Todd Goldman (of David & Goliath) = Art Thief! D:

Yep. Apparently he’s copied/traced/stolen/etc. art from quite a few artists (and made money from it).

Please read about it here and here.

Bum Rush the Charts »« Of Death and Graduation

On the Dehumanization of Sex Workers

This is a research brief that I wrote for school last semester.

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On the Dehumanization of Sex Workers

by Katie Armistead

Dehumanization is happening in the world today. An example of this is the dehumanization of sex workers.

“Whore” is often used as a derogatory term; this is common knowledge. This seems just as dehumanizing to sex workers as using “gay” as a derogatory term is to homosexual people. This is also proof that sex workers are often considered lowly creatures in many cultures today.

Many people seem to think that a person who is a sex worker cannot be raped. Because of this unfortunate, but commonly held belief, sex workers are very rarely able to prosecute rapists (Karen 145-146, Lockett 39-40, Gardener). An example of this from 2003 is a case mentioned in a publication by the Human Rights Watch. According to their publication, “one police officer suggested that because a woman who had been abducted was a prostitute, her case was not rape, despite the fact that the woman reported it as rape and there was evidence of significant bruising and other injuries.” Not only do many police officers not protect sex workers, but sometimes they are the people who rape or otherwise harm the sex workers (Lockett 39-40).

(more…)

Sex Ed Links »« New Year’s Relolutions

Anti-Birth Control Appointee Is a Bad Choice

Bush has just appointed a highly criticized, anti-contraception person to be the new cheif of family-planning programs at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Here are some news clips that criticize this appointment:

• “The Bush administration has appointed a new chief of family-planning programs at the Department of Health and Human Services who worked at a Christian pregnancy-counseling organization that regards the distribution of contraceptives as “demeaning to women…” Read the rest of this article

• “EVERYBODY makes mistakes. Doctors, even excellent ones, are not exempt. But a physician who consistently promotes false data so as to influence patients’ gravest personal decisions falls far outside the norm. This month, the Bush administration placed just such a doctor in a position of enormous power to affect the health of 5 million Americans. The choice is absurd and irresponsible…” Read the rest of this article

• “You would have to search far and wide to find someone more ardently opposed to birth control and other women’s rights than Dr. Eric Keroack, for whom any sex education beyond abstinence counseling is a no-no. As medical director for A Woman’s Concern, an extremist group of pregnancy health centers in Boston, he supports their decree that the manufacture and distribution of birth control is ‘demeaning to women, degrading of human sexuality and adverse to human health and happiness.’” Read the rest of this article

• “This month the president named, to head the federal office overseeing family planning programs, the former medical director of a nonprofit group that believes birth control is wrong. No, that isn’t a joke. A Woman’s Concern, a Massachusetts chain of anti-abortion, pregnancy counseling centers, states in online materials that the ‘distribution of birth control is demeaning to women (and) adverse to human health and happiness.’ AWC also believes birth control increases out-of-wedlock pregnancy and abortion.” Read the rest of this article

• “The antidote to stem our state’s runaway teen pregnancy rate and reduce our abortion rate is comprehensive sex education and access to birth control. Dr. Keroack’s ideologically based “medicine” of withholding information and contraception from women is yet another example of this administration’s willingness to promote politics over sound science. Suffice it to say, this appointment will be a disaster for women in Florida and the nation.” Read the rest of this editorial

• “On Monday, the federal office that oversees the nation’s family-planning program got a new boss who doesn’t believe in birth control. Eric Keroack is a Massachusetts obstetrician-gynecologist who argues that abstinence until marriage is the only healthy choice for women. Until recently, he served as medical director of a pregnancy-counseling organization that runs down contraception and gives out scientifically false health information, for instance, that condoms ‘offer virtually no protection’ against herpes or HPV. Keroack also promotes a wacky piece of pseudoscience: the claim that premarital sex disrupts brain chemistry so as to create a physiological barrier to happy marriage.” Read the rest of this article

• “‘Less than two weeks ago the American public made it clear that they want a middle ground approach to our nation’s most pressing problems,’ Rep. Nita M. Lowey (D-N.Y.) said in a statement. ‘Unfortunately, this appointment says loudly and clearly that the president simply did not get that message.’” Read the rest of this article

Those are just a few articles/editorials on this, but there are plenty of others.

Also, Keroack is not even currently a certified obstetrician-gynecologist; he let his certification expire!

• “Pearson also acknowledged yesterday that Keroack is not currently certified as an obstetrician-gynecologist. That is not a requirement for the job, but HHS officials had cited Keroack’s expertise in defending his selection.” Read the rest of this article

Take Action!

You can send a letter to the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Mike Leavitt, urging him to reject this appointment through any or all of these groups (and of course, you can always write your own and send it to him as well):

• Planned Parenthood
• National Orgainization for Women
• NARAL Pro-Choice America

Planned Parenthood of Georgia Offers Free Emergency Contraception 12/6/06 »« Abstinence Only Programs: Not just for teens anymore

Abstinence Only Programs: Not just for teens anymore

“The federal government’s “no sex without marriage” message isn’t just for kids anymore.

Now the government is targeting unmarried adults up to age 29 as part of its abstinence-only programs, which include millions of dollars in federal money that will be available to the states under revised federal grant guidelines for 2007…”

Read the rest here

Anti-Birth Control Appointee Is a Bad Choice »« New Glasses!

Amazing Fractals

TechRebublic:

“Witness the beauty and elegance of mathematics with 50 breathtaking fractals. Webshots member rajah created these Fractal Flames with Apophysis–a freeware Windows application with which you can design and render fractal flames. According to http://apophysis.wikispaces.com/ and http://www.flam3.com/, Fractal Flames were created by Scott Draves in 1992 and are an ‘extension of the iterated function system class of fractals’.”

Click here for link

Recent Octoberish Thingers »« Kitty Humor Pics