What Obama Should Do About Sex Ed; By William Smith, RH Reality Check.

What Obama Should Do About Sex Ed

 

When I began writing this piece, it was the first time I ever combined the words "President" and "Obama" as in naming the man: President Obama. I am elated and with the election over, it is a time to celebrate. It has been eight long years of one disastrous policy after another coming from the Bush Administration, and for those of us in the weeds trying to make good sexual and reproductive health policy (and stop the all too frequent bad policy from getting rammed down our throats), the disaster has been particularly acute.

 

I won't rehash all the disasters here, but will focus on the remedy to one of these areas where President Obama can lead: the restoration of evidence-based programs to provide sex education, prevent teen pregnancy, and reduce incidence of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.

 

First, President Obama must end the nearly $200 million a year going into abstinence-only-until-marriage by zeroing it out of the budget he submits to Congress in February. He has pledged to end funding for programs that do not work and, after almost 30 years of federal funding and $1.5 billion in tax payer money, the evidence is clear that these programs do no work. The Democratic Party platform also calls for their end so we have a very clear policy statement and priority in print. Many abstinence-only programs are also homophobic and anti-woman, so it is important to stress these arguments as well. And last but not least, the vast majority of recipients of these dollars are the base of the extreme right wing in this country. It is now time to end the gravy train. Doing so benefits our youth, our communities and oh yeah, incidentally, benefits the progressive common good against which these same groups, by their very nature, consistently rail.

 

But, ending ab-only has always been part of a broader vision of what young people really need. The other side of this coin, of course, is the second part of what President Obama must do: establish the first ever federal funding stream for a comprehensive approach to sex education. As a member of the Senate, Obama was a co-sponsor of the Responsible Education About Life (REAL) Act and, again, his party's platform supports a strong move toward more comprehensive programs because they work. For example, we now have the evidence to show that more comprehensive programs do a better job of helping young people wait to have sex than abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. I don't play chess but I believe that is checkmate.

 

Many groups from the broader reproductive health community, as well as the HIV/AIDS community, have assembled requests to the Obama Administration for a new pot of money to support comprehensive sex education. We know that is an uphill request given the budgetary situation but it must be a priority nonetheless and cost-savings from cut programs must be redirected.

 

Of course, President Obama cannot do this alone. His budget will send the strongest of signals to Congress to follow suit. But will they? It is a real question. Even the abstinence-only-until-marriage industry's lobbying arm, the National Abstinence Education Association, pondered in their day-after-the-election lament: "Remember that naysayers expected abstinence education to go away when leadership in the Congress first changed from Republican to Democrat two years ago. But it didn't." Indeed. So, Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid will also play key roles in getting this done by exercising discipline over wayward Members and remembering the platform that brought about the most momentous political shift in our lifetime.

 

Thankfully, the ascendency of Barack Obama and a new agenda represents the repudiation of the culture wars that have dominated and impoverished our domestic political discourse since Reagan. Make no mistake: these same culture wars are embodied in the work of most abstinence-only-until-marriage programs and their many providers. It is no wonder that they are facing repudiation from at least half the states across the country that no longer even take the money to do these junk programs.

 

Let history be our guide. Abstinence-only-until-marriage programs were part of the socially conservative Republican "Contract With America" when they swept into power in the early 1990's. President Obama, let's make a clean start. It is a new day in America and change has indeed come. Let it include a change in how we empower young people to make responsible decisions. Let it start with an end to extreme abstinence-only-until-marriage programs and a renewed commitment to our youth by investing in comprehensive sex education.

 

http://www.alternet.org/sex/106642/what_obama_should_do_about_sex_ed_/

Does Overexposure to Sex Make Us Jaded? By Greta Christina, Greta Christina's Blog.

Does Overexposure to Sex Make Us Jaded?

 

Does familiarity with sex breed contempt?

 

Some years ago, I worked for a seven-year stretch for a mail-order sex products catalog. (This very one, in fact.) It's a small company, and it was even smaller when I was starting out there. It was the sort of company where everyone did a little bit of every job that needed doing.

 

So in the years that I worked there, I packed orders, received shipments, argued with vendors, stocked shelves, talked with customers about their orders, did product reviews and wrote product descriptions of porn, sex ed materials, lube and sex toys. I sat at a desk within a few feet of the stock shelves fully stocked with porn, sex ed materials, lube and sex toys. For eight hours a day, five days a week, my day-to-day working life was spent surrounded by -- indeed, immersed in -- porn, sex ed materials, lube and sex toys.

