Flooded Lizard Kingdom

Really.

Yuck!

Austin's Goodwills and other thrift stores have an abundance of all of the following, and I'm sure it's also true of most other resale markets in cities across the country. Let's put it this way - either you can keep items out of the trash while saving money and supporting local charities, or you can reward companies for mass producing more stuff that will eventually end up in the garbage or at Goodwill (and quite possibly exploiting and/or poisoning their overseas labor to make it).

You don't even have to settle for "used" merchandise in many Goodwills around here. They also have lots of new goods that were donated for sale.

1. Vases
2. Baskets
3. Gift wrap
4. Gift bags
5. Holiday lights
6. Holiday cards
7. Holiday decorations, such as ornaments and figurines
8. Unopened gift sets of soap, perfume, etc. to give as gifts
9. Baby clothes with the tags still on (or not, but in mint condition)
10. Cleaning supplies in case you're hosting the family get-together

And by the way, please don't think of shopping at thrift stores as taking something away from low-income folks. Thrift stores that raise money for charities are set up to raise money for charities, not to provide shopping opportunities for low-income people. Even if they were, I assure you that there's more than enough merchandise to go around.

So this holiday season, while retailers are urging you to accumulate more and more new stuff, head to your local thrift store at least once before you reflexively head to Wal-Mart, Target, Ross, TJ Maxx, etc. Your community, the environment, and society will thank you for it!

If you're in Austin and you need some guidance on thrifting, check out the Thrift category archives on What If No One's Watching. Grace has reviewed a number of the thrift stores around town.

Last year, I tried to follow Grace's lead and blog each month about where I was donating money. Not to show off, but to highlight those organizations while I was thinking about them and encourage others to give. I didn't do a very good job of the blogging, though I did a good job giving each month.

This year, everything fell apart. I was so sick for half the year, my monthly giving schedule did not survive. However, looking back over my records, I did manage to give. It just happened when something found me, instead of me going out regularly to find giving opportunities. I don't think I hit my goal for how much of my income was given away, but the following list isn't too shabby.

Maybe you'll see a new organization or an old favorite on the list and throw a few bucks their way. Remember, charitable donations make great holiday gifts - they don't need to be wrapped, and they don't require going to a store.

1. Women for Women International, at the request of Suebob from Red Stapler. "Women for Women International supports women in war-torn regions with financial and emotional aid, job-skills training, rights education and small business assistance so they can rebuild their lives."
2. Heart of Texas Lab Rescue, in honor of my boss's dog who passed away.
3. Joe Clark's Micropatronage effort to support an accessibility research project, which I saw linked from his own blog.
4. Genocide Intervention Network for their work on the Darfur genocide. I know I found out about them online but I don't remember where. I did a little advising to the Texas effort to pass legislation forcing divestment in Sudan by the public retirement funds here, and I'm quite pleased that it succeeded.
5. Paws of Austin, for the care of a specific dog I saw on their site.
6. The Paramount and State Theaters here in Austin, in response to an email they sent out.
7. Jane's Due Process, "a non-profit organization that serves as an information and advocacy center promoting fair and equal access for Texas teenagers seeking legal services in order to make a reproductive choice."
8. The Alzheimer's Association, although I did get a dog kiss for that one. Details here, let me know if you did it too.
9. Bitch Magazine, in response to a mailed fundraising request.

These aren't organizations, but I was glad to donate to them anyway. Since I'm lucky enough to have it, it's good to share when other people need it:

1. A woman fleeing domestic violence, at the request of Shannon from Peter's Cross Station.
2. The bloggers of The Primary Contradiction and Fabulosa Mujer, to help them attend the Allied Media Conference, at the request of brownfemipower from Women of Color Blog.

(And hey, whoever said blogs can't make a difference? I'm pretty sure this list proves otherwise.)

This anti-KKK protest is one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard of.

I was going to work on a snappy title for this post, but what the heck.

Christian Science Monitor: US Gov't broke Padilla through intense isolation, say experts

Despite warnings, officials used 43 months of severe isolation to force Jose Padilla to tell all he knew about Al Qaeda.

After 43 months, was what he knew of any value? Just asking.

CNN.com: No-kill shelters hurtful to animals?

No-kill shelters that have worked elsewhere in the country have succeeded because they partner with other local facilities. But many no-kill shelters have no backup plan and hang onto animals for months, sometimes years, until they are adopted, causing crowding and health problems for the animals.

So no-kill shelters are hurtful to animals... when the people who run them are stupid? How does that make the concept of no-kill the problem? This AP story could be one of the worst pieces of reporting I've ever seen.

The Angry Black Woman: Doing Something About Racism

When considering what people can do about racism, the first thing that comes to my mind is disseminating information. Educate people who have no clue about privilege, disadvantages, oppression, and subtle racism. Point out their blind spots. Explain your particular experience and views so that others can begin to understand. That, to me, is the place to start from. And if talking qua writing qua educating is not doing something, then what exactly is there to be done?

I really appreciated that post because of the writing that Grace and I have done over at Heroine Content. Do I think we're ending racism next week by analyzing action movies on a blog? No. Do I think that we're practicing our own racism-spotting skills, and hopefully helping remind others about how much of a problem racism is in our society by examining pop culture? Yes. And I also hope that it's a springboard for me to do more anti-racist work in the future. (If I weren't having a baby next month, I would so be joining Carmen Van Kerckhove's Anti-Racism Action Group as my next step.)

Resist Racism: Mr. Wrong

But the founder of the Mister Wong website didn’t respond in a textbook racist way.... “The right thing to do”? When was the last time you heard this in response to a charge of racism?

Refreshing to see someone get called on a mistake, own up to it, and fix it.

