Sex Education in the City

Let's see what we learn from this article on sex education in city schools:

1) Some parents and religious leaders are outraged that schools plan to teach evidence-based information.

2) Despite the name, Fox "News" appears to be an entertainment program.

3) City officials are unfamiliar with the abstinence method of birth control.

4) Some parents want schools to offer abstinence-only indoctrination sessions as an alternative to education classes.

5) The Chinese government is incompetent.

6) Our government, not to be outdone in the incompetence department, wasted more than one billion dollars on abstinence-only indoctrination programs.

7) Last, but not least, President Obama magnanimously doled out a $250 million pay off, earmarked to undermine public health, to appease opponents of his health insurance reform.

"It is a disaster for Libyan women"

Rebel Libyan Dude in Charge: We won! Tyrant dead, country free, time to move on. Most pressing order of business ...

Libyans: Um, security, a functioning government?

RLDC: No!

Libyans: Economy?

RLDC: Pfft!

Libyans: Health, education, infrastructure?

RLDC: Don't be silly, people. First and foremost ... wait for it ... here, I'll give you a hint ... has to do with the law of divorce and marriage I've just abolished ... women lose the right to keep the family home if they divorce, huzzah!

Libya Steps Out of Woods, Right Onto Edge of Deep, Festering Well

Talk about an inauspicious start in the newly freed Libya:

The transitional government leader Mustafa Abdul-Jalil set out a vision for the post-Gadhafi future with an Islamist tint, saying that Islamic Sharia law would be the "basic source" of legislation in the country and that existing laws that contradict the teachings of Islam would be nullified. In a gesture that showed his own piety, he urged Libyans not to express their joy by firing in the air, but rather to chant "Allahu Akbar," or God is Great. He then stepped aside and knelt to offer a brief prayer of thanks.

Is Michael Borg Married?

Or, for that matter, has he ever met and interacted with any women? I ask because, based on his public statements, it appears Michael Borg is unaware that women happen to be people:

He shot his kids - then tucked them into bed.

Police revealed Wednesday that the Westchester lawyer who wiped out his family in a twisted murder-suicide used a 12-gauge shotgun to blast his pajama-clad children.

Samuel Friedlander, who was in the midst of a bitter divorce, fired into the bodies of sleeping 10-year-old Molly and 8-year-old Gregory in their Cross River home.

...

Friedlander, 50, used a table or chair leg to kill his estranged wife, Amy, 46, during the bloodbath early Tuesday.

"We believe she was bludgeoned in the bedroom," Kopy said. "We believe a struggle occurred. It was a struggle that cost her her life."

After he killed his wife and kids, he went down to the unfinished basement and fatally shot himself with the Remington 870. He did not leave a note.

The couple were going through a divorce and living in separate bedrooms in the gray Colonial-style house, which was on the market for $799,000.

They were due in court Thursday, but the purpose was unclear.

Michael Borg, a close friend of Friedlander, said the 11-year marriage was "rocky from the beginning" because Amy's family did not like Sam.

He said rumblings of a divorce started about two years ago and the husband felt his wife was trying to turn the children against him and that he would lose custody.

He claimed she once took the children's clothes to stop them from attending a bar mitzvah with their father, and stopped them from going to a seder with him.

"I think it was just the constant berating," Borg said. "Everything he did she criticized. She belittled him in front of the kids."

He said if Friedlander had only killed his wife "I would have baked him a cake with a file in it" but he could not imagine why his "gentle" law-school buddy killed the kids.

"I can't figure that out. The only thing I could think of is when he killed her, the switch went," Borg said. "It wasn't Sam who killed those kids. It was his body, but it wasn't him."

Get It Together XO Jane! Every Pharmacy In New York Is Out of Plan B For a Very Rood Reason! Every One!

This article is intended as satire, I think. Unfortunately, it's poorly executed satire and the topic is birth control. That's a dangerous combination in dire need of a remedy, or two.

Here's mine:

Plan B isn't pining for the fjords, it's no more

Pharmacies are out of Plan B because Plan B has been discontinued by its manufacturer quite some time ago. So forget about Plan B and familiarize yourselves with the available emergency contraceptive pill (ECP) brands.

Next Choice and Postinor

Next Choice and Postinor (outside the US) are the equivalent of Plan B -- 2 pill levonorgestrel (LNG), a progestin, dose brands available without a prescription and on Amazon. Take both pills at the same time (disregard label instructions), as soon as possible after the act of unprotected intercourse, up to 120 hrs/5 days. The sooner you use it, the more effective it is.