 

Almost everyone I knew was aware of my work. Most of them approved. But even among the ones who approved, a surprisingly large number asked me the same question:

 

"Don't you get jaded working here?"

 

I remember, in particular, the time my brother asked me that. He was in town for a visit, and came by to see where I worked -- right at the moment that I was unpacking a big box of dildos and butt plugs and receiving them into inventory. He wasn't shocked, exactly, but he was definitely a bit startled -- partly by the big box of several dozen dildos and butt plugs but more, I think, by the casual, matter-of-fact manner in which I was taking them out of the box and checking them off the invoice. And he asked me the question:

 

"Don't you get jaded working here?"

 

It's a question I got asked a lot when I worked at Blowfish. It's a question I still get asked as a sex writer. And my answer is this:

 

No.

 

In the years that I've worked and written about sex products and sexual issues, I have not become jaded about sex.

 

I have become relaxed about sex.

 

And jaded and relaxed are not the same thing.

 

Being jaded means you've lost your capacity to be excited and moved by something. It means that you've been made dull, apathetic or cynical by experience or by surfeit (to quote Merriam Webster). It means you've seen so much of something that you just don't care about it anymore.

 

Being relaxed, on the other hand, simply means being at ease. It means being comfortable. It doesn't mean that you've seen so much of something that you don't care about it anymore. It means that you've seen so much of something that you think of it as normal.

 

I'm fascinated by the assumption that exposure to sex will make people bored with it. After all, sex is one of our deepest, most fundamental animal drives. Our interest in it is not going anywhere. I mean, we're exposed to food every day, several times a day, and we're not showing any signs of becoming jaded or bored with it. Why do we think being exposed to sex all day would make us jaded or bored with that?

 

Here's what I think.

 

In American society, our interest in sex is often very tied up with anxiety and forbidden-ness and secrecy. True, we have a popular culture that's saturated in sexual imagery. But it's sexual imagery that heightens our anxiety about sex instead of diminishing it. It's sexual imagery that's all about how sex is for the young and beautiful and fashionable, and none of the rest of us are good enough. And our popular culture also has the fucked-up paradox of being saturated in sexual imagery -- while at the same time, being pathetically lacking in sexual information. We have exposure, but I

 

http://www.alternet.org/sex/106613/does_overexposure_to_sex_make_us_jaded/

Is It Wrong to Talk About Michelle Obama's Body? By Tamura Lomax, RH Reality Check.

The recent cacophonous chorus surrounding Michelle Obama's derriere is undeniably troubling.  Yet, to be quite honest, it is also strangely gratifying to me. 

I recently read Salon's feature piece "First Lady Got Back."  Taken aback by the implicit oxymoron between the words, "First Lady" and "Got Back," I sat for hours pondering all that this cluster of words signified.  For instance, what does it mean to place "first lady," which designates a "respectable" social position, with "Got Back," a sexist epithet coined by rapper, Sir Mix-a-Lot, in his hot song, "Baby Got Back," in the early 90's?  And, what does it mean to inscribe these words onto the body of our very first African American First Lady? 

The deployment of both "lady" and "back" can be viewed as problematic.  First, discourses about mythologized "ladies" didn't initially include black women.  A "lady" was a woman or wife who innately possessed such virtues as delicacy, piety, beauty, politeness and gentleness.  Black women, who were not seen as "ladies," "women" or wives, were historically not privy to such designation.  Historically speaking, this was a term reserved for white women.  And let me just say upfront, this was not necessarily a compliment.  As I understand it, "lady" was just as imprisoning as the more derogatory terms used for black female slaves -- just in a different way.

Secondly, there is a long history of discourses regarding harmfully reductive views of black women's "backs."  Black women have been pathologized and objectified because of their "backs," which, by the way, come in all shapes and sizes just like those of other men and women.  Sir Mix-a-Lot's hit song, "Baby Got Back," was only the tip of the iceberg.  The cultural chorus regarding black women's bodies, particularly their fragmented backside, had been singing for centuries.  Sir Mix-a-Lot simply joined in.  Or did he?

