The heteronormative cell phone.

"[I]t is expected that a child will have a mother and a father involved in their life. That this is 'normal' will be reflected back at that child again and again, whether or not it reflects their reality."

For the mixed-up annals of gay rights.

"The Irish Supreme Court has ruled that a gay man who donated his sperm to a lesbian couple should be permitted to see his 3-year-old son regularly — in part because Ireland's constitution doesn't recognize the lesbians as a valid family unit."

UPDATE: Details here:

The case arose out of a situation where the lesbian couple, who were in a long-term committed relationship, decided they wanted to have a child with the aid of a sperm donor. They decided it would be better for the child if the sperm donor was known to them and the child, and had a relationship with the child, who would know this was his or her biological father.

They drew up an agreement with the father, in this case specifying the nature of the relationship between him and the child, including the fact that the couple would parent the child, while he would occupy the role of “favourite uncle”. He would have no financial or other obligations towards the child, and his contact with the child would be by agreement with the couple.

When the child, a boy, was born, the father wanted more involvement than the couple felt appropriate and after a number of fraught meetings, relations between the father and the couple broke down.

They decided to visit Australia for a year and he took legal proceedings to prevent this, along with proceedings seeking guardianship and access to the child. He lost in the High Court and appealed to the Supreme Court, where he won the right of access, though not guardianship.

David Letterman apologizing now for censoring Bill Hicks back in 1993.

Here's a piece about it:

On Friday, Letterman brought in comedian Bill Hicks's mother to apologize to her personally for having, in 1993, cut what would have been Hicks's final appearance (his 12th) on the talk show.

Hicks died several months later of pancreatic cancer....

When Hicks was performing in the early 1990s, freedom of speech, among the pundits and the public, was under constant attack....

Hicks, who knew he was dying of cancer at the time, was heartbroken, as was his family, though he blamed the USA, “The United States of Advertisers.”

So Letterman making up with Mary Hicks now was both poignant and depressing, and this mood was palpably felt: The sketch did not get big laughs....

Here's the video of Letterman explaining what he's going to do, then apologizing to Hicks's mother. And here's the censored performance from 16 years ago — and you really can see why it was censored:



At the end of that, we see Letterman groveling before Hicks's mother. "What was the matter with me?... It says more about me as a guy than it says about me Bill, because there was absolutely nothing wrong with that." Yes, but there was something wrong with it. It encourages the assassination of specific celebrities (particularly Billy Ray Cyrus). There's other material that could be viewed as homophobic and it is hateful toward pro-lifers and mildly blasphemous about Jesus, but I think the real problem was the creepy encouragement of violence (quite aside from whether it might actually have inspired murder).

Is there some reason why Letterman is now making his amends? If the pain he caused Hicks and his mom is something that gnawed at him all these years, why do something about it now? Does Letterman or someone he loves have cancer? Or does Letterman suddenly have a newfound hate for Billy Ray Cyrus?

IN THE COMMENTS: Diamondhead said:

Bill Hicks was "heartbroken" because the full sting of his comedy wasn't felt by his intended targets? That's funnier than anything in his routine.