Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama acknowledged Sunday that he was probably too flip when he said it was "above my pay grade" to answer a question about when is a baby entitled to human rights.

Asked on Sunday whether the "above my pay grade" answer was too flip, Obama said: "Probably. ...What I intended to say is that, as a Christian, I have a lot of humility about understanding when does the soul enter into ... It's a pretty tough question. And so, all I meant to communicate was that I don't presume to be able to answer these kinds of theological questions.”

Interesting. Lots of Republicans seem to think they are fully qualified to answer these types of theological questions.

Found here.

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras (I know too much about how it's made)
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese (I don't even want to think about the texture)
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper (I'm too wimpy)
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal (I'm probably too wimpy, but I won't rule this one out)
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine (never, not for any price)
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads (again, a texture thing)
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis (texture thing)
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette (I don't eat intestines)
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

From The New York Times:

ST. PAUL - A series of disclosures about Gov. Sarah Palin, Senator John McCain’s choice as running mate, called into question on Monday how thoroughly Mr. McCain had examined her background before putting her on the Republican presidential ticket.

On Monday morning, Ms. Palin and her husband, Todd, issued a statement saying that their 17-year-old unmarried daughter, Bristol, was five months pregnant and that she intended to marry the father.

Among other less attention-grabbing news of the day: it was learned that Ms. Palin now has a private lawyer in a legislative ethics investigation in Alaska into whether she abused her power in dismissing the state’s public safety commissioner; that she was a member for two years in the 1990s of the Alaska Independence Party, which has at times sought a vote on whether the state should secede; and that Mr. Palin was arrested 22 years ago on a drunken-driving charge.

Why is her daughter’s pregnancy even on this list? I doubt that Sarah Palin got Bristol pregnant. Whatever your views on pregnancy out of wedlock, is Bristol’s pregnancy really in any way equal to the items in the next paragraph (except for the bit about Mr. Palin drunk driving—again, how exactly does this raise questions about Sarah Palin?)? I wonder if this list was created for the old Sesame Street song/game, One of These Things Is Not Like the Others.

Personally, I find Bristol’s pregnancy interesting because it proves to me that abstinence only education is a failure (I’m assuming—and I could be wrong—that Bristol was raised on abstinence only stuff). But is her pregnancy shocking? Scandalous? Does it raise issues about Sarah Palin that even compare with the ethics investigation or the AIP? Not even close.

I have heard some of the news on this and so let me be as clear as possible. I have said before and I will repeat again, I think people's families are off limits, and people's children are especially off limits. This shouldn't be part of our politics, it has no relevance to governor Palin's performance as a governor or her potential performance as a vice president. And so I would strongly urge people to back off these kinds of stories. You know my mother had me when she was 18. And how family deals with issues and teenage children that shouldn't be the topic of our politics and I hope that anybody who is supporting me understands that is off limits.

The problem with the experience question is that if we really think Obama is qualified to be president—and I have become convinced of that—then “experience” becomes a largely moot point. I don’t think Obama is qualified because of his experience, but much more because of his ability to think critically about important issues and motivate others to think critically and act. Our next president will most likely need to appoint at least one Supreme Court justice and I want someone who is smart, thinks critically, and analyzes both short and long term issues. That has little to do with “experience” and more to do with intellect. In my mind, Palin’s lack of experience is insignificant compared with her reactionary and anti-intellectual stances on issues that are important to me (global climate change, choice, creationism in schools). I shudder to think who a President Palin might appoint to the Supreme Court, and that’s a criticism of her judgment, not her experience.

I predict that Palin will be very popular with some voters and she will bring votes to the Republicans. We have to take that seriously. Refusing to take her seriously doesn’t make her less of a threat. She has huge appeal for conservative women, she’s very popular in Alaska, and the ethics issues she’s dealing with now, including the possibility that her "fifth child" is actually her first grandchild, don’t seem to concern the media. Who’d have thought we should take McCain so seriously when he’s allowed himself to be so strongly identified with Bush, the most unpopular president in modern history? But look—McCain is a serious contender for president. Most polls show him in basically a dead heat with Obama. So failing to take Palin seriously is a serious mistake.

I mean, for Heaven sakes, the people who supported Hillary Clinton are not going to be seduced just because John McCain has picked a woman. They're going to look at what she supports.

The fact that she doesn't even support the notion that climate change is manmade -- she's back there with the Flat Earth Caucus. And I don't see how those women are going to be fooled into believing -- I think it's almost insulting to the Hillary supporters that they believe they would support somebody who is against almost everything that they believe in.

From “Rumors of Our Progress Have Been Greatly Exaggerated” by Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney:

In the mid- to late 1990s, as glossy magazines churned out cheerful stories about flexible, family-friendly workplaces, I wasn’t seeing it. Women kept telling me that their employers were demanding more and more. Working mothers seemed to be having the hardest time. They were being passed over for promotions, marginalized if they asked for a flexible or part-time schedule and fired first in the growing number of downsizings.

The workplace seemed to be placing more and more value on “ideal workers,” a phrase coined by Joan Williams, professor of law and director of the Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco. “Ideal workers” are employees who are unconstrained by outside responsibilities, including family. By definition, mothers suffer the most in the face of the idea worker standard, which negatively judges those who have caregiving responsibilities.

From “Academic Freedom” by Martha McCaughey

Advocating “neutrality” and “balance” in the classroom looks more like a pretext for snuffing out women’s studies [and other programs Phyllis Schlafly and David Horotwitz and their ilk dislike]. [Groups led by Schlafly, Horowitz, et. al.] do not target religious studies programs that teach more courses on Christianity than on other religious traditions. They do not attack petroleum-engineering programs and energy technology courses for not giving enough lessons on biodiesel, wind or solar power.”