Austin-American Statesman: Men of few words? That's a myth, study finds

University of Texas Psychology Department Chairman James Pennebaker, one of four authors of the study, said the idea of measuring the relative verbosity of the sexes came from a magazine article that claimed that women use 20,000 words per day, compared with 7,000 words for men.

But of course, they had to interview some people on the street who don't think science is worth a damn. You want to make sure you're fair and balanced.

Wise County ends coverage for illegal immigrants by Chris Vaughn, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 6/4/07

The Wise County Commissioners Court voted this week to deny indigent healthcare coverage to illegal immigrants, nearly three years after Tarrant County made the same move.

The decision was made, officials said, because the county cannot be reimbursed by the state for expenses related to illegal immigrants. The Wise County program had only one illegal immigrant enrolled.

Anyone with an emergency will still be treated as required by federal law.

"You have to be here legally to get it," Wise County Attorney Greg Lowery said. "If you're not legal, we're not going to provide nonemergency healthcare."

The indigent healthcare program is funded entirely by county taxpayers and assists low-income families that, for whatever reason, do not qualify for Medicaid or Medicare.

The program reimburses local physicians and clinics up to $30,000 per person per year. Between 50 and 100 people are enrolled in the program at any given time.

"It's a last-ditch effort for them," said Charles Dillard, the county's emergency medical services administrator, who also supervises the program. "If they don't qualify for any other program, then they can come to us."

After a county reaches a certain spending threshold, it can seek state reimbursement. But the state will not reimburse for the care of illegal immigrants.

That is why officials wanted to stop offering coverage now.

"We were getting more phone calls about illegal aliens to be put on the program," Dillard said.

I hope everyone who sees this can take a quick minute to watch this, and then reflect on it as you go through the week. It's important.

The post on blackprof.com that led me to this video

A link to the video, in case this embedding thing doesn't work.

The video:

I'm supposed to be working right now, but the software I'm supposed to be documenting is still a touch on the broken side. So let me catch up on a few letters.

From NARAL Pro-Choice America, send an email to your federal delegation asking them to, well, make sense about sex education. Since mine just won't, I didn't bother editing the stock text much.

Then two letters from Amnesty International:

• Support the International Criminal Court: Justice Now for the Women and Girls of Darfur
• Call for the Closure of Guantanamo

If those two don't move you, check out the entire list at the Amnesty International Online Action Center.

I don't think I had noticed it before, or perhaps it's new - the Amnesty action center offers the option to print a letter and mail it, in addition to the usual email option. I know paper letters are more effective, and now they've made it easy. I also like knowing that they're getting data on how many people send letters, since they have it integrated into their action center rather than simply posting the information on a flat web page and hoping. Stats are important in measuring nonprofit effectiveness, and when you do a good job they also come in handy while fundraising.

Now I must make my lunch for tomorrow!

My donations for July and August (roughly):

Knowbility is a nonprofit that promotes barrier-free IT accessible to everyone. They taught me the basics of accessibility and have answered my questions when I needed more than the basics. They train developers on how to make their sites and applications accessible. Basically, they rock. Money for them!

Progressive Secretary is a service I've been using on and off for a couple of years. They send you draft emails that you can choose to send to your elected reps and other decision-makers, and if you like, you click and they send. The letters are on a range of issues, and they tell you what group is running the campaign about the issue so you can find out more information.

Native Energy got some cash again, this time for my flights to New York, Amarillo, and San Jose.

One side effect of building charitable giving into my monthly budget has surprised me: I'm no longer anxious about which cause I give to. In the past, I would stress out about which was more important, or which needed it most. Now I know that barring unhappy changes in my life, I will have the chance to give to a number of causes. I don't need to calculate any particular donation as if it's the only one I'll ever get a chance to make.

It's nice.

Time to get back on the train with letters!

This week, I'm sending a paper letter to the FDA based on this action alert from NARAL Pro-Choice America about the approval of Plan B. Plan B without a prescription equals more options for women, which in my book is always a good thing. I edited their draft letter a smidge, my text is below the cut.

Things are not going well in Chad, next door to Darfur, as refugees and other displaced people move into the area trying to find safety. Amnesty International wants you to send a little note to the government of Chad letting them know the world is watching and they need to step up to the plate. Quick and easy activism.

The next one's for anyone with a Senator who voted to fully fund public broadcasting. MoveOn has asked that we send thank-you notes to those Senators. In Texas, that's Kay Bailey Hutchison. Non-Texans will have to do your own legwork, I don't know how to look up votes. If you didn't get the MoveOnmemo, here's their PDF you can print. Have the kid in your life fill it out and send it. Texans can use this address:
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
500 Chestnut Street, Suite 1570
Abilene, TX 79602-1458

If you don't have a kid, you can still participate. Write about your childhood memories of PBS or your current love for NPR. Or get help from others in your household. The Dog is helping me send a note, which you can view here in PDF. (I scrubbed out her address because the Intarweb is dangerous.)

If none of that moves you, you could always try just asking a question. Texan jobsanger describes a friend who sent the same question to two candidates for his congressional district. Marc at Marc's Miscellany tried to get Kay Bailey Hutchison to disclose her position on the Marriage Protection Amendment and the Voting Rights Act extension. After a while, he did get a response to his questions. Asking questions is more than just a way to get information. It also signals to the questionee that this issue is important to their constituents. Try it out!

Y'all, I swear I didn't procrastinate on my presentation for BlogHer, but damn I have a lot to do. So I'm giving myself partial credit for last week's missed letters by substituting 20+ hours spent working on a presentation to convince other bloggers to make their blogs more accessible.

This week's letters are one fax and two emails, but all customized by yours truly before sending. Next week I commit to paper letters.

