I am linking to so many places because I think something very clever happened.
No, I am not addressing the “objectifying” of women as physical beings. I still meet women who want to enter beauty contests. They are usually not counting the money from winning the scholarship.
Once upon a time, when I was between states and between licenses, I actually coached a beauty contest winner. I taught her how to answer the insipid questions beauty pageant hosts ask. Most of them were about what she wanted to do in life. It was not hard for me to research past questions (the internet was already alive and well) and figure out it was helpful to express an interest in helping retarded children. To my utter amazement, before I searched this, I had learned she was actually interested in — helping retarded children. Maybe this says something about beauty pageant contestants.
She was adorable, of course, and came in as first runner-up for Miss California. Read more on Holocaust Survivor Beauty Contest…
Filed under News by on Sep 2nd, 2013. Comment. 
Can you die from a tattoo? You betcha.
I never looked very closely at the literature since getting tattoos on your body is against Jewish law. I remember from Jewish Religious school when I was quite young, having it reamed into y poor little noggin along with a bunch of other stuff, that when God came for the resurrection of the flesh, not only was it a really good idea that you had a little bit of earth from the land of Israel in your pocket (in Boston, tiny sacks of such alleged origin were overpriced at best) but there had to be no, absolutely no, placed-there-on-purpose marks on your body. It would be really bad because you wanted God to know you were the right (strictly Kosher) Jewish body.
Somehow, it seemed to be possible to get by with a scar. I figured it was because if you had an accident, an omniscient God would know about it anyway. Read more on Death By Tattoo…
Filed under Disease, informed consent by on Sep 16th, 2013. Comment.
We are in an era when all reporting — wire services, networks, whatever — looks the way tabloid reporting did when I was small. Aggressive, emotional, mostly verbal renderings of disasters that are meant to strike terror into the heart of the reader. Sometimes, something miraculous or near miraculous. Once in a while in this constellation of stories there is something “inspiring.” We all need inspiration. It is tough to define and highly individualistic.
I actually like this definition more than others: That “feeling of enthusiasm” that makes you “do” or “create” something. Read more on We All Need Inspiration — Here Is Today’s Dose…
Filed under Doctors, Religion by on Sep 26th, 2013. 1 Comment.
Okay, so you don’t care. You tell me you don’t have sex too much and that is kind of like birth control. It isn’t. It might be if it took having sex five times to have a kid, but it only takes one, so you are very likely to get pregnant. Once you get pregnant, the child is your responsibility for life. This should be taken seriously — it isn’t always a bundle of joy and not all “moms” are equipped to handle the stress. If you try to murder the kid you are in worse trouble — yes I have seen girls who have tried that one. Sometimes the baby-daddy will marry you. This does not necessarily mean happiness — you probably never were thinking of him as a baby-daddy anyway, just a guy who wanted sex and you didn’t feel like fighting with him. Maybe it felt good at the time, but that was then and this is now. If you decide to bring up the child on your own, this single-mother bit is no picnic. Sure, you got a cute little baby who loves your breast or bottle or whatever. You might not want to think about it now, but in fifteen years or so, you are at high risk to end up with a juvenile delinquent who puts bricks through windows(or worse) and you are responsible. Read more on (Poor) Substitutes For Birth Control…
Filed under Contraception by on Sep 27th, 2013. Comment.