Teen Pregnancy Rate Plummets in NYC with Access to Contraception | Catholic Bishops Reject Contraception Compromise

1. Preschoolers and Oral Sex? In an article that begs the question os where America’s sexual revolution is going, The Daily Beast reports that a California lawsuit claims that two 5-year-old girls were performing fellatio on classmates with the knowledge of teachers. The lawsuit has been filed against the First Lutheran Church of Carson School on behalf of one of six children involved in this very disturbing allegations. 

The lawyer explained that ‘“sexual encounters” between the 4- and 5-year-old tots were initiated by a 5-year-old girl in June and again in September. It wasn’t until October, when another girl of the same age was caught by a teacher with her mouth on a 4-year-old boy’s genitals that the Carson School “dealt with the incident internally,” according to a school spokesperson.” The preschool will close its doors on Friday.

2. Woman at Interior. President Obama has appointed Sally Jewell, CEO of outdoor retailer REI to the position of Secretary of the Interior. The appointment has been met with applause on both sides of the aisle.

In a brilliant twist of a nomination, Sally Jewell is described as being much closer to a community organizer than a traditional CEO. REI’s sales were more than $1.8 billion at the beginning of 2012, with 122 stores in 29 states and 11,000 employees. 

An oil industry veteran, Jewel now runs a company that is — for all practical purposes — a cooperative that is owned by its members. REI has ridden the explosion of American snowboarding and mountain-climbing. It ranked eighth on Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For in America for 15 consecutive years. 

3. Genetically Engineered Foof 101. The Atlantic attempts to clarify key facts about genetically engineered food exploring six key myths:

Myth: ‘Frankenfoods’ made with GE ingredients are harmful to eat.

Myth: FDA approves GE foods before we eat them.

Myth: Monsanto and other seed developers are the main beneficiaries of GE crops.

Myth: GE crops are environmentally sustainable.

Myth: Mandatory GE labeling would increase consumer choice.

Myth: GE is the best way to increase farm productivity and reduce world hunger. 

The article should be read accompanied by the comments, which clarify and dispute the author’s statements. This is a passionate topic to many, and 700 words can’t do it justice.

4. Female and Male Online Networks. A fascinating study of a multiplayer online game Pardus shows how females and males manage their social networks very differently. Researchers say that behavior differences studied online reflect behavior very similar to real life social systems.

Studying the patterns of 300,000 players — with an estimated 15 percent probability of gender swapping — the paper concludes:

“Females have more communication partners, engage in economic activities to a greater degree, attract positive behavior, organize in clusters, reciprocate friendships, take fewer risks than men, and show a preference for stability in local networks.

Males try to talk most often with those who talk with many, reciprocate friendships with other males much less frequently, and respond quite quickly to female friendship initiatives.” via Science Daily

5. Teen pregnancy down in NYC. The New York Daily News reports that teen pregnancy has plunged in New York by 27% over the last decade, as the numbers of young women using birth control has gone up. In addition to expanded use of contraception, teen are also delaying sexual activity, said Health Commissioner Tom Farley.

Although the decision to dispense condoms, birth control and also the morning-after pill available in the school system was controversial, the benefits are significant.

The Bronx remains the highest teen pregnancy location in the country. And in a staggering differential the pregnancy rate among black girls is 110.7 for every 1000 girls, compared to just 16 for white girls in the city.

America

Wisconsin-Planned Parenthood deal would clarify medication-induced abortion law Pioneer Press

Catholic bishops reject birth control compromise NBC News

Ohio Amish Beard-Cutting Ringleader Gets 15 Years AP

Senators Seek Pact on Gun-Buy Background Checks AP

Youre descended from a fuzzy, bug’earing, scampering critter, say scientists Christian Science Monitor

North Dakota Personhood Measure Passes State Senate Huffington Post

GOP Lawmakers in Iowa Introduce Bill To Define Abortion As Murder TPM

(Note, the proposed law would include use of the morning after pill and some forms of contraception)

It’s time for women to take back the word ‘feminism’ The Washington Post

World

Accused Witch Burned Alive in Papua New Guinea US News

Girl Shot by Taliban Discharged From UK Hospital ABC News

India child sex victims ‘humiliated’ BBC News

Nigeria polio vaccinators shot dead in Kano BBC News

Nomi Leasure On Why America Needs An ERA Equal Rights Amendment

Sign our Equal Rights Petition!! Yes, we’ve made our goal, but sign, sign, sign until Saturday, Feb. 10th. We have just begun to fight, so raise your voice in support! 

