President Bush delivers his fifth State of the Union address tonight, with TV coverage scheduled from 9-11 p. m., EST. Luckily, last Sunday’s episode of The L Word is rebroadcast from 11 p. m.-12 a. m. Kind of like a nice glass of cold water after eating something I don’t like. (I know, I don’t have to watch the speech–but I’ve always thought it best to know what the other side’s saying.)

I’ve never been a fan of education that “teaches to the test.” Now, a new study from the UK supports the view that the relentless focus on preparing children for national exams has lessened their cognitive and conceptual development and ability to handle new ideas. In fact, they claim, 11- and 12-year-olds are “now on average between two and three years behind where they were 15 years ago,” in these regards.

This is worrisome news even for those of us in the U. S., especially in states like New York that require a slate of subject-matter exams for high-school graduation. It’s no secret that many high schools teach to these tests. There’s no easy solution on a broad scale, in my opinion. (Or if there is, it’s bound to be blocked by someone of a different political or philosophical persuasion.) The small-scale solution is for us as parents to make sure our children get exposed to concepts and hands-on experience above and beyond what they are taught in schools.

A new study from the National Institutes of Health, reported in the Economist, claims that the amount of Omega-3 fatty acids a woman eats while pregnant can determine her child’s intelligence, fine motor skills, and sociability. (Omega-3’s are oils found primarily in seafood.)

The results are not conclusive, however, although some strong correlations were made in the study. Also, since doctors usually advise women to avoid seafood while pregnant, this is information to use with caution. As always, discuss any pregnancy diet changes with your medical professional.

Chalk up another Grand Slam tennis win for an out lesbian player. Amélie Mauresmo won the Australian Open Women’s Singles title today against opponent Justine Henin-Hardenne. (That’s today, Australia time; yesterday in the U. S.) It was the first Grand Slam title for Mauresmo, although she reached the Australian Open finals in 1999 against Martina Hingis. Congratulations, Amélie!

Washington today became the 17th state to ban discrimination towards LGBT people. Kudos to those who worked so hard to have this bill passed.

In other political news this week, a Maryland circuit court ruled that denying marriage to same-sex couples is unconstitutional under the state constitution. It’s unclear what will happen as this ruling works its way up through the Maryland court system.

I’m glad there was some good news, since there was also some bad. In Virginia, legislators approved putting a proposal to ban same-sex marriage on the November ballot.

On the federal level, the U. S. reversed its policy and chose to support an Iranian initiative that would deny United Nations consultative status to two organizations working to protect the rights of LGBT people. According to the New York Times, nearly 3,000 nongovernmental organizations have consultative status, which enables them to distribute documents to meetings of the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council. Led by the Human Rights Campaign, 40 organizations have written to Condoleeza Rice demanding an explanation.

Finally, in a look ahead, the New Jersey Supreme Court will hear Lewis v. Harris (aka the Marriage Equality Case) on February 15 at 10 a.m. You can listen to the live Webcast by visiting NJ Courts Online and clicking Webcast.

Fit Pregnancy magazine has published its ranking of the best U. S. cities in which to have a baby. (Thanks to Blogging Baby for the sighting.) They looked at the quality of doctors, doulas, midwives, hospitals, breastfeeding success rates, birth and health risk, stroller-friendly trails and parks, affordability, and more. The top cities were Portland (OR), Boston, Minneapolis, San Francisco and Denver. Most of these are also easily recognized as pretty LGBT-friendly places, as are most major metro areas. Still, Colorado, Oregon, and Minnesota law purports to ban recognition of same-sex marriage, and only in some jurisdictions within those states can a person adopt his or her same-sex partner’s adopted child.

This got me thinking. General-population lists like “Best Cities to Have a Baby” don’t take into account the specific needs of LGBT families. Conversely, “LGBT-Friendly Places” lists (like the otherwise useful 50 Fabulous Gay-friendly Places to Live) don’t look in detail at the needs of LGBT families: schools, stroller paths, midwives, etc.) Wouldn’t it be useful, then, to have a list of “Best Places to Start an LGBT Family”? (One might even envision sub-lists for male- and female-headed families. Lesbians might place more importance on access to OB/GYNs and midwives, for example.)

