>>State Rep. Brad Sherman (R, duh) sponsored both measures, but said they don’t mean queer people can’t believe in marriage. “If they want to call their relationship a marriage, they are free to do so; that is freedom,” Sherman told NBC News via email. “But, by the same token, people who do not define same-sex unions…

OK. In terms of a “solution” to the problem of people who want children but can’t or won’t carry a pregnancy to term themselves, one that carries zero risk of any degree of coercion or exploitation to the person who does carry the pregnancy (or to the child or anyone else), I don’t believe there is one. Perhaps if we…

The fakeness is creepy. Like, I'm not a purist about these things; if you've got a plausible fake set that keeps me guessing, more power to ya. But these just really gross me out.

But I bet when your cat does it, it's cute. 

I wasn’t proposing a solution; I was merely pointing out that yours wasn’t one. Would you like my thoughts on the subject? Warning: it's not going to be as simple as "just adopt!"

Uh, no, actually. Found with 30 seconds of Googling:

I assure you adoption can be plenty exploitative.

I push them up on my head, forget they’re there, then lean back or bend over and send them clattering to the floor. They’re usually fine, the cheap ones I buy, but I’m convinced I’d shatter the first pair I paid over $20 for within 24 hours of purchase.

Now there's a thought that actually puts the fear of God into this cynical atheist. Who needs foxholes?

I remain shocked by the multifaceted stupidity of the whole thing, though I concede I shouldn’t be the least bit surprised. I mean, how do you look upon that face and not conclude she looks more like a Disney Princess than any other real-life human who has ever existed? How do you argue with a straight face that…

It’s not only the Republican party that relies on older voters. Across the political spectrum, there’s a direct correlation between age and likelihood to vote. Young adults often don’t vote at all, or only in presidential elections; the retired show up for even the special election in April that’s just to modify the…

I’m starting to think she's not only lying about being pressured, she's probably lying about not taking it. Guess we'll find out in a few weeks when she suddenly drops 20 lbs due to clean living and prayer. 

It’s rare for the court to terminate parental rights at all. It’s even less common for the court to terminate the rights of just one parent, unless there’s another prospective adoptive parent waiting in the wings. When it happens, it’s usually because one parent has abandoned the child, and the other parent now has a…

In California (where I live and know the laws), you can only challenge the legal paternity of the mother’s husband until the child is 2. It sounds like that’s also the case in Oklahoma, based on this quote:

See, that’s the thing, though. It turns out abortion is more popular than they (or to be honest, I) ever realized. So I think "abortion pills" *is* good branding. Nobody really likes menstruating anyway. 

Same, and I find myself having this reaction a lot lately. I kinda dare to hope that, in spite of everything, the kids really are all right these days, and I can't wait till they're in charge. 

We have great data on how many trans kids denied treatment die by suicide. So the worst- case scenario would be that gender-affirming healthcare turns out to be a tradeoff like chemotherapy or organ transplants, where you may have some small number of adverse outcomes among all the lives you save. Nobody says “let’s…

Santos reminds me of that riddle about the island where natives always lie and visitors always tell the truth. You can reliably discern the truth just by assuming it's the opposite of whatever he says.

You’re absolutely right. Can you tell I started slutting around before Facebook even existed, and stopped by the time we all had it instantly accessible at all times on our phones? ;-)

I see a big difference between not wanting to do sex scenes that feel unsafe or exploitative, and not wanting to do sex scenes at all because you’re married. In the latter case, obviously it’s still your decision, but if you take on a role where you know that’s going to be a thing, and then you object once it's too…