Women seem wicked

Slate currently has a very interesting article about female suicide bombers on their front page. The article discusses the fact that, while suicide bombings in general are decreasing, suicide bombings perpetrated by women are increasing. This is severely hindering soldier's abilities to catch the bombers because, as one soldier in the story put it: "We're trained to not even look at [women]." The article asserts that, to combat this new form of terrorism, we need to start re-thinking our gender roles in the military and in the police force; we need to begin to metriculate more women into the system.

I am not about to start telling generals how they should and shouldn't fight a war, or who they should or shouldn't put on the front lines. I don't know anything about war. With that said, I think it would be foolish if the leaders of our nation's armies based their decisions on antiquated gender stereotypes.

These stereotypes, which obviously still plauge our culture (just look at the current coverage of the Clinton campaign), make us look foolish. And in the case of the female suicide bombers, endanger our lives. We need to recognize that: yes men and women are different but that doesn't mean we should categorize what an individual can and can't do based on their gender.

Just Say No

Congress held a hearing about the abstinence only programs sponsored by the Bush administration last week. A variety of experts gave their opinions, with the majority expressing that these abstinence programs do not work, and should be terminated. However, conservative republicans continue to push the congress to keep funding the abstinence programs, lest the children of America be lead astray. (best line in the whole story: Rep. John Duncan, a Tennessee Republican, said that it seems "rather elitist" that people with academic degrees in health think they know better than parents what type of sex education is appropriate... because we all know that those silly degrees don't mean anything)

This debate is so tiresome. The thing is, Duncan is right, it should be up to the parents. If you don't want your kids to have sex, tell them so. It's not up to the schools to enforce your morality. But please don't rob the kids whose parents don't have your concern for their children, the chance to learn a few simple tips that could potentially save their lives. 

The BBC did a great doc about these abstinence only programs called Texas Teenage Virgins

about a town in Texas where, despite their abstinence only programs, they have one of the highest teenage pregnancy rate in the country. I don't know if it's available anywhere, but it is worth hunting for. 

Forever Young

I know that I usually talk about U.S. issues, but this story off the BBC made a significant enough impact on me that I had to discuss it.

Saudi Arabia doesn't allow women to drive. What the hell? That's all I can think about when I read this story. Not that I didn't already know about the injustice that women in the middle east face, but when I read this story it really hit me. 

It blows my mind that places like this still exist. That religious conservatives could so completely dominate a culture that human rights are dictated based on a religion. 

Not being one who indulges the "slippery slope" argument, I won't try to say that something this extreme will ever happen in America. But it's important to recognize that human rights abuses like not-allowing-women-to-drive, are why our constitution is written the way that it is. Those abuses are why it is so important to fight for our freedom when they are being encroached by anyone. 

There's Just Something About Texas

I don't know why Texas seems to be at the forefront for the political discussion about sex, but nevertheless stories just keep popping up. The Mormon polygamist story has been big over the past few weeks, and just this past week the trial concerning these individuals has begun. 

Apparently it has been a circus from the start. Spanning two courthouses and hundreds of defense lawyers, (each of the four hundred children taken from the compound has their own lawyer).  The judge has been struggling just to keep order in the the two courthouses (one of which is linked via closed-circuit-television). 

There are two main issues with this case. The first is: was there any child abuse? Let me say that I am in no way sympathetic with child molesters. I think that if these people were abusing their children, they should be punished to the full extent of the law. However, if this was not the case, then I think that the children should be given back to their parents.

While these people were practicing polygamy, it's not like they were putting multiple wives on their taxes. It was a purely religious practice. We live in a country where the government shouldn't be allowed to tell us how to practice our religion, or who we should or should have sex with/raise a family with. I think that these people have a messed up religion and a messed up lifestyle, but that's not a reason to have their lives violated by the feds.

Getting Soft

I read an interesting article in Variety yesterday. Basically, the article discusses the irony in the fact that, while the porn industry is facing its first recession since it was invented we are pushing the limits of sex further in movies/music/television than we ever have before. The author notes the new movie "forgetting Sarah Marshall" in which Seth Rogan's genitalia are portrayed multiple times (something that would have given the movie an automatic NC-17 rating just a few years ago). 

The story questions the strangeness of what our culture is becoming: we are so desensitized to nudity and sex that we are losing our taste for porn. And it's true that, especially when it coems to the soft-core subgenre of pornography, the novelty is kind of wearing off. However the article also mentions that, the only area of porn that is growing, is the "mega-gonzo" subgenre. These are things that are so incredibly foul even to hint at them here would surely have me expelled from school.

Interestingly enough, South Park dealt with a similar issue in it's latest episode. Entitled "Overlogging" the episode posits what would happen to America if the internet stopped working. One of the running jokes on the show, is that a large majority of the men would be desperate for porn. Why? Because, Mr. Marshall tells us (in slightly more colorful terms), after viewing extremely hardcore pornography for so long, one "can't just go back to Playboy." 

For the sake of science.

I know that this isn't really about a policy issue, I just think it's kind of funny/cool.

This one's for the girls...NSFW?

This is an old story, and I should have gotten to it sooner. However I did it, so I guess I need to do some catching up with every one. 

Basically our plot begins with a little line in the Texas penal code that says that selling a dildo is illegal (it should be said that, according to the code, it is legal to own less than six dildos). This has lead to all sorts of silly methods of distributing sex toys (my favorite is the ever-popular "educational models" that inhabit most of the sex shops in the lone-star state). 

However, in February, the supreme court ruled that the ban on dildos was unconstitutional. But you know what they say in Texas: you gotta pull yourself up by your boot straps. And so the wonderful and wise legislatures in Texas are trying to appeal the ruling. 

It would be a shame if they won, just like it is a shame that these people are still in office. I think that it's awfully ironic that conservatives preach small government, and then implement laws telling adults that they can't buy something just because it doesn't fit in with the "conservative" belief system.