There won't be a newsletter sent out this week. But fret not; I promise to send one out next Friday.

President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act! It was quite the emotional event, since Lilly Ledbetter has been fighting her battle for pay equity for over ten years. It was in 1998 when she first filed a complaint after learning that her employers at Goodyear were paying her significantly less than her male coworkers.

Now, in 2009, the bill bearing her name is finally signed. It's so refreshing to hear about our president doing good things.

This was posted on Feministing, and is just too appalling to not post here as well. Enjoy Bush Senior's extremely sexist and offensive story about his encounter with an "ugly" feminist:

"One time we thought we'd outsmarted the crowd. We sent a decoy limosine off in one direction while I snuck out the back entrance. And we rounded the corner -- I'll never forget it -- and I saw one of the ugliest and angriest women I have ever seen in my entire life. Boy, she was really bad. And she charged my car with a sign... and came up right next to the window: 'Stay out of my womb!' No problem, buddy."



I am just so utterly disgusted by this man. I'm also rather upset that Bill Clinton did virtually nothing to defend us.

Stories like this make me wish that I could fast-forward about 50 years to a time when GLBT people are accepted and loved, and people scoff at the discriminatory practices of the past.

A California appeals court ruled that a Christian high school has every right to expel students because of an alleged lesbian relationship. Apparently, the school is not bound by the same anti-discrimination laws as a business establishment. This case was brought to the courts when two girls sued their high school after they were expelled.

And so "love thy neighbor" continues to be ignored, and religion continues to be used as a way to exclude entire groups of people.

I am as much of an animal-lover as the next person (as seen by my past post), but I am just plain fucking sick of PETA's constant objectification of women. In ad after ad, they choose to so tastefully display half-naked (or sometimes fully naked) women to get their point across, and it is driving me up the wall. Please enjoy PETA's newest anti-feminist commercial that was meant to air during the Super Bowl, but was thankfully rejected by NBC for its sexual content.



Unbelievable. PETA has a good message, but why do they have to express it this way? There are other ways to convey a message to the public that don't involve perpetuating the stereotype that women are objects to be ogled. I know that "sex sells," but to buy into that is just plain selling out. Stop hindering our agenda, PETA.










Send your complaints to info@peta.org.

As a feminist and an animal-lover, I am just as against sexual abuse of animals as I am of people. Unfortunately, animal cruelty laws are not strict enough, and no one seems to give a damn that there are literally thousands of perverts filming women fuck horses and dogs, and posting the videos on the internet. How is this any different than child porn? Children should obviously not be subjected to starring in porno movies because they are not old enough to consent to it. How in the hell can an animal who can't speak consent to being posted on MyBeastTube.com? Seriously, that website exists. Google "child porn," and you get anti-child porn organizations and news articles. Google "animal porn," and you get websites promising hot "girl on horse" action. It's disgusting, and I have no idea why the law fails to regulate it.

On a happier note, one particularly repugnant man got his comeuppance when he drunkenly tried to rape a raccoon. Too bad the raccoon had extremely sharp teeth... which it used to bite off the man's penis. I guess there is some justice in the world.

Wow, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, you certainly put your foot in your mouth this time. When responding to a proposal to increase the military presence on city streets to reduce the growing number of rapes, Berlusconi said:

"We can't think of deploying a large force. We would have to send as many soldiers as there are beautiful girls. And I don't think we would manage."

His response to the inevitable backlash that resulted from this abhorrent comment? He was just trying to give a "compliment to pretty Italian girls, of which there are millions."

Thanks so much for the compliment, Silvio! You're too kind.

Oh, you didn't hear? Pre-marital sex is a dream-stealer. It's also as dangerous as juggling machetes.

This information is courtesy of Derek Dye, master juggler, hilarious entertainer, and abstinence educator. Through the magic of humor and balancing things on his face, Derek will tell your kids that alcohol, drugs, and pre-marital sex will destroy their lives.

Ironically though, he's perfectly fine with juggling knives about three feet away from your child's face. Watch his promotional video, it's worth it.

So glad my tax dollars are being put to good use.

