As you may know, the chairman of House’s Armed Services Committee (Ike Skelton) said the other day we should keep Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell because repealing it could mean that parents might have awkward moments with their kids when they ask what it means to be gay.

I’ll just ignore all the other issues (Rachel Maddow covers them beautifully in her segment below), and I’ll answer the question posed by Mr. Skelton…

7 years old is the perfect age to discuss what it means to be gay with your kids. Why? Because at that age it’s not about sex - it’s about the relationship. You don’t have to discuss what you might think of as “icky” sexual practices - you can talk about loving relationships which should never be seen as “icky”. If your 7 year old asks if gay couples have kids, explain adoption to them and say gay couples adopt kids that same-sex couples aren’t able to care for. There’s nothing icky in that either…

I can see where the question could be awkward if the kid is 12 or 13, but I don’t see anything awkward about answering the question when the kid is 7.

And now for Rachel Maddow’s take on the issue…

I was watching This Week yesterday and hoped an embeddable version of this clip would be available… It’s absolutely brilliant. You’ve got two top notch conservatives (Matthew Dowd - chief strategist for the ‘04 Bush/Cheney campaign, and conservative commentator George Will) saying that repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is long overdue…

After listening to the intro, skip the discussion of the oil spill by clicking in the area to the right of the pause button and jump to time code 7:23 in the video…

Some of the best lines were Matthew Dowd saying “Republican office holders are so far out of step on this”, “it’s way overdue” (his emphasis). And then George Will saying that for young people “being gay is like being left handed - it’s not really very interesting”. And then he quotes a Supreme Court decision that talks about “the evolving standards of decency that mark a maturing society”. I wonder if he realizes just how damning that phrase is of people who favor “traditional values”. It literally says they’re neither mature nor decent. Then he goes on to say “the case is over” and the Republicans in Congress are “not being very intelligent”.

First there was Laura Bush, now Matthew Dowd and George Will… It’s really refreshing to see Republicans standing up for what’s right. But what took them so long? Democrats figured this out decades ago…

Something like 90% of teabaggers are white and less than 1% are black. I genuinely believe deep down the things that really bothers teabaggers about our country are 1) the government is being led by a black man, and 2) the LGBT community is starting to get civil rights. That just doesn’t fit with their world view where white people should be on top…

The latest evidence of this is Rachel Maddow’s interview last night with Rand Paul - the teabagger who just won the Republican primary for Kentucky’s Senate seat. He said in the interview that he only agrees with 9/10ths of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The 1/10th he doesn’t agree with is the part about private businesses not being allowed to discriminate. So while he feels blacks should be able to sit in the front of the bus, he thinks it should be legal if their refused service for things like getting a meal, or getting a hotel room.

He’s also said he feels the same way about the Americans with Disabilities Act. He thinks the government should be required to put in curb cuts for wheelchairs, but doesn’t think employers should be required to provide things like elevators. In the interview below he said it’s adequate if the employer gives the handicapped person an office on the first floor.

The problem is that this type of thinking extends into current day issues like LGBT rights. He would be OK with employers not hiring gay or transgendered people or gay men showing up at a hotel and being refused a room because they’re gay.

He says it infringes on free speech to require private businesses to serve people they’re not comfortable with. I think the point is people are free to say what they want (as long as they don’t incite violence), but if they don’t want to serve everyone they shouldn’t own a service business.

People like my parents should sit up and think twice ’cause Laura Bush, one of the people they think can do no wrong, just came out clearly for gay marriage and abortion rights last night on Larry King. While she understands where conservatives like her husband are coming from, she’s firm in saying abortion should stay legal and gay marriage is coming - whether conservatives like it or not. But more than that - that gay marriage is the right thing to do - that we deserve the same rights, privileges and duties as straight couples…

She’s now my conservative hero… Can we clone her?

I wonder if she disagrees with George W on drilling in the arctic and offshore?

This is a brilliant video that describes the different accents of New York City. The woman really nails most of them (except Staten Island)… Enjoy…