By Nomi Leasure    

Have you any notion how many books are written about women in the course of one year? Have you any notion how many are written by men? Are you aware that you are, perhaps, the most discussed animal in the Universe?” -Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

Charged with writing on the importance of an Equal Rights Amendment, I’ve pondered this critical question for the last few days. Why would men want to deny women rights? Why is it of relevance to the life of the banker, the businessman, the professor, the salesman, whether or not a women he does noteven know — and will never know — gets an abortion? Why fight so hard against accessible and affordable birth control for his daughter, his daughter’s friends and the daughters of men he will never meet? Why, I wonder, would a boss, a CEO, a Human Resources manager wish to deny women equal pay in the work place?

In attempting to write about the importance of adding an Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution, I can’t help but become more fixated on why not? And PS, most of my friends think we have one. Didn’t those second wavers take care of the ERA business?

Who Is The One Running Scared?

Though it was difficult, I listened to some of the arguments against passing the ERA. In a calm, objective state of mind, I stomached Phyllis Schlafly’s four minute appeal to the courts of Arkansas in February of 2007. I Googled arguments against Equal Rights Amendment. I listened to the RightWingWatch.Org radio program, according to whom feminists are family destroying whores.

Each piece I read and argument I listened to was fervent and impassioned, yet there was something unsaid looming under the surface. As I read and listened, my pulse quickened, and my muscles tensed. I felt stressed and unstable.

It was as if the sentiments of the material I was reading transcended my computer screen, growing on me — rather like a disease. It was then I realized what was buried in the right wing opposition of an Equal Rights Amendment: fear and loathing of modern women.

In the hearts of the opposition of this amendment, in the hearts of men across America and the women they have made docile over the years, is earth-shattering fear. They are afraid, and they are afraid of us. We see and hear so much more of men in their arguments against the rights of women, than we do of the women themselves. 

Listening, I realize this is not a debate with prepared arguments supported by facts and scientific analysis. This is not a logical presentation. In reality, these statements aren’t supported by evidence, presented in a coherent manner.

Voices of Angry Men

These arguments against women’s rights — against my rights and those of my friends and family — are impassioned. And they are angry, impetuous and irrational.

This conclusion leaves me with more questions. Why are these men afraid? Why are they angry? It is Virginia Woolf who can lend a voice here. She wrote:

Possibly when the professor insisted a little too emphatically upon the inferiority of women, he was concerned not with their inferiority, but with his own superiority. That was what he was protecting rather hot-headedly and with too much emphasis, because it was a jewel to him of the rarest price.

The superiority of a man — in “his” eyes — is up for debate. It is being questioned in front of the courts and discussed in the newspapers and on blogs. His wife, when reading the news, looks at him with less admiration and he can not bear it. As women, it is difficult to sympathize, because we are accustomed to fighting an uphill battle, so accustomed that our survival muscles are strong and conditioned. A man, who has been placed at the top of the food chain by birth, is weak. And now, in his eyes, he is being challenged by a superior strength. 

Sign our Equal Rights Petition!! Yes, we’ve made our goal, but sign, sign, sign until Saturday, Feb. 10th. We have just begun to fight, so raise your voice in support! 

The Battle for My Body

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ERA Petition Makes Anti-Women's Rights Go Away, Like the 1932 Studebaker Dictator

Sign here, then read on: Justice Scalia Says American Have NO Rights Under the US Constitution. You Better Grab Some. Sign our ERA petition.