I See Invisible People chats with her son about why she won't support Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul:

"The conversation got heated when I informed him that I could, under no circumstances, vote for a candidate who was not openly pro-choice. He argued that no president, even in her/his Supreme Court appointments, could have any affect on abortion laws. He held forth that any erosion of rights is the province of the states and that the president and the courts have nothing to do with it. He didn't buy my belief that one of the roles of the Supreme Court is to protect us from the tyranny of the majority. […]"

It's quite a moving post, especially when she talks about how politics affects the lives of real people.

The 38th Carnival of Feminists was published a few days ago at Team Rainbow.

Zuky links to it and comments:

"And it's a colorful one indeed, featuring such brilliant blogmigas as Sylvia, Brownfemipower, Blackamazon, Petit Poussin… women of courageous conviction who have my respect, admiration, and support. In the face of what I consider to be dishonest attacks and dismissals—not just this past week but every week, on an ongoing basis—they have not only kept on fighting; they have kept on teaching."

I often think the burnout rate for activist bloggers must be pretty high; so I bid farewell to Thoughts of an Average Woman. If you want to see some examples of her work, take a look at a couple of her recent posts, "Food Stamp Challenge on the Hill" and "Waning Mammograms".

Melinda Casino also writes at Sour Duck.

"So how does one go about doing this grassroots organizing?

"That's what this carnival is all about. I will be accepting any posts/submissions that have anything to do with organizing on a grassroots level. Some topic ideas that you might feel inclined to think about:

"How do you do radical leftist organizing in the Midwest? How do you confront racism/sexism/disableism/homophobia/classism etc within your group? How do you work with a community instead of on a community? […]"

Submit entries by May 25th via email (sylviasrevenge at gmail dot com) or via the submissions page.

Women's Space/The Margins announces The Carnival of Radical Feminists, the first issue of which has just been published.

From the announcement at Women's Space:

" … our goal will be to foreground posts in the feminist blogosphere which highlight or showcase radical feminist analsis, theorizing, process, events, politics, and ideas, and which celebrate and honor sisterhood as it has been herstorically envisioned by radical feminists.

"We hope the Carnival of Radical Feminists will build the profile of radical feminist bloggers, will direct extra traffic to participating bloggers, and particularly newer radical feminist bloggers, and will build radical feminist community worldwide."

What is a blog carnival?

Well, for starters:

"A carnival is a collection of links, a 'best of' endeavor, published regularly on a blog platform, which usually rotates.

"There is usually a 'carnival organizer,' who oversees the smooth running of the carnival and deals with administrative issues; there are also carnival 'hosts', who volunteer to put together an issue and publish it on an agreed date at their blog."

This is from the introduction to my Carnival Host Notes, which I wrote to share with the community what I learned from hosting the 3rd Carnival of Feminists.

Sour Duck's Carnival Host Notes are split into five parts:

Part I : Introduction
Part II : Technical Notes
Part III : Meta-Issues
Part IV : Reference Links
Part V : Revisions

Carnivals foster a sense of community and are a great way for you to network with other bloggers.

Carnival on!

Melinda Casino also writes at Sour Duck.

Image: Wikipedia

"If for some reason you ever have to vote on allowing your public officials to join My Blog Log, or allowing them to Twitter.

"Please Vote No."

The blogger, Cooper, writing at Wonderland or Not, predicts an increase in legislation governing political officials' use of internet forums, blogs, websites, and other online social media tools.

And because she was a campaign volunteer, she has unique insight into the role of the internet in a politician's career.

Cooper writes from a Maryland perspective, and brings the Maryland Open Meetings Act into her post, "Why you must never allow your public officials to 'Twitter'.".

danah boyd writes about Twitter's bulletin system and a common user complaint is how this bulletin system floods users with unwanted information.

What's another word for unwanted information? Spam:

"It takes a certain kind of personality to think that this kind of spamming is socially appropriate and desirable."

I found boyd's post through Caveat Lector's blog, who airs her thoughts regarding Twitter. Among other things she explores whether this application is informed by traditional gender roles.

She writes that for certain people "Twitter must be a hellpit indeed":

"The problem with Twitter as a tool in the sense that I have outlined is the reciprocity assumption that danah boyd talks about a lot. If there's an implicit obligation for me to friend all my followers (which I have not in fact done), then suddenly the presence information I do want to track is mixed in with a lot that I don't, and utility vanishes into the maw of diminishing returns."

Feminist Theory and the Joy of Science

I want to point readers to a blogging experiment: a class course held online. Suzanne E. Franks is teaching Feminist Theory and the Joy of Science, which is designed for non-scientists and non-engineers. She hasn't had the opportunity to teach this course on campus, so she's teaching it online.

Part of the description of the course:

"This course explores the existence of pleasure, intellectual excitement, and desire as an important component of theorizing and doing science and engineering. We will examine the presence and/or absence of accounts of pleasure/desire in feminist theories of science, and in mainstream science and engineering texts and pedagogy. We will also examine feminist accounts of what might be termed the diversity challenge in engineering, and how feminist theories of science and pleasure can inform this issue. The implications for an adequate feminist theory of science, and for attracting members of underrepresented groups to science and engineering, will be a focus of the course."

You can read the complete syllabus at Franks' previous blog site; for more about the online course, see her introductory post at her current blog home.

Here are some recent posts in the series:

• Experiences of International Women: "Time and again I encountered this notion that when we are counting women students, only U.S. women students count."
• Passionate Reason and Pseudo-Passion: "Why might women want to become scientists or engineers? Do their motivations and interest differ from that of men? If so, is the difference in intensity or in kind?"
• Emasculating Men: Women's Access to Science: "The most commonly cited concern of these women, mentioned by nearly every single one of them, even those who did not self-identify as feminists, was access and equity for women in science."

It's not too late to join the discussions at her blog, Thus Spake Zuska. You can catch up by reading posts from the archives.