I seem to be full of them.

Many years ago -- when the ERA was an issue -- I shared one of these with a women's group. I said that, though we had much work to do in the coming years to make life easier for women, we had already won. Women were entering the work force in massive numbers, and they (we) weren't going back. Once we were entrenched in the economic system, we were there to stay, and everything else -- eventually -- would follow from that.

Another unpopular opinion, equally foolishly shared: women do sometimes make bad decisions about birth control and abortion, but that's not the issue. We, just like men, have a right to make bad decisions about our own bodies. To pretend that women never make careless, risky, even unethical decisions is to avoid the real issue, and to leave ourselves open to irrelevant arguments.

Now I'm at it again. The choice of Sarah Palin -- whose politics are anathema to me -- as McCain's running mate, is a major step forward for women. Spokespeople for the most right-wing of social conservatives are outraged at the suggestion that a woman, a mother of five, might not be able to manage the job of vice president.

They can't take it back.

And they're right. If this question does not arise with male candidates, it ought not arise with women.

A simple guideline: if it's not an appropriate issue to raise regarding a heterosexual/white/male, it's not an appropriate issue to raise regarding anyone else.

Furthermore, I'm in agreement that family ought to be off limits, with some caveats. I think that the private life of a a politician/public official might be my business in the following circumstances:

1. The allegations include harassment, abuse, assault, or exploitation.
2. The behavior involved the use or expenditure of public resources.
3. The individual involved has pursued legislation or prosecution of the behavior in which s/he is alleged to have engaged.
4. S/he has publicly condemned people, specifically or in general, who engage in the same behavior, and supported or encouraged persecution of said people. (Restricting civil rights, for example.)
5. The behavior demonstrates truly bad judgement that might indicate more pervasive problems. (Dancing with strippers in a public fountain while drunk might fall into this category.)

Lying about the behavior is not on my list. Why not?

Many people lie about sex, especially those in public life. They shouldn't have to lie; they shouldn't have to discuss it at all. How are we to know what private arrangements people have with their spouses or partners? Those agreements, or any violation of them, are the business of the people who made them, and nobody else. I don't think lying about (adult, consensual) sexual behavior is particularly scandalous. In fact, I'd rather not know.

I feel much the same about religion: it's private. I wish there were less of both in our politics.

This doesn't mean I don't care about "values." I do care about values. I want to know where a candidate/ politician/ official stands on civil rights, on equal opportunity, on poverty, on health care, on the war in Iraq, on the war in Afghanistan, on the rule of law, on our 'safety net', on the war on our Constitution. I want to know how s/he balances compromise and expedience with values and ideals. I want to know that s/he has values and ideals, whether or not s/he lives up to them (since most of us struggle to do so.)

Whom a person chooses to have sex with, or how; or what religion they proclaim, doesn't tell me this. I've known too many rule-following, religion-professing, lying, hate-filled people to trust these claims. And too many gay, polyamorous, agnostic, adulterous, public-serving people to want to dismiss them from the game.

So, given that the Republicans have paraded Palin's very attractive family before the world, are we justified in claiming that the behavior of said family is grist for the political mill? I say no. Well, maybe. But only if it's demonstrated thatPalin expects other families, but not her own, to comply with certain rules and expectations. Even then, it's tricky, at best.

I've realized, participating in several recent political discussions, that I am not an ends justify the means sort of person. Because the 'other side' engages in disgusting, lying, unfair, hypocritical, disreputable politics does not give us (me) justification to do the same. In fact, I suspect that disgusting, lying, unfair, hypocritical, disreputable politics leads to a disgusting, lying, unfair, hypocritical, disreputable administration.

And I don't have to look far to support that conclusion.