Plan B One-Step, i-Pill/Nextime, and Postinor 1/Postinor2 Unidosis

Plan B One-Step, i-Pill/Nextime, and Postinor 1/Postinor2 Unidosis are 1 pill LNG dose brands also available without a prescription and on Amazon (Plan B One-Step and i-Pill/Nextime). The instructions for use are the same as for the 2 pill dose brands -- take the pill as soon as possible, up to 120 hrs/5 days. The sooner you use it, the better.

ella

This a newer type of ECP, a 1 pill ulipristal acetate (UA), a second generation progesterone receptor modulator, dose brand available by prescription only. Have your physician write an advance prescription, fill it, and keep it handy to use when you inevitably find yourself in need of it on that long holiday weekend at 3AM. Same instructions for use; possibly more effective than the LNG brands when used after 72 hrs.

*Emergency* Contraception Pill

ECP postcoital birth control is only to be used in an emergency for the simple reason that it's not as effective as the other available methods when used on a regular basis.

The most effective regular birth control methods are the IUD and the implant.

Bottom line

Forget Plan B, remember Plan B One-Step, i-Pill / Nextime, Next Choice, Postinor, Postinor 1/Postinor2 Unidosis, and ella. Don't substitute ECP for regular birth control. And, last but not least, even in emergencies avoid attempts at satirical articles on birth control.

Bishop Robert Finn and His Merry Band of Catholics: A Timeline

Rev. Shawn Ratigan

(via CBSNews)

In 2009

Bishop Robert Finn settles lawsuits with 47 plaintiffs in sexual abuse cases for $10 million and agree[s] to a long list of preventive measures, among them to report anyone suspected of being a pedophile immediately to law enforcement authorities.

May 2010

Parish principal raises concerns, in a written report, that the Rev. Shawn Ratigan [is] behaving inappropriately around children.

Monsignor Robert Murphy, the diocese's vicar general, receives the principal's concerns, speaks with Ratigan about setting boundaries with children, and gives Bishop Finn a verbal summary of the concerns and his meeting with the priest.

[Finn acknowledged that the parish principal raised concerns in May 2010, and admitted that he didn't read the principal's report until Spring 2011.]

December 2010

A computer technician finds on Ratigan's laptop hundreds of what he called "disturbing" images of children, most of them fully clothed with the focus on their crotch areas, and a series of pictures of a 2- to 3-year-old girl with her genitals exposed. (emphasis mine)

Diocese officials report the photos -- hundreds of them -- to Monsignor Robert Murphy.

Murphy does not report the hundreds of photos to the police. Instead he called a police captain who is a member of the diocese's independent review board and described a single photo of a nude child that was not sexual in nature. (emphasis mine)

The police captain, without viewing the photo, says he was advised that although such a picture might meet the definition of child pornography, it probably wouldn't be investigated or prosecuted.

[Finn has acknowledged that he knew of the existence of the photos last December but did not turn them over to the police until May.]

May 2011

Murphy tells police Ratigan's laptop had contained hundreds of photos.

Rev. Shawn Ratigan is charged with three state child pornography counts, and in June with 13 federal counts of producing, possessing and attempting to produce child porn, [most recently during an Easter egg hunt in Spring 2011].

August 2011

A civil lawsuit is filed that asserts that between December 2010 and May 2011, Father Ratigan attended children’s birthday parties, spent weekends in the homes of parish families, hosted the Easter egg hunt and presided, with the bishop’s permission, at a girl’s First Communion.

October 2011

Bishop Robert Finn and the Kansas City-St. Joseph Catholic Diocese are charged with one count each of failing to report suspected child abuse, a misdemeanor. The indictment says the bishop failed to report suspicions against the priest from Dec. 16, 2010, when the photos were discovered, to May 11, 2011, when the diocese turned them over to police:

During that period Bishop Finn and the diocese had reason to suspect that the priest, the Rev. Shawn Ratigan, might subject a child to abuse, the indictment said, citing “previous knowledge of concerns regarding Father Ratigan and children; the discovery of hundreds of photographs of children on Father Ratigan’s laptop, including a child’s naked vagina, upskirt images and other images focused on the crotch; and violations of restrictions placed on Father Ratigan.” (emphasis mine)

Currently

Rev. Shawn Ratigan has pleaded not guilty and remains jailed.