Join in the fun:

• Genocide Intervention Network: A Failed Promise to Darfur
• NARAL Pro-Choice America: Help Stop Frist's Latest Anti-Choice Bill
• Amnesty International: Call for Action Into Murder of Guatemalan Women

(Hat tip to Texas NOW Blog on that last one.)

A couple of days ago I read a review of the Bollywood movie Fanaa on the blog Kashmir. I started thinking about how much "information" I accumulate from films and television, especially with popular entertainment from other countries where I don't have any context for those narratives.

If I had caught Fanaa when it screened in Austin, I would have come away with images of the political situation in Kashmir that may or may not be accurate. (I haven't researched beyond that blog post, I don't really know whether the film is anywhere near reality.) I don't think I would have started applying to history departments to teach the history of Kashmir, but I can't imagine that these images wouldn't influence me - especially if I never gave them any thought. I don't have any information that would lead me to notice discrepancies, so I might have just carried those images around for a while.

With that in mind, I was concerned to read a blog post on the Carribbean Amerindian Centrelink Review about the new Pirates of the Carribbean movie. It calls for a boycott due to the film's portrayal of the people indigenous to the area where the movie is set, whom the CAC blog identifies as Caribs:

Let us keep in mind that such depictions were used to enslave and murder the ancestors of today's Caribs, there was never anything innocent or "fun" about these portrayals. In addition, generations of Carib descended school children in the Caribbean have been taught that their ancestors were savage cannibals. Shame over ancestry was inculcated as a matter of routine. In my own field research experience, I have encountered individuals in their forties and fifties who told me very directly that the main reason they did not wish to self-identify as Caribs is that people in the wider world see Caribs as cannibals, as inhuman man eaters, and they found the stigma unbearable.

This portrayal of a fictional event set against a historical backdrop should have been easier for me to identify as a problem. As a resident of North America, I should be very familiar with cultural images of people of African descent that portray them as "less than civilized." But honestly, I don't know if I would have picked up on it without reading this blog post. I did notice it in King Kong, but would I have caught this one? Or would I have been swept along in a story I enjoyed, with actors I enjoy?

That, my friends, is one of the ugly privileges of being white. You don't have to think about race.

You have to make the choice whether to hold yourself and your culture accountable for racism.

Last Thursday I actually followed through with my "Thursday is for letters" habit, but didn't quite finish up the post. This week Thursday didn't go well, so now it's Saturday and I am doing my letter.

Last Thursday I wrote emails to both my Senators to ask them to co-sponsor the PETS Act, based on this alert from the Humane Society. My email to them is below the cut. Feel free to adapt and send to your own Senators - but check the Humane Society list of who has already co-sponsored first. If your Senator has co-sponsored, thank them!

I know that email may not have as much impact as a paper letter, but since I know it will arrive more quickly it's hard to resist the temptation. And while I'm trying to establish this habit, I'm going to do what I can and build from there. If you're pressed for time, you can also use the Humane Society page to send an email to your own Senators.

On a more grim note, 18-year old Iranian girl Nazanin Mahabad Fatehi, who was sentenced to death by hanging for killing a man who ambushed and tried to rape her, has had her death sentence overturned by the Iranian head of judiciary and it has been sent back to a lower court. Save Nazanin has more info.

They are requesting that letters be sent to Iran asking that she not be re-sentenced to death. My letter to the Iranian embassy in the U.S. is below the cut, and as always feel free to adapt and send your own. I'll be mailing mine today.

From The Talent Show:

I love being married. Nothing on Earth can compare to the sheer joy of finding the person you want to spend the rest of your life with. Loving someone so much that you become family makes me so happy that I want everyone to have the opportunity to be as fortunate as I am.

And while we're at it, Yes! for this too. From Arkansas Court Backs Gay Foster Parents:

The board instituted the ban in 1999, saying children should be in traditional two-parent homes because they would be more likely to thrive.

Four residents sued, claiming discrimination and privacy violations against homosexuals who otherwise qualified as foster parents.

The justices agreed Thursday, saying the ban was "an attempt to legislate for the General Assembly with respect to public morality."

"There is no correlation between the health, welfare and safety of foster children and the blanket exclusion of any individual who is a homosexual or who resides in a household with a homosexual," Associate Justice Donald Corbin wrote in the opinion.

In addition, the court said, the testimony of a Child Welfare Agency Review Board member demonstrated that "the driving force between adoption of the regulations was not to promote the health, safety and welfare of foster children but rather based upon the board's views of morality and its bias against homosexuals."

The court also said that being raised by homosexuals doesn't cause academic problems or gender identity problems, as the state had argued.

Sometimes I love what the intarweb brings me.

Carrie at Lone Star Democracy Builders Association reminded me that a major campaign donation deadline is coming up on June 30th:

One of the biggest ways that political campaigns can show strength is their fundraising. About half the times you've heard someone say, "I just don't think that guy can win," what they mean is, "That candidate isn't raising enough money to pay for a decent campaign." [...] Money is the lifeblood of a campaign. It pays for the office, the campaign manager, the TV and radio spots, the field staff who mobilize volunteers, bumper stickers, yard signs... It's not only what makes a campaign look professional and capable; it's what allows a campaign to hire the professionals who can pull out a win and pay to get the message out for a candidate who's not well-known.

The press, as well as the people who write big checks, judge fundraising ability on the basis of periodic reports that candidates are required to file with the Texas Ethics Commission. The next deadline is June 30 - coming up fast, y'all.

So. If you've got a soft spot for a great candidate, now's the time to show your support.

