aag

You may want to get that statement on video tape and written in blood. :)

wooohoooo!!!! May I be the first to comment– I am proud of you and me and the millions of other Americans that helped Barack Obama become our next President of the United States!!!

I’m very happy for all Americans this morrning. Congrats :)

I’ve heard the baby killing statement from a number of people. I think the fact that so many people base their vote around this one issue is a big part of why this country is where it is right now.

We did it.

I’m still in tears … of joy and relief.

Free at last, free at last……

Now if Cali can kill this Prop 8 crap, my night will be done….

When having a similar discussion about sex and babies with one of my kids, he concluded he would rather adopt.

I’m proud of not only those people who voted for Obama, but ALSO for those who voted McCain. And Nader. And any write-ins someone may have pulled out of their ass.

I’m proud of all those people for voting. No matter what those votes were based on, they took an hour out of their life to try to shape their country in the way they thought best.

It’s amazing. I live on a college campus and so many of my classmates, who voted in their first election this year, are STILL (at 3am) cheering and dancing and celebrating in the streets. Even the McCain supporters are celebrating with the Obama-nians, because they believe in the voting system, and that even if they didn’t get their way, America has chosen.

I don’t care which way people chose to vote in this election. I’m proud of them for caring enough about something, anything, to get out and vote.

absolutely ecstatic. and so glad people got out to vote, especially you, AAG :) I dropped off my absentee ballot nextdoor this morning.

It’s a good night, at least IMHO.

Congratulations on your new president. You’ve made a bold and forward -looking choice.

I’ve been cheering along with you on the other side of the pond… It is a breath of fresh air for the whole world. At last an ADULT at the white house !

About the abortion thing. Women have always sought abortion throughout history, throughout the world whatever their class, whatever their religion. There are ancient Egyption texts describing how to avoid or terminate pregnancy.

The man who brought the law to the floor of the British parliament is a practicing convinced Christian who does not himself favour abortion. He did it not because he wanted to kill babies but because he wanted to stop desperate women having to go for clandestine operations that, as often as not resulted in severe illness, mutilation or death. Rather than knitting needles and gin he wanted those women to have clean sterile conditions evn though he disagreed profoundly with their decision.

This I think is real christianity : the understanding that most people act, not from pure malice, but because situations arise that push them in certain directions and the charity to ensure that their suffering should be at a minimum.

No woman that I know that has had an abortion has done it lightly or with any sense of pleasure.

The best way to stop abortion is education. As you demonstrate is at best a haphazard affair - the thing is small people seem to go, overnight from being disgusted with the idea to being wildly enthusiastic about sex. But education is the key not bible-belt hypocrisy.

It’s a good day for the world, it seems to me. Let’s hope that Obama can hit the road running in a way that exposes the lies of his desperate opponents and demonstrates that there genuinely good times ahead.

Let’s hope that our new president will put to rest all the ignorant, uninformed rumors about him.

I’d definitely get that in writing, aag.

Great job handling that “teachable moment,” aag. These things seem to arise when you least expect them and, as in this case, in ways that we might not expect.

Also, great job for not condemning the neighbor kid. I hope that what he told your daughter was just his own grade-school level interpretation of what he had heard in his home, his church or on the playground with other kids. But I’m not convinced that is the case.

If all sides in this fractured nation could engage in reasoned discussion instead of spouting boiled-down, dumbed-down “sound bites” we’d all be better off. I believe its a chicken-and-egg problem, with the leaders, their minions and the media feeding us such sound bites, most people eating it up, and too few willing to spend the time and the mental energy necessary to research, contemplate and reach a reasoned decision.

No matter how we voted, my philosophy is that we should all now rally behind Obama and do what we can to help ensure that he becomes our nation’s greatest and most revered president of all time, that the new congress achieves great things and that every issue that was voted on, no matter how it came out, helps to move this society forward to better things.

Yikes. I’ll get off my soapbox now.

Crap! I wonder if it was some sort of underhanded, grassroots campaign against Obama - My 9yo son was vociferously pro-Obama, until suddenly one day, he equally vehemently anti-Obama. When I questioned his curious change of mind, he told me that he’d heard that Obama wanted to kill babies.

Geez.

The air of optimism wrought by the results of this election - it’s amazing. Hope, it’s a beautiful thing.

The whole “Obama wants to kill babies” thing makes me sick, and the fact that people are taking ONE comment he made out of context is horrifying. Way to go on that teachable moment, though. I had a similar one with my 6 year old who was holding that horrid “Yes on 102″ flier and asked what it meant (after by the way sounding out the “yes on 102″ part) So I had to explain to her about being in love and getting married and marriage being about love regardless of gender….