Lawyers for the diocese and Bishop Robert Finn pleaded not guilty. Finn said that he and the diocese had given “complete cooperation” to law enforcement. He also pointed to steps he had taken since the scandal first became public, which included commissioning a report to look into the case and reinforcing procedures for handling allegations of abuse.

Bottom Line

Fingers crossed Bishop Finn beats the charge and is soon back to being given a prominent role, together with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, in crafting women's reproductive health legislation. Because who better to protect women from themselves than men whose religious beliefs make them competent to do a bang up job protecting children from pedophiles?


(source articles here and here)

Nursing Student Ben Cochran Responds

Nursing student Ben Cochran offers a response and puts to rest the fears of all those who thought he might be a mediocre satirist, and the hopes of those who thought he would be inclined to remedy his professional incompetence:

If you were among the many who were offended by my column last week, then let me take this opportunity to offer you a heartfelt apology. I am well aware that my stance was not a popular one. As an Opinion columnist, my primary goal is to generate informed discussion. To that end, I intentionally try to be provocative. As such, sometimes my columns offend people. Please understand that my intent was not to cause people to become enraged. I simply hoped they would disagree with the expressed opinion and state reasons for that disagreement. I wanted to see a lively debate, and hopefully, learn something in the process. The position I argued for is a valid opinion by virtue of the fact that it is an opinion. Unfortunately, my word choice was not the best. I cannot believe I said “conscientious” when I really meant “conscious,” among other things. From now on, I will take greater care to exercise better judgment. As always, your responses are welcomed and encouraged.

Based on this response it looks like Mr. Cochran is aware of his incompetence but is unconcerned about, and somewhat amused by, it. As such, those in charge of his education should strongly consider the possibility that even intensive remedial training might not be enough to allow Mr. Cochran to, some day in the distant future, become fit to provide patient care.

It would be a disservice to both Mr. Cochran and his future patients to continue to pretend that someone with his severe deficiencies will become a competent nurse.

Clueless Politicians Award Medal to Enemy Agent

How incompetent are our politicians, you ask? Well, they managed to award a medal to an unregistered Pakistani ISI agent operating illegally in our country:

The night should have been a coup for Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai. Once a poor villager from halfway around the world, Fai had become the go-to man in Washington, D.C., for his cause, Kashmir, the Himalayan region long caught in a tug of war between Pakistan and India.

...

The FBI was monitoring almost every move Fai made, every email he sent, every call he received. Investigators believed Fai's main donors were not well-meaning idealists but members of the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, or ISI, the most powerful of Pakistan's spy agencies.

Within weeks, the Justice Department would send Fai a letter of warning. Within months, he would be pulled over by New York police with $35,000 in cash in his car. And by the next year, Fai would be arrested, the unlikely central character in a scheme by a foreign government to pay more than $4 million to sway U.S. politicians and policy on Kashmir, the Justice Department says.

...

In 2007, Fai was given the American Spirit Medal, the highest award from the National Republican Senatorial Committee, for being committed to conservative principles.

...

After his arrest, Fai sat down for another interview with Linden [an FBI agent].

This time, Fai admitted that he had been affiliated with the ISI for 15 years, and that no one on the Kashmiri American Council board had known the group was funded by the ISI, Kromberg said at the detention hearing. Fai also allegedly wasn't just bankrolled by Pakistani spies. Instead, Kromberg said, Fai "agreed that the ISI directs him, Mr. Fai, to go to certain conferences and to report on certain people, including some that were mentioned in the criminal complaint."

Ah, the Things Religious People Do For Love...

Of God, that is:

In the most horrifying terror scheme, al-Asiri created a bomb that was strapped between the legs of kid brother Abdullah - who blew himself up in a suicide mission.

The surviving brother was hardly shaken by his sibling's explosive end in a failed try at assassinating Saudi Prince Mohammad bin Nayef.

"Come see my brother Abdullah's body parts," al-Asiri told an AQAP Web magazine after the death. "May he enjoy it, he was killed the way he hoped for and his body was torn for the love of God."

Israeli Court Grants Citizen Right to Self-Determine His Religious Identity

Did you know that Israel registers the religion and ethnicity of its citizens?

Israel registers its citizens according to both their religion and their ethnicity, although it does not include an "Israeli" ethnicity, labelling its Jewish citizens as of "Jewish" ethnicity.

