Abstinence only education?!?

As I am wont to do I was reading Savage Love the other day (thanks Dan Savage for being so freaking awesome) and came across a little rant by Dan about the ineffectiveness of abstinence only education and a rise in anal sex among teenagers and young adults. There are way to many things wrong with abstinence only ed for me to go into all of them here. But my particular bone to pick is the lack of information being given to kids about the potential for disease transmission with sex acts outside of the realm of vaginal sex. I mean abstinence only education doesn't cover the fact that there are other ways to have sex at all, let alone get into the risks involved in those other methods. Additionally, kids are now having anal sex as a way to preserve their virginity and not get pregnant without taking into account the fact that there is an increased risk of STDs and HIV with this type of sex. I am all for people having whatever kind of sex they want as long as they are informed and safe about it. Abstinence only education is clearly not cutting it!

Savage Love in all its ranting glory

little hoovers?

to continue on the theme of a couple of post ago: non-federal budget cuts (ie state, county, city...) are hitting the most vulnerable when they are even more vulnerable. as mr. krugman states so eloquently

"No modern American president would repeat the fiscal mistake of 1932, in which the federal government tried to balance its budget in the face of a severe recession."

and yet this what the states are expected to do!

the full editorial

Barack the Magic Negro?!?

Recently the RNC chair candidate Chip Saltsman sent out a CD with the song “Barack the Magic Negro” on it.

Saltsman’s Christmas message read as follows:

“I look forward to working together in the New Year,” Saltsman wrote. “Please enjoy the enclosed CD by my friend Paul Shanklin of the Rush Limbaugh Show.”

Clearly this song is offensive on many levels, but in addition to the obvious offensiveness is the fact that the RNC chair thought that it was okay to send out to people as a part of his Christmas message. I mean seriously, "Barack the Magic Negro"? (click here for a little background on what the history of the term Magic Negro means) Could the song be more offensive in any way possible? And then to send it out with the implications that the only reason that Barack got elected is due to white guilt and that this song is just political satire with no racial implications? I mean WTF?

So my question for you, dear blog readers, is, do you think this is fair political satire? or does this song and its sending out cross the line?

Copy of the song

RNC defense of the song

Original LA Times article with the first use of the term about Obama

jesus?

not being a christian, today's holiday activities for me include a chinese food meal and a movie (and celebrating my late grandmother's bday... given to her by the folks at ellis island)

just like most people (or sons of god if you will...) there are good and bad things to say about jesus. but whenever i get really down on the religion organized around him, i try to remember one conversation i had w/ a very religious, christian friend. we were talking about how to help another friend of ours, in detail. we came to the very same conclusions. she got there through jesus's teaching and me, through whatever guides my decisions (hook and crook). really, among people that care about each other, there are more things that should bring us together than apart. often it's more complicated than that of course, but there are times i like to think it's not.

merry christmas.

a great story from "this american life" about an evangelical preacher labeled a heretic when he decided there was no such thing as hell

WTF? really?

what? hotpants and hotstuff are still blogging through the holidays? yup we are. we aren't going to do a jon stewart (for whom we have already thanked god for... man we love him), and take a long ass break... though we might skip a few days to enjoy our family, friends and vacation.

well since i've already made this a completely self-involved entry let me keep going by adding links on issues from our past posts.

sign a petition to get obama to reverse bush's stupid decision to allow individual health care providers who receive federal funding to redefine abortion to include the most common forms of birth control

complain to ron simms about loss of the king county domestic violence unit here

comment on the sperm episode of radio lab here (and listen to their other more awesome programs)

read this jon hodgeman post about rick warren here (it's in our comments thanks to one of our faithful readers and both the hotties love it)

Rick Warren? Really?!?

As most of you know I could not love our fair president-elect more if I tried. Unfortunately, like any good love we have hit a bump in our relationship. Obama has announced that Evangelical Minister Rick Warren will be giving the invocation at the inauguration. I recognize that this is a nod towards the conservatives in the country and that this is Obama's way of being inclusive, but this is a minister who is against abortion rights and the rights of LGBT people around the country. Some may call me a liberal elite, but really what is wrong with trusting people to make their own decisions about their lives and who they want to couple with? Are they hurting anyone? Isn't this type of discrimination against women and LGBT people really against the message of love thy neighbor?

