But, you know, he promised equal rights for gays to us that day and then turned around and made the whole "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" thing happen when he was elected.

I don't by any means think DADT was a fantastic idea -- but I think it played out much worse than its proponents intended.

The definition of "tell" being expanded into freakin' witch hunts was very different than the initial WASP-esque notion of "we just don't bring it up and everybody is fine."

Anyone watching the African American Lives with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. on PBS?

I saw it! Really interesting stuff (I missed the show the first time around, and now wish I hadn't).

I loved Morgan Freeman's family story. When Gates asked him about his great-grandfather, Albert Carr, MF fully acknowledged that he was an ancestor, even though he was white and there were suppositions that he had taken sexual advantage of Ceely, who was a slave at the time. Well, after digging around in census reports and land sales documents, Gates found that Albert had been an employee of Ceely's owner and had 8 children with her, and even after emancipation, she stayed with him and moved to another location with him and their children. Then, Albert had sold some land to some of their sons, which was the only way he could provide for the kids and Ceely by Mississippi law (illegitimate children could not inherit at the time). Gates and his researchers then went to that land and found the gravestones for the children and Ceely and Albert, buried next to each other and Ceely's with the last name of "Carr," even though she was never married to Albert. When Gates told Freeman that the two of them had remained together for over 35 years, he teared up.

You don't get the rebate if you make more than $75K as an individual or $150K as a married couple. Of course, I wonder if that's based on last year's income, or what...I'm all "I'm unemployed! I could use a rebate!"

I remember her poem, and the way she looked over the crowd and smiled so warmly on the last line. I don't remember it exactly, but it ended with "good morning"

Hmm. I thought I had a 3:30 meeting people were calling me for.

So what are people doing this weekend?

(I know it was asked yesterday, but it could have changed, or something.)

Sleeping. Ooh, and catching up on my Dr. Who. And probably glutting myself on L&O:CI, as well, because I just can't keep my eyes off D'Onofrio! Donofrio?

Going climbing in Joshua Tree. So there will be two whole days wherein I don't take 27 thousand pictures of some little dude, shown here, practicing his public transit riding.

apparently [Obama]'s really skinny

Male model!! ...Probably two decades too old.

The thing about that $600 is, it's like not withholding enough money, except when you really do that they do penalties and charge you interest (and yet, you're never allowed to charge the federal government interest when the withholding is too much). So really, it's a question of who gets to make interest on that $600: you or the federal government.

For all values of 1% interest accruing over half a year, so it's $3 more or less we're talking about.

My knee's been bugging the hell out of me (all that walking on uneven ice/slush?) so I think I'll try to stay off my feet the whole weekend.