A couple of articles today caught my eye--the first, one retailing how cities are passing ordinances and citizens are forming "Bill of Rights" defense committees to protest the Patriot Act as well as current efforts to get a sequel passed or to remove the time limits set on the original Patriot Act (a 342 page act passed one month after September 11, 2001, with little chance for public input). My friends who are librarians have been up in arms--and of course there have been protests around the issue by the Expected Groups.

But what made me happy is the idea of city councils doing this...now, granted, as the article (Dallas Morning News 4-28-93, 15A) makes clear, "Federal law beats local," but STILL. Hawaii is working on passing a state-wide resolution against the act. Rep. Bernard Sanders (I-Vt--YAY Vermont) has "introduced a bill, the "Freedom to Read Protection Act" (H.R. 1157) that would restore the privacy protections for library book borrowers and bookstore purchases. The bill has 73 co-sponsors." Even the Idaho Green Party has begun "the Paul Revere Project" to stop Patriot II (have to give extra cheers here because I was born in Idaho and while I left to NEVER GO BACK in the seventies, I'm glad to see the place has changed).

Second Article: Sex. Well, biology. Well, both. Big long article about new theories about sex in the wild and changes or developments relating to Darwin's theories (my favorite subhead: "Flexible sexes" which isn't actually about bendy hobbits but about species where adults can change gender). Topics covered included: prevalence of homosexual behaviors in a variety of species; female competition with males for other females!; species having sex for fun not just procreation, etc. I want to get one of the books mentioned: Joan Roughgarden (swear that's the name given), Evolution's Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality due from U of California Press 2003. Hey, it might have good ideas for fictions! The article is by a sepcial contributor, Diane Steele, so it might appear elsewhere. But I bet when this scientific approach trickles down to the public school textbook, people are gonna go wild. THere was the culture wars regarding literature/culture in the eighties; there have been similar wars regarding history/social studies in recent years. When the NEW radical approach (changing Darwin who's controversial enough) hits, it should be fun to watch.