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Gender: female Member Since: June 30, 2006 Last Signed In: November 26, 2009 Profile Views: 9265 Blog Views: 29802 Thankful Jagels Retires The Womans Conference~ 2009 Men Who Stare At Goats Birthday A Counterpoint To The Race Card: Acknowledgement and Healing Chaos:Remember to say I love you. Hubble New Images~ Beautiful ! Western End of Station Fire Under Control Death Panels are Real: So is Everything Else (hummor) July 06 August 06 September 06 October 06 November 06 December 06 January 07 February 07 March 07 April 07 May 07 June 07 July 07 August 07 September 07 October 07 November 07 December 07 January 08 February 08 March 08 April 08 May 08 June 08 July 08 August 08 September 08 October 08 November 08 December 08 January 09 February 09 March 09 April 09 May 09 June 09 July 09 August 09 September 09 October 09 November 09 "Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats." Diane Arbus My life seems to operate sideways~ backwards almost~ and I have come to see thats right for me. A rain of snakes,disruption that cause's growth ,the world split in two.Everyone has there own path,mine has been one of thought,mostly of things folks today seem to disregard. Truth, personal integrity,politeness,...not all eschew these things.For me its been the easiest way to be~ any other way leads me to more trouble..and a sense of humor,above all about myself. Laughter keeps a person sane,and I enjoy seeing the coyote in myself~ the eternal trickster 
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It's good to be able to relate to others( For Audrey)
By LEONARD PITTS JR.A few words about identity politics. That's the knock on Sonia Sotomayor, who was nominated to the Supreme Court last week by President Obama. If confirmed, Sotomayor, who is Puerto Rican, will be the first Hispanic to sit on the nation's highest tribunal. That has traumatized some titans of the right. George Will, for instance, complains that ''she embraces identity politics, including the idea of categorical representation: A person is what his or her race, ethnicity, gender or sexual preference is, and members of a particular category can be represented, understood, empathized with only by persons of the same identity.'' Some go further, alleging that Sotomayor's ethnicity carried greater weight with Obama than her qualifications. That argument would be a lot more persuasive if the right (Will, to his credit, was the exception that proved the rule) had raised it when John McCain chose Sarah Palin as his running mate on the basis of her chromosomal makeup. Sotomayor, at least, has the aforementioned qualifications. Palin, not so much. Point being, so-called ''identity politics'' are practiced at both ends of the political spectrum. And I'm not at all convinced that's a bad thing -- particularly where the high court is concerned. I intend no endorsement of Sotomayor. Let's wait and see how she does before the Senate Judiciary Committee. I'm particularly interested in hearing how she explains her quoted remark that ''a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience'' will usually have better judgment than ''a white man who hasn't lived that life.'' Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich have thundered with simulated indignation that the comment makes her a racist. It sounds more like attempted irreverence fallen flat, but she needs to address it. Assuming she ascends to the court, Sotomayor will be the 113th person to do so. Of her 112 predecessors, 108 have been white men. Folks who profess concern about identity politics would do well to keep those numbers in mind, illustrating as they do that race and gender have never previously been absent from decisions about who sits on the court. That a point so blazingly obvious even needs making speaks to the myopia afflicting many white people when the subject is race (and men when the subject is gender). It is a stark illustration of white and male privilege: in this case, the privilege of questioning the role someone's identity plays in their promotion only when that identity diverges from the perceived norm, i.e., yours. Contrary to what some would argue, it is a net good when the panel whose decisions shape the nation looks something like the nation. Contrary to what they'd have us believe, legal judgment is not simply a matter of quoting precedent and applying logic. It is also a matter of interpretation, and interpretation is shaped by who you are and what you've known. If precedent and logic alone were definitive, the court could not have decided, for instance, to endorse segregation in 1896 in clear violation of the 14th Amendment. But because of who they were and what they had known, that panel of white men somehow interpreted the amendment as allowing Jim Crow -- a tragic travesty that stood for 58 years. Would the court have been well-served in 1896 had someone likely to be affected by the ruling been there to offer a counterbalancing interpretation? If the court is debating an issue of importance to women, is not the quality of its deliberation improved if someone in the room is in possession of a uterus? Yes, emphatically, to both. Ensuring the presence of diverse people in the deliberation chamber betrays no American principles. Rather, it affirms a core American promise: Liberty and justice. For all.
