Okay, so maybe Thanksgiving does, in some way, commemorate the slaughtering of thousands of Native Americans, but let's use this day to celebrate something else. Let's be thankful for friends, family, Barack Obama being elected president, and of course, the wonderful women who have put their lives on the line to make our lives better. Happy Thanksgiving!

This is upsetting.

Newsweek has an article up about the abundance of "pro-ana" groups that have been popping up on Facebook. If you don't know, "pro-ana" or "pro-mia" basically implies a group of people who promote eating disorders, often offering each other diet tips, exchanging pictures, and finding "thinsperation" from one another. Of course, the members in these groups are predominantly female, since it's mostly women who suffer from these disorders.

Some users will make a separate private profile specifically to join these groups, while others will join with their regular public profile, usually in hopes of getting attention from their friends who can see what groups they are a part of. Luckily, the Facebook team is working to delete as many of these groups as they possibly can, because Facebook rules state that a group cannot promote harm to oneself or to others.

As a result, many "pro-ana/mia" groups are trying to fly under the radar by removing the "pro-ana" from the title, or making the group private. I did some searching, and was able to find a few of them. They're incredibly upsetting - I don't look at these people with disgust, but rather with plain sadness. They're so desperate to look like the women on magazine covers that they will do almost anything - even participate in an "ana boot camp" that involves not eating anything for thirty days straight and posting your results. This is probably the worst group I found. Please don't look at it if it will trigger you in some way.

On the upside, there seems to be far more "anti-ana" groups than pro. But the pro sites need to be eliminated completely. Who knows if these girls were actually considering getting help... until they stumbled on a "pro-ana" site and were drawn to the sense of community, and the encouragement that they offer.

If you find any of these groups on Facebook, report them immediately.

After 31 long years of not allowing a large group of tax-paying citizens to adopt children solely because of their sexual orientation, the ban on adoption for same-sex couples is finally gone. A judge ruled on Tuesday that prohibiting someone from adopting based on sexual orientation alone is unconstitutional.

Join me in a resounding "DUH!"

From Yahoo! News:

The ruling means that Martin Gill, 47, and his male partner can adopt two brothers, ages 4 and 8, whom he has cared for as foster children since December 2004.

Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union, who represent Gill, said the case was the first in the nation in which numerous experts in child psychology, social work and other fields testified that there is no science to justify a gay adoption ban.

"It is clear that sexual orientation is not a predictor of a person's ability to parent," the judge wrote. "A child in need of love, safety and stability does not first consider the sexual orientation of his parent. The exclusion causes some children to be deprived of a permanent placement with a family that is best suited to their needs."

Congratulations to all same-sex couples in Florida. Now, it's time to work on Arkansas, Utah, and Mississippi.

For years, the dating service eHarmony.com has been discriminating against those who seek companionship with someone of the same gender. When signing up for the service, there is no option for "men seeking men" or "women seeking women." Chemistry.com even put out a commercial exposing it:





And thankfully... someone has finally brought a lawsuit against them for it. The person claimed that eHarmony violated his rights, to which eHarmony responded that the company's main goal is to promote marriage and "we don't really want to participate in something that's illegal."

Nice try.

The courts ruled in favor of the plaintiff, and eHarmony is now launching a separate website, Compatible Partners, that will be specifically for same-sex dating. Why they can't just offer more fucking options on their existing website is beyond me. But I suppose it's better than nothing.

This is one of the cutest things I've ever seen. Thursday was Joe Biden's 66th birthday. And what did his new partner and best friend, Barack Obama, do for it? Surprised him with a dozen cupcakes.





Obama joked, "You're 12 years old!"

To which Biden laughed and responded, "Maybe in dog years!"

Did you know that Australia actually holds annual awards for outrageous sexism? I mean, not that they're trying to necessarily award sexist morons - the awards exist more to identify and humiliate the offenders.

This year, the top golden award went to Mount Isa Mayor John Malony who so tastefully offered words of wisdom to suggest that unattractive women should be confined to a remote town to give Australian men a better pick of the litter. His exact words were:

"With five blokes to every girl, may I suggest that beauty-disadvantaged women should proceed to Mount Isa."

Cute. He also continued to shove his foot further into his mouth by claiming that "the protesters are blaming me for their looks."

Among the other award-winners was Channel Nine news for firing a female reporter when she was on maternity leave. Oh, and news chief John Westacott decided to throw in this little pearl of wisdom: "Sheilas do health and consumer stories. You want your blokes, your main guns, doing the real news stories."

More details at MSNBC.

Brace yourself.



Awkward awkward awkward.

Al-Qaida has a thing or two to say about Barack Obama being elected president.

The video they released included Ayman al-Zawahri, a leader of the terrorist group, using hateful speech to take shots at Obama's race. Al-Zawahri called him "the direct opposite of honorable black Americans" like Malcolm X and used the term "abeed al-beit," which, in the English subtitles they supplied, translates to "house Negro." This is a reference to speeches of Malcolm X, of which footage was included in the Al-Qaida video, where he explains that in the days of slavery, slaves who worked in the house were more docile and obedient of their masters. The term implies an African-American who does not stand up to whites.

Scary stuff. They loathe our country, and I'm terrified to think about what they're planning next. But we need to keep our composure. Becoming terrified is exactly what they want. They want us to lash out. They want us to suspend our civil liberties. We can't.

Check out this piece of wonderfully ignorant anti-gay propaganda entitled "They're Coming to Your Town." In it, they outline the highly dangerous gay agenda. Oh, you don't know what the gay agenda is? I have news for you: neither do the gays.

But according to these people, the gays have big plans to invade every town in the United States, destroying religion, changing the holy definition of marriage, and eating your babies. Watch out.





It should be noted that this video was prompted by the anger of residents in a small town who were worried that their town was becoming "the San Francisco of Arkansas." It should also be noted that these people seem to have no good reason for their anger, aside from simply not wanting to live next door to gay/lesbian people. Pure hatred.

Has anyone seen the completely stupid and utterly sexist commercial for One a Day Teen Advantage vitamins? It starts out by informing us that teen boys and teen girls come from "two different planets." Then, we learn that there's a boy's formula and a girl's formula, of course cleverly identified by blue and pink boxes. The vitamins are designed to cater to the specific "health concerns" of teen boys and girls, meaning One a Day Teen Advantage for Him supports his "healthy muscle function," and One a Day Teen Advantage for Her helps her "healthy skin."

Because all teen girls care about is looking good, while all teen boys want to be body-builders. Thanks for looking out for us, One a Day.