My dear friend Alison is having her birthday party tonight and it promises to be unforgettable! For the occasion, I tried to get this entry added to the Urban Dictionary.

Alisoned

If you go to a party and are still covered in glitter the next day, you’ve been Alisoned.

Example:  I think Katy Perry needs to add a new line to her song “Last Friday Night:”

Glitter in my hair, got Alisoned & didn’t care!

They “decided not to publish it.”  Crazy … because it’s too much an insider definition, I guess.  Well, now you’re in the know.

And I fully expect to be Alisoned tonight.

Just read Paul Krugman’s New York Times opinion on the GOP “war on logic.” I know that both sides of the political spectrum can exaggerate to make their points … so I looked into Rep. John Boehner’s white paper on repealing health care reform.  Wow.

Krugman notes:

This week the House is expected to pass H.R. 2, the Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act — its actual name. But Republicans have a small problem: they claim to care about budget deficits, yet the Congressional Budget Office says that repealing last year’s health reform would increase the deficit.

So how do Republicans get around that?  They say the Congressional Budget Office is biased (except when they’re quoting them).  And they write up their own analysis to show that health care reform actually increases the deficit.

Honestly, I think most folks acknowledge that the health care reform bill ultimately did more to make sure people could get health insurance and prevent insurance companies from denying coverage to folks with pre-existing conditions (according to this report, that’s > 50% of people UNDER 65).  Didn’t do nearly enough to address health care costs.

But repealing it?  Just going to make things more of a mess.

What I find rather appalling is the way it’s being presented.  Speaker Boehner’s report is titled:  OBAMACARE: A BUDGET-BUSTING, JOB-KILLING HEALTH CARE LAW.   The bill itself is called “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act.”  Really.

Mind you, this is from the Speaker of the House, not from the Republican National Committee.

I just wonder how this is going to work out for the Republicans.  Already I know a bunch of college aged kids who finally can have insurance coverage again until health care reform’s provisions.  And think of ALL the people who have and/or were born with pre-existing conditions who will be able to get insurance under health care reform.

Old school Republican.  Weren’t we the party of ideas?  What’s the idea behind this?

So, new study out on how teen sexual relationships affect academic performance.   Bottom line as noted in the AP story:

A provocative new study has found that teens in committed relationships do no better or worse in school than those who don’t have sex.

Of course, the article has to go to the Family Research Council for a contrary view … and they provide it by saying:

The Council “would not interpret less severe educational impacts on students involved in `committed’ sexual relationships as a green light for comprehensive” sex education.

I wonder what WOULD the Council need before they agreed to give kids the life-saving information they’ll ALL need some day?  Just curious.

But here is the part that caught my eye:

Compared with virgins, teens who have casual sex had lower Grade Point Averages, cared less about school and experienced more problems in school. For example, female teens who have flings had GPAs that were 0.16 points lower than abstinent teens. Male teens who have casual sex had GPAs that were 0.30 points lower than those who do not have sex.

In other words, casual sex is TWICE as bad for boys as it is for girls.  Think the Family Research Council and other groups promoting abstinence-only-until-marriage will start focusing on judging teen boys for “having flings”?

Committed relationships can help teens in school

Sexuality is such a radicalized issue in USA and we don’t meaningfully talk about it in #sexed #sextech

This twitter post from the #sextech conference echos a presentation I did for Ignite Reno.  So, it has prompted me to finally post my slides!

And to implore you to talk dirty to your elected officials!

Photo by Kenton Maser

Here is what I find so shocking:

The number of maternal deaths that could have been prevented with better access to prenatal care or improved care has risen over time in America. In 1987, the rate was 6.6 deaths per 100,000 live births; in 2006, it had risen to 13.3 deaths per 100,000 live births.

How can numbers like that be possible?  True?

When my oldest son was born in 1987, I didn’t have health insurance.  So I pre-paid the hospital $999.00 (silly, eh?) for delivery at the birthing center at St. Mary’s.  When my daughter was born three years later – same story.  No insurance, $999 special.  In 1998, I think the bill for my youngest son was $1,500.  Now the average birth costs over $8000, I’m told.

What happened?  Pretty sure the process is the same.

Amnesty International is right to call for action!

Amnesty International has called on US President Barack Obama to tackle soaring rates of maternal mortality and pregnancy-related complications that particularly affect minorities and those living in poverty.

Amnesty International’s report Deadly Delivery: The Maternal Health Care Crisis in the USA, urges action to tackle a crisis that sees between two and three women die every day during pregnancy and childbirth in the USA.

The new Kotex website … hip and edgy, designed to reach 14 – 21 year olds with, well, a more honest take on “that time of the month.”  More eww, less euphoria.

So, I had to laugh when the site popped up with “My mom blabbed to everyone when I got my period.  So embarrassing.”

Yup – that was me.  Flowers and rings with red stones … so they’d feel positive about this milestone in their lives.  After all, the plumbing aspects of it aren’t much fun.

Hey – they’re supporting “girls for a change,” so I can’t feel too bad.

Kotex support Girls For A Change

Nice write up in Salon! Love the Reality Check video – no kidding.