Obama's first weekly address since being sworn in. I really like that he's holding these chats with us - I like knowing what his administration is doing. Here, he discusses his recovery plan for the economy.



I was reading comments left on this video (the ignorance that plagues YouTube comments pains me), and people are complaining that he's reading from a monitor. However, I hardly think that the president has the time to memorize a five-minute speech every week - not to mention, the time to re-record his chats several times to compensate for times that he might forget a line or stumble over his words. Besides, if you watch FDR's famous fireside chats from the 30s, you'll see that he read straight from paper:



You can tell that Obama is modeling his administration after past presidents. Surrounding himself with people who might disagree with his views is a la Lincoln, and obviously these weekly addresses are straight from FDR. I hope he can continue to learn from the great presidents of the past.

I just want to point out the new and improved Whitehouse.gov website that's been up since Obama was sworn in. There is now an extremely extensive section on women's issues, which covers health care, reproductive choice, preventing violence against women, economic issues, national security, poverty, and education.

There is also a section on civil rights, which covers GLBT rights, including expanding hate crime statutes, fighting workplace discrimination, supporting full civil unions and federal rights, opposing a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," expanding adoption rights, promoting AIDS prevention, and empowering women to fight HIV/AIDS.

Wow. Though Obama might not be as progressive as some of us wish, you have to give him credit. Does anyone know if any other president had a section on GLBT rights on the website? Bill maybe?

I've never been a fan of Chris Matthews. But the comment he made on "Hardball" Thursday really took the cake. Watch him slam a reporter from the New York Daily News for citing blogs while discussing Caroline Kennedy's withdrawal from Senate consideration.

His exact words are: "Let's stick to journalism. I don't do that here. If it's just blogging, let's drop it. If you got anything to report that's hard, report it, don't give me blog stuff here."



Nice. I realize there are some utterly pointless and laughable blogs on the internet, but there are also some really fucking good blogs. I could name about 20 of them right now. I'm sorry you feel threatened by our blogging, Chris Matthews, but I like to think that blogs and mainstream media can coexist and complement each other. No need to argue over who's the "real" journalist here.

Today, Obama will officially overturn the global gag rule.

Oh, happy day.

New York Governor David Paterson is expected to choose Democratic Kirsten Gillibrand to fill Clinton's empty Senate seat, after Caroline Kennedy withdrew from consideration. I was hoping for another woman to succeed Hillary, and I give major props to my feminist governor for choosing one, but I'm not 100% thrilled with her views.

Though she is a Democrat, she voted against the bailout, opposed Spitzer's move to give driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants, voted against repealing the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, and voted against a number of policies that proposed giving more benefits to same-sex couples. The Human Rights Campaign gave Gillibrand a score of 80% on her support for gay rights, which is the lowest of any Democrat.

However, she does support affordable and accessible birth control, as well as stem cell research. She also supports prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation. She supports the Equal Rights Amendment as well.

Hopefully her other views are not completely set in stone, but as Ann from Feministing puts it: "I'd much rather have seen this seat awarded to someone who shares Clinton's progressive views rather than just her gender."

Today is the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

Anti-choice activists celebrated by participating in the annual March for Life. An enormous crowd stretched for three blocks on the Mall in Washington, DC, and several speakers gave political speeches, largely about Obama. Rep. Steve King of Iowa asked: "President Obama, when did your life begin?"

Many activists prayed for God to "soften" Obama's heart to get him to stop condoning the "murdering of babies." Good luck with that. They extended an invitation to Obama to attend the march, but he didn't show. My bet is that he has better things to do on his second day as president. The invitation stated, "America needs your strong leadership as president of all the people to stop the intentional killing of an estimated 3,000 pre-born boys and girls each day and the brutalizing of mind, heart and body of pregnant mothers."

I love the last part - the "brutalizing." What's more brutalizing? Giving pregnant women a choice, or standing outside clinics and shouting obscenities at every woman who enters? I love the hypocrisy that plagues the pro-life movement.

CatholicVote.com decided to turn Obama's life story into a pro-life message.