And how! One of the things I loved about the State Democratic Party Convention three weeks ago was the chance to get up close to the candidates and hear them talk, so I could find out for myself whether they're real people. When I was in college I never thought about how many candidates there are, how many offices there are to fill. As I listened to the following folks talk, I was glad there were so many offices, and so many candidates, because they all struck me as very real and good people who would represent us well. So I parceled out this month's donation money, combined with last month's because I was too disorganized in May, to:

• Bree Buchanan for Justice of the Third Court of Appeals. If you haven't heard her talk about how some of the folks currently on this court make kids wait in foster care because they're too busy to bother deciding those cases, you should.
• Ted Ankrum for Texas Congressional District 10, working hard to show the folks in Travis, Bastrop, Lee, Burleson, Washington, Austin, Waller and Harris counties that an honest civil servant and veteran can represent us well in Washington.
• Valinda Bolton, running for Texas House District 47 in southwest Travis County. She's amazing in front of a crowd - even a crowd of just two people! And as she says, if you live in Texas, this seat matters to you. (Check out the Texas NOW Blog to learn why...)
• Glenn Melancon, who as Carrie says is "an amazingly smart and well-spoken history professor running for Congress up in north Texas." He's in Texas CD4 to be specific.

So if you're a believer, show them or your favorite candidates some love!

[Update, early morning on the next day: Wow, this is poorly written. After 10 p.m. is apparently not my peak writing time....]

More on social change, in follow-up to my post about justice and charity. From Bradford Plumer's review of Heather Rogers' Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage over at MoJo Blog:

In essence, Keep America Beautiful managed to shift the entire debate about America's garbage problem. No longer was the focus on regulating production—for instance, requring can and bottle makers to use refillable containers, which are vastly less profitable. Instead, the "litterbug" became the real villain, and KAB supported fines and jail time for people who carelessly tossed out their trash, despite the fact that, clearly, "littering" is a relatively tiny part of the garbage problem in this country (not to mention the resource damage and pollution that comes with manufacturing ever more junk in the first place). Environmental groups that worked with KAB early on didn't realize what was happening until years later.

And KAB's campaign worked—by the late 1950s, anti-litter ordinances were being passed in statehouses across the country, while not a single restriction on packaging could be found anywhere. Even today, thanks to heavy lobbying by the packaging industry, only twelve states have deposit laws, despite the fact that the laws demonstrably save energy and reduce consumption by promoting reuse and recycling. (A year after Oregon passed the first such law in 1972, 385 million fewer beverage containers were consumed in the state.) And no state has contemplated anything like Finland's refillable bottle laws, which has reduced the country's garbage output by an estimated 390,000 tons. But hey, at least we're not littering.

So it's a nifty judo throw, as far as it goes. I'm guessing that much the same thing is behind industry promotion of recycling. Again, no one can be "against" recycling. It's very good. But of the three suggestions in the phrase "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle," the last is the practice least effective in curbing the manufacturing of junk.

Look, we're concerned about the environment! Look, it's your problem!

In this light, please check out (via a post on Treehugger) this ad campaign from the EU:

Enough said.

Horace Mann, address at Antioch College, 1859:

Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.

Sepia Mutiny's abhi did a post a while back on children being taken to political protests:

I feel that taking a child to certain types of protests is like giving a child a gun without teaching them proper gun safety. I believe it is more important to properly educate a child in all aspects of an issue and encourage them to investigate it on their own, rather than take them along to mindlessly protest something. I think it is VERY important to teach a child about the realities and injustices in the world and when to stand up for a principle, but I often see images in the media that hint at the fact that the children holding signs are mostly a form of propaganda.

I've been thinking about that for a while.

If a child decides on an issue they want to pursue, I think they have every right to participate in a (safe, non-violent) protest. Children do have minds of their own. Heck, Katie Allison Granju had to deal with her son declaring for Bob Dole at age 5. Valinda Bolton (subliminal message: vote for her if you're in TX HD 47) tore up her parents' Goldwater sign when she was five.

But like abhi, I have mixed feelings about parents taking their kids to protests without explaining both sides of the issue as objectively as they can and then asking if the child wants to participate. Even if you think the child is being hurt by the government's action/inaction on the issue and thus should be there to show the government the real face of the people affected, who can say the child would agree with your proposed solution? One of the most conservative people I know was raised by liberals. He fundamentally disagrees with them on how to solve society's problems, or even what the problems are. I was raised by an extremely conservative father, with a similar dynamic.

At the same time, I want to pass along my values to my children, as do most parents. Fair play, tolerance, kindness, generosity, and participation are among these. Taking a child to a protest or rally supporting rights for GLBT families would be a way of teaching them about those values.

My guess is that I will do my best to choose the language "I believe" when discussing issues, rather than give into the temptation of using my parental authority - even when down to the bottom of my soul, I know I am right. If the cause is just, it should stand on its own merits.

This story by Jeanne D'Arc about her daughter's political evolution is also worth reading...

Interesting column in the Amarillo Globe-News last week. Here's the beginning:

Opinion: Canadians Beat Americans in Health and Health Care by Dr. Ted M. Nicklaus, Special to the Amarillo Globe-News, June 15, 2006

A study by Harvard Medical School researchers shows that Canadians are healthier than U.S. residents.

The study, to be published in July 2006 in the American Journal of Public Health, also details how Canadians have better access to health care and are more likely to have a regular doctor than are their counterparts in the United States. According to Dr. David Himmelstein, co-author of the study, "We pay almost twice what Canada does for care, more than $6,000 for every American, yet Canadians are healthier and live two to three years longer."

My grandmother often talks about the terrible waiting lists for procedures in Canada and how it's such a shame that health care is rationed. I've tried to have the argument with her that health outcomes are better than anecdotes for judging a health care system, but so far to little avail.

I'm starting a new habit, hopefully. Thursday is letter-writing day, and I don't mean letters to The Dog imploring her to get a job or stop trying to eat snails. I mean political letters. Not form letters that I click to have someone else write for me, but actual letters that I write and send, hopefully on paper.