To be sure, the mass production of "Baby Got Back" via radio and television took ongoing essentialist discourses about black female hyper-sexuality to new dimensions.  The constant reproduction of the gyrating images became a source of social studies on black female sexuality.  This was obviously deeply problematic.  However, as stereotypically reductive as this song and video was, in its own way, it also celebrated black women's bodies.  Sure, this so-called celebration reproduced every stereotype about black female sexuality possible.  And, by fetishizing black women's privates, reduced them to mere objects, namely their butts.  This was absolutely damaging.  However, it also did something else.  Through the process of representation (via video imaging), which presented black women's butts as evidence of stereotypical difference (regarding black female sexuality), many black women, including myself, strangely found a sense of pride in our bodies, specifically our butts.  Thus, while Sir Mix-a-Lot (and others) reassigned mythical legacies to our behinds, some black women were re-imagining themselves as subjects with beautiful bodies.

However, it is important to realize that this was not everyone's experience.  Nor was it likely the experience of those like Sir Mix-a-Lot who commodified black women's bodies for his own use and enjoyment.  Nor is it likely the experience of many of those who have joined in the chorus regarding Michelle Obama's butt.  Deployment of terms such as "lady" and "back," without some sort of critical analysis is irresponsible at best, particularly in reference to black women.  Even if Obama's butt makes us beam with pride every time her beautiful body sashays center stage, we cannot ignore the effects of the obvious "blackening" of the already historically brimming noun, "lady," when placed together in a title like "First Lady Got Back."  There are serious implications to consider here, namely the pathologization of our first African-American "First Lady." 

In short, if we are not more careful in our utilization of language and not more forthright in our criticisms of the language of others, we run the risk of reinforcing historical ideals of black female sexual savagery at the highest level.  This is very dangerous.  So, if Michelle Obama's body makes us proud, why not shape our enthusiasm with a critique of the status quo, which continues to treat her as an object by fragmenting her to her parts? Obama is a subject -- more than a body, and, more than a butt.  Inscribing her with words without carefully evaluating their operation first is beyond distressing.  It is death dealing.  Not just to her, but to all women.

 

http://www.alternet.org/sex/108103/is_it_wrong_to_talk_about_michelle_obama%27s_body/

US Politics from VOANews.com

VOANews.com, with its new community site USAVotes2008.com, now shift focus to the transition of power at the white house. Watch for USAVotes2008 and VOA updates on Twitter!

Obama Announces Budget Team   Peter Orszag will head Office of Management and Budget, Robert Nabors, a high-ranking congressional committee aide, will be Orszag's deputy Future of START-One Treaty Key Challenge for Obama Administration   Experts warn failure to renew START-One could collapse entire strategic nuclear arms regime Economic Troubles Squeeze Relief Organizations in US   Florida food bank still has donations, but finds demand increasing America's Thanksgiving Holiday   Thanksgiving means spending time with family, a traditional feast, festivities 'America's Attic' Reopened     Home to many treasured US artifacts, National Museum of American History, underwent major renovation E-mail: Forward this E-mail Click here to unsubscribe from the VOA Daily World News Summary2 If you have questions about this E-mail newsletter send an e-mail to: voanews@voanews.com

545p 11/25 Update: Suffredini says SARJ working better than expected; urine processor still up and running

=================================

CBS NEWS STS-126 STATUS REPORT: 69
Posted: 5:45 PM, 11/25/08

By William Harwood
CBS News Space Analyst

Changes and additions:

   SR-67 (11/24/08): Urine processor appears to run normally in extended test; additional test runs planned overnight; engineers hopeful
   SR-68 (11/25/08): SARJ tested; urine processor tests continue
   SR-69 (11/25/08): SARJ operation smoother than expected; NASA may be able to forego building replacement bearing race; urine processor now operating well; water samples collected from processor, dispenser

=================================

5:45 PM, 11/25/08, Update: SARJ operation smoother than expected; NASA may be able to forego building replacement bearing race; urine processor now operating well; water samples collected from processor, dispenser

Work to replace bearings and re-lubricate the space station's damaged right-side solar array rotary joint went better than expected, a senior manager said today, resulting in remarkably smooth operation that may permit the agency to forego building, launching and installing costly replacement hardware.

Space station Program Manager Mike Suffredini also said the station's newly installed water recycling system, including an initially cantankerous urine distillation assembly, appears to be operating normally and that the Endeavour astronauts will be able to bring some six liters of processed urine and condensate back to Earth for chemical analysis, more than engineers expected before launch.

"When we went into this mission, we said there were two primary objectives we needed to take care of," Suffredini said. "One was to repair the SARJ (solar alpha rotary joint) and prepare the port SARJ for continued operations. And of course, the other major objective was to get started on our regenerative ECLSS (environmental control and life support) system, get it going in preparation for six-crew operations in the May timeframe. I'm happy to report today that we're well on our way in both of those cases."