Really tasteful. And also not even a good argument - by the same standards I could show a sonogram with the words: "He was born in Austria... He was appointed chancellor of Germany... He went on to murder 12 million people in the Holocaust... Abortion: Think of the Possibilities." Of course, I would never make an ad like that because I have class, but I suppose the thoughtful people over at CatholicVote.com are not above producing extremely offensive commercials.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that students who are victims of sexual harassment can sue under both Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution. This case was brought to the Court when a kindergartner, Jacqueline Fitzgerald, was sexually harassed on her school bus by a classmate. The school refused to put a monitor on the bus and tried to move Jacqueline, not the harasser, to a new bus.

In a statement regarding the ruling, co-president of the National Women's Law Center Marcia Greenberger said:

"The Supreme Court appropriately recognized that when Congress passed Title IX it intended to create a new statutory remedy that would supplement, not replace, Constitutional and other legal protections against sex discrimination. Effective enforcement of both Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution remains essential if sex discrimination in educational institutions is to be eliminated."

Undoubtedly an important victory for students everywhere. Title IX can be used for wonderful things, but it's not enough to simply pass a law; it's up to its supporters to ensure that the law is utilized. If the happy day comes when the Equal Rights Amendment is passed, feminists organizations are going to have to do everything they can to uphold it.

There's a really thought-provoking article on CNN.com, about how our new first family is presenting an entirely different image of a Black family than what we, as Americans, are used to. Think of how Black people are presented in sitcoms - they are often the comic relief, placed ever so carefully next to White characters so we can laugh at the contrast between Ebonics and the Proper English Language. Jamaal Young, a New York Press columnist, was quoted in the article:

"They are not here to entertain us," says Young, a New York Press columnist. "Michelle Obama is not sitting around with her girlfriends saying, 'My man ain't no good.' You're not seeing this over-sexualized, crazy black family that, every time a Marvin Gaye song comes on, someone stands up and says, 'Oh girl, that's my jam.' "

The Obamas also challenge existing stereotypes surrounding relationships between people of color, despite stupid comments from irresponsible news stations (ahem, Fox News). There are prevailing notions in our society that all Black men are irresponsible and violent bastards who beat their wives, knock them up, and then leave. And Black women are unintelligent and hypersexual beings to be fucked, but never married.

But Barack and Michelle are the model image that Black is beautiful. They force ignorant Americans to challenge the racist stereotypes that they cling to so dearly. CNN writes, "Several black women actually sighed as they talked about how much Obama seems to touch his wife and exchange soulful glances with her in public. They said Obama will show young black men how to treat women -- and young black women how they should be treated."

Sad: a clothing company is trying to market these horribly distasteful jeans to women.
Sadder: women actually buy them.

(Last two from CNN, rest from MSNBC)

10 minutes ago, Barack Obama just officially became the 44th president of the United States.

It's certainly an important time to remember Dr. King and his message. It's important to think about the wonderful progress we've made in reducing racism and discrimination and hate, but equally important to understand that we have a tremendous way to go. How do you think Martin Luther King Jr. would react to the events of today, if he were here to witness them?

This speech has been beaten into our heads since the 1st grade, but there is no such thing as hearing it too many times - the famous "I Have a Dream" speech.



Also, if you haven't, take some time to watch his less known (but phenomenal) speech "I've Been to the Mountaintop," the speech he gave the day before he was assassinated.



Happy 80th birthday, Dr. King.

One day to the inauguration. Get out your party hats.

Even more of a reason to celebrate: sources are saying that in his first week in office, Obama will reverse the preposterous global gag rule, which prohibits the government from funding international family planning programs that in any way discuss abortion as an option for women.

It was the brilliant idea of a man named Ronald Reagan.

Adios, global gag rule. You will certainly not be missed.

The next time someone asks you, "Hey, did you see that gay movie?" they might actually not be talking about "Brokeback Mountain" or "Milk" - cause there's a new homosexual piece of cinema in town.

