Mother-in-law in the White House?

Speaking of Ernie K. Doe, we may need some serious Senate-confirmation hearings, in the event the President-elect's wifey-mama bears out the lyrics from his "Mother-in-Law":

I come home with my pay
She asks me what I made
She thinks her advice is the constitution

D'oe! - Homer J. Simpson.

President Obabymama, meet Ralph Kramden and Fred Flintstone - and try to hide your smile every time you see her pack her suitcase...

Joking aside, I think it's a wonderful thing that the Obama daughters will their grandmother at hand.

My comment on the Neuhaus thread where I criticized you, rationally and without slander or personal meanness, disappeared into cyberspace without comment. I continued to check back to see if any of my comments or those from others who thought you did wrong there would persuade you of your error -- instead it seems to have persuaded you to delete posts and shut down threads.

Will this one disappear also if I say including this picture is not funny but blatantly racist? I'm hard to offend with off-color humor, but this is both bigoted and humourless. I mean, could there be an easier shot than a Jeffersons reference?

I'm in two minds here--on the one hand, Insane Kitten is right and we could use a little levity around here. On the other hand, how does a culture where contempt and dislike for the wife's mother is a given fit with the oft-stated crunchy ideal of extended families working together? Suppose Rod and Julie needed a helping hand, and Julie's mom (assuming she is living, which maybe she's not) came to stay for awhile--would he then reward her care by making fun of her and comparing her to Mother Jefferson? Speaking as a grandmother and mother-in-law, I would hope not!

I can't think of a better thing he could have done to make certain that his children - who are very close to their grandmother - have a degree of continuity in their lives.

I don't expect much levity, given that most of the topics Rod tackles involve human status for people who differ from the conservative norm.

But Rod does have a sense of humor and it doesn't hurt to see it come t the fore every so often.

My mother likes my partner, thank goodness. She doesn't like my brother's choice and, believe me, every mother-in-law stereotype in the book gets played out at our house, right down to his name on the list of who gets the Waterford...

Mother's want the best for the children and anyone who hurts them is in for a nasty time of it. Fathers-in-law get the role of being the nice guy and grandpa, women, as usual, end up with the responsibility.

Glad to see the president-elect disavowing the nuclear family model.

Lisa,
I can't know, of course, but Rod and Erin both suffer me to post many, many things which not only disagree with them philosophically, but also, on occasion, rationally.

If Erin, who is as far away from me on just about every single possible issue as two intelligent, sane people can get and still have a dialog doesn't edit me, I can't imagine you suffering the dreaded censor.

Here's a list of what does happen to my posts, and the work-arounds I've found. Maybe this will help.

One - the stupid 'gotcha!' still doesn't work about one-quarter of the time. I have even taken to making screen shots and asking other people what they 'see'. We all agree, but the interface, which decides, does not. Solution: First, I complain about it to Rod, Tony and Steven constantly. Second, I make a copy of my post before hitting 'post'. Third, I stick around to see if the nasty thing has actually worked or not - sometimes it chews on your gotcha! just long enough to make you think it worked, only to fool you.

Two - the 'your comment will not be lost' or however that message is worded is false witness. That horrid thing gets stuck on previous posts, parts of previous posts, elements of other text from completely different programs...and, best of all, previous versions of the current text I am attempting to post. This is also a reason to make a copy and check. Thinking and posting in two different languages at once, my work always needs editing to be (hopefully!) understandable.

Three - if you even look cross-eyed at your browser while it is checking the gotcha! and uploading your posted text, you lose it. At least on this computer it does. I sit there, with hands quietly folded (above the desk for those pervs. out there who only have one thing on their minds) and wait. And wait. And wait, some more. Eventually, the system deigns to say yay or nay. Since I am running a T1 line here, I don't think the delay is on my side...

Perhaps Rod and Erin could consider letting us know when they have censored or killed a post? Not necessarily why, this is their blog, but just, given the nastiness of this interface to save us and them the nuisance of multiple attempts.

Oh, haven't mentioned it in a day or two: Rod, this interface is awful, could you do something about it, please?

