Disgusting (albeit unfortunately unsurprising) goings-on in the Leftist blogosphere at the happy news of the birth of Mary’s new baby boy (that Dan mentioned yesterday).

NDT is keeping track of some of the hate being spewed toward the lesbian parents by the rabid gay-bashing far right-wingers tolerant and loving gay left. One in specific truly turns the stomach. Can’t beat North’s own comments, so I’ll invite you to read over there.

If Dick and Lynn Cheney were as evil as the Gay Left wants us to believe, they’d take this opportunity to come out and make an example of how wrong they think homosexuality is and their abhorrence for homosexuals having babies. After all, what better platform from which to speak, a baby born to lesbians in their own family? Quite the contrary, they are proud and happy grandparents.

On the other hand, if the Gay Left were as dedicated to forwarding the message that gay and lesbian parents are just as loving and deserving of rights because they’re just like any other family, they’d be praising the birth and looking for fans of the Vice President and his family to follow his loving example.

Crickets chirping, by the way, over at HRC. Perhaps they’re taking a tip from their own mothers, and saying nothing if they have nothing nice to say?

I’m sure that whenever anyone does jury duty in his hometown, there is something very-”that town” about his duty. And there was something very L.A. about my duty. Given that LA remains the showbiz capital of the nation (if not the world), that makes the “L.A. aspects” of my jury duty all the more interesting.

On the second day of my service, they had closed off the streets around Walt Disney Concert Hall (where we had free parking) for a film shoot. They were filming the film version of the ’60s televsion series Get Smart. I was delighted to learn that Steve Carrell would be taking Don Adams‘s role. That’s good casting.

Earlier this week, when I had arrived early for my service, I passed a gaggle of reporters waiting outside the courthouse. I wondered what trial they were covering. (It couldn’t have been mine — we never had more that two people in the audience and one of them was a legal assistant to the plaintiffs, the other was the defendant’s wife.)

My curiosity was soon sated when a familiar voice called out my name. I turned to see an old friend whom I hadn’t seen in some time. This attractive young woman, a writer like myself, was earning some extra income by covering David Hasselhoff‘s custody hearing for US Weekly. I didn’t even know that that actor had any kids, much less was subject to a custody battle.

When another friend learned I was serving on a jury, he wondered if I was on the Phil Spector jury. Yeah, people do assume our jury service is more glamorous here. And I would dare say those selected to serve on the Spector panel went through the same process as we did.

But, the case I heard could have taken place anywhere. And those involved seemed to have problems, strengths and characteristics similar to Americans in cities less “media-worthy” than my adopted home town.

Yeah, it would have been nice if my jury service could have helped me secure a book deal. That said, I did learn a lot, things which gave me increased confidence in our justice system and our fellow citizens as well an increased insight into the human condition — and to my own life.

As I learned about the parties to the case — and watched the attorneys representing them, I saw their very human qualities. Internalizing these observations should continue to help me develop something which Katharine Hepburn‘s Tracy Lord gains in Philadephia Story — an understanding heart.*

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