President Obama this morning signed into law the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, correcting a Supreme Court ruling that essentially stripped victims of pay discrimination of any access to redress.

This victory for working people is also a victory for Moms Rising, one of the most nimble and effective organizations in the Salsa user community (anyone at last June's user conference probably remembers their presentations).  MomsRising has worked this legislation hard over the past two years, including one of the coolest twists on write-your-rep that we've seen:  when Sen. John McCain opined that underpaid women needed more education, MomsRising answered with a "send McCain your resume" action that inundated him with thousands of C.V.s. (Followed up with another supporting e-action for the day the resumes were delivered in person.)

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It's a tiny thing, after all. A little callus on the thumb, a little path worn through the garden ... the visible tokens of the concessions we make every day to plug a malleable soul into the life its fleshy prison shambles through. Most of the time, one only notices the smallness of one's niche within the range of human experience in the face of some jarring contrast. I caught myself in a bit of that the other day, and when I stepped back to examine it, it struck me kind of funny. We use a Jabber installation for internal IM, to which I connect along with various other services with Pidgin. My normal m.o., to keep my screen uncluttered, had been to shut down chat windows awaiting a pending response, counting on my correspondent to pop it open when and if they answer and I need to pay attention to it again. Jabber, as one can see, gives one's correspondent a rather brusque message that sort of thing is done. "Left the conversation"! Just imagine excusing yourself from a tiresome party encounter with a line like that. (Don't think I haven't imagined.)

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