Men get football, a highly popular sport taken so seriously that, when in season, people bet money on it, talk about it constantly with friends and strangers, Tweet about it, and dedicate their Sundays to it.

We... get lingerie football.



There's an entire league, in fact. The Lingerie Football League. The website looks like a standard website for any sports league, with game recaps and team standings, except for the half-naked models of course.

If you watch the videos of the games, you'll see that a lot of these women are tough as nails, surviving tackle after tackle, in which their bare skin is dragged across the ground because they aren't allowed to wear clothes. The sad part is that no one seems to watch this sexist sport to admire the athletic ability of women.

Forgive me if I skip the next LFL game.

Sorry, friends, for not writing for a few days. I was home with my family for the holiday weekend. But I'm back!

I attended a Rosh Hashanah service this past Saturday at the same temple I've been attending since I was a wee Jew. I was very happy to see that:

A.) All services are now conducted from gender-neutral prayer books, which replace words like "King" and "Him" with "God" and "Sovereign One."

B.) My rabbi, who I adore, gave a sermon on the state of Israel, and he acknowledged that the nation is far from treating all as equals. As an example, he mentioned the shooting at a gay and lesbian center in Tel Aviv in August. A gunman opened fire at the center, killing two people and wounding at least fifteen. I was extremely grateful that my rabbi addressed GLBT rights - it was very appropriate, considering a passage we had read earlier in the service from our prayer books read, "We shall grant others the same rights we claim for ourselves."

Though I don't 100% identify with Judaism (the God stuff throws me off sometimes), I still wholeheartedly appreciate the religion and how accepting it can be.

A new study finds that teen birth rates are highest in the most religious states:

The relationship could be due to the fact that communities with such religious beliefs (a literal interpretation of the Bible, for instance) may frown upon contraception, researchers say. If that same culture isn't successfully discouraging teen sex, the pregnancy and birth rates rise.

File this under: "what we've been saying all along."

And better than ever.

Following an incident that received news coverage in which a white student was beaten up on a school bus by black students, Rush Limbaugh had a thing or two to say:

You put your kids on a school bus you expect safety but in Obama's America the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering 'yeah, right on, right on, right on.' Of course everybody said the white kid deserved it he was born a racist, he's white.

Wait... who said the kid deserved it? Oh right, no one.

While the video of that student being brutally beaten was undoubtedly horrifying, you have GOT to be kidding me when you blame it on Obama. Rush, do you honestly think that Obama would applaud ANY child being beaten up, regardless of race? You need to have your head examined.

Rush Limbaugh and his lackies need to stop trying to play the victim. People of color are slowly climbing up to the white man's level, racism is (hopefully) disappearing as time goes on, and equality now doesn't seem like a myth... and Rush is going to stand there and claim that his poor white man status is in jeopardy? BOO FUCKING HOO.

Build a bridge, and get your racist ass over it.

Funny sidenote: police reported that the crime was probably not racially motivated. So shut it, Rush.

Head on over to the Huffington Post to check out their "7 Most Inappropriate Products For Children." Among the 7: baby's first high heels (which I wrote a post on awhile back), a baby doll you can breastfeed, and booby tassles for your little one. Weird stuff.

I want to send my condolences to the family of the anti-abortion activist, Jim Pouillon, who was gunned down outside a high school, as well as to the family of the business owner who was killed shortly after by the same man. Luckily, the murderer's third target was able to flee.

However tragic these deaths are, I want to take a minute to acknowledge that the death of the anti-choice activist is by no means relatable to the death of abortion provider Dr. Tiller.

While I am sure that anti-choice groups will attempt to use this to show that they are the "oppressed victims" as well, I refuse to admit that there is any kernel of truth in that. As Lauren of Choice Words points out, there are significant differences between the two murderers, namely the fact that Scott Roeder, the fellow who killed Dr. Tiller, was a known anti-abortion activist, a staunch and devout anti-choicer, whereas Harlan Drake, the killer of the anti-abortion protester, is not known to be a pro-choice activist and has not expressed any sort of pro-abortion rights sentiments, except to say that he "didn't like" the protester's graphic signs depicting late-term abortions.

HUGE difference.

I'd be surprised if you haven't yet heard about the disappearance of Yale student Annie Le. There are many reasons as to why this story is so widely covered by various news channels and websites: Annie was young, pretty, smart, and set to be married the weekend after she disappeared. It's typical that this story would be appealing, but it doesn't make it any less sad.

For me, this story hits close to home. My father called me, mentioned the story, and asked, "Do you know who her fiance is?" Turns out... I know him, as someone who went to my high school, attended my temple, and is close with a handful of my friends. I was good friends with his sister for many years. To see the photos of him and Annie in the news is strange and upsetting. Stories like this are always hard to hear, but it seems to hurt a bit more when I know the people involved. Somehow, it becomes more real.

Now, police have found remains hidden in a wall in a basement, and they seem to think it's Annie, though a positive identification has not yet been made.

I want to send my condolences to Annie's family, and her fiance (his name I will not mention) and his family. My heart goes out to them during this extremely difficult time. I cannot imagine finding out my daughter, sister, friend, or wife-to-be has disappeared without a trace. Though police have a suspect, they are still virtually clueless as to what exactly happened.

Articles say that Annie was never really concerned about walking alone on her campus. I walk alone on my campus all the time, so it sends a shiver down my spine to think about this. Violence against women is all too prominent; a woman isn't even safe in broad daylight on an Ivy League campus in a locked building.

When you examine the statistics, the overwhelming numbers, that display the frequency of violence against women, it's easy to forget that there is a face attached to each of those numbers. Violence against women can happen anywhere and to anyone... in fact, with the rate so high, you would be lucky to go through life without it happening to someone you know.

There's a new AIDS awareness campaign in Germany, and it's hardcore controversial. Rightfully so.

Put out by the German charity, Regenbogen ("Rainbow"), the campaign tries to compare AIDS to a mass murderer - which, admittedly, it is. But the way they go about this is questionable. The posters designed for the campaign show women having sex with Hitler, Saddam Hussein, and Stalin:




There is also a very disturbing commercial to go along with it (not safe for work).

First of all, the highly pornographic nature of this campaign doesn't sit right with me. Is it necessary to depict sweaty graphic sex with thin gorgeous women to convey a message about AIDS?

Second of all, I agree with Chen of Choice Words: "This comparison of AIDS to Hitler is easily read as a comparison of a person with HIV with Hitler. It stigmatizes and demonizes the person with HIV."

I understand that this ad is meant to compare the disease to a mass murderer, but I think it can be easily misinterpreted to label the people living with HIV/AIDS as the "murderers." As we know, each HIV/AIDS case is unique, so we cannot assume that all people living with the disease are clueless and careless and go around spreading it.

I honestly have to give some props to the creators of this campaign because of its creativity, and I know that their intentions are good, but we don't need any more animosity directed towards people with HIV/AIDS.

Stories like this make me really grateful that I live in the U.S.

A student in Afghanistan, Sayed Pervez Kambaksh, was sentenced to death for distributing information regarding the role of women in Islam. He was convicted of "distributing blasphemous material."

"Blasphemous material"!!!

Thankfully, he has now been freed, but as his brother publicly stated, "Pervez should never have been put in that position." All he advocated for was the bettering of women's lives.