Thank goodness this is the first Google return for that four-word combination

Dash introduced Empowerment to this last year, so praise and blame is all due to her: As usual, The Midwest Teen Sex Show, a tongue-in-cheek (and a couple other body parts, too) sex ed program contains more sound advice between sight gags than the literature at some higher learning institutions. Very NSFW language and simulated amorousness.

Pres. Wild forum tonight

Actually, in like an hour and a half, at 7 p.m. on the first floor of the AMU. Mea culpa.

Do try to make it; the event really is a unique one to the college experience. Let the highest on high hear what a real student has to say.

Cultural artist explores intersection of religion and homosexuality

This looked cool.  Artist, Lloyd Newson’s new piece, “To Be Straight With You,” involves both dance and spoken word. From the NY Times:

The piece…looks at religion and sexuality through the words of more than 85 people interviewed in Britain.

Ideas for the piece, which features a multiethnic cast, began brewing many years ago, precipitated by a gay pride parade in the early ’90s in the Brixton neighborhood of London. Mr. Newson and his partner at the time, who was Indian, participated but felt unsafe, experiencing hostility and abuse from that predominantly Afro-Caribbean neighborhood.

For his new project Mr. Newson interviewed the head of a gay police association, who said that despite more relaxed attitudes and the advent of civil partnerships, “if you walk down the street holding your partner’s hand, you’re just as likely to get a bottle in the back of your head as before the legislation.”

Mr. Newson said, “It’s an interesting point, if you make homosexuality visible — like race, like disability, like gender — then it is extraordinary how unsafe most gay men feel.”

“To Be Straight With You” was also inspired by a British television program about gay Muslims, in which only 1 of the 200 participants was “happy to have his face shown,” as Mr. Newson put it, and the battle over gay members of the clergy in the Anglican Church. These events, along with religious protests in Britain about “Jerry Springer: The Opera” and the scandal over the evangelical preacher Ted Haggard in the United States, all contributed to Mr. Newson’s desire to explore the intersection of religion and homosexuality.

“To Be Straight With You” received positive reviews when it had its British premiere in April. Writing in The Times of London, Donald Hutera called it “a stirring, possibly angering and sometimes saddening collage of views”; Lyn Gardner, in The Guardian, said that despite being “visually overbusy,” the work was “a hard-hitting and passionate 80 minutes that expresses what is often left unsaid.”

Are young evangelicals less conservative than their parents?

Even if the answer is yes, that wouldn’t mean they are more liberal, whatever that word means nowadays. In any case, they are less enthusiastic for McCain,surprising in light of his choice of Palin, who many see as the culminationof twenty years of organizing on the Christian right’s behalf. From Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research:

Young evangelical Christians are less likely to support McCain’s candidacy. McCain still wins young evangelicals overall, but the margin closes to 62-30 McCain among white evangelicals under age 30 compared to 73-22 McCain among those over the age of 30.

Young white evangelical Christians also are less likely to give McCain a positive favorably rating than white evangelicals over age 30. Young white evangelical women are less positive about Sarah Palin. White evangelical women under age 30 give Sarah Palin surprisingly low favorability ratings. This dissent contrasts sharply with white evangelical women over age 30 who are among her most ardent supporters.

Good news and bad news:

Young evangelical Christians display generational differences on some key social issues. A majority of younger white evangelicals support some form of legal recognition for civil unions or marriage for same-sex couples. Older evangelicals remain strongly opposed. At the same time, young evangelicals are as solidly pro-life on abortion as older evangelicals.

Bailout fail-out smokeout

A list of what representatives voted yea and nay for the bailout. For real this time.

Apparently Sarah Palin has also forgotten 9th grade civics

Allegedly, in a yet-undisclosed clip from the Couric interview, Sarah Palin couldn’t discuss any other Supreme Court decision besides Roe v. Wade:

Of concern to McCain’s campaign, however, is a remaining and still-undisclosed clip from Palin’s interview with Couric last week that has the political world buzzing.

The Palin aide, after first noting how “infuriating” it was for CBS to purportedly leak word about the gaffe, revealed that it came in response to a question about Supreme Court decisions.

After noting Roe vs. Wade, Palin was apparently unable to discuss any major court cases.

More interesting was her ongoing response:

There was no verbal fumbling with this particular question as there was with some others, the aide said, but rather silence.

Yesterday, a pundit at The National Review bemoaned the editing process by which Palin’s interviews were presented to the public, and called for all subsequent press meetings to be broadcast live. I say, go right ahead; let everyone see what a sham McCain’s trying to put passed the country that supposedly comes first.

Update: Wasilla charged victim’s insurance companies for rape kits

Via Slate:

The Wasilla police chief, Charlie Fannon, is on record as having tried to bill victims’ insurance companies, not the victims themselves, for the rape kits. In other towns in Alaska, hospitals were trying to bill victims, prompting an Alaska state law forbidding the practice. If this practice still seems creepy or exclusive to macho, rough-and-tumble Alaska, well, it happens to be the practice in other states, too, like North Carolina (until recently) and … Illinois.

Still, these states–North Carolina, Illinois, and Alaska–fell short of their obligation as a capital “s” State by placing an undo burden on private [entities/persons] for providing services necessary to the positive identification of assailants of violent crime.

Slate hits rock bottom

Slate, which maintains a feminist blog, has a cover story on the “Sexy Puritainism” of Sarah Palin.

At least they could have gotten the sects right; Palin was raised Catholic and now attends anArminian Pentecostal church, and Puritains are of course Calvinists.

Review: “Reproductive Health and You,” a pamphlet from MU’s Student Health Center

The pamphlet starts out by stating:

 “The reproductive system is one of the most fragile systems in your body…That’s why it’s important to know and understand the issues that can arise–that way you can better protect yourself.”

Oh, so one can protect themselves by [flips through pamphlet]…erm…Condoms? No…Testing partners for communicable diseases? No…Mutually frank communication? No…But what…?

Ah! Positive thinking! Apparently, “The right attitude can mean good things for your health.” I’m not making this up:

Are you a glass-half-full or a glass half-empty type of person? If you tend to live your life on the optimistic side, that’s good. You may get a number of helth benefits. The fact is, studies have shown that your personality (whether positive or negative) can affect how well you live–even how long you live.

Having the right attitude may help you:

-Reduce stress

-Build greater resistance against the common cold…

-[and] Cope better with high-risk pregnancies

…which will help, when Health Services gives you no advice or materials to use to avoid pregnancy.

The pamphlet also discusses HPV, but neglects even to mention it’s sexually transmitted, or that there is a vaccine, let alone that it’s avaliable at health services. The pamphlet’s authors don’t even proscribe sex; they go out of their way to ignore it.

WA State bar unanymously supports marriage equality

From the Examiner:

OLYMPIA, Wash. (Map, News) – The Washington State Bar Association is now on favor of equal marriage rights for same-sex couples.

The resolution was adopted unanimously last week by the group’s 14-member Board of Governors. Board president Mark Johnson of Seattle says there was considerable opposition and he knows some will be distressed, but the leadership felt action was justified.