"I Love You Philip Morris" stars Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor as lovers (what an attractive pairing!). Carrey plays Steve, a married Good Christian Man, who, after being in an accident, has a revelation that he's gay. As a con man, he lands himself in jail, where he meets Philip (McGregor), and the two fall in love. Thereafter, it's a constant struggle for the shy and sweet Philip to keep up with his new boyfriend, who refuses to give up his life of crime.

It's tough to judge this having not seen it. From the trailer, it looks like a quirky comedy, in which Carrey plays more of a stereotypical gay man, as opposed to the characters in "Brokeback Mountain," who sported every sign of being completely straight - well, except for that whole anal sex thing.

You be the judge.

Representative Joseph Crowley (of New York) reintroduced the Prevention Through Affordable Access Act in the House of Representatives, a legislation that would drastically lower the prices of birth control on college campuses and community clinics.

This is great news, and will be even greater if the act is passed. In a statement, Crowley said:

"A bureaucratic mistake should not stand in the way of protecting the health and safety of millions of women across the nation," he said. "At no-cost to the American taxpayer, this simple legislative fix will restore affordable access to safe, effective birth control – reducing unplanned pregnancies and eliminating a considerable financial burden on millions of college-age and low-income women. I am proud to reintroduce this bipartisan legislation with my colleagues Reps. Kirk, Ryan, Dent, and Schiff, and I am confident we will address this issue in the 111th Congress."

File Joseph Crowley under "feminist men."

After the unfortunate blow of finding out that Rick "Gays Are Sinners" Warren will be speaking at the Obama inauguration, it's refreshing to hear that openly gay Episcopal Bishop, Gene Robinson, will be leading a prayer at the opening event of the Inaugural Week activities. Robinson has publicly disagreed with Rick Warren's ideals, and has stated that it's important for minorities to see themselves represented in some way. When talking to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, he said:

"God never gets it wrong. The church often takes a long time to get it right. It is a human institution, but one capable of self-correction. I believe in my heart that the church got it wrong about homosexuality. There is great excitement in my heart to be living in a time when the church is starting to get it right."

I really admire Gene Robinson for having the courage to be honest about who he is in the face of so much opposition.

There's a new hot pastor in town. His name is Mark Driscoll, he likes to wear t-shirts with skulls on them, and he's causing quite the stir on YouTube. He's more progressive than, say, the religious nutjobs who came to my campus a few months ago and held signs informing us that we're destined for eternal damnation, but make no mistake, he still lives his life by the Bible (despite his one sermon on the perils of being ruled by something other than yourself - ironic). Still though, he's an interesting person.

I can respect the fact that he discusses issues that so many very religious people stay 50 feet away from. His YouTube videos feature him answering questions sent in by curious Christians, such as "is masturbation a legitimate form of birth control?" and "is aborting a pregnancy resulting from rape wrong?" Of course, he still flashes a "those under 17 need parental consent to view" warning, as if younger children don't need to be informed on these issues.

I had hope when I first watched the video on masturbation, in which he began by saying, "I had one guy quote Ecclesiastes 9:10, which says, 'Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.'" Then of course he says that fantasizing or watching porn is a sin, so basically we can masturbate... we just have to think about something like... chairs or musical instruments while we're doing it.



The other videos were cringe-worthy, like the one where he tries to justify calling homosexuality a sin.



We can all agree with his stance on rape, but he also condemns women who obtain abortions after becoming impregnated by a rape.



Not the type of guy I want to hang around with, but definitely the type I can sit down and have a civilized debate with.

I was just wondering...




What does everyone think about Mantyhose?

I hate to bombard you all with videos from The View, but I just had to post Ann Coulter's appearance on the show. She does get a little attacked by the five women, but notice the below-the-belt jabs Coulter dishes out herself. Normally I'm able to find at least some good in every person, but I don't have an ounce of respect for this woman. All she does is judge, judge, judge, without offering any type of compassion or solution to the "problems" she identifies. She is not intelligent - she merely regurgitates flimsy "evidence" that supports her outrageous ideas. I can't believe she has gotten so famous on this alone.