Early today, flight controllers activated the right-side solar alpha rotary joint and commanded it to operate in normal "auto-track" mode for two full orbits. In auto-track, the station's two SARJ mechanisms rotate outboard solar arrays like huge paddle wheels to keep them face on to the sun.

Engineers first noticed problems with the starboard SARJ last year when sensors measured increased vibration levels and power usage in the drive motor. Inspections by spacewalking astronauts later showed one of the gear's three bearing races was heavily damaged, apparently because of a lubrication breakdown that generated extensive metallic contamination.

One of the 12 trundle bearings that grip the gear was replaced last June to help engineers troubleshoot the problem. During parts of four spacewalks, the Endeavour astronauts replaced 10 bearing assemblies and re-installed the 11th, cleaned off the metallic debris and re-lubricated all three races.

Going into the flight, Suffredini said engineers believed the outer canted bearing race was too damaged to permit resumption of around-the-clock auto-track operations. The goal was to lower vibration and friction levels enough to permit periodic operations to boost power when needed.

But it now appears the bearing swap-out and re-lubrication might permit more routine operations than originally expected. That's a major issue as NASA transitions to full-time operations with an expanded crew of six and a full slate of experiments that require all the power the lab's solar arrays can generate.

Along with bringing the old bearings down for a comprehensive failure analysis, the goal of the servicing work was to "clean up the race and lubricate it and see what we could do about reducing the currents on the motor to drive this joint (and) to see if we could reduce the vibrations," Suffredini said. "One of the things that's not immediately obvious to you is the vibrations induced by rotating this joint had the potential to put extensive life (reduction) on the structure. So that was another big driver for not operating in auto track.

"And so we performed both of those tasks and we found that the current dropped dramatically, in fact the currents are now much, much closer to where they were when we started off," he said. "We've seen as low as 0.17 amps since we lubricated it. It was as high as 0.7 to 0.9 in some cases. These are the peak numbers, we average the lower numbers. This particular joint, when it first started out, was operating at about 0.15 amps. So you can see the data is suggesting we're awfully close to our original drive currents.

"We took vibration data that we're looking at now. So I can't tell you what that data tells us, but I can tell you anecdotally, one of the ways we discovered this problem, one of the cameras on the starboard truss would vibrate, you could look at an image with this camera and you'd see it vibrate when the joint was rotating. And that particular camera is still now. So if you want to take that as an indication that we reduced vibrations, we certainly have."

Suffredini said it will take weeks of engineering analysis and additional auto-track test runs to fully characterize the behavior of the joint. But if the initial results hold up, the agency may be able to stop work on a long-range plan to build a new bearing race that would be launched on the last planned shuttle mission and installed over multiple spacewalks.

"If, in fact, we could keep the currents down through a lubrication process that's not extensive, that we wouldn't have to do every three or four months but maybe once every year or two, perhaps we could choose that avenue as opposed to replacing that race," he said. "So this is a very positive step for us. It's very possible we could save ourselves quite a bit of time and effort and get this joint in auto-track sooner than we had hoped."

The Endeavour astronauts also lubricated the station's port SARJ. That mechanism has been operating normally, but engineers wanted to add fresh lubrication to prevent problems like those experienced by the starboard joint. The astronauts reported seeing signs of very slight damage on one bearing race, but Suffredini said it appeared to be normal wear and tear.

As for the urine processor, Suffredini said it appears the removal of rubber vibration isolators and additional work to hard mount the distillation assembly to its mounting bracket paid off. Initial startup problems appear to be related to subtle harmonic effects as an internal centrifuge spins in a vacuum distillation assembly. The vibration dampers were put in place to reduce noise, but taking them off apparently prevented the motions that contributed to an unwanted balance issue, allowing the system to operate in a more normal fashion.

"So now we believe where we are is that we'll keep the distillation assembly on orbit and we will look to methods to mount it perhaps a little stiffer to the structure, we'll see if there's anything we want to do different, if we want to perhaps build some sort of bracket we bring to orbit to stiffen up the structure," Suffredini said. "We may choose to do that. But right now, the thinking is we'll probably leave this distillation assembly on orbit and we'll nurse it along  the way we have been and learn from the system."

Today, the astronauts hooked up a potable water dispenser that is connected to the same water "bus" as the water recycling gear. A new toilet will be connected to the bus after the shuttle departs, routing urine to the processor for conversion into pure water for drinking, food preparation, personal hygiene and oxygen generation.