So what do you think readers? Is this a wise move on Obama's part? Should we accept this as just an appeasement to the other side and overlook it? Or should Obama have taken a stand about these issues now that he is elected?

Politico Article about the choice

Slate article about Rick Warren

Website where you can take action

thank god for air travel

both hotpants and hotstuff are out east for the holidays (separate parts of it. boo.). and so, i am very grateful that on a day when much of the country was being blanketed with snow, it was possible to get from our beautiful neighborhood on the west coast to our lovely hometowns in less than a day and in one piece. thank goodness for air travel in general, which has helped me live where i want to live and still see friends and family all over the country (and travel to awesome places where i knew no one too!)

...even if it is bulk of my carbon footprint...

calculate carbon footprint here
i'm a 15, what about you?

Snow day! Both a blessing and a curse!!!

So for most of us in the good ol' USA there is snow either happening at the moment or will be happening in our near future. A quick look at The Weather Channel (yes I am apparently an old fogey now) and the USA is covered in a swath of white. I personally love snow; I love watching it come down, having a mandatory day at home, and throwing it at people.

Unfortunately, there is also a downside to the wonderfulness of snow. I am supposed to be making a trip to the airport to both drop off some friends and pick another set up. Additionally, I myself am supposed to be flying back east tomorrow. Snow is great, but it may be impeding a lot of people's vacation plans and will definitely make my ride to the airport in my beautiful, but compact, little vehicle quite the experience this evening.

So my question for our blog readers, is this snow day a blessing or a curse???

Link to Weather.com

equal opportunity in the wrong direction?

should cigarette companies target teenagers too? should all countries have nuclear weapons? should the elderly get guns ergonomically made for them?

the palm pistol "Point and shoot couldn't be easier."

apparently the company also tried to get it paid for by medicare. (it kinda looks like a medical device.) fortunately, the FDA denied them their application.

article about FDA application

MTV: Music? Television

This weekend I got into a great conversation with some friends about where younger people are finding their new and hip music. Is it from the radio? I-tunes? podcasts? word of mouth? Where do younger people get their music from? What is the driver behind popular music?

In the course of this discussion, after it was decided that younger cousins would have to be asked over the holidays, it came out that the majority of us around the table got our flavor and knowledge of popular music from MTV when we were pre-teens and teenagers. MTV totally shaped my life, my knowledge of music, and what I knew to be cool at the time (along with WHFS, RIP). But now MTV is no longer playing music, they even cancelled their long running TRL show recently, which was the closest thing on the channel to providing any kind of guidance about what is hip and cool in popular music. So my question for the blog audience is, where did you find your music when you were a youngster? and where do you think the youngsters are getting it from now???

MTV's schedule for the day...can you find a music show anywhere in there???

why does the grey lady allow dumb articles like this one?

the dating article from nyt

hotpants: i have no idea what to write about today. i'm gonna comment on this nyt article first.
hotstuff: which article? the dating one? that would be a good thing to rant about
hotpants: yeah i think it's totally dumb
hotstuff: for realz
hotpants: oh comments aren't being accepted anymore. guess i have to blog about it.
ok here all the things i find wrong this article
1. overblown conclusions
2. dating is probably on the rise thanks to internet dating
3. only one expert quoted
4. the gender equality statement is bullshit
- women want relationships, men don't, total idiocy
- there is probably more gender equality b/c woman aren't waiting for men to ask them out
5. just b/c you don't date as a teenager, it doesn't mean you won't later
6. there is nothing wrong w/ learning stuff from hooking up (ie how to hook up)
7. why should we play "marriage" in our teens
ok got anything else?
hotstuff: oh man. could there be anything else?
hotpants: 8. why is it bad to learn dating lessons later in life when you know better who you are.
oh now i'm mad
hotstuff: and why is it implied that you have to date at all?
hotpants: hehe
hotstuff: oh man. i can't wait to read the post. this is going to kick so much ass
hotpants: i'm gonna write it just like this chat.

