![Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) during an awkward speech to the International Association of Firefighters in Washington D.C. [MSNBC]](https://i0.wp.com/www.rawstory.com/rs/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Sen.-Ted-Cruz-R-TX-during-an-awkward-speech-to-the-International-Association-of-Firefighters-in-Washington-D.C.-MSNBC-800x430.jpg)
When a very understated Cruz said, “the whole world is on fire,” A three-year-old girl, already traumatized by hearing Ted Cruz speak, I’m sure, had to check that she had not misheard him, asking, “The world is on fire?” Cruz replied “Yes! Your world is on fire!” And it was adorable.
Continue reading and see the video…
Ladies and gentleman… in case you needed any more proof that we are engaged in a clash of civilizations, a battle between good and evil, between enlightenment and the dark ages… If you’re not already aware that Israel is a lone oasis of refined, civilized, reasonable thinking, surrounded by a desert of Muslim/ Arab/ whatever barbarism, violence and blood lust… I present to you… major mensch and dialectical, rabbinical, skeptical and nuanced thinker Avigdor Lieberman.
Lieberman, the Foreign Minister and head of the right wing ultra nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party, dropped one of his signature bombs during a post-speech Q & A at an election conference at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya on Sunday. When an Arab-Israeli woman in the audience asked how Lieberman’s policies would affect someone like her, he responded, “I have no problem with your being a citizen. I expect all Arabs, Christians and Jews to be loyal to the state, regardless of religious affiliation, and to serve in the IDF. We accept and encourage those who identify with us.” Oh, and then he added this nugget about Arab citizens of Israel, who make up 20% of the population:
March 10th marks the date of the worst coal mining disaster in European History. It was on this day in 1906, in a mine in northern France operated by the Courrières mining company that a coal dust explosion killed between 1,060 and 1,300 miners. Days before the tragedy, a union delegate had warned the company that smoke and toxic gas had been detected. The company refused halt production despite these warnings.
Ladies, who says we can’t have it all? Who says we have to choose between carrying our child and carrying our loaded firearm? Certainly not Melody Lauer, an Iowa mother of three and gun owner who is offering a “Babywearing and Carrying” class to moms (and some dads) who want to pack some heat and pack on the kid at the same time.
Lauer is uniquely qualified for this course, thanks to a strong background in both guns and attachment parenting. After receiving her firearm instructor credentials through the NRA, the Harvard of gun education, she worked in sales and as an instructor at gun stores and shooting ranges. Lauer has also, at the same time, worked at an “attachment-parenting center” that teaches childbirth, babywearing, and breastfeeding classes.
Happy International Women’s Day! The beautiful diversity of our world is reflected by the diverse ways different nations celebrate this important holiday.
If you’re a woman in Italy, for instance, you may be given a yellow Mimosa (as in the flower, though I’d be partial to the drink, myself). In France, you could get some violets or lilies-of-the-valley. If you’re in Montevideo, Uruguay you might want to check out the all female drumming group La Melaza, which has been giving concerts on International Women’s Day since 2008.
Only one of the following statements can be true:
1. In less than a year, Israel could be attacked by the government of Iran, which is irrational, ISIS-like and Nazi-like, and determined to wipe out Israel.
2. European Jews should move to Israel, where they would be safe and sound.
So, which one is Bibi lying about?
During his campaign speech to the U.S. Congress, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged the U.S. to stop the current deal being negotiated with Iran, a deal in which, “the foremost sponsor of global terrorism could be weeks away from having enough enriched uranium for an entire arsenal of nuclear weapons and this with full international legitimacy.” Under the current negotiation, Netanyahu claimed, “Thousands of centrifuges used to enrich uranium would be left spinning…. Because Iran’s nuclear program would be left largely intact, Iran’s break-out time would be very short — about a year by U.S. assessment, even shorter by Israel’s.”
Iran is also, according to Bibi, a total irrational actor, comparable to the Nazis and ISIS, and bent on Israel’s destruction. So, it’s not really clear how any deal would work.
But the even larger inconsistency (to speak charitably) is that Israel is somehow a safe haven for Jews. Following the deadly shooting near a Copenhagen synagogue, and the killing of four Jews in a Kosher market in Paris, Netanyahu said, “This wave of attacks is expected to continue, as well as murderous anti-Semitic attacks. Jews deserve security in every country, but we say to our Jewish brothers and sisters, Israel is your home.” (The opportunism and insensitivity were not lost on Jews and Jewish leaders.)
Senator Barbara Mikulski made history as being the longest-serving woman in Congress, the first woman Democrat elected in her own right, and the first woman to wear pants on the Senate floor. On Monday, she announced her plans to retire in an appropriately badass fashion.
The Democrat from Maryland was a social worker and community organizer before she entered politics to become a member of Congress in 1975 and a Senator in 1986. She is known for her unapologetically liberal positions and has had the honor of being smeared (unsuccessfully) by her Republican opponent for her associations with a radical feminist lesbian.
