A school reveals it has a “Fantasy Slut League” No big deal. It was just a high school’s secret “Fantasy Slut League.” One in which female students, “unbeknownst to most of them,” would be drafted and “male students [would] earn points for documented engagement in sexual activities” with them. One in which “participation often involved pressure/manipulation by older students that included alcohol to impair judgment/control and social demands to be popular, feel included and attractive to upper classmen.” Or, as Piedmont, Calif.’s, school superintendent, Constance Hubbard, explains it, “The main thing is that I don’t want to blow this out of proportion. I don’t want to make it something that is some horrible big event that we found out about.” You can give credit to the Piedmont High administration for taking a shot at addressing a sickening revelation in a straightforward way. He adds that many students “were aware of it and participated” and “felt pressure to participate.”
How government spending has changed in the last fifty years [graph] Everyone has an opinion when it comes to spending at the federal government level, whether it’s a matter of priorities, amount or a combination of the two, so it’s worth a moment to consider how this spending has changed since the 1960s. Using numbers from the Office of Management and Budget, Lam Thuy Vo at NPR compiled this graph, but one interesting tidbit to throw in is that government spending has grown with the economy, with federal spending being 18% of GDP in 1962 and 24% in 2011. Defense still takes up a huge chunk of change, but spending on Medicare, Medicaid and safety net programs have risen significantly in the last half century, but particularly because of the recent recession. Full story at NPR. Get the news at NPR.
Legalize Gay Marriage in the State of Arizona Name not displayed, AZ Oct 31, 22:45 By not legalizing Gay marriage, you are creating a second class citizen. Mr. Oct 12, 02:52 This is the 21st century! send a green star bernadette chacon, AZ Oct 09, 11:05 send a green star Name not displayed, NC Oct 03, 05:44 Ms. whitney west, AR Aug 15, 19:18 For more impact, add a personal comment here send a green star Aug 02, 11:09 Mr. Jul 01, 15:42 i think that every person should have the same right as another person...including letting gays marrie boundless of religion. send a green star Mr. Jun 16, 13:13 I love the Lord and know He loves all...and gay marriage is the right thing to do!!! send a green star Mr. Jun 16, 01:00 Why this is not happening is Corrupt to the Core!!! send a green star Mr. Jun 11, 13:42 As a true conservative, one must understand the importance of the minimal role of government in personal affairs. send a green star Jun 10, 21:06 Who is anyone to tell you who you can or cannot love? Name not displayed, Finland Jun 10, 03:57 Jun 10, 02:32 Mr. Ms.
Newsha Tavakolian's creates photos of Iranian women banned from singing for men. Newsha Tavakolian Photographer Newsha Tavakolian has grown up in an Iran where a woman is banned from singing alone on a stage for a general audience. She has seen her country grow more repressive throughout her lifetime; the morality police moving to control more of women’s lives (women cannot go skiing without a male guardian as of last year or study English literature or business as of last month). Ironically all this has occurred at the same time that women attend universities at unprecedented rates, outnumbering men at institutions of higher learning in Iran. From this emerges, “Listen.” Tavakolian’s subjects are all professional singers whose lives are limited by Islamic tenet. Tavakolian, who has been working a as a photographer since age 16, is part of Rawiya, a collective of female photographers from the Middle East. Welcome!
Pennsylvania Wiretap Act: Leave it alone By Reggie Shuford In the 2002 science fiction film “Minority Report,” the government eliminates crime by arresting people for “pre- crime.” Humans with the ability to see the future detect crime before it happens, allowing police to arrest a person for a crime before it occurs. Apparently, some prosecutors in Pennsylvania seem to think the film was a documentary. Proposed changes to the Pa. They are urging the General Assembly to pass revisions to the commonwealth’s Wiretap Act that would allow Pennsylvanians to secretly record each other when they think they will find evidence of a past, present or future crime. This exception to what’s known as “two-party consent” is one of multiple proposed changes to state law that, in totality, would disintegrate the privacy protections in current state law and would move Pennsylvania closer to becoming a surveillance society. Unfortunately, some government officials want to break down that wall. Reggie Shuford The late Sen.
BREAKING: President Obama endorses marriage equality May 9, 2012 Community/Meta Marriage equality By Jacob Combs and Scottie Thomaston In an interview with ABC News, President Barack Obama has officially endorsed marriage equality for gay and lesbian Americans. ABC News’s Rick Klein has the full article here. “I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married “It’s interesting, some of this is also generational.
How abusers get away with targeting Indian women “We have serial rapists on the reservation — that are non-Indian — because they know they can get away with it,” said Charon Asetoyer, executive director of the Native American Women’s Health Education Resource Center in Lake Andes, S.D. “Many of these cases just get dropped. Nothing happens. And they know they’re free to hurt again.” Asetoyer was talking about the loophole that prevents tribal authorities, who have jurisdiction over crimes committed on Indian territory by Indians, from having any authority over non-Indian male abusers. A provision in the Senate version of the reauthorization Violence Against Women Act, which has been languishing in partisan deadlock since the spring, would change that. “It’s immoral that the Congress of the United States would stand there and say that Indian women are less than their white counterparts, that we shouldn’t have the same equal protection under the law,” said Asetoyer.
Tony Blair At the Leveson Inquiry: No Surprises (Almost) A documentary filmmaker, David Lawley-Wakelin, broke into the long-running Leveson Inquiry as former Prime Minister Tony Blair was testifying and accused him of being paid by JP Morgan Chase when he sent British troops to support the American forces during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Lawley-Walkin shouted “This man should be arrested for war crimes” and called Blair a “war criminal.” Lord Justice Sir Brian Leveson told Blair that he was “sorry for that” and that he did not have to respond to the protester; Blair denied the accusations, commenting that it was his “experience that if you had 1,000 people in an event and somebody got up and shouted something, then it’s as if the other 999 needn’t have bothered showing up.” The morning intrusion in the court lasted only about a half a minute of the seven hours set aside for the former Labour leader to testify. Blair on Murdoch, the Press and Politicians “Despite all this stuff about me being godfather to one of his children.
Arizona Passes Gay Marriage Law Proposition 102 states that in the state of Arizona marriage is recognized as the union of one man and one woman. That's it. The same law was up for ballot in 2006, however it failed to pass. On November 4th, it passed- 56% to 44%. Gay marriage was already illegal in Arizona, however prop. 102 ensured that it be recognized in the Arizona constitution. Supporters of prop. 102 are claiming that this proposition will secure our future generations, "No one has the right to redefine marriage for all of society. While other seem to think it is violating people's rights, and their feelings, "Proposition 102 supporters are once again advancing a proposition that intrudes on not just people's rights, but more importantly the feelings of a group of people. Arizona is a highly conservative state, so part of me is not at all surprised the law was passed, what bothers me- and other advocates for No on Prop. 102- is that every supporter for this proposition seems to contradict their own words.
It's a Screwed-Up World When Prostituted Women Are Arrested More Often Than the Johns Who Abuse and Kill Them August 31, 2012 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. The Cook County Sheriff’s Office in Illinois spearheaded the third annual National Day of Johns Arrests, officially called Operation BuyerBeware, in August to address law enforcement’s historic focus on arresting prostituted women, as opposed to their customers, the johns. Chicago has been labeled a hubforhuman trafficking; with its major airport, central location, and public transportation infrastructure, there are a minimum of 16,000 women and girls involved in prostitution on any given day, according to a 2001 report by the Center for Impact Research. The system continues to treat those in prostitution as criminals rather than as members of a demographic in need of special services. “Johns have been able for many, many years to operate with complete impunity,” said Rachel Durchslag, executive director of the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation (CAASE).