Menstruation reality check

And for a different take:  Serena Williams vs. Mother Nature.  Hilarious.

Serena Williams vs Mother Nature

Photo by jessamyn.n uploaded to Flickr

A recent article asks:

Why are our young adults in the dark about birth control?

Several studies have been tracking this trend.  Twenty-somethings don’t want to get pregnant right now, but they aren’t really doing anything to prevent it either.  Not shocking, they’re figuring out who they are and what they want out of life.

What’s most astonishing is that they really don’t seem to understand sex, birth control and how much of it is actually under their control.  They seem to think it’s completely out of their hands — thank you abstinence only until marriage education with misinformation about the effectiveness of contraception.

But this IS the information age, no?  Super easy to get the real scoop on birth control effectiveness rates and disease prevention.  So why aren’t they?  I really don’t get it.

The extra-twitterverse is abuzz with the latest mainstream media news of a Florida woman tweeting her abortion, trying to take the shame out of the procedure.   Folks have been asking me what I think, since I “get” Twitter.

First, she isn’t the first to tweet about the actual issues invovled – Brazen Careerist tweeted about her miscarriage at work in October, and the backlash was just as horrific.  As one of my favorite bloggers points out, most comment sections are straight out of “Lord of the Flies.”  That’s especially true for women talking about their reproductive choices.

But here’s my take on it:  the twitterverse is one of those weird spaces that can feel like a conversation just between friends and/or an anonymous space where one can speak freely.

There are folks who just talk to their friends – and others who are more like random graffiti artists tagging away.  Because it isn’t face to face, it can be easier to maybe share more than you normally would.

I totally get how she was looking for support.  I’m not sure I believe she was “shocked” by the response, especially if her goal was normalizing abortion.  If you get that much, you must have some idea about the controversy.

It is weird to take a twitter conversation out of the twitterverse and apply the standards we’d use in regular conversations.

I like Newsweek’s analysis: the focus on keeping this inevitable procedure legal has come at the expense of conversations we should be having about the range of experiences women face.

The bottom line for me is that — the the range of experiences women face, the choices they make as the deal with the cards life has dealt them, and the myriad emotions they feel as they decide and later deal with the effects of their own decisions — the whole package is what it means to be truly human.

That’s as it should be.  You can pass all the laws you want — people will still make decisions: some great and some not so great.  It’s the deciding that makes us human, and the emotion we feel afterwards.

What I don’t get: women who have had abortions who “don’t believe in them.” I’ll explain Twitter if you explain that to me.

According to a study of online generosity by Convio:

When it comes to online giving to charity, Alexandria, VA, Cambridge, MA and Minneapolis, MN topped the list as the nation’s most generous cities based on per capita giving in 2008.

In 2008, Reno ranked 129th with 6,251 donors giving $459,060.  The average contribution was just over $73.  (Las Vegas was 65th!)  For 2009, Reno is on track to come in ranked 94th.  Way to go Nevada!

An event celebrating donors

The City of Austin has apparently jumped from the bottom ten to the top ten, thanks to their “I live here, I give here” campaign.  Seems to me something similar is the logical next step for the “We love this place” campaign with the Community Foundation of Western Nevada.  Or maybe:  Truckee Meadows Tomorrow’s Accentuate the Positive and Give!

Give!

Keep up the great work!

You know I’m Republican.   I’m an “Old School Republican” – as in fiscal responsibility, thoughtful approaches informed by the lessons of the past, and belief in individual responsibility and accountability.  The first campaign I worked on was Paul Laxalt’s U.S. Senate race in 1974.

I can not begin to imagine the politicians I grew up with, Senator Laxalt or Governor List or even President Reagan, coming unglued at the idea of the President making a national address directly to students on the importance of education.  Honestly.  Don’t you think Ronald Reagan, master of communication, would have addressed our students if he had had the technology available?

According to the San Diego Union-Tribune:

“Obama would not be the first president to address American students in a speech televised from a public school. In 1991, President George H.W. Bush urged students to demand more of themselves in their studies. His speech was shown on CNN and broadcast on the radio.

Democrats at the time attacked the speech as political advertising and a waste of taxpayer money.”

We are talking about the President of the United States, not Fidel Castro.

Here’s what I don’t get.  Republicans – we’re patriotic, right?  We’re dedicated to fighting terrorists and those who “hate freedom” and to helping spread Democracy around the world, right?  Democracy:  that’s got something to do with peaceful elections, majority rule and protecting the rights of the minority, doesn’t it?  Plus the first and second amendments (equally important to me)?

Well, you win some and you lose some.   America elected President Obama in 2008.  Now we can say, people didn’t get what they expected, but I don’t think we can insult the American people and say they were tricked or didn’t know what they were doing.  If they knew what they were doing when they elected President Bush, then they knew what they were doing when they elected President Obama.

If people are so scared one speech from the President will sway their children, then by all means, they should keep their kids home.  But honestly, don’t you think our kids know what our values are?  And where we stand?  Haven’t you taught them to speak up for what they believe?  Whether it’s popular or not?  Isn’t that what has always made this country great?

As my son often says, “don’t panic.”  People, it’s undignified.