I was watching Dr. Phil (I usually can't stand to watch him, but I was flipping through channels and it caught my eye), and there were parents and child psychologists on to debate the issue of transgendered children. Three people believed it is not a choice and it is something to be embraced, and the other three believed that with special therapy, transgendered children can be "cured." I was searching on YouTube to find a video of it to post in here, but I couldn't find it - probably because it's too new. But I did come across this video of the same issue being debated on "The View." The video's rather old, but it's interesting to watch nonetheless.



The only one who is really opposed to breaking out of gender roles is Sherri Shepherd, who is very concerned with adhering to social norms and with steering her children into their narrow gender boxes. Her worst nightmare is her son putting on a dress.

This is the inspirational cover of the special inaugural issue of Ms. Magazine. It's a beautiful image, and it gives me high hopes (though not too high) for real change. From a press release issued by the magazine:

When the publisher of Ms., Eleanor Smeal, and the chair of the Feminist Majority Foundation board, Peg Yorkin, met Barack Obama, he immediately offered "I am a feminist." Obama ran on the strongest platform for women's rights of any major party in American history. Feminist Karen Kornbluh, the platform's principle author, ensured women's rights, opportunities, advancement, and issues were addressed throughout the historic document.

As Smeal says in her introduction to the Inaugural feature, "Never has it been easy fighting for equality and social justice. We have spent far too many years fighting to hold the ground we had already gained. Now is the time to move forward."

"But we are not giving President-Elect Obama a blank check. For our hopes to be achieved, we must speak out and organize, organize, organize to enable our new president's team to achieve our common goals. Ultimately, we must hold our leaders' feet to the fire or, to put it more positively, uplift them when they are caught in the crosscurrents of competing interests."

I'm happy to see that Obama isn't scared of the F word.

Also be sure to check out the "Vision of Change" Ms. Magazine has put together, outlining all the changes feminists are yearning for with the new administration.

This is appalling. It's also possibly triggering, so don't continue if you get sensitive when reading about violence against women.

In Afghanistan, a 14 year-old girl was recently admitted to a hospital after being raped and forced to undergo an abortion. When she was five months pregnant, her mother held her down while her brother used a razor to perform the abortion, then sewed up the wound with thick string. The procedure left her in critical condition.

Their justification stems from the fact that in Afghanistan, where extramarital sex is illegal, rape victims are their families usually suffer from severe social stigma. This sometimes leads to honor killings. It's painful to think about.

Well, I was sincerely hoping that the Obama administration would tell Ambassador Mark Dybul to go away, but a high source has reported that he will remain in his position. Dybul is a strong supporter of abstinence-only education, and believes preaching "purity" until marriage is the best way to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS, despite mounting evidence to the contrary. He also perpetuated restrictions on organizations that help prevent the spread of AIDS amongst sex workers, and is associated with the failed policies of the President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief.

Yeah, women's rights advocates and those who work with HIV prevention are not happy that this is man who will continue to "fight" AIDS. They sent countless letters pleading for a change in leadership, but apparently they fell on deaf ears.

This is horribly upsetting and it just shows the extreme hatred that exists in this world. A couple days ago, 11 gay bars in Seattle received letters from an anonymous sender. The letters explained that the sender is in possession of 67 grams of ricin, a deadly poison, and plans to use it to target 5 random people in each bar. Here's a copy of the letter - it's very disturbing:


A letter was also sent to a newspaper, telling them to be prepared to publish 55 obituaries. The letter concluded with: "I could take this moment to launch into a diatribe about my indignation towards the gay community. However, I think the deaths will speak for themselves."

It hurt me so badly to read this. I sincerely hope that every bar on the target list takes the necessary precautions to prevent this from happening. Or perhaps the person is merely bluffing. Whatever will keep 55 innocent people from being killed.

Amazing satirical video that shows the horrible dangers of gay marriage. Watch and learn.

Utah:

Anti-choice legislators are planning to wait to propose a statewide total ban on abortion until they can raise the funds necessary to pay for a legal defense. Three Republican state representatives are going to introduce a bill that would create a special fund to raise money for their anticipated proposal of a ban.


South Carolina:

Seven anti-choice state representatives are pushing for stricter regulations on abortion. Currently, the state law requires that women have an ultrasound and wait one hour after discussing the details of the procedure before obtaining one.