9 comments from 5 users
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posted by
dirtyshirt
on Jun 10, 2009 at 12:27 PM
sage: a plant used by high desert native americans for ritual; noted for it's cleansing scent, which accounts for it's use in eliminating odors and in cooking savory dishes. This post is very sagey! posted by
sagefever
on Jun 10, 2009 at 12:41 PM
DS~ all true about sage, a great and useful herb. This post was really something Audrey would have posted~ written by the brilliant Mr.Pitts. I just saw it and was moved to share it with my community. posted by
sagefever
on Jun 10, 2009 at 02:01 PM
To be clear~ Audrey is fine! The room their PC is in is getting a remodel~ so watch these blogs for the return of our dear Audrey! posted by
CatherineBaker
on Jun 10, 2009 at 02:16 PM
Hey Sage--that's nice! Yeah, Mom loves Leonard Pitts, as do I--that man is a wise soul. Mom's having her floors redone, so the majority of her furniture (including her computer desk) have been moving from room to room for over a week. The tilers chase her furniture around, ripping out the old floor, putting in the new floor, and some of her furniture she's even had to put outside. I'm heading over there right now (my dryer's broken, laundry piling up) so I'll let her know about your blog. Love LOVE Love, Cat XXXXX posted by
sagefever
on Jun 10, 2009 at 02:41 PM
Well wish her well from us all! I *hate * having a house in uproar....but new floors would be worth it! posted by
Shwaine
on Jun 10, 2009 at 09:16 PM
I can't imagine the hassle of putting down new floors once already moved in. My house took so long to close that I ended up paying for another month rent at my old apartment a week before closing. That left me with a 3 week leeway before I needed to be out of the apartment, so I had the flooring guys do everything they needed to do then. It also gave me time to do some painting and other repairs before having to move in. That's probably the wisest thing I did with my move. Now if only I had been wise enough to have waited a year or two to buy. posted by
adampayne
on Jun 11, 2009 at 07:24 AM
Thanks for the post, Sage! I just do not understand any of the rhetoric coming from the right these days. The language would have you believe the communist secret police are out pulling all conservatives from their homes and shaking them down for their last gold filling to enrich welfare queens who shelter illegal aliens in their neighborhoods. Hysteria breeds a strange batch of bonkers.
posted by
CatherineBaker
on Jun 11, 2009 at 07:43 AM
Hey Sage--I told Mom yesterday that you posted a column by Leonard Pitts for her. She was flattered. She said she's starting to go a little crazy without her computer. It's been over a week since she's been able to get on her computer, and she's practically itching to get on it again. Sadly, it will be at least until the weekend before she can do that. It was funny yesterday--her house is in total uproar. Her refrigerator is plugged into an outlet on her back patio. She has stacks of laundry on her patio table, and they've been eating fast food for days because the kitchen is off-limits. They're worried because today is the day is the day the tilers are doing the spare bathroom, which means they will be without a shower for two days, and they'll have to use my Dad's bathroom (and no one wants to do that.) Ugh. Shwaine--My Mom decided it was time for a complete flooring overhaul because her carpet was realy old and had been trampled (and barfed on) by cats lo these many years. She's had her carpet cleaned on a regular basis, but still.... She's excited about the tile because there'll be no more cat funk. Still, yesterday was really nice and beautiful. I picked up Chinese food and we ate it al fresco on a patio table under her gorgeous tree in the back yard. Mom said to tell you guys she'll be back on the blogs as soon as she can. : ) posted by
Shwaine
on Jun 11, 2009 at 01:23 PM
Get a good grout brush for her... because cat barf in grout is almost as annoying as cat barf in carpet, heh. My whole house is now vinyl, hardwood and tile. I hate when the cats seem to aim for the grout between tiles. If you look closely, you'll see there's a few places where the grout got stained and no amount of scrubbing got it back to its original off-white color. The vinyl is the easiest to clean because I got the high-end Armstrong stuff with a stain protecting coating. I love the stuff. So easy to clean. Kind of wish I'd had the whole house done in it (would have been cheaper too).
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