While all such lists necessarily reflect the limitations and research biases of their creators, they can still serve as useful guides. Let’s hope that one of the fine publications and/or organizations serving our community might consider developing a study that combines the best of all worlds. (If there’s already one out there that I don’t know of, please let me know.)

As a mom, I’m always looking for ways to make all the detail tasks of motherhood more efficient. One trick I’ve learned is to create a bookmarks folder in Firefox (or other tabbed browser of your choice) full of the sites that help me lead my daily life. I’m not talking about the sites I read for general interest (which I typically view via the Bloglines feed aggregator), or my geeky Web tools (HTML guides and such), or my discussion lists (like L-moms), but rather the practical, local sites that help me plan my day and get mom-and-home things done. I can then right-click the folder, select “Open in Tabs,” and voilà! A nice set of pages I can CTRL-Tab through as needed. Here’s what’s in my list right now:

• My PBwiki, which I use as a freeform to-do list and scratch pad.
• Gmail, because e-mail is life, or at least sustenance for it.
• A local newspaper site that lists school cancellations and delays. (My son’s not in school yet, but many of his playgroups follow the school schedule.) (Cancellations.com is a searchable, national (U. S.) site for cancellations, but I don’t have too much experience with it.)
• My local library’s catalog page, so I can quickly renew all my son’s books.
• The Meetup.com page for my mom’s group, so I can see what events are coming up and if there’s anything that needs an RSVP.
• The National Weather Service site. (This has fewer annoying ads than some of the commercial weather sites.)

I also have bookmark folders for my discussion groups and other fun sites, but the above gives me a good, useful “control panel” for my day. Anyone else do anything similar? What’s on your list?

Marketplace today reported on a growing trend in the U. S. military: marriages of convenience between servicemembers wanting the additional pay and benefits that come with marital status, and civilians wanting the extensive health benefits of military spouses. Ah, the sanctity of straight marriage. (I’ll ignore, for the moment, what this says about the healthcare system that drives people to this.) The military is not happy about the trend, according to Marketplace, but agrees it’s a growing problem.

One of my readers has asked about resources for non-bio moms who have lost custody or had their children taken by bio moms. The National Center for Lesbian Rights has published a list of cases involving custody rights, not all of which ruled favorably towards the non-bio mom. They also report on a decision by the Washington State Supreme Court stating that a woman who agrees to have a child with her same-sex partner has all the rights and responsibilities of a legal parent. (This follows a similar California ruling that I wrote about in August.)

Not being in this situation myself, though, I don’t have a whole lot of expertise in this area. Anyone know of any other resources, such as legal guides, support groups, etc.? (The Family sections of both HRC and Lambda Legal are good general references on LGBT family issues and related laws, but it’s hard to find anything specific on non-bio mom topics.) Please leave a comment if you happen to know of something. Thanks.

One of the more interesting aspects of being a parent, for me, is discovering when my son takes an approach to something I never would have imagined, especially when it’s the exact opposite of what I would have done. Today, for example, he wanted to play with his building blocks, so he upended the storage bucket onto the floor in a rattling cascade of plastic. Later, as I was making supper, I wanted to give him a task that would keep him engaged and in sight. I had already cut up a crown of broccoli, so I handed him the vegetable steamer and a bowl full of broccoli, and asked him to put the broccoli in the steamer. He carefully picked up one floret at a time and placed it into the steamer.

Had I been doing the same task, I would have simply tipped the bowl into the steamer. Conversely, had I been building something with his blocks, I would have taken out each block as I needed it. While it may be interesting to speculate on why we do these things in such opposite ways, the more important learning is that I recognize the differences and honor them. I won’t give him a task that requires speedy dumping of food in preparation for a meal, nor will I expect him to keep his blocks contained while he plays with them (though I will expect him to pick up when he’s done).

Will I always get it right? Hardly. I’m learning about being a parent at the same time as he’s learning about his world, and the simple task of putting objects into containers has more levels of subtlety that I would have guessed. I’m trying to figure it all out, though, one piece at a time.