Thank God for Jon Stewart!!!!

There are way too many reasons for me to love Jon Stewart. It has been a pleasure to watch him really come into his own on The Daily Show and watch him realize how awesome and powerful his show truly is. What I love the most about this is that under the guise of comedy, Jon really gets at some of the most pointed and poignant issues of the day and is able to ask the tough questions of his guests that other more serious news people might not feel capable of asking.

Case and point is the below interview with Mike Huckabee where Jon really lays into him about why he feels that gay couples should not have the right to get married. If you haven't seen this clip and you believe that the religious arguments against gay marriage are actually against many of the teachings of those religions, Jon puts it in a way that is both beautiful and articulate. Please enjoy!


Jon telling Mike Huckabee that maybe being against gay marriage in not "Doing the right thing"

f*ck

this one is not for the faint of heart. in the democratic republic of congo, on november 4-5 150 people were summarily executed in the town of kiwanja. the crisis in dr congo continues to destroy people lives.

all of these articles have photos and/or audio:
NYT on the massacre
Human Rights Watch on the massacre
NYT on the rape epidemic
ABC on the cholera outbreak

PS i've been working on figuring on the right people to complain to about domestic violence unit cut. i hope to have a few phone numbers for you soon.

How could teasing ever be wrong???

You know what really gets my goat (yes her name is fluffy and she is really pissed about this), the fact that we have become a society that is completely and utterly overprotective of our children. I mean what happened to letting kids realize that it hurts if you fall down, so maybe you should try to fall down less? or that sometimes it is important to shut up and listen for a second so that you don't make an ass out of yourself? or finally, that teasing is just fun, a way of making friends, and you should toughen up a bit if you can't take it?

My fellow blog poster and I were having a little conversation about teasing when she shared this very great article in the New York Times with me about teasing and its function in society and growing up. I could not agree with this article more, teasing is a fun, necessary, and important part of identifying yourself, where you fit into whatever social structure you are in, and a way of endearing people to each other. I won't try to claim that good teasing isn't an art form and that there aren't ways of teasing that go too far, but isn't this is skill that we should be allowing our kids to develop? Shouldn't there be just a little bit of teasing in all of our lives? Gotta keep it real y'all, and one way of doing a little checks and balances on what you are doing is allowing people to call you out on things in a playful and funny manner!

NYT article about teasing

budget cuts that hit the most vunerable?!

we realize that we have been focusing on women's issues lately, but hotstuff and hotpants are card-carrying feminists (and margaret was definitely going down that road too ;)), so it's hard not to, and you're gonna have to agree w/ me on this one:

WTF?! king county is cutting the domestic violence unit? serious WTF! quote from a kuow interview:
"SERGEANT JOHN URQUHART...CALLS THE CLOSURE OF THE COUNTY'S TEN–YEAR–OLD DOMESTIC VIOLENCE UNIT A MONUMENTAL CUTBACK TO A SUCCESSFUL PROGRAM... 44% OF WOMEN IN KING COUNTY EXPERIENCE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IN THEIR LIFE TIMES... IT IS ESTIMATED THAT APPROXIMATELY 80,000 KING COUNTY CHILDREN ARE EXPOSED TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE EVERY YEAR."

there are many reasons why someone may be abusive, but one of the reasons is not having a job ... ummm job loss... yeah... there seems to be some of that going around these days.

i'm not sure how to fight this, but if you have an idea, let us know.

link to the kuow interview transcript
CDC fact sheet on intimate partner violence
more info on domestic violence

designers in sheep's clothing????

One of the things that I look forward to every week is Slate Magazine's Political Gabfest Podcast. While some of the people on the show (ehem John Dickerson and sometimes David Plotz) are slightly annoying, the content is usually very good and well informed.

This week on top of talking about the many political in's and out's that have been happening with the Obama transition and terrorists attacks in India, they also very briefly touched on an article in Slate about the call by Women's Wear Daily for designers to design dresses for Michelle Obama. What is interesting about looking at these designs and what was pointed out by the author of the article is that for many of the designers it seems that they are incapable of drawing a stylish and sexy African-American women (some make her look mad, some make her look like Condoleezza Rice, and some even seriously make her like white). While we have come so far in terms of racism and sexism in this country, it is moments like this that make me wonder if what we've done is just push the tendencies below the surface to simmer. Does making sexism and racism less visible eventually lead to it actually going away?

