I just want to take few transgendered friends and share a car together.

Who are always ignored in these debates.

Seska, that was a good article you wrote, but yeah, I do regret looking at the comments.

Oh, ugh, Shir. That's completely enraging.

And, yeah, Seska, the CiF comment threads are...not pleasant. I thought your article was great, and then I scrolled down through the first couple dozen comments, trying to formulate a response more complex than, Dear God, you are all brimful of wrong; did any of you actually read the entire article, beginning to end? but thinking about detailed responses just made me want to punch my computer. If I have a sudden attack of coherence and eloquence later in the day, I may try it.

The other day I was fantasizing of telling those people, "You know, Bin Laden wants there to be a religious war between Islam and the West. You're playing right into his hands!"

Playing right into his hands? Pfah. They're actively doing his work for him. He's probably sitting in a cave somewhere writing them thank-you notes for their excellent sleeper agent operation.

All of which I'd be sorely tempted to tell them -- even if they are looking for a religious war, maybe they have just enough shame left to not want to be seen as working for the other guy?

Shir, that is awful. I'm sorry.

One of my nephews is starting kindergarten today and the other is starting high school! I can barely wrap my head around it. I can't wait to seem them at T's wedding in October.

My oldest niece and nephew (they're twins) start Driver's Ed in a few weeks. My brother and sister-in-law are a little freaked....

edit nice/niece spelling error thingie....

I taught my first class. Went OK, I guess. Talked too fast, as usual.

Now I'm eating lunch. I made a lunch, but then I left it at home, so I went to the student center to get lunch. I've got a salad, but the only vegan dressings were the fat-free ones, so I went with fat-free French, which seemed the least ick, but it tastes like ketchup. Also, way too many people on those food lines. I am not forgetting my lunch again.

My nieces are still very little. But I admit to being freaked out every time the oldest one (aged three) starts initiating philosophical or theological debates with me. "Auntie Nay, do you think God made the moon?" *Cue Auntie Nay spitting out her coffee in surprise*

JZ, thanks, but don't worry about commenting. A friend of a friend has waded in there and is doing good work telling them to stop being such illiterate wankers, anyway, which is making me feel better!

My nephew is 16 (which I can't believe) but he's decided not to bother with getting his license right now as he can get everywhere he wants by bike and/or public transit. The kid know a lot about the bus system where he lives, it's pretty cool.

I'm just going to pretend that they still look like this: link

It's that time again! You know the time. Skip if you've reached your eye-rolling quota for the day already.

SCENE ONE

I finally called home for the first time since The News broke a few days ago; my dad called and my mom texted me to tell me my sister had gotten her wisdom teeth out (which I knew from Facebook already), so that was my excuse. The main topic of conversation, however, was the trip to India. My mom had logged into my Delta account and seen how many frequent flier miles I had, saying it was almost enough for a free ticket to India. A) No, not even close. B) THAT MAKES ME TWITCHY AND I AM CHANGING MY PIN ASAP.

She kept asking me to check with my work to get time off for December, and I told her that we had important documents to file by the end of the year, so I couldn't go, but she didn't think I could possibly be important enough that I couldn't leave for a couple weeks. "You don't want to go to India with me?" she said in an exaggeratedly sad wah-wah voice. I said nothing.

The only reference to Recent Events was this priceless line: "I'm already disappointed in one son; I don't want to be disappointed in the other."

To which my response was: "You've been disappointed in me my entire life. I don't think this is anything new."

"I'm not disappointed in you," she said. "I'm just upset that you don't speak to me nicely."

I guess at some point I will have to come straight out and say that no, I have no desire to go to India with them, period, since they aren't buying the work excuse.

SCENE TWO

My brother got The Talk, Take Two, this time with my mom yelling at him and my dad piping up in the background. My brother is far more adept at talking to my parents than I am. Here are some choice exchanges, paraphrased.

"So you're upset that I'm not racist?"
"Yes, I'm upset that you're not racist."

"So you're upset that I'm happy?"
"Yes, I'm upset that you're happy. We told you she has to be Indian."

"What nationality is she?"
"She's half-white, half-Spanish."
[A deathly pause, which my brother interprets correctly.]
"Not MEXICAN. SPANISH. That's EUROPEAN."

They asked what her parents did (mom's a teacher, dad's a project manager at an electric company) and didn't make any comments. My brother said she had no intention of damaging their relationship, and he could hear my dad in the background exclaim, "That's what she's doing, she's damaging our relationship!" But, in true Buffista form, my brother understands that no, they're the ones damaging the relationship.

My mom did her usual thing of crying about how she was a bad mother and she didn't know where she went wrong that her children would do such things, and my brother said that he was not a bad son and he was a good person. She asked why he did this when he knew they didn't like it. He said he hadn't done anything wrong. Aha, she said, then why did he act like he'd gotten caught when she visited the apartment!

Then she wanted him to get her a spare key to his apartment. So she could bring him food. REALLY? said my brother. "And for...the other thing." Because she's a Thing now. My brother said he couldn't do that. My mom said they were paying for the apartment. He said he couldn't give her a key; he knew how she was.

My brother is taking it all fairly well, honestly, way better than I would. He's pretty much letting it all slide off because he knows they don't have a leg to stand on. He forgot to mention that his girlfriend's family welcomed him with open arms, and his race was never brought up, never an issue. They only cared how he treated her. He's looking forward to using that one next time.

According to my sister, my dad was even crying a little. The only time I remember seeing him cry was when his mom died.

SCENE THREE

My mom called this morning and left a voicemail. She just called to say, "I love you."