Election results notwithstanding, you did a fabulous job educating your daughter on a very difficult and touchy subject. I’ve been amazed at your ability to find just the right words to answer your child’s questions truthfully and accurately, yet still preserving her childhood innocence.

Brava!

Yikes, schools are a hairy battleground…

Love this…. I had a buddy who’s daughter came home from school and said the teacher told them that if they could vote they would have to vote for Obama b/c he’s the best. He went to the school the next day and chewed the principles ass for being a liberal idiot and brain washing his child!

I want to concentrate less on Obama being the first Afro-American president and more on his being the first president raised by a single mother with no father in sight. That means that even I could be president. Ok, there’s the whole Harvard education and being brilliant thing, but it could happen! I was in tears when Brian Williams announced that there would be “little feet in the White House next year.” I was just damn glad it wasn’t going to be the little feet of Palin’s illegitimate grandchild!

Sometimes the facts ‘o life includes the not so pretty side, but while you scramble for the right words, you always do a great job.

When one of my Republican friends (yes, I have some) asked if I was gloating, I said, “I am not gloating. I am, however, rejoicing. But now we have work to do.” O happy day!

In 1992, I was eight years old and our school held its own mock election. Who did I (and we) vote for? Overwhelmingly Bush. Why? Because our parents did. I lived in a Southern State, and it’s inconceivable for a Democrat to be an acceptable candidate, esp. after the Johnson administration (when anti-Civil Rights Dems switched to Reps). Issues don’t matter–for the most part, they are invented later, such as “killing babies” and “traditional family.”

The Republican party is a lost cause. It’s like their whole purpose is to get elected, no matter what they must say, what sort of slavering masses they must mobilize to achieve this goal. Rational conservatives, friends of mine, are marginalized in the “conservative” party, and libertarians like myself, who once found a niche with the Reps… well, I’ll put it this way: I sided with Obama, and am I proud of it.

For the first time in my voting life (starting in ‘00), the election wasn’t in doubt, a razor-shave of hanging chads and Supreme Court rulings. I look forward to finding out what happens, and know it’s got to be better.

As a Libertarian, I already knew that my candidate wasn’t going to win. But it’s important for me to vote anyway, just so that I could say (as I have for the past 20 years) “It isn’t MY fault; I didn’t vote for EITHER of these jackasses.”

And so it is, this year; I could not in good conscience support either McCain or Obama. I’m not in general religious, but over the past couple of decades I have come to the conclusion that if God had wanted us to have elections, He would have given us CANDIDATES!

Congrats AAG! As a Brit working in the U.S. for the past couple of years I have found your politics quite amusing. Reguardless of who you supported, I still don’t see a difference between one millionaire senator and the other. I do commend you on doing your civic duty. Thank God for my Queen. I hope that supporters of both parties get what they want, and not what they deserve.

My seven-year-old niece also told me that she’s never going to shave her legs. “You might change your mind about that when you get older,” was my response.

Since I’d just finished explaining how an epilator had caused the chronic spots on my legs, she might have been slightly biased.

Given some of your previous blog posts, I’m guessing that you will actually celebrate your progeny’s sexual exploration — provided, of course, that they remember all those lovely lessons about self-esteem and self-care. And contraception!

The people deserve what they want. If they are shortsighted or duped, they have had rights reduced & fortunes decline in rough proportion the ascendecy of the power & influence of the large Corporations who have thoroughly rigged the system. It is unevolved to be contemptuous of folks for not having the correct, or your personal, vision.

And Obama has gone a long way towards improving the tenor of the debate, both in his conduct, & defeating the lowest ad hominum attacks & rumors. Though he has compromised so many core progressive principles, like FISA, & esp. the promise on campaign finance reform, that in a safe state I could not vote for him. Nadar’s site makes clear how both candidates are on the same side, will not even consider, many key issues that would restructure things towards individual & worker rights, & curtail the abuse of Gov. (& rape of the Constitution).

But that teacher WAS very wrong. No authority figure should tell kids who is the best candidate & what they “have to”, or even should do-kids tend to jus’ copy their folk’s politics anyway, & should have their critical thinking encouraged. It is unprofessional to program children to believe something, even w/the best intentions.

The old saying of be careful what you wish for - you just might get it has come to pass.

http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=215103 - Teacher gives child a hard time for their choice of candidates.

still smiling
still floating
we’ve taken back our country
the future’s looking brighter
they’ve already gotten to work
and we WILL take back our bodies.

still smiling
still floating
we’ve taken back our country
the future’s looking brighter
they’ve already gotten to work
and we WILL take back our bodies.

I’ve always gotten mine back in the past. Perhaps you need to stop letting them keep yours. It’s the law - for now… just kidding. :—)