A couple of Thursdays ago I wrote letters to my federal delegation, President Bush, and the Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. about a journalist named Hao Wu who is being detained in China. Guess what? They didn't let him out yet. So if you're so moved, you can write one yourself. Mine are after the cut. (The one to the Ambassador went on paper, but the ones to the delegation went through their contact forms.)

I used the Amnesty International Letter Writing Guide to put them together. Eloquence is not necessary, so I skipped that part.

This week I wrote a letter to my federal delegation asking them to sign on as co-sponsors of the Prevention First Act. My letter to them is also included below, feel free to make it yours and send it to your own reps. (These I'm printing and putting into envelopes as we speak.) I'd be shocked if any of them actually did it, but they're the only representatives I have and I'm going to let them know what I want.

Then for extra credit, I wrote a e-postcard to the President asking him to support a stronger multi-national peacekeeping force in Darfur and wrote an e-thank you note to Rep. Michael McCaul for the House decision last week to approve emergency funding for Darfur.

At what point will they start to consider me a chronic letter-writer?

I received my first-ever trackback this month, just after a conversation with UnwiredBen where we discussed shutting off trackbacks on our various sites since all they did was attract spam.

For those of you who have better things to do with your time than learn all these terms, a trackback is an electronic note to my blog that someone else wrote about one of my blog posts. The trackback I received is from the blog post Blawg Review #56: Sex, Virtual Weddings, and Baseball, to my post about the McDonald's lawsuit.

It starts like this:

It's been a busy week in the legal blogosphere. We're a committed group blog here at Point of Law, so we teamed up to cover the many topics summarized below.

And here is the bit about me:

Joe DiMaggio went on in life to become Mr. Coffee. And speaking of coffee (wait for it) could the blogosphere possibly go a week without mentioning the McDonald's coffee lawsuit? Nope: "Flooded Lizard Kingdom" falls for the trial lawyer hype and repeats all sorts of tales about the lawsuit that Overlawyered exposed as urban legends long ago.

I'm not sure how to feel about this.

First, I'm not part of the legal blogosphere. I guess I open myself up to being reviewed by anyone anywhere if they write about a topic that I mentioned, but including Flooded Lizard Kingdom in a "blawg" (blog about the law) review is like...well, something that doesn't fit. Do they routinely include non-legal blogs?

Second, what's the deal with putting "Flooded Lizard Kingdom" in quotes as if it's my alias? My alias is The Princess, and feel free to put that in quotes if you like. I have definitely seen people use blog names as people names, but this felt somewhat like a swipe.

Third, my sincerest apologies for contributing to the over-discussion of this lawsuit in the blogosphere. I had seen it mentioned only once ever, many months ago. Indeed, the post I used to spark my post was so old that I felt I had to invent a lame-ass contrived reference to my trip to Sonic to justify it.

Fourth, I should not have taken a page on the American Trial Lawyers of America website as gospel. But my first thought was that I can't take a site called Overlawyered seriously as a reliable source. Then I thought, hey, would I take a site called Health Care For Everyone seriously as a source of data about health care? If so, then why reject Overlawyered? Then I thought, hey, actually, I wouldn't take the HCFE site at face value either, because I've seen too many nonprofit and advocacy organizations on "my side" use data in a remarkably sloppy fashion! So I will say this: Overlawyered does a good job of linking to various pieces of evidence. I've clicked through to quite a few of the links and read articles, and now I'd have to say that I'm not sure about the case. I'm sure I've learned some kind of lesson from all this.

Fifth, their blog has no comments allowed, only trackbacks. You can't talk in their space, you can only tell them you talked about them in your space. Never seen that before.

But finally, I never thought I'd see the day when my words were referenced in a publication of the Manhattan Institute and American Enterprise Institute. It's a strange, strange world.

I am a bisexual woman, and I am marrying a man in November. Barring untoward incidents, we will thereafter have at least one child. Everyone will be so excited for us, and happy, and shower the child with non-organic cotton clothing and plastic toys, and we will be polite about it. The laws will be on our side, the general public will reward us with approving glances, and our families will be completely fine.

If I had fallen in love with a woman and I was marrying her in November, many people would be excited for us to have a child, but not everyone. The laws would often be against us, even after we spent hundreds of dollars on lawyers. The general public in most of Austin would probably be cool, but not always, and a road trip with the kids could be a risk. Much of my family would freak the fuck out.

And Representative Robert Talton would think that even though I am the EXACT SAME PERSON with the same skills, same personality characteristics, same attitudes that I have now, and a body of research that says my kid(s) would be just fine, that my wife and I shouldn't be foster parents.

That, my friends, should be in the dictionary under "fucked up."

Kudos to all the GLBT and other folks who are parents, foster parents, co-parents, any kind of parents, who persist in the face of bad laws and bad attitudes. You amaze me.

John Courage is cool.

Check out this action page about genocide in Darfur. I got it in an email from the campaign a little while ago. I can use it to send my thoughts on the subject to my Senators and U.S. Reps as well as my local newspaper. There are guidelines for responses: "appropriately respectful and in acceptable taste." (Burnt Orange also mentioned it a while back.)

It took some work to build this, and it took some work to fill out the content. It's like they understand the goal of electing good people, which is to create and sustain good policy. So while they're maintaining the communications infrastructure for the campaign, they may as well use it for working on policy too.

Good show, y'all. Now send me a dang logo so I can put it on my website!

I've written before about Texas and the income tax.

However, the following angle never occurred to me: which should you prefer if you are interested in limited government?

Southpaw has some thoughts on that question.

Via the always rockin' Koan Bremner, posting at BlogHer, we find out that June 1st is Blogging for LGBT Families Day.

I WILL be on time for this one, seriously.

Here's the whole deal for others who wish to participate. Even if you are not currently part of such a family, please do show your support.

