I've got no problem talking to my kids about sex. Race is a different story. Like so many (white) parents, I thought not talking about it was the best way to make race a nonissue, but this book, and news items from Skip Gates to Serena Williams to Joe Wilson tell me I'm wrong. Race (like sex) should be tackled head-on—but how?

Jess, there have always been politicians who have fathered out-of-wedlock children. Grover Cleveland and Thomas Jefferson come to mind. But it's surely impossible for John Edwards to spin humiliating a terminally ill wife and rehabilitate himself. Hanna, the detail that struck me most in the Times story was that Rielle Hunter is moving to North Carolina! Sounds as if she's demanding now that her daughter be part of her father’s life.

Jess, here's what interested me yesterday. At the end of the Times story was this interesting passage: "It could also shift Ms. Hunter’s image from that of a predatory celebrity stalker (Mrs. Edwards told Oprah Winfrey that Ms. Hunter met her husband after waiting for him to come out of a New York hotel and telling him, “You’re so hot.”) to that of a mother concerned about her child’s rights."

Several questions: Do we believe that's what she's after? And is this common legal territory, seeking "rights" for your child from a father who won't acknowledge her? And does "rights" mean something more complicated than financial support. Legal ladies, please advise.