The bill that the reps introduced will extend the waiting period from one hour to 24 hours (completely ignoring the fact that the later an abortion is performed, the more dangerous it is to the woman's health), and would require doctors to provide women with a list of places that perform free ultrasounds. This is a sneaky anti-choice move. Their exact thought process is: "Once the babykiller sees her child on an ultrasound, she can't possibly want to murder it then!"


If I were a skilled cartoonist, I would draw a political cartoon showing a giant rocky mountain labeled "a woman's reproductive rights," and at the bottom would be people labeled "anti-choice activists" wearing hardhats and chipping away at the rocks with hammers.

It seems like the introduction of this legislation is far too late, but better late than never. Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed for the passing of a bill that will force the House's official language to become gender neutral. For example, words like "chairman" and "chairmanship" will be replaced with "such individual" and "Member." My sentiments are that if the Equal Rights Amendment had passed when feminists were pushing for it in the 70s, then it could've been used to establish this legislation decades ago. But I'm sincerely happy that Pelosi introduced gender neutral language - it seems like a tiny detail, but it makes a big impact.

I'll admit it: I grew up watching the show Sister, Sister. And I'll still watch it when it's on TV. God help me.

But, surprisingly, I was watching an episode recently that made me beyond happy because it offered a nice little lesson in fighting sexism. Tia and Tamera (the twins) face off against a group of ignorant boys who try to bar them from playing hockey, solely because they "might break a nail." I found the episode on YouTube. If you have a younger daughter or son, sister or brother, it might be a good thing to show them.

Even the most racist and sexist will agree that there is an enormous lack of women, especially women of color, in high corporate positions. A new study shows that, in addition to racism and sexism, weaker or less strategic networks and inaccurate perceptions of their abilities could be what is keeping Black women down. From an article on Yahoo! News:

One percent of senior corporate officers are black women, according to the ELC, compared with 3 percent for black men, 14 percent for white women and 77 percent for white men.

The ELC questioned 150 executives, ranging from vice presidents to CEOs and board members from a variety of industries and locations, about reasons for the disparities. Thirty-one percent cited networking and 24 percent cited a perception gap as hindering the advancement of black women. Fifteen percent cited racism.

Seventy-five percent of the respondents said it was important to have senior executives who are minorities in order to provide new ideas and innovation and better reflect the diversity of their customers.

"If you have the same group of people looking at the same issues, you will come up with the same solutions," said Carl Brooks, CEO of the ELC.

To overcome these barriers, black women executives should seek challenging, high-profile assignments; create action plans for accomplishing their career goals; work with executive coaches; and take advantage of critical feedback, respondents said.

It's just one our society's incredibly vicious cycles that needs to be broken immediately.

Oh wow, just look at this picture, and marvel at this extremely rare historical event.


That's George H.W. Bush, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter.

Seeing them stand side-by-side makes me even happier that we broke the monotony of the standard elderly White man with the election of Obama. John McCain would've blended right in.

This is interesting, and definitely says something about our culture. Facebook recently cracked down on female users who were - GASP! - posting pictures of them breastfeeding their babies. Now, personally I would never post pictures of myself breastfeeding, but women do it in public all the time - so why is Facebook so threatened by displays of motherhood?

This is a video of a man who challenged Facebook's moves by posting his own nipples on his profile and seeing their response.



Hm.

Sad news. Studies show that in the past couple years, rates of rape, sexual assault, and domestic violence have increased significantly. From Feminist Daily News:

The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), a biannual report from the DOJ's Office of Justice Programs, estimated at least 248,300 rapes and sexual assaults occurred in 2007, a 25 percent increase from 2005 levels. Estimates of domestic violence incidents rose by 42 percent between 2005 and 2007.

Incidence of rape, sexual assault, and domestic violence increased the most of all violent crimes since 2005, while reported rates of most violent crimes, including robbery and aggravated assault, decreased.

