What’s up?
The BlogHer Conference, which will take place August 5-6 in San Diego, is on my mind. I am participating in a couple BlogHer-related events, which I would love for you all to join me.
The first one is a pre-event blog chat at Moms Clean Air Force. It will take place on Wednesday, July 27, at 11:30 a.m. PT/ 2:30 p.m. ET. I will join my fellow panelists to talk about online organizing.
The other event is at BlogHer, and is slated for Saturday, August 6, from 3 to 4:15 p.m.. The discussion, titled “How to sustain an online community and keep your own sanity,” is about nurturing and growing your community. I am going to also talk about monetizing your blog and discussing the pieces of advice I accepted and rejected from my husband Markos of the Daily Kos. This is not to be missed! 
In other news: here is a story for new moms. Just to show you that parenting does get better, the Latina on a Mission blog published a wonderful essay by a single mother who suffered from postpartum depression, and is now nostalgic watching her 17-year-old about to leave the nest. Warning: bring the hankies!
In somewhat related, but funnier news: Women’s Health magazine interviewed actor Timothy Olyphant (Justified), who had this to say about parenthood:
It f—ing exhausts you! That’s how it changes you! My buddy on the show is expecting a baby. I said, “Imagine I call you at midnight, and I hang up without saying anything. Then I call you two hours later, and I hang up again. This continues. Oh, and by the way, in between my calls, you’re wondering if I’m dead.” That’s what it’s like.
LOL! I remember those nights, and how, once my children did start sleeping through the night, I was still up to watch them breathe.
Slate published a fascinating article on the history of social attitudes towards breastfeeding.
As a blog moderator, I’ve dealt with trolls — who shall not be named. But I came across a new type of trolling at the MomsRising blog when we ran our blog carnival protesting proposed cuts to Medicaid. There were one or two people subscribing under multiple names — including my first name! — to blast me and other commenters. This is called “sock puppetry,” and this is what MomsRising’s Rolling had to say about it:
We’ve noticed comments coming from your IP address that use different names and email addresses. This practice is known as sockpuppetry. It is a bannable offense because it undermines the trust required for honest conversation that we work to nurture on our blog. If we notice another instance of sockpuppetry from your IP address, we will ban comments from that IP address. Sockpuppetry violates our website’s Terms of Use. Thank you for understanding.
How pathetic is that? Also, I would love to see a study on this, but in my experience almost all trolls, even on women and mothering websites, are men. And you could totally tell because of the overpowering, misogynist tone. What is up with that?
In related news, Daily Kos’s Teacherken — now that is an evolved male! — covered an important study on how Medicaid is actually a middle class/working class safety net. Now that I think of it, I do remember that many of the families MomsRising interviewed DID have jobs, including multiple jobs in one family. The whole “lazy poor meme” does seem to be a red herring from the fringe right.
The Latina Lista blog, which is on Facebook, had a couple interesting stories. One was about an online service to help minority women find potential adoptive parents for their babies of the same race or ethnic background. The other was the transcript of a Univision interview between Jorge Ramos and Andrew Breitbart. I heart Jorge Ramos!
What else is in the news? What’s up with you?
