Stone Court

Look who's visiting!

(More Friday animals at Friday Ark.)

OK. In principle, there are two sides to every story. But, honestly, how can House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi not be right in demanding that Representative William Jefferson (D-LA) step down from the Ways and Means Committee when he was videotaped taking a $100,000 bribe and most of the cash was found in his freezer?

Yet the Congressional Black Caucus "produced an emotional consensus that Pelosi had overreached, since Jefferson has not been charged with any crimes".

Give me a break. Jefferson has a right to his day in court, but he does not have a right to represent Democrats on one of the House's most important committees. We rightly complained when the GOP kept Tom DeLay in place, arguing that he hadn't yet been indicted.

The public is fed up with the GOP's culture of corruption. Now is not the time to act as if we are no better than they are.

Hugo has a lengthy post up on "the thorny discussion of whether or not a real feminist can take her husband's last name when she marries"?, a subject Hugo admits is highly personal for him because his current wife had adopted his last name.

I'll be honest. My initial, gut reaction to was to answer Hugo's question with a firm negative. That may be unfair -- people come to marriage from all kinds of backgrounds and in all kinds of circumstances, and anyway who am I to say who is and is not a "real feminist"? -- but it was nonetheless my reaction. Rather than explore that reaction right now, I'd like to add a wrinkle:

Earlier this week, I received a note from an old acquaintance. She mentioned that she (or, rather, her same sex partner) had had a baby. She signed the note with a new last name, which was also the last name of the baby. (I don't know if she adopted her partner's last name or if they made a new one together.)

It struck me that, while all things being equal a woman's adopting her male partner's name might not be a feminist decision, her adopting her female partner's name might indeed be one, as it is an emphatic rejection of the irrational legal prohibition against same-sex marriage. I admit that I felt some discomfort with my acquaintance's decision, as I strongly believe that one can be fully committed to a marriage while at the same time mainatining one's own identity. At the same time, I recognize that my reaction was, to an extent, one of heterosexual privilege -- because we are in a heterosexual relationship, Mary and I have been free to keep our own last names without anyone (or almost anyone) questioning whether we are really married.

Something to think about....

Power Line (via Tennessee Guerilla Women):

I rode home from the airport in a taxi a few minutes ago. My driver, as is almost always the case in Minnesota, was an African immigrant. No sooner had I gotten into the cab than he began talking about the speech and railing against Bush on the theory that the President is anti-immigrant. I patiently tried to explain that President Bush is in trouble because he is not just pro-immigrant, but pro-illegal immigrant. I explained that he has argued for a guest worker program and a path to citizenship, and has said repeatedly that it would be impossible to deport all the illegals.

My cab driver was completely disoriented by this. I could tell he didn't believe it. Like nearly all African cab drivers, he listens to public radio all day long. Twenty minutes with me wasn't enough to overcome years of liberal indoctrination. He simply wasn't able to absorb the idea that President Bush might not be a racist who hates immigrants. I'm sure he'd forgotten everything I said by the time he left my driveway. (Emphasis added.)

Why do I suspect Hinderaker is a fan of Kipling?

Take up the White Man's burden--
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain
To seek another's profit,
And work another's gain.

Josh Marshall wonders:

The White House is now saying the troops would only be temporary. But temporary until when? I guess just until there aren't any more illegals trying to come across the border from Latin America. [More here.]

The answer -- natch -- is temporary until Bush can outsource another government function, and truckloads of taxpayer money, to his corporate cronies:

The National Guard would be a stopgap force until the federal government could hire civilian contractors to take over administrative and support functions from the Border Patrol, freeing more agents to actually hunt for immigrants slipping into the country.

Via Feministing and Feminist Law Profs, some major league ballplayers will be using pink bats on Mother's Day to raise money to fight breast cancer.

Jessica likes the idea ("Whatever, pink is totally macho."), while Ann Bartow is unimpressed ("But why is swinging a pink bat such a big deal? Is someone afraid that pink bats carry girl germs?").

Apparently, girl germs can in fact be transmitted by dyed lumber. An Indiana minister, who defended Keith Hernandez's sexist rant and whose theology includes such gems as, "I don’t need to be a girlie man to be a godly man" (in a post discussing the “feminization of our boys”), frets, "I can't imagine Joe Dimaggio, Mickey Mantle, Pete Rose, George Brett, Rod Carew, Ryne Sandberg, Ted Williams, Thurman Munson, or Stan the Man EVER using a pink bat".

Others imply that players who use pink bats are gay, with a special interest in the handsome and single Derek Jeter:

SportTech: "A-Rod and Jeter Finally Get There [sic] Day ... Not that there is anything wrong with that." (Graphic: two pink bats next to each other.)

Technosailor: "Oh Barry, You look so Sexy With Your Pink Bat!"

Technosailor (again): "SportTech celebrates A-Rod and Jeter finally getting to couple up. :-)"

Sports. Music. Blog.: "Oh, and Derek Jeter is among the players expected to be swinging the pinkie on Sunday. I don't think that surprises too many folks."

Paul's Poop (possibly ironic): "Players participating include Gay Derek Jeter, Big Papi David Ortiz, Jim Edmonds, Mark Teixeria and Hank Blalock."

Look, Derek Jeter doesn't deserve a Nobel Prize for participating in this promotion, but he is raising money for a good cause and he is striking a small blow against the idea that calling a man feminine is the best way to insult him.