Time for a little stream of consciousness. I've been so far underground this past week or so, waiting for the Supreme Court to drop their payload and sign off one of their own that I know I neglected the Liquid List, Hardly Born and much of the other duties a person has. I've spent much of the weekend putting in the time at home, making sure all the people there still recognize me without my face buried in this laptop or in the curse-worthy pages of the Washington Post.

In a total aside, can I tell you how excited I am about this baby. My wife and I are now literally in the "at any minute" stage of the pregnancy, and I was feeling excited and energized before, but now I'm truly on cloud nine. I've got to tell you all that something about the last week's worth of Supreme Court decisions have been very motivating for me and for this exercise. I was worried that the world I was bringing this little boy into was going to be the sort of place where gay people still don't have fair treatment, and the balancing act of America's racist past and present was permanently skewed. I was concerned that this baby would wake up in Nino Scalia's America.

But the dawn has come on a new day. Sandra Day O'Connor and the good Anthony Kennedy have stepped into the breach and delivered us from evil. For now.

This is the great conflict with which I still struggle. I cannot simply protect this kid from the evil in the world. It would require a full-on assault that I couldn't possible entertain while working full time and writing for the blogs, natch. But here's what I'm certain to protect the young lad against, to my dying breath:

(Part I of who knows how many.)

The vile, hate-filled wretchedness that is Nino Scalia. Throw Clarence Thomas' self-loathing crypto-arch conservatism in there as well. They can both plan now and forever to keep their nasty paws off my child.

The utter disdain for freedom, dissent and progress embodied by Attorney General John Ashcroft. As part of a large coalition, I fought Ashcroft's nomination as attorney general, and I never doubted the reasoning behind protecting America from the clutches of that evil, self-righteous nutjob. But even I couldn't have imagined -- and will never forget -- the words he uttered on December 6, 2001, as he attempted to shut up Americans who were already frightened that his draconian post-9/11 measures represented a war on our freedom as dangerous as any threat from the terrorists who attacked that day:

To those who pit Americans against immigrants, citizens against non-citizens, to those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve," Ashcroft told the Senate Judiciary Committee. "They give ammunition to America's enemies and pause to America's friends. They encourage people of good will to remain silent in the face of evil."

Oilmen. 'Nuff said.