FRIDAY, New material on ifeminists front page
Topic: Individualist Feminism
Source: ifeminists
An editorial by Wendy McElroy entitled "Abortion A libertarian defense of the right to choose" has been added to the front page at the upper right-hand side. REMEMBER to scroll down the center newsfeed to access the Commentary Section that is updated daily. Enjoy!

Andrew Young imprisoned over sex tape
Topic: Porn, Prostitution, and Sexual Freedom
Source: Huffington Post
On Tuesday, former John Edwards aide Andrew Young and his wife Cheri were ordered to spend up to 75 days in jail for contempt of court. The contempt charge stems from the couple's handling of an alleged sex tape filmed during Edwards' campaign featuring the former presidential candidate and his mistress Rielle Hunter. Hunter sued Young for possession of the purported sex tape, which Young claims involves Edwards performing oral sex on a pregnant Hunter. The judge handling the case, Abraham Penn Jones, now believes that the Youngs are withholding relevant items from the court including additional copies of the tape, ABC News reported. (03/10/10)

UK, Shocking failure of Child Protection Services
Topic: Children and Family
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
A father was free to use his daughters as sex slaves for three decades because more than 100 care workers were too scared to stop him, a devastating report revealed yesterday. The two sisters suffered more than 1,000 rapes, became pregnant 18 times and had seven children by their perverted father. Yet for ten years they were on the Child Protection Register, supposedly being monitored by social services. Astonishingly, care workers were aware of repeated allegations of incest but did nothing because they wrongly feared they could be sued for breaching confidentiality. (03/11/10)

First gay marriages in Mexico City
Topic: Gay/Lesbian Issues
Source: Associated Press
Two glowing brides in matching white gowns and four other same-sex couples have made history in Mexico City as they wed under Latin America's first law that explicitly approves gay marriage. Mexico City's legislature passed the first law explicitly giving gay marriages the same status as heterosexual ones in December. The legislation also allows same-sex couples to adopt children. For now the law applies only to residents of Mexico City, though a marriage performed in one state must be recognised in the rest of the country. (03/12/10)

Kansas City to close 26 schools
Topic: Children and Family
Source: Christian Science Monitor
Education experts say they can’t recall when so many of a district's schools have been closed. The Kansas City school district has struggled for years with declining enrollment and integration issues. The board of education voted 5 to 4 Wednesday to close 26 schools and several other sites, including its headquarters. The consolidation will also involve cutting hundreds of teaching positions and support staff. The closure decision has been “difficult ... and emotional” for the community, superintendent John Covington acknowledged at a press conference Thursday. But he and the board decided that his “Right Sizing” plan is necessary to save about $50 million and stave off bankruptcy. [Ed.: this is likely to occur in many cities.] (03/11/10)

ACLU sues over lesbian closing of prom
Topic: Gay/Lesbian Issues
Source: CNN
A Mississippi high school faces a lawsuit over its decision to cancel its prom rather than allow a lesbian high school student to attend with her girlfriend. The lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, alleges that officials at Itawamba Agricultural High School in Fulton, Mississippi, are violating the student's First Amendment right to freedom of expression. The ACLU asked the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi to reinstate the prom. (03/11/10)

UC San Diego ends unconst. funding freeze
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: FIRE
In a victory for freedom of the press on campus, the student government of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) voted last night to end an ongoing moratorium on funding for student media. The vote restores funding for student media organizations and makes no changes to the current policy governing student media. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has been working with student media to end the funding freeze. [Ed.: FIRE is one of the most dynamic forces for individual rights in America today.] (03/11/10)

ACORN suit v. hooker, pimp dismissed
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: Big Government
A state court in Baltimore has dismissed ACORN’s lawsuit against James O’Keefe, Hannah Giles, and Breitbart.com LLC after the plaintiffs failed to serve the complaint on the defendants within Maryland’s 120-day limit. It was with great fanfare that ACORN, along with two recently-fired employees of its Baltimore office, sued last September over thesurreptitious taping of the employees advising O’Keefe and Giles on running a prostitution business out of a house. ACORN’s general counsel, Arthur Schwartz, told the Washington Post at the time that the defendants, young filmmakers O’Keefe and Giles, plus Andrew Breitbart’s Breitbart.com LLC, which disseminated the videos, had committed “clear violations of Maryland law” against audio recording without consent from all parties. (03/11/10)

Iran slaps travel ban on celebrated poetess
Topic: Violence Against Women
Source: Yahoo News
Iran's most celebrated living poetess Simin Behbahani faced a travel ban on Monday after being prevented from leaving for France for International Women's Day ceremonies, an opposition website said. Behbahani, 82, is also a feminist advocating better rights for Iranian women who face several inequalities under the Sharia-based law in place in the Islamic republic since its 1979 revolution. Officials confiscated Behbahani's passport at Tehran's Imam Khomeini airport Monday morning as she was set to leave and told her to follow up the matter through the revolutionary court. (03/08/10)

PA, sexting youths will be prosecuted
Topic: Children and Family
Source: Public Opinion Online
Franklin County District Attorney Matthew D. Fogal warned parents and students Tuesday about the dangers of sexting and the devastating consequences for those found guilty of the crime. During their presentation, Fogal and Carbaugh said that anyone possessing or disseminating nude pictures of juveniles is committing a felony. If a juvenile has such pictures, or is sharing them by cell phone, he or she is also guilty of a felony, they said. [Ed. they are brutally ruining the lives of foolish children under the guise of protecting them.] (03/10/10)