The only thing to do is to use this as a wake-up call. It kills me when people argue that feminism isn't relevant today, because it is up to dedicated feminists to work to reduce these numbers. These sexual assault and domestic violence rates are just not acceptable.

Air India has so tastefully fired 10 women flight attendants who were grounded last year for being overweight. Originally, the women received a mere warning, were given sufficient time to lose weight, and were offered alternative ground assignments. How kind. Last year, Delhi High Court upheld Air India's right to reassign overweight attendants. A lawyer who is representing the "overweight" crew is taking the case to the Supreme Court.

A new campaign is utilizing technology to spread the message of safe sex by developing short soap opera-esque videos to send to cell phones. The videos feature sexually active couples who learn about the perils of unprotected sex. The episodes mainly target young Black and Latina women, and aim to normalize condom use.

The pilot video has been put online, and a large study is being conducted to test the response of young women to the video. It is equally the responsibility of the male partner to obtain and use a condom, but I understand their attempts to target women because I think too many sexually active females rely solely on men to provide the condom, and that just isn't a safe bet.

Additionally, the campaign focuses on only heterosexual couples, which I don't particularly like. Safe sex is as important with gay and lesbian couples as it is with male-female couples. It would be cool to encourage talking about safe sex amongst same-sex couples in the Black and Latina communities, since those cultures tend to be prominent in homophobia.

Watch the pilot and decide for yourself. I watched most of it, and was indifferent. It tends to focus more on the "drama" between the couples than how and why to practice safe sex. It also implies that you have to cheat on a significant other to put yourself at risk, when the reality is that someone can experience a pregnancy or contract an STI even when in a fully monogamous relationship.

Thoughts?

If I needed another reason to dislike Ann Coulter, it's the fact that her new book, Guilty: Liberal "Victims" and their Assault on America, is 320 pages of pure ignorance. The text on the book's jacket says it all:

"When it comes to bullying, no one outdoes the Left. Citing case after case, ranging from the hilariously absurd to the shockingly vicious, Coulter dissects so-called victims who are invariably the oppressors. For instance: While B. Hussein Obama piously condemned attacks on candidates' families, his media and campaign surrogates ripped open the court-sealed divorce records of his two principal opponents in his Senate race in Illinois."

Just the mere fact that she and every other conservative Obama-hater just happen to choose to call him "Barack Hussein Obama" shows that this book is going to dripping with hypocrisy. I bet she doesn't even mention the sexism hurled at Hillary Clinton, but provides an entire chapter on the "sexist" attacks the Left shot at Sarah Palin. Stay classy, Ann Coulter.

There's also a special section of the book for her to attack Michelle Obama's style, because I'll be damned if I have a First Lady who's a bad dresser. She, not surprisingly, also praises Cindy McCain's style. From The Daily News:

Coulter wrote, "Her obvious imitation of Jackie O's style - the flipped-under hair, the sleeveless A-line dresses, the short strands of fake pearls - would have been laughable if done by anyone other than a media-designated saint."

Coulter said Cindy McCain, the wife of vanquished GOP nominee John McCain, "dressed well without freakishly imitating famous First Ladies in history."

Coulter facetiously and snidely refers to Michelle Obama as a "saint" and "Mother Teresa" and suggests that her public service career "advanced in lockstep with the political advancement of her husband."

Funny how she blatantly attacks politicians on the Left, all while trying to "prove" that the liberals are the ones throwing all the bombs. Forgive me if I don't put this book on my birthday wishlist.

Officials are now saying that the daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy, will be Hillary Clinton's choice to fill her vacant New York Senate seat. As far as her political views go, she:


She doesn't have much experience, so many people are nervous that she can't do the job, but let's see if she proves them wrong.

Once again, Fox News has succeeded in appalling me. Watch the bottom of the screen.

But not so happy for this woman reporter who was harassed by drunken morons.

Happy Holidays from... George Bush? He left same-sex couples a nice parting gift by signing a bill called the Worker, Retiree and Employer Recovery Act of 2008 (WRERA) two days before Christmas. This makes it mandatory for businesses to roll over retirement benefits to a same-sex partner in the event of the employee’s death.

Thanks, Georgie!