Flight Director Holly Ridings said the astronauts will bring down about six liters of processed water for detailed chemical analysis to determine purity and to help calibrate an analyzer on the space station. No one will drink any processed water until after additional samples are brought down next February.

Assuming the equipment continues working normally, NASA will be clear to boost crew size to six next May as planned.

=================================

Quick-Launch Web Links:

CBS News STS-126 Status Reports:
http://www.cbsnews.com/network/news/space/current.html

CBS News STS-126 Quick-Look Page:
http://www.cbsnews.com/network/news/space/currentglance.html

NASA ISS Expeditions Page:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/index.html

NASA Shuttle Web: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/shuttle/index.html
NASA Station Web: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/index.html
Spaceflight Now: http://spaceflightnow.com/index.html
GoogleSatTrack: http://www.lizard-tail.com/isana/tracking/

=================================

On World AIDS Day, Tell Obama - Keep Fighting!

Dear Friend, As we enter a new era of change, the war against HIV/AIDS must still be a top priority. It is a global problem, with hundreds of children orphaned every day by what could be a preventable disease. Organizations like SOS Children's Village work in communities hit hard by the AIDS crisis, providing orphaned children with shelter, loving families and an education. It is crucial that we continue to support organizations like SOS Children's Village. On Dec. 1st, World AIDS Day, urge President-elect Obama to continue to fund HIV/AIDS programs. Don Hazen Executive Editor, AlterNet.org

		Dear Reader, Do not take for granted that funding the war against HIV/AIDS is a top priority in this time of change. On World AIDS Day, December 1st, 2008, join SOS Children's Villages in telling President-elect Obama to continue to fund HIV/AIDS programs. SOS Children's Villages, the world's largest NGO dedicated to orphaned and abandoned children, believes that AIDS is a preventable disease. In 132 countries, we provide orphaned children with homes, loving families, education and stability regardless of their personal or family history with HIV/AIDS. SOS is committed to maintaining supportive and healthy environments that reduce the vulnerability of children and their care-givers to HIV infection. We create and sustain programs that enable children orphaned by AIDS to grow up in a caring family, and provide them with equal access to education and essential services. "Nearly three quarters of my class are orphaned," says Mr. Mashanga, a teacher at an SOS Primary School in Zimbabwe, where almost one in four children are now orphaned by AIDS. SOS Children's Villages provides orphaned children with homes and opportunities to attend school. Mrs. Gombakomba, the Headmaster, comments: "The situation is pathetic. Children have to learn to be adults before their time. If you talk to these children they have stories that will move your heart. What is the world coming to?" By 2010, the number of children orphaned by AIDS is expected to exceed 25 million globally. Progress cannot continue to be made at this level without the continued support of the US government. Join SOS Children's Villages. Urge President-elect Obama to keep HIV/AIDS funding a top priority. Make a difference. Sign our petition today. Thank you for your support, Heather Paul Executive Director SOS Children's Villages - USA

AlterNet does not share, sell, or rent our subscribers' addresses.
Occasionally we do send out announcements or offers
we think our readers would find interesting or useful.

Unsubscribe: Visit http://www.alternet.org/newsletter/unsubscribe/ to unsubscribe.

Poll Watch: Consumer Confidence

Poll Watch: The Latest ABC News Polls

Audience Favorites

View All

Wrestlers Sue School in Herpes Outbreak

Death Benefits Denied After Worker Killed

Obama to Plug Budget That 'Bleeds Billions'

Brownie Outrage: Scouts Toss Autistic Girl

Indian Models: Fashion's Next Love Affair?

Confidence at Historic Low As Holidays Approach

Consumer confidence is stuck this week at its lowest in 22 years of weekly polls, a dark sign for so-called Black Friday, the traditional Christmas shopping kickoff.

The ABC News Consumer Comfort Index is unchanged at -52 on its +100 to -100 scale, its third week at or below -50. Just 8 percent of Americans rate the economy positively, 21 percent call it a good time to buy things and 43 percent say their personal finances are good ? each near its record low individually, and matching last week's low in aggregate.

This email was sent to fpac.rangola@blogger.com

Please do not reply to this email as this address is not monitored.

Change My Registration Preference
When you registered with our site, you asked to receive occasional updates, special offers, and other information on ABCNews.com. If you wish to change this registration preference, click here.

Add me to ABCNews Do Not Email list
This email contains an advertisement from ABCNews, 7 WEST 66th Street, New York, NY 10023. To unsubscribe from all types of future commercial email from ABC News regarding its products and services, click here.

2008 ABC News Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.