What's happened to people in Darfur has been horrible, even beyond horrible. Now rations to refugees are being cut by 50% because the U.N. doesn't have enough money. NYT says there may be a glimmer of possible peace, but things are still awful for the refugees.

I have so far done nothing about it, despite having a copy of Maus in my bookshelf. (And having been party to the purchase of a $1300 television two days ago.)

Here are 10 suggestions from the Genocide Information Network on how I can help. Time for me to get cracking.

Study: Health Insurers are Near Monopolies

A few firms get biggest share of Medicare drug enrollment

GAO Report Finds Lack of Competition Among Insurers Offering Health Plans to Small Businesses

How's that working out, again?

Interesting. Ronni Bennet posts an account of her interactions with Medicare Part D on Time Goes By. The majority of her post is about dealing with her insurance company, who can't seem to get their act together. A commenter says "I have had similar experiences helping the elderly as well as myself. Anyone who thinks ANY program should be run by the government is delusional."

I am one of the first people to admit that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal government entity administering Part D, has not done particularly well. Ask anyone who's been at a party with me in the last six months - I have LOTS of information to share on that topic.

But I found it funny that in this instance, poor performance of the private sector was blamed on the government. Unless the commenter meant Congress, which designed the program explicitly to be delivered by private companies. (Obviously the commenter was also reacting to past experiences with public programs as well; I am not trying to dismiss her observation.) The private companies get their money and their data from the federal government, but they are actually the ones "running" the program in terms of enrolling people, establishing their benefits, and paying claims to pharmacies.

The public policy geek in me does wonder how much accountability the government has for ensuring the Part D insurance companies deliver the services they are being paid for, and what tools the government has at its disposal to enforce that service delivery...

As a tribute to my ill-advised Sonic experience this weekend, I would like to direct you to a reality check on the McDonald's coffee lawsuit via this post at Suburban Guerrilla. Selected bullet points:

• A vascular surgeon determined that Liebeck suffered full thickness burns (or third-degree burns) over 6 percent of her body.
• She was hospitalized for eight days, during which time she underwent skin grafting and debridement treatments (the surgical removal of tissue).
• Liebeck sought to settle her claim for $20,000, but McDonald's refused.
• During discovery, McDonald's produced documents showing more than 700 claims by people burned by its coffee between 1982 and 1992. Some claims involved third-degree burns substantially similar to Liebeck's.
• McDonald's also said during discovery that, based on a consultant's advice, it held its coffee at between 180 and 190 degrees Fahrenheit to maintain optimum taste. Coffee served at home is generally 135 to 140 degrees.
• McDonald's own quality assurance manager testified that a burn hazard exists with any food substance served at 140 degrees or above and that McDonald's coffee was not fit for consumption because it would burn the mouth and throat.
• The jury awarded Liebeck $200,000 in compensatory damages. This amount was reduced to $160,000 because the jury found Liebeck 20 percent at fault in the spill. The jury also awarded Liebeck $2.7 million in punitive damages, which equals about two days of McDonald's coffee sales.

Several of my relatives who shall remain nameless often bring up this case as proof that America has become a decadent society of lawsuit-happy slackers. Next time I will be prepared to beg to differ.

(Note: this post also has a follow-up post.)

I had seen a reality check on the estate tax back in 2005: no one can find any farmers who have been forced to sell their farms because of the estate tax.

Now via a post on Echidne's blog, we find a report by Public Citizen detailing the insanity of the estate tax repeal efforts. Super-wealthy people have spent lots of money to convince Americans that not-so-wealthy people are victimized by this tax, which is a crock.

Make sure to check out Appendix C, containing the myths that have been used to argue against the tax.

I wish I'd had my camera in the parking garage:

I'm for separation of Church and Hate!

Right on, unknown coworker. Right on.

I'm sure this would be a better blog post if I had insightful commentary, but my brain's a bit worn out from all the not sleeping I've been doing. So I will just present these three pieces, arranged on a spectrum.

From an e-newsletter from the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a short article describing the author's daughter's decision to donate her beloved teddy bear Rosy to the survivors:

We can all help. Not with platitudes about programs or promises of political investigations. Instead, we can donate the cost of this week’s frivolous “business” lunch to the Red Cross. We can give the cash for our next movie to the Salvation Army. And we can send our clothes and toys.

In the next night or two, Rosy - not some ideological opinion or political pipedream - will bring a simple expression of love from one child to another who urgently needs it.

That may be the best public policy imaginable.

A speech by Bono:

6,500 Africans are still dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease, for lack of drugs we can buy at any drug store. This is not about charity, this is about Justice and Equality.

Because there's no way we can look at what’s happening in Africa and, if we're honest, conclude that deep down, we really accept that Africans are equal to us. Anywhere else in the world, we wouldn’t accept it. Look at what happened in South East Asia with the Tsunami. 150, 000 lives lost to that misnomer of all misnomers, “mother nature." In Africa, 150,000 lives are lost every month. A tsunami every month. And it’s a completely avoidable catastrophe. [...]

Preventing the poorest of the poor from selling their products while we sing the virtues of the free market: That’s a justice issue. Holding children to ransom for the debts of their grandparents: That’s a justice issue. Withholding life-saving medicines out of deference to the Office of Patents: That’s a justice issue.

An article at Slate describing an ad by the Red Cross meant to encourage blood donations:

You can do good both ways, the PSA suggests. But consider the difference: Giving blood is easy, it's over before you know it, and it's a tangible way to help people. On the other hand, social agitation (staging protests, organizing boycotts, writing letters to big corporations) can have complicated consequences, and the results can be difficult to quantify. [...]

Since when do charities bash the competition? Imagine a spot arguing that Ethiopian orphans are more worthy than Somali orphans. That tsunami victims are more worthy than Katrina victims. Wouldn't happen. Yet this ad argues that giving blood is a better choice than advocating on behalf of those child laborers. It presents do-gooding as a zero-sum game.

