him a racial epithet. "It was a mistake," he says. "It just came out wrong."

Well, it was kind of a weird word he used, so maybe... naaaaaaah.

That link'll take you to a photograph of Allen with members of Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), the successor organization to the segregationist White Citizens... more

Does this seem like such a bad idea to anyone else?

Because from where I'm sitting, it looks like it can *only* get ugly.

Why do politicians think it's OK to say this stuff?

On the heels of the previously mentioned unpleasantness with George Allen and one of his Virginia-born constituents, comes a new statement from a fellow competing against my home state's current Most Embarrassing Public Figure.

Yeah, Katherine Harris' potential replacement, Tramm Hudson, got caught on video at a campaign appearance, saying... more

These things get under my skin (ho, ho!) more now than they used to.

George Allen, who's positioning himself to be our next president said some stuff to an Indian-American at a campaign appearance that has some commentators... more

bell hooks, on what my kids probably have to look forward to:

"Often a spirit of tokenism prevails in those [predominantly white] settings. This is why it is so crucial that "whiteness" be studied, understood, discussed - so that everyeone learns that affirmation of mulitculturalism, and an unbiased inclusive perspective, can and should be present whether or not people of color are present. ... Often, if there is one lone person of color in the classroom she or he is objectified by others and forced to assume the role of a "native informant." For example, a novel is read by a Korean American author. White students turn to the one student from a Korean background to... more

Caught this t-shirt design from a link over on Ms Smartypants' blog, and I concur.

It's freaky.

For me it's not so much the idea of China-as-uterus, but of China-as-baby that jars. Still, freaky.

OK, as you were.

I heard part of this essay in the parking lot at work, and part of it online, and I'm not sure what I think of it.

It's from the public radio series "This I Believe," which annoys certain friends of mine by rarely voicing any opinions that anyone would ever disagree with (besides Penn Gillette's paean to godlessness). Not so this latest essay.

The whole thing struck me as vaguely creepy -- a feeling which was clearest in this bit here:

I used to want... more

I've been feeling slightly more anxious lately about this parenthood business. I think it's something seasonal or biorhythmic, in part, or maybe just the usual confluence of random factors from which my mind derives meaning.

Part of it, of course, has to do with the day-to-day business of rearing a young lady who will probably (judging from my own family history) never be entirely ready to share her home with a younger sibling, however pleasant said sibling may be. The two of them have been getting along very well indeed, but there are still tantrums, and they seem worse... more

I actually have a great amount of respect for Angelina Jolie, mainly for the United Nations work (although there's a lot to be said about that barely noticeable asymmetry to her eyes that give her that kind of Ellen Barkin maddening allure, at least from where this speaker does his saying), but have serious reservations about the "Angelina Jolie" machine -- the combined P.R./entertainment/ gossip/icon-forging factory that makes up the public persona.

Mostly because of headlines like ... more

The Fort Wayne (Ind.) News-Sentinel reprints an interesting article on the way families like mine are warping traditional definitions of what a family is.

No, seriously. OK, so our siblings aren't really the same age. But still....

Together, Jenna, who is Asian, and Sam, who is white, are part of a phenomenon that would have been almost inconceivable a generation ago: the emergence of interracial adoptive "twins."

Born less than 9 months apart, such "virtual... more