Phew — Now If We Can Get Komen to Focus on Prevention as well as Cure
The Susan G. Komen foundation just released a letter stating that they will continue to fund Planned Parenthood. Well, that’s a relief, but only a small one for me. The big thing I worry about in cancer activism is that the corporate influence is pushing us to look too much toward treatment and not enough [...]
Pink Politics and Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood, an organization that has faced decades of opposition ranging from incendiary language to incendiary bombs and bullets, has been disowned by one of its former allies in women’s health, the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Founder Nancy Brinker seems to think that it’s out of bounds to question the role of politics in this [...]
I’m Getting Too Old for This
Katie Roiphe is a writer who made her reputation fresh out of college as a maverick with ‘The Morning After’, a book that argued that date-rape was a largely imagined problem. This put her on a fast track to success and won her praise from critics who saw her book as a repudiation of her [...]
Tough Week for Women
Good thing my gyn gave me a reminder call for my yearly tuneup. I’d have hated to miss that, it takes months to reschedule and the doctor is very busy. I told her I was tired all the time, and she gave me a slip for some blood tests. Gyn is a form of primary [...]
Seduce and Abandon
Last week a Concerned Christian left this note on my car. They didn’t leave their name or phone number– just a tract with suggestions about how I can avoid burning in Hell for eternity. Somehow, you never get used to being called, ‘baby killer’. I guess my ‘Obama’ bumper sticker set the anonymous writer off. [...]
Humiliation and Vengeance
No one is disputing that Jared Loughner is mentally ill. As more of his speech and writing emerge the picture comes into sharper focus. Some brain damage, possibly alcohol poisoning, drug abuse, symptoms of schizophrenia, behavior that frightened classmates and friends. There’s little fear that he will get off on an insanity defense. Since John [...]
Call a Lawyer
The law site, JD Journal has a summary of Judge Scalia’s reasoning and some background on the philosophy behind it… Originalism is a doctrine, or more accurately a family of doctrines, that can be used to interpret the Constitution. An originalist interpretation of the Constitution looks to the meaning as it was understood at the [...]
Equal Rights Amendment Needed
Supreme Court Judge Antonin Scalia has given an opinion on the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, and who it excludes from full equality… In an interview with California Lawyer, Scalia said that the Constitution itself does not protect women and gay men and lesbians from discrimination. Such protections are up to the legislative branch, he [...]
Free Love
Anthony McCarthy, a contributor at Echidne of the Snakes has an insightful essay about the impossibility of sexual freedom without equality. He writes from his perspective as a gay man who has lived through the social changes of the last few decades. When Gloria Steinem said “The sexual revolution was not our war,” it was [...]
An Open Letter to Mac McClelland
[Since I posted this, Mac McClelland has written about the great risks, physical and emotional, that she braved in order to report from the crisis zone of Haiti. I thank her for her courage and wish her success in her life's work and a peaceful heart.] It’s the dark of the year, and time for [...]
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