And while newborns, apparently, can be registered as "without religion", it's not enough for adults to just ask to have their religious registration changed from "Jewish" to "without religion":

Kaniuk [an author and veteran of the of the 1948 War of Independence], 81, sought to equate his standing to that of his grandson, born last year, who is registered as "without religion" at the Population Registry.

The infant was originally classified as a Christian American, like his mother. Kaniuk's daughter was born in Israel but is defined by the Interior Ministry as an American Christian because her own mother was born in the United States and is a Christian.

After some discussion, Population Registry officials agreed to change the baby's status. When Kaniuk requested the same change be made to his own religious status, officials said he needed to obtain court approval for the amendment.

Mr. Kaniuk asked the court to allow him to change his religious status and the court granted his request:

After brief deliberations on the eve of last week's Rosh Hashanah holiday, a Tel Aviv judge ruled that Israeli author Yoram Kaniuk could register his official religious status as "without religion."

"Freedom from religion is a freedom derived from the right to human dignity, which is protected by the Basic Law on Human Dignity and Freedom," Judge Gideon Ginat of the Tel Aviv District Court wrote in his unusual ruling.

He went on to say that he believed that the Basic Laws, which function as constitution law in Israel, and in particular the Basic Law on Human Dignity and Freedom, alleviates from the plaintiff the burden of proof in demanding to be defined as religionless.

"The only question that must be weighed is whether the plaintiff proved the seriousness of his intentions ... I see no need to impose on the plaintiff any burden with the exception of bringing his request before the court," Ginat wrote.

Understandably, Mr. Kaniuk was thrilled with the decision:

"This is a ruling of historic proportions," Kaniuk said to Haaretz yesterday, with audible emotion. "The court granted legitimacy to every person to live by their conscience in this land, in ruling that human dignity and freedom means a person can determine their own identity and definition. In this way I can be without religion but Jewish by nationality.

So a win on the [non-] religious front but a continued lack of clarity ("Jewish" vs. "Israeli"), at least for me, on the nationality one.

Nursing Student Ben Cochran

UPDATE: Ben Cochran responds.

In all his glory and my reaction:

Dear [Dean],

I am an Ob/Gyn and a medblogger and I am emailing you to alert you to the fact that one of your nursing students, Ben Cochran, appears to be incompetent. Based on his article, Mr. Cochran:

People go to the doctor when they’re sick.

1) Is unfamiliar with the concept of preventive medicine and all that it entails.

What girl have you ever heard of that goes to a doc in the box for birth control?

2) Has no understanding of student healthcare.

If you have a lung problem, you see a pulmonologist. If you have a heart problem, you see a cardiologist. If you have a cunt problem, you see a gynecologist.

3) Knows nothing about the scope of practice of Pediatricians, Family Practitioners, Nurse Practitioners, or, for that matter, Ob/Gyns.

If you have a cunt problem, you see a gynecologist....Go read your Redbook in the lobby of a specialist while you get a mani as you wait to get your hatchet wound inspected....Please take your gaping holes elsewhere for medical services, and leave the real health issues to those that actually belong on a college campus.

4) Doesn't have even a rudimentary understanding of the anatomy and physiology of the female reproductive tract or the morbidity and mortality of pregnancy.

First of all, not even porn stars need that much birth control.

5) Is stumped by the mechanism of action, and the indications for use, of [hormonal] birth control.

Second of all, do you mean to seriously tell me that I’ve been sitting here in misery for the last half an hour just so that this gaggle of preemie sluts could get a free pass on harlotry?...I don't take issue with sex mongers. They serve their place. Hell, according to the bible, it's the oldest known profession on earth. So you sultry sex fiends are clearly established, but this is a place of higher being.


6) Is under the mistaken impression that medical competence and professionalism are optional and only apply to patients he deems worthy.

Bottom line: I hope you will consider providing Mr. Cochran with the remedial training he so desperately needs before certifying him competent to render care to any patients.

Thank you for your time,

ema
TheWellTimedPeriod

ETA: Oops, forgot to include the last one:

Look, this is a university—an ivory tower of academic prowess. We don’t need to be handing out birth control left and right especially from an on campus location. This is a bastion for the intellectually competent. If you find your talents to lend themselves to a more base and carnal nature, perhaps this just isn’t the place for you.

7) Provides no data to support his extraordinary claim that men and women who use birth control are academically/intellectually handicapped and do not belong on campus.