“Do I spend my time raising money? Or do I spend my time raising hell?” Mikulski said during her announcement at a news conference in Baltimore on Monday. “There’s nothing gloomy about this announcement… I’m not frustrated with the Senate. The Senate will always be what the Senate is.” Continue reading “Longest-serving woman in Congress retires to “raise hell” instead of “money””
I almost can’t believe that anyone would ever say aloud the words spoken by Mukesh Singh, one of the men convicted for the brutal rape and murder of Jyoti Singh (no relation), a 23-year old medical school student. Jyoti and her male companion had just gone to see the film The Life of Pi when they got on an off-duty Delhi bus one Sunday night in December 2012. On the bus were five men and one teenage male who knocked her friend unconscious with a rod before raping Jyoti and penetrating her with a rod with so much force she had to have most of her intestines removed. She died two weeks later from these injuries she had sustained to her abdomen.
Mukesh Singh defends himself by saying he didn’t rape Jyoti. But the court found that DNA evidence indicated otherwise. And let’s for argument’s sake say he didn’t rape her, at very least he drove the bus as the other men, one of whom was his brother, took turns essentially raping her to death. And the police also say that Mukesh tried to run Jyoti and her friend over, after they were thrown off the bus.
Here are some new sex breakthroughs sure to bring smiles to faces and genitals around the world.
1. Scratching the 50-Year Itch
As anyone who is married, has friends who are married, or has seen a television show, movie or standup set surely knows, sex is frequent at the beginning of a marriage, but tends to taper off over time. But there’s great news for people who miss having sex with their partners: if you stay married to the same person, you will experience a slight rebound, after 50 years of not so hot and heavy marital bliss.
This is one of the main discoveries of the study, “Marital Characteristics and the Sexual Relationships of U.S. Older Adults,” published in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior, which looked at the marriages and sexual behaviors of 1,656 married adults ages 57-85. Another interesting discovery is that people who are remarried don’t have have sex as frequently at the beginning of their marriages as those who are married for the first time.
The researchers offered various untested theories to try to explain the results. Samuel Stroope, a former Baylor researcher and current assistant professor of sociology at Louisiana State University hypothesizes:
It may be that the permanency of the relationship contributes to sexual relations picking up a bit at the end…. Growing old as a couple, with the experience and knowledge that come with that, may play a part. You are able to learn about your partner and build on that over time. You may have a higher level of trust when you feel that your spouse isn’t going to go anywhere. The expectation that the relationship will continue may give you more reason to invest in the relationship — including in sexual aspects of the relationship. As people age, they tend to be more even-keeled, which may help cut down on marital conflict and facilitate regular sexual activity into advanced age.
As for the less frequent sex experienced at the beginning of second marriages, Stroope surmised, “It may be that those who have been married in the past may not have as strong of a sense of permanence or lasting investment.”
The bad news for those looking forward to an uptick in sex half a century later, is that a relatively small number of people actually stay alive or married to the same person for that long.
2. Penis Reduction Surgery Not Expected to Become a Popular Craze
Ron Albertson of Blaine, Missouri reported having penis reduction surgery in 1996. But that was in Waiting for Guffman, one of the greatest comedies ever made… ever, and not actually a true story. Fast forward two decades, and we have the first man to actually undergo penis reduction surgery in real life. The operation was performed in Florida on an unidentified 17-year-old whose penis was 7 inches long and 10 inches wide. The penis was also misshapen due to priapism, or painful prolonged erections.
In an exclusive interview that appeared on The Rachel Maddow show on Monday, U.S. Supreme Court Justice, feminist hero, and Tumblr sensation Ruth Bader Ginsburg talked to MSNBC’s Irin Carmon, sharing her thoughts on abortion, her push-up routine, and how she describes President in Obama in one word.
See the video here…
Here are some of the greatest moments from their discussion…
On unconscious bias:
…what’s still with us and harder to deal with is what I call unconscious bias. And my best example is the symphony orchestra. When I was growing up, one never saw a woman in the symphony orchestra, except perhaps playing the harp. People who should have known better like The New York Times critic, Howard Taubman said, “You could put a blindfold on him and he could tell you whether it’s a woman playing the piano or a man.”
Someone had the simple idea, “Let’s drop a curtain. Let’s drop a curtain between the people who are auditioning and the people who are judging.” And almost overnight, there was a sea change. Once the curtain was dropped, the testers couldn’t tell whether it was a man – or a woman. And they made their judgments based on the quality of the performance.
Some years ago, when I was telling this story, a young violinist told me, “You left out something.” “Well, what? What did I leave out?” “You left out that we auditioned shoeless, so they won’t hear a woman’s heels behind the curtain.” That device of the dropped curtain isn’t so easy to duplicate in other areas.
On abortion access:
It’s not true that it’s [abortion] inaccessible to women of means. And that’s the crying shame. We will never see a day when women of means are not able to get a safe abortion in this country…. It hurts women who lack the means to go someplace else… all the restrictions, they operate against the woman who doesn’t have freedom to move, to go where she is able to get safely what she wants.
On how she does 20 pushups: “We do ten at a time. And then I breathe for a bit and do the second set.”
On what she hopes young women take away from her work:
I would like them to have the enthusiasm that we had in the ’70s – determining that the law should catch up to the changes that have occurred in society, changes in the way people whatever, the realization that no one should be held back, boy or girl – because of gender, artificial gender barriers. That everyone should be – in the words of a wonderful song that Ms. Magazine popularized, everyone should be free to be you and me.
On the one word that comes to mind when she hears the name President Obama: “Sympathy. That’s a French word. It means more than sympathetic. It means who cares about other people.”
Read the rest of the interview here.
katiehalper.com 