Nebraska prenatal bill stirs fight over immigration
Topic: Children and Family
Source: Womens Enews
Nebraska votes this month on a bill that would provide prenatal care for all pregnant, low-income women regardless of immigrant status. The governor says he plans to veto, because tax-funded programs should only benefit full citizens. The bill is also backed by organizations that span the spectrum of opinions on fetal and maternal rights. [Ed.: the article is pro-tax funded care for such women. I expect many more bills of this type to arise, especially as the economy continues to decline.] (03/10/10)

FDA, Lift ban on gays donating blood
Topic: Gay/Lesbian Issues
Source: Medical News Today
"The time has come to change a policy that imposes a lifetime ban on donating blood for any man who has had gay sex since 1977, 18 senators said Thursday. ... The lawmakers stressed that the science has changed dramatically since the ban was established in 1983 at the advent of the HIV-AIDS crisis. Today donated blood must undergo two different, highly accurate tests that make the risk of tainted blood entering the blood supply virtually zero, they said." (03/08/10)

The market against race and sex discrimination
Topic: Gender Discrimination
Source: Christian Science Monitor
Smaller minority and female-run firms are seeing a boost in the tough economy, but not because of affirmative action or political correctness. They can work more efficiently, for less money than big white-male-dominated firms. This is exactly what free-market economists would predict. If minorities and women are insufficiently valued by some employers, they’ll go compete with those employers and win. (03/09/10)

District sues parents to shut them up!
Topic: Children and Family
Source: WorldNetDaily
A school district in Arizona has filed a lawsuit against a handful of taxpayers seeking a court ruling that they have no right to ask for public records, sue the district or even complain to anyone about the educational institution's activities. The action brought by officials with the Congress, Ariz., district, against Jean Warren, Jennifer Renee Hoge, Cyndi Regis and Barbara Rejon apparently is a precedent. (03/11/10)

CA anti gay state senator admits he is gay
Topic: Gay/Lesbian Issues
Source: Boston Herald
Republican state Sen. Roy Ashburn said today he is gay, ending days of speculation that began after his arrest last week for investigation of driving under the influence. Ashburn, who consistently voted against gay rights measures during his 14 years in statewide office, came out in an interview with KERN radio in Bakersfield, the area he represents. Ashburn said he felt compelled to address rumors that he had visited a gay nightclub near the Capitol before his DUI arrest. (03/08/10)

.xxx domain scares adult industry
Topic: Porn, Prostitution, and Sexual Freedom
Source: Brisbane Times
Plans to introduce a ".xxx" domain for adult internet sites "scares the hell" out of Western Australia's leading adult entertainment entrepreneur. While supporters of the plan believe it would create an online red-light district where porn sites can set up shop away from the wandering eyes of children and teenagers, the porn industry claims every site with the .xxx suffix could be blocked by government web filters in the future. Also, other porn sites would be extremely reluctant to give up their .com addresses in favour of moving to an .xxx "ghetto", according to Australian Sex Party convener Fiona Patten. (03/11/10)

No racism just kids being kids
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: Spiked
Author: Helene Guldberg
Teachers in Britain are obliged, under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000, to record the number of racist incidents in their schools. This has resulted in the reporting of an estimated 250,000 such incidents, and race relations officials claim this is just the tip of the iceberg. Yet Adrian Hart, a community filmmaker and tutor, argues in The Myth of Racist Kids: Anti-Racist Policy and the Regulation of School Life that ‘the notion of racist kids is in large part a myth’. Hart became concerned about today’s anti-bullying and anti-racist policies while working on a government-funded educational film about racism in schools. (03/12/10)

Obama aupports DNA sampling upon arrest
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: Wired
Josh Gerstein over at Politico sent Threat Level his piece underscoring once again President Barack Obama is not the civil-liberties knight in shining armor many were expecting. Gerstein posts a televised interview of Obama and John Walsh of America’s Most Wanted. The nation’s chief executive extols the virtues of mandatory DNA testing of Americans upon arrest, even absent charges or a conviction. Obama said, “It’s the right thing to do” to “tighten the grip around folks” who commit crime. (03/11/10)

Do not let maniacs shape the internet
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: Spiked
Author: Tim Black
Underpinning the panic about social-networking sites being a hotbed of sexual predators and murderers is a broader, state-fostered social anxiety, a sense that we ought not to trust other people – on principle. The language of the official angst-pedlars reflects this. Online, people can too easily hide ‘behind a mask’, as Chapman did; we, the public, are too quick to ‘assume people’s identities’ on social-networking sites. The message is clear: in this ‘jungle of pitfalls and traps’, people are never what they might seem. Our mistake, as adults, as parents, is to trust, to take people as they appear to us rather than as they always potentially are – that is, really dangerous. In effect, the Home Office, police chiefs and a retinue of children’s charities are urging us to suspect others automatically, to see social-networking services as sites of potential harm – always. (03/10/10)

Kids info on state database forever
Topic: Children and Family
Source: WorldNetDaily
Author: Phyllis Schlafly
Far more personal information on students than is necessary is being collected by public schools, according to the Fordham Law School Center on Law and Information Policy, which investigated education records in all 50 states. States are failing to safeguard students' privacy and protect them from data misuse. Some states collect a lot of data that has nothing to do with student test scores, including Social Security numbers, disciplinary records, family wealth indicators, student pregnancies, student mental health, illness and jail sentences. A couple of states record the date of a student's last medical exam and a student's weight. The Fordham study reported that this collection of information is often not compliant with a 35-year-old law, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). The only punishment for a FERPA violation is for the Department of Education to withhold federal education funding, but the department has never done that. (03/10/10)