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It is with tremendous sadness that we must convey the news that Steve Gilliard, editor and publisher of The News Blog, passed away June 2, 2007. He was 42. To those who have come to trust The News Blog and its insightful, brash and unapologetic editorial tone, we have Steve to thank from the bottom of our hearts. Steve helped lead many discussions that mattered to all of us, and he tackled subjects and interest categories where others feared to tread. Please keep Steve's friends and family in your thoughts and prayers. Steve meant so much to us. We will miss him terribly. photo by lindsay beyerstein
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me and your mom and that other speaker of the house It's our day again. Me, I got an omelette and a DVD of Bringing Up Baby and an outrageously over-hand decorated album someone clearly made for a wedding which ended up being sold for less than a dollar at a garage sale mom took the kid to (love to hear that story) full of pictures of our wedding and my parents' that I hadn't gotten around to missing yet. We're ordering in from the sketchy-looking local restaurant which, as it turns out, makes marvellous shanghai-style food, mostly because it fills me with joy to order "Edamame w/Bean Curd Skin & Perservered Vegetable" and it's Mother's day so we'll never, ever get a table (although our favorite red sauce italian restaurant will always seat us without a reservation because we go when it's not a holiday but they don't, to my knowledge, have perservered vegetables). After writing the proclamation, Howe had it translated into many languages and spent the next two years of her life distributing it and speaking to women leaders all over the world. In her book Reminiscences, Howe wrote, "Why do not the mothers of mankind interfere in these matters to prevent the waste of that human life of which they alone bear and know the cost?" She devoted much of the next two years to this cause, and began holding annual "Mother's Day" gatherings in Boston, Massachusetts and elsewhere. "I've always taken great pride in the fact that I was a mom, that this was my life's experience and that it brought something to the table," says the California Democrat, who raised five children before entering electoral politics. "Mother's Day is probably one of the most patriotic days in America, because we're saying to moms that we respect what you have done for your children, we respect what you're doing for the country." Pelosi's emphasis on her maternal qualities is a politically savvy move, softening her image at a time when she's leading her party in a constitutional showdown with President Bush. But it's also culturally significant. The speaker, 67, is of a generation in which many professional women found it prudent to downplay their family commitments. At the pinnacle of her power, Pelosi has showcased hers. She took her oath of office surrounded by her six grandchildren, and, on the spur of the moment, she invited other members' children and grandchildren on hand for Congress' opening ceremonies to join her on the rostrum. "Somebody like me, as speaker of the house, has a responsibility to the younger generation of women to say: Don't think of this as a minus," Pelosi says. "This is a plus, being a mother, having an experience of raising a family." "When my children were small, I barely had time to wash my face," says Pelosi, whose currently elegant mien and attire have generated — to her chagrin — as much ink as her policy positions. She volunteered for the Democratic Party and became California party chair but didn't make her first run for office until her youngest child, Alexandra, was a senior in high school. Pelosi says her children gave her the scheduling discipline it takes to be a successful politician. Meeting their demands taught her to budget her time: "I was raising them, but they were forging me." The comments on that story, by the way, are absolute proof that there are people who will use absolutely anything as an excuse to try and start a flame war (for those of you who have never visited a Usenet parenting forum and still needed proof) |