Individual acts of charity are not the same thing as fixing systems, especially those that create a need for charity by keeping people from succeeding.

You should check out Hard Green by David Roberts, posted at Gristmill:

What, then, is environmentalism? We want to save the set of ecosystems and species that happen to exist at this point in the earth's history. Why this set? What makes it more special than the six other sets that have come and gone?

Here's an obvious answer: This set includes us.

I don't quite agree with the implicit logic that since we don't feel very bad about the Permian-Triassic extinction event, we don't grant animals any intrinsic value, but I like his central point.

I try not to call anyone names online that I would not say to their face. Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher is acting like a jackass, though, and I'm pretty sure I would tell him so if I met him in person.

Gay state workers and job candidates have lost anti-discrimination protection as a result of an order that Gov. Ernie Fletcher issued yesterday as part of the state's "Diversity Day."

Fletcher replaced the 2003 employment policy of former Gov. Paul Patton with one that bans employment discrimination because of "race, color, national origin, sex, age, religion, veteran status and disability."

It makes no mention of sexual orientation.

Patton's policy included protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

But Fletcher spokesman Brett Hall said the governor has no intent to discriminate against gay workers. Rather, the new order mirrors federal affirmative action policy and is meant to prohibit all discrimination, he said.

"This is in no way to discriminate against anyone," Hall said.

Hall said the administration was concerned that the Patton policy on sexual orientation was too broad and extended to others, such as transgender people.

That caused a dispute at the state Environmental and Public Protection Cabinet over which restroom an employee undergoing a sex change should use, he said.

"These types of special privileges are not only difficult to comply with, but it's very expensive," Hall said, saying it could lead to lawsuits or require the state to build additional restrooms.

Mark York, a spokesman for the environmental cabinet, said a question arose last year about which restroom a transgender employee should use, but it was resolved by setting aside a particular restroom for the worker.

"We were able to work something out to everyone's satisfaction," he said.

I enjoy reading The Decembrist a lot. Mark Schmitt doesn't post to this (his own) often, but he's a deep thnker.

The "BS Human Capital Story" is about the possibility of educating people - increasing human capital - as a solution to the employment problems our country is facing.

Quick take:

The “Human Capital Story” isn’t an answer today because it’s not really possible to move people across these two labor markets that are pulling away from each other. There isn’t enough of a middle to train people up into, and the medium-skilled are going to have a hard time moving in to the highly-skilled elite.

He also offers a few solutions. It's not long, and it's worth a read.

Each month, Grace is posting a description of where she's donating money. I'm enjoying distrbuting the 5% of my take-home pay that I currently have budgeted for giving away, so I think I'll do the same.

Last month I donated to Medical Students for Choice. I wrote on my donation form "South Dakota really pisses me off." My mailed donation receipt had a hand-written note from the Executive Director: "We'll see what we can do about South Dakota." Very satisfying to both support a good cause and commune with good people.

I also donated a few bucks to NativeEnergy to offset the carbon costs of my trip to Colorado. I came back from that trip with a wicked cold but a clear conscience, having supported a privately held Native American energy company in its efforts to produce domestic renewable energy. Yay for that.

In March, I had to postpone my giving due to a last-minute IRA contribution that took a lot of the cash I had on hand. So in April, I've had LOTS of money to give away. Barbara Ann Radnofsky is running for U.S. Senate. John Courage is running for Congress in U.S. District 21. Radnofsky's campaign has a logo I can download from their website, Courage does not. However, both are serious candidates who could do a good job representing Texas in Washington, and both have been working hard campaigning and raising the visibility of Democrats. So I threw some money their way, hopefully enough to subsidize pizza for volunteers or some other worthy endeavor.

Texans, do note the Radnofsky message: vote for her in the Democratic runoff election! Early voting goes through Friday, and you can vote if you voted in the Democratic primary or didn't vote in either primary. Her opponent is Gene Kelly, who perpetually puts his name in and then does nothing. As far as anyone can tell, he gets votes just because his name is Gene Kelly. And he supports the Patriot Act (see this League of Women Voters Guide for details - PDF).

If you're eligible to vote and you skip this runoff, I don't want to hear you crying when Kay Bailey Hutchison does something you don't like.

Via a post on Bark/Bite, a quote from Jamie Raskin, who is a professor of Constitutional Law at American University:

People place their hand on the Bible and swear to uphold the Constitution. They don't put their hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible.

Kate Steadman blogs at Healthy Policy, and she has an interesting bit up about health care polling based on a piece by Thomas Bodenheimer in Health Affairs:

It's one thing for people to agree that they want universal insurance. It's a whole other side of the beast when you ask how much they would be willing to pay. And herein lies part of would-be reformers' problem. We rely too heavily on polls examining support for universal insurance. Past efforts suffered severely because, though people want universal insurance in theory, they're unsure how much it means to them once it gets complicated.

I think Kate's right about needing to poll on what people are willing to sacrifice for a particular policy, not just whether they like it in the abstract. But candidates aren't usually elected on one specific position or policy idea, divorced from the rest of their positions and their charisma. If they please enough people with a bare mininum number of positions that it takes to get elected, then they're in, and all they have to do is not alienate those people. They don't necessarily have to do every thing that would please their constituents. (Also, I don't know that they take poll results all that seriously when the polling data is shared by people who would make the same proposal even if the polling data didn't favor it.)

After all, if people are really so supportive of universal health insurance, why don't they elect candidates who support that model? I've seen advocacy organizations try to use polls as clubs when dealing with elected officials. "Polls show that our policy is popular, so you politicians should support it to make your constituents happy!" Then the politicians in question don't support it, but they get re-elected anyway. So is there really a price to pay for "going against" your constituents? If not, then why should they listen to the polls?