"Suppose Rod and Julie needed a helping hand, and Julie's mom (assuming she is living, which maybe she's not) came to stay for awhile--would he then reward her care by making fun of her and comparing her to Mother Jefferson? Speaking as a grandmother and mother-in-law, I would hope not!"

Sig, I'm usually with you 1000%, but this seems unfair. He was trying to be funny. And anyway, I'm betting it's Rod's mom who is the force to be reckoned with when it comes to protecting her little boy.

When you see the two of them together, it's also clear that Mrs. Robinson and her son-in-law are truly fond of each other. When he took her hand and brought her to the front of the stage after his acceptance speech, it was clear that there was great love and respect there.

Looks like that other comment did fall victim to the system, I'm sorry to have implied otherwise. I'd think it generous of you if you had the time if you would delete all references I've made to it, should you wish to.

I posted under my own name, so if the only deleted posts were those with uncertain authors clearly mine wasn't removed intentionally and I apologize. It seemed to go through without a hitch from this end, and since it was a negative appraisal and the thread was being edited soon after, I made assumptions I should not have made.

For the record, a blogger clearly has the right to make whatever edits he wishes on his own site, I simply took issue with the idea that POVs were deleted without any readers knowing, which would give a distorted reading of the comments as a whole. Clearly I was wrong, and I am sorry. Please don't bother looking for a lost comment even if you get the time, the content wasn't important at all.

As for my attitude, that I choose to keep. There's lots of things I'd change, I wish I had more humility and more prudence, and didn't jump to conclusions. But my attitude, that's my baby. I ain't dumping her. I've heard it said that men are best served when they leave some space for listening to women with attitude.

And I do not believe every joke made about a black man or family is racist. That's become such an easy dodge. I worked with a woman once who went on about a certain kind of nut that they used to call "N... toes", but, she mourned, you can't say that any more or someone will call you a racist. . .

If the show "The Jeffersons" (which was brilliant, by the way) had been about a family of Puerto Ricans or Irish, would you still have posted that picture? If you can honestly swear (in your head!) that you would have, then I'm all wet and just projecting my own dark side on you.

Oops, there goes my attitude again.

Oh, you did peg me on that tinny, dreary nanny thing.

Comedians actually do not seem to be making mother-in-law jokes as much as they used to. Though I'm not sure the replacements--prison rape jokes, for example--are much of an improvement...

Back when I took hunter safety training, we were taught that the most dangerous thing in the wild was a Texan with a gun (this was in one of the Rocky Mountain States, if you aren't from there, you won't get it. Well, after the last eight years, maybe you will - and if you don't, you probably think Rod is a far-left Marxist).

The second most dangerous thing was a mother anything with young. Complete with pictures of what was left of hunters after being mauled by mama-bears and mountain lions who felt their young had been threatened.

I can't imagine why a mother should automatically stop being a mother the moment her child marries.

I teach at the post-secondary level today, but did my student teaching with 12-15 year old children. I remember very clearly my reaction the day we found a drug dealer on the school grounds. The only reason he lived to be tried was the cops got there before the 60+ 70lb. grey-haired Latin teacher could get to the glove box of her car.

I wouldn't have been that nice, but only found out when the cops arrived. It was hunting season and in those days we all had gun racks.
The feeling of protectiveness towards one's charges I feel as a teacher is an echo of what mothers feel.

Still, it would be nice if we could all find a way to laugh at things without getting hyper-politically correct.

On the other hand, maybe that one thing -- being black somewhere black people aren't supposed to be -- is enough to make the comparison humorous. Maybe I am being too touchy. Guess I'm just getting a bit tired of everything about the Obama's from every side having to have a racial component, we can't even make a MIL joke without it being a black MIL joke. I think it's going to be a long, long four years.

I thought it was funny too. More importantly, I think it is wonderful - the next big trend is likely to be "family consolidating housing" - by absolute necessity, as foreclosures and job losses increase. Besides being good for his kids, Obama is pointing out here that this can also be good for families. I can't think of a better message to undercut the half century of narrative that says "everyone needs their seperate houses - family sucks."

Sharon