Slate Political Gabfest

Article in Slate

Designs for Michelle Obama

thank god for Nina Simone

i am in one of those moods when i'm grateful for so much (friends, family, location, nature, nurture and luck), but if i had to narrow it down: thank good god almighty for nina simone.

she is the antidote to the last post. she was a strong, smart, talented and complex woman. she continues to inspire me every time i put her music on and she also connects me to some of my favorite people in the world. love to you nina. may your music live on and on.

wiki entry for nina

a great performance

my favorite track: in the morning


lyrics (say in the top right hand corner again nina!):
IN THE MORNING
(1966) Barry Gibb

In the morning when the moon is at its rest,
you will find me, at the time I love the best
watching rainbows play on sunlight;
pools of water ice cream cold light,in the morning.
yeah yeah yeah
its the morning of my life.

In the daytime I will meet you as before.
You will find me *waiting by the ocean floor,
building castles in the shifting sands
in a world that nobody understands,
In a morning.
it's* the morning of my life
'Tis the morning of my life

In the morning of my life
the minutes take so long to drift away
Please be patient with your life
It's only morning and you're still to live your day

In the ev'ning I will fly you to the moon
To the top right hand corner of
the ceiling in my room
Where we'll stay till the sun shines
Another day lay on clothes lines
I'll be yawning
It is the morning of my life
This is* the morning of my life

Sperm Wars???

When I was a mere college student I wrote this little thing I like to refer to as my thesis. Probably not surprisingly to many of you, I wrote it about a topic which integrated my love of psychology, feminist studies, science in society, and etymology. That thesis was about the gendered representations of sperm in both the scientific and popular literature on sperm competition theory.

For those unfamiliar with this theory, the basic premise is that there needs to be an evolutionary reason for the amount of deformed sperm in the ejaculate of mammals. So this theory was derived all about how females are inherently and biologically driven to be promiscuous (a loaded word if I have ever heard one) and men have to fight for their god given biological right to spread their seed, not only in attempting to mate with females, but also on a micro level in female reproductive systems. Females are portrayed as devious, thwarting, and promiscuous. Males are just trying their hardest to spawn given these evil, devious females they have to deal with.

Why I bring this up is that 6 years after writing my thesis and even publishing an article about it, sperm competition is back and as gendered as ever in a new episode of RadioLab (which if you haven't ever heard of, you are totally missing out). So take a moment, and listen to their representations of sperm competition theory and tell me, why do old white male evolutionary biologists always have to portray the female species as either completely passive receptacles or devious, mischievous, and promiscuous???

Listen or Download the RadioLab Episode

Not terribly accurate representation of Sperm Competition at Wikipedia

Review of one of the popular books on Sperm Competition

ouch in my mouth?

ug. canker sores. according to the internets:

"Anyone can get canker sores, but women and people in their teens and 20s get them more often. Canker sores may run in families, but they aren't contagious. Doctors don't know what causes canker sores, but they may be triggered by stress, poor nutrition, food allergies and menstrual periods."

well at least i know i didn't get them from one of you...

Tell us something we don't know!

So in an interview with Charlie Gibson our most fantastic President Bush finally admitted that he was not prepared for the war in Iraq, was sorry about the economic crisis, and thought that his presidency probably helped elect Barack Obama! I mean the final two of these seem pretty obvious. He should be sorry about the economic crisis, and hells yeah he probably helped to elect Obama (one of the only good things he has done in my opinion). But to say that he was unprepared for the war in Iraq now, after years of his "we need to stay the course" and "we are winning" rhetoric, WTF???? It is always good to be reflective of the deeds you have done, but couldn't he have reflected a bit earlier? Wouldn't a little reflection have potentially helped us deal with this insane war earlier?

Click here to see a transcript from this interview

why didn't i think of this scam?

check this out:
NYT article about genetic testing for sports ability

next it's gonna be will your child be a doctor, lawyer or teacher?