Activism Blog has posted about a group called Alaska Action that is collecting donations to explain the costs and benefits of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge:

The most money that drilling the Arctic Refuge would ever save American consumers is one penny per gallon, and that would be almost 20 years from now when oil production out of the Refuge would peak.

The average American would save almost six whole dollars in that year! Wouldn’t that be wonderful? And at the low low cost of one of America’s last pristine places. So…lets start drilling!

Call us crazy, but we think that sounds ridiculous. We’re collecting pennies from every person who wants to tell congress that the Refuge is worth more to America in it’s current state.

On the day before the final vote, we’re gonna give those pennies to congress (even if it takes 200 people to carry them all) and send the clear message that we would rather pay our penny now than see oil rigs in the Refuge.

Click on over to their page on The Penny and PayPal them some love.

Greg at The Talent Show posted a few days ago about how the words "extremely patriotic" for him had become code for self-righteous nationalism rather than sincere love of country. I got a little freaked out by the strength of my negative reaction just to the word "patriotic," let alone "extremely patriotic." I can't think of the last time I heard anyone I know and like use that word to describe themselves, and I felt...threatened. And slightly morally superior, believing that I must know more about what's really going on than someone who would use that word. Hello, have you checked the papers lately? Have you seen what this country's government is up to? How can you announce you're proud to be one of these people?

Am I just another one of those America-hating liberals?

I don't think so. Like Mike Doughty says, "I love my country so much, like an exasperating friend." We all have friends we love despite the fact that they spend a lot of time screwing up and making life hard for themselves and people around them. These friends have lots of great qualities, and they're full of potential, but every time you hear the phone ring you sigh because you know it's going to be another one of those calls. All you can do is support them and hope they keep growing because you know they have it in them.

We have come so far as a nation since this project began. We do a lot of bad things, but we have come so far. But I spend more time thinking about my exasperation with all the bad choices, self-destructive behaviors, and general stubbornness than I do about the progress. I'm so frustrated that my first reaction when I hear someone say they love America is to freak out, because I know we can do better and I JUST CAN'T UNDERSTAND WHY WE DON'T GO AHEAD AND DO IT!

But there are some truly great things about the people in this country and how we've decided to organize things, and I'm going to try a little harder to remember that next time I hear someone use the word "patriotic."

For example:

• In America, people can throw a pre-election analysis party where guests present information for and against various candidates and propositions without fear of getting arrested.
• American activists in Michigan are getting together, continuing a proud tradition of making noise about injustice.
• Americans stop to help animals even when they're told not to.
• In America, people can go to church and women are allowed to drive. Even though I don't want to do either of those things, I think it would be pretty damn miserable to live somewhere that didn't allow people to make decisions for themselves.

As much as I need to recognize how much work there is left to do and get on with doing some of it, I need to remember how much work has already been done and not take it for granted. I do have something in common with folks who describe themselves as patriotic. I think this country is great for what it is and what it can and will be, and I want to do my part to take care of it.

So America, consider this a love letter. You're damn cool a lot of the time, and I'm lucky to be here. Thanks.

Good Works-PAC is an interesting idea:

A Public Service Campaign engages candidates and their volunteers in public service projects that focus on key issues. Just as college fraternities and sororities take on public service projects to highlight the positive effects of their institutions – often competing to see who can log the most volunteer hours, raise the most money, or donate the most blood – candidates can engage in public service ("good works") projects as well. The more candidates, the more volunteers, the more public good, the more voters and attention drawn to Democratic issues.

GoodWorks-PAC.org identifies and supports Democratic candidates who will run for office using a public service style of campaign. These projects provide hands-on organizational training for the campaigns while highlighting for the public the positive effects of the Democratic Party's vision of governance as investment in civic growth.

They actually encourage multiple Democratic candidates in the primaries in heavily Republican districts. Rather than have those candidates compete with each other, they work together to raise awareness of the Democratic Party. Their website is a little scattered, but to find out more about how it works in practice, check out "Our Candidate Calls For More Competitors" about Joe Otterbein's campaign to defeat Rick Santorum in November 2006.

There's also this funny story from an event they organized in Sunbury, PA for Chris Carney, who is running for Congress against Don Sherwood in PA-10, and Deb Saxton, who is running for City Treasurer of Sunbury:

At the nursing home, one of the staff members said that she was a Republican and hated Democrats. When Andrew informed her that in fact he was there (and he was cleaning a door while they spoke) with his boss, the Democratic Congressional candidate, Chris Carney, she was very impressed. She thought she might be able to vote for somebody who would come and do real work... She then went on to tell Andrew that she had thought we were all there doing community service because we'd been busted for drunk driving or something. Lesson learned! While the basic concept is sound (doing real service work can turn the heads of voters who would otherwise pay no attention), we have to advertise what we're doing for it to be effective! Some traditional political work is necessary for the GoodWorks-PAC method to succeed.

Several months before I went to BlogHer, I had become increasingly uneasy about how the list of blogs I read was basically white. It looked pretty much like my life, in which I interact with very few people of color or people with disabilities.

My new job puts me in a workplace with many more people of color and people with disabilities than I socialize with, but rarely do I interact with many people at work on a personal level. So I see a lot more folks who don't look just like me, which I think is good for me as a daily visual reminder that I am not the only kind of person in the world. However, I don't spend much more time talking in any depth with folks who haven't grown up white and well-off.

Realizing the lack of diversity, I had made a few adjustments to my trusty blog aggregator before the conference, re-adding blogs I read in the past but had wandered away from, checking their blogrolls for additional links. It wasn't a deliberate and well-crafted strategy, but I was trying to pay more attention.

Then I went to BlogHer.