"Democrats Plans for Dividing and Demonizing Pro-Lifers // Plan to promote more contraception and thereby make pro-lifers look like hypocritical extremists."

Well I must say they sure have the monopolyon playing the victim.....boo freakin hoo, I say!

Regarding: "Madame Speaker" is good not only for women, but also for men.

Go and read this excellent, short and sweet article. The author (and his wife and son) I know. They are a family that is talking the talk and walking the walk of gender justice in the home (as well as the workplace)--and afterall, that kind of commitment in the home to the florishing of men, women, and children is really what feminism is all about--we all have the right to pursue happiness and a sense of balance in our lives.

RE: Warrior Sperm

Very interesting. It's also interesting how pharmaceutical companies are no longer interested in contraception and that with the female birth control they fell the contraception problem has been "solved". I guess it's still the "men have condoms, women have the pill" mentality, though only one uses hormones.

I still hope he can find a company to back his product once he has it. I think more options for birth control *should* always welcome

Speaking of the South Dakota abortion ban issue, this morning I had the distinct misfortune of encountering a dreadful program called the "Coral Ridge Hour" on my local UPN affiliate. Televised Mass and generally benign televangelism is no surprise on a Sunday morning and doesn't really bother me, but this particular program featured a very long "news" segment about the failed abortion ban legislation, featuring those Unruh people and other key players, spouting complete falsities about the original proposed ban, distorting facts about Planned Parenthood, citing "statistics" that over 90% of women who've had abortions regret it and believe abortion should be illegal (without explaining who their sample was, of course), and a host of other bullshit. This goes above and beyond what should be tolerated on major networks even if they are careful to use disclaimers about "not representing the views" of the channel. I'm planning to write a letter to the affiliate and I hope others would do the same in their areas if they come across this garbage.

On the birth control, it is disappointing, but not surprising, that pharmaceutical companies are considering the case closed on non-hormonal birth control. I've been on at least 3-4 different birth control pills, and I had such bad experiences with all of them. And I think it would be great if men were able to take control of their own reproductive freedom with methods that were more physically comfortable. (But on a side note, it would be hard for most "dudes" to take the male pill. Unless they can overcome the "manliness = spermliness" reasoning or other such silliness.)

Heather: You can tell your friend that I really appreciated his article about how feminism benefits men. My boyfriend and I are both feminists, and I can see firsthand how liberating it's been for him to not have to conform to arbitrary patriarchal standards. And I will carry this philosophy on to my future children.

And on a discouraging note, I just noticed a new Facebook group called "Hillary for President...I'm Moving To Canada". Some of the quotes from the women in this group are:

i dont think women should EVER be president. we are waaaay to emotional, and just a joke, if you catch us during our time of the month, war is ONNN!! No, really i think God created men to lead the countries.

(And men don't make wars based on their own emotional whims? Wow, I didn't know God's divine plan for the penis was to rule countries.)

oh yeah..and just for record. She scares the crap out of me. She is not a woman. She is not a man. I don't know what Hilary is supposed to be.

(Ah, a woman in power? She must not actually be a woman, since all women are inherently weak! Haw haw. Transgendered jokes really get under my skin.)

The United States is not ready for a female president. In fact, I don't believe a woman should ever be president. I know I totally go against that whole feminist movement, but oh well. Women are too emotional and too hormonal. I know any male that has dealt with a woman can back that up. I also strongly believe that Hilary's goals for our country are not in the nation's best interest. She's a joke and America is going to enjoy the laugh.

(Because nobody is laughing at our current joke of an administration.)

Oh man, I just realized a kid I used to babysit is the creator of the anti-Hillary group. Ugh.

Sassy...sigh....it makes me actually sad that my 10-year-old cousin will never have a subscription to Sassy...

The HPV vaccine is not currently recommended for men and boys because the Gardasil vaccine has not yet been tested on them. My understanding is that other vaccines in the works will be tested on men, and that may lead to a recommendation to vaccinate them as well.

HPV Vaccine for men: The European Union has approved Gardasil for boys aged 9 to 15. That does make me wonder whether it hasn't already been tested on men... it's strange that the FDA approval is only for women.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=52571
"GARDASIL has been approved as the first and only vaccine in the European Union (EU) for use in children and adolescents aged 9 to 15 years and in adult females aged 16 to 26 years for the prevention of cervical cancer, high-grade cervical dysplasias/precancers"

Elisabeth:

It's been my experience that the FDA is a little more rigorous with their standards than European organizations. Perhaps they're just waiting for more clinical trials to conclude.

From the FDA:
"Can males use Gardasil?
Gardasil is not approved for use in males, but the manufacturer currently has a study underway to see if it is safe and effective for them. Once the study is complete and submitted to FDA, the agency will review the data and decide whether to approve Gardasil for males."
http://www.fda.gov/cber/products/hpvmer060806qa.htm

Re: Funny women and Hitchens. Thank you, Ann. As a single mom, not to mention female, writing humor, I'm not ablt to participate in much of the the primarily late night, male networking in the comedy community. The Contagious Festival is one way for me to bring my work to a larger audience.

What-ever. I liked Webbs response and I like him. This is the guy who basically told bush off when bush asked about his son in iraq.. Can't we ever just be thankful for SOMETHING?

re: the pro-lifers headline, and article which claims an "incontrovertible" link between abortion and breast cancer (which we all know is a crock). but what really pisses me off is that they're trying to spin pro-life as looking out for the interests of women, an ultimate hypocrisy which basically amounts to: "if an abortion will save your life, we'd rather let you die; but god forbid you actually get an abortion and it gives you breast cancer one day"

freaking ridiculous

Regarding Emily Parkhurt's story: That's one strong gal.

Regarding ND: The trigger bill now goes to the Senate for hearing and vote having passed the House pretty decisively. ND was able to defeat 3 other bills dealing with abortion including one which would have been a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade.

The microbiological/immunological world learned its lesson about only targeting women in vaccination for diseases whose severity is in any way linked with sex with Rubella. Rubella isn't all that dangerous to adults, but can cause serious damage to developing fetuses. Upon development of a reliable vaccine, the US employed a "feed lot" program of vaccination: everyone who wanted to go to public schools had to get the shot. Britain went for targeted vaccination of woman capable of getting pregnant.

The British method failed miserably. The disease persisted in the male population, and thus continuted to spring up in the women the vaccination program missed, or women with certain forms of immunosuppression. It's called the Herd Effect- the protection the unvaccinated get when the rest of the herd is vaccinated. You're never going to jab everyone in your target group, so it's better just to target everyone so that the pathogen is driven to low levels across the board and thus the few you miss are also protected.

The FDA knows this, and thus is likely only waiting on trials in men to reccomend HPV vaccination to both sexes. The question remains, however, if voluntary vaccination would be enough, or if a "feed lot" approach will again be undertaken at some future point.

(Besides, from the heavy heart of corporate greed: you sell a whole lot more vaccine if you go for the broad approach. Why would a company invested in this vaccine hold back?)

"On the birth control, it is disappointing, but not surprising, that pharmaceutical companies are considering the case closed on non-hormonal birth control."

I thought pharmaceutical companies considered the case closed on non-pharmaceutical birth control.

"How Sassy magazine convinced its teen readers to stop worshipping New Kids on the Block and start loving bands that wrote their own songs and actually played instruments."

Now if only some teen mag would convince its teen readers to stop worshipping bands for how "popular" or "authentic" the musicians are and start appreciating music one enjoys hearing for how it actually *sounds*. Sassy was awesome but its music coverage was pretty lame (I mean, bashing the techno genre because the writer didn't like the rave scene?).