I'm often annoyed by the choice of what is selected for the  "weird news" category in websites.

For example:

<a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/weirdnews/ci_12733233?nclick_check=1">Man allegedly drenches wife with hose for smoking</a>
If you read the story, he didn't just spray her with the hose.  They were arguing about her smoking, she picked up the phone, he thought she was calling the police so he elbowed her in the mouth while trying to get the phone away from her.  Physical violence.  But of course the takeaway is you can get arrested for squirting your wife with a hose even though you're trying to save her life, ...<< MORE >>

So I happen to be looking for something on the ABC news site and see a video from their news show 20/20 posted about teen pregnancy.  They follow three teens who are dealing with pregnancy.

The first is a girl in Yakima, Washington, who's a cheerleader.  Her boyfriend is a football quarterback.  When she falls pregnant, he dumps her.  You see her describing her situation and it's heart-rending; she's getting it out between gaspy sobs.  "He gets to continue his life, I don't get to continue mine."  The narrator says that nine out of ten fathers in teen pregnancies leave the ...<< MORE >>

One of those dumb email forwards I often get from a godbag ex-co-worker.

Man riding a Harley

A man was riding his Harley along a California beach when suddenly the
sky clouded above his head... In a booming voice, the Lord said,
"Because you have tried to be faithful to me in all ways, I will grant
you one wish."

The biker pulled over and said, "Build a bridge to Hawaii so I can ride
over anytime I want". ...<< MORE >>

"I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't ."

This has caused a huge uproar among conservative and even moderate politicians, to the point of calling her a racist.  And I don't see enough liberal politicians explaining why she's right.  Lots of people say she misspoke, but she didn't.  She's right on the money.

Why? 

Everyone who lives in the US is perfectly aware of the white male perspective.  Everyone knows what white males think about every single fucking thing in ...<< MORE >>

The recent stories about pictures of women being raped by American soldiers in Iraq is disturbing.  Some people want the pictures publicized, others like myself would rather that they not be.  Who wants pictures of her sexual assault all over the web?  Even if they're "anonymized" it's possible for people to figure out who's who.  And where this happened, a woman who's been raped has been "dishonored" and should die.  And might get help dying from family members who don't want their family honor tarnished.

This got me thinking about what could have been done to reduce the likelihood of such ...<< MORE >>

I've been noticing the casting on TV shows. 

The casting of male leads seems to be patterned after the self-image of the producer or show leader, and casting of the "sexy" female leads is patterned after the female "type" the producer or show leader finds most attractive.

For example, look at the stars of "NCIS."  The male "serious" leads (Gibbs, DeNozzo, Mallard) have not-too-high, sharp cheekbones, hollow cheeks, and two are in their 50s or 60s.  Gibbs is on the thin side; Mallard was thinner when he was Ilya Kuryakin.  The female "sexy" leads in the show (David, Sciuto, Shepard; of ...<< MORE >>

Savana Redding is the young woman who was strip-searched by school administrators because she was implicated falsely in some bogus ibuprofen drug distribution scheme at her school when she was 13.  You've probably heard about her case, since it's gone to the Supreme Court, but if not, here's a good start, and another.  The Court hasn't handed down a verdict as of this posting; it's expected in June.

One line of questioning asked how the strip search compared to changing clothes in gym class.  From an article on Bloomberg:

Justice Stephen Breyer questioned whether a strip ...<< MORE >>

I've been reading and participating in discussions over the word "douche" or "douchebag" used as an insult. 

The original use of the word as an insult goes back to the days when douching was something nice ladies did because their lady parts were dirty and needed to be cleaned.  The douche or douchebag was considered contaminated by its association with the dirty vagina and its indelicate secretions.

The word, I am told, is now used by feminists and allies to mean a useless thing that is harmful to women.  While this is actually true of vaginal douching in general, this explanation ...<< MORE >>

Prompted by this post on Pandagon, I just spent a little time on the Feminists For Life website.

They speak of the lack of resources for pregnant women and mothers who are also students in their amusingly titled report, Perception Is Reality.

This document relies heavily on one board member's quote, "They say I have a free choice.  But without housing, day care and maternity coverage, it doesn’t feel like you have much of a free choice."

I think we can all agree that this is a real problem which should be addressed.  Their solution, however, ...<< MORE >>

"While much of Brazil has been riled by the case of a 9-year-old girl
who aborted twins this month after claiming her stepfather raped her,"

Claiming?  A nine-year-old doesn't have the capacity to consent.  She was raped.  How could they get this so wrong?
...<< MORE >>