In the middle of our street...

It is adorable, no?

It is our new house!

It is so cute!

It has a pomegranate and an apricot tree in the back yard.

It has a craft room.

The kitchen is fab and has gorgeous cabinets.

There is a fireplace!

I am going to have to get this pattern. And possibly white gloves.

And on a lighter note...

OMG! She is so cute!
I can't stand it!
Hee hee hee!!!!!

Prostitution, Cocaine and Judgie McJudgestein

Do you ever get the feeling that maybe W just doesn't make those important neural connections?

That his advisors are all standing around saying things like, "Um, sir, I think we should look at this another way....maybe...we should read some of the data coming out and uh, what scientists are saying...."

And 43 says something to the effect of "I'm the sayer! I say what goes. The scientists, well, they're entitled to their opinions but I'm sayin' that this is what we should do. So I'm also the doer."

And his advisors just have to shrug their shoulders, say, "Thank you, Mr. President." and leave the man to his dreams of talking mice in haybales.

Where did this all come from? Yesterday, the AP reported a story that the administration is requiring groups receiving federal AIDS funding to sign a pledge explicitly saying that they oppose prostitution and sex trafficking.

Last year, DKT, a Washington D.C. based non-profit that distributes condoms to sex workers in Vietnam, Brazil, China, Indonesia, India, Ethiopia, Sudan and focuses on family planning refused to sign the pledge and sued the US Agency for International Development.

Mr. Bush. Here's the thing. If an agency, let's say an anti-cocaine using agency, reaches out to coke addicts saying, "We are opposed to cocaine." How much trust are they going to gain among coke addicts? Do you think a coke addict is going to want to listen to the person (Judgie McJudgestein) representing this agency?

On the other hand, if a recovery agency came to a coke addict and said, "We know you like cocaine. Cocaine obviously brings something to your life. Sometimes the cocaine is good to you. Sometimes, though, isn't the cocaine maybe not so fun? Sometimes don't you wish you had the money that you spent on cocaine back? Once in a while are there things you wish you hadn't done while on cocaine?"

"Why yes Mr. Recovery man! Yes I do! Perhaps you could help me learn some skills to stay off the cocaine! I might not succeed every time, but if you keep coming back to Texas to remind me why I decided to stop using cocaine, eventually I'll get better and better and not need so much snow!"

"I will come back Mr. Son with a silver spoon up his nose. I will come back and remind you. In the meantime, here are some ideas for things to do instead of using cocaine. Practice these and I'll see you again. Not to judge your behavior, but to help you to change it."

One of these things is not like the other... which one has been proven to be more successful Mr. President? Well, you're the decider, I guess we'll have to let you decide....

G.T.F.O.

All I am going to say is Get.The.Fuck.Out. Because other than that, what can you say about this article from today's Jerusalem Post which I have copied in its entirety so that you can read about these .... pirates. And not the good kind....arrgh. BTW - my notes are in red

Wanted haredi extremists flee country
by Etgar Levkovitz
October 9, 2006

A group of haredi (ultra orthodox) extremists suspected of being part of a pirate circumcision network (!!!) that carried out illegal circumcisions on dozens of Russian teenagers in Jerusalem has fled the country and remains at large, police said Monday.

The haredi zealots allegedly performed the illicit circumcisions on the 16-17-year-old youths in a private city apartment in exchange for presents and without the consent of their parents.
The affair came to light after the mother of one of the teens discovered what had happened to her 16-year-old son and filed a complaint with police, Jerusalem police spokeswoman Sigal Toledo said.

Jerusalem police subsequently raided a city apartment where the suspects allegedly carried out the circumcisions, but the suspects had already fled the country, she said.

According to police, the alleged cell leaders would solicit teens, most of whom were Russian-born and had not undergone circumcision as babies, in schools outside of Jerusalem and cajole them into undertaking the operation in exchange for gifts.

They would then be driven to Jerusalem during the night for the operation.

The complainant gave police a copy of a videotape she found in her son's room, in which the whole illegal circumcision procedure was documented (again - !!!).

Police said the circumcisions were carried out in the apartment without basic sanitary conditions.

Comment on that, why dontcha!

More on the HIV

This month the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) decided to put away the long held belief that people needed counseling with their HIV test and has recommended that everyone between the ages of 13 and 64 be tested at their regular doctors appointments. Like as part of normal health care.

If you didn't know that this wasn't always the case, you are definitely not the only one. Emergency rooms throughout the country still have people coming in with late stage disease, amazed at their status, saying;

"I had a blood test 3 years ago when I had the flu...the doctors would have told me if I had HIV."

No, they wouldn't have because they were not allowed to test without your explicit consent. Also, if you get a test, the clinician needs to provide you with several minutes of pre-test counseling including safer sex practices.

Now (finally) the CDC has decided that it is worth the lives it will save (though why we start at 13 and end at 64 is beyond me) to add the test to your round of cholesterol, blood chemistries and other tests unless you specifically decide to opt out.

It is estimated that about 25% of the people in this country with HIV infection don't know it. It also, so happens that if you don't know you have HIV, you are far more likely to transmit it to someone else.

Making testing a part of routine clinical care is a long time coming and will make it more likely that people who have HIV will get appropriate medical care earlier than they would have if they had waited to find a clinic that did testing or a doctor finally got around to asking them if they wanted a test.

Hooray CDC!

Abstinence makes the heart grow blonder....

Oh, K8. Now you've got me started. K8 linked to this today. She was amused. I am a little amused but I am also shocked, perhaps a little appalled. Check out their bargain rack! Mortification ensues. I am only amused at the fact that a bunch of 39 cent crap is supposed to protect teenagers from the evil that is their bodies. I am appalled because on a few people, it might actually work and for them I am scared. I am afraid that they vote.

According to SIECUS, 63% of high school seniors are sexually active (more hideous rose pins for the virgins!). However, in the past 6 years, 800 million dollars (I feel like the count from Sesame Street) has been given to abstinence only education programs like WAIT (Why Am I Tempted? - omg, they are so clever!!!!!) More parentheses (and you're tempted because, as Mr. Michael says, "Sex is natural, sex is fun..." we won't get into the rest).

Honestly!

I don't know what this information does for boys as I was never a boy and never had much success in looking at things from boys perspectives but for a girl, the information, if that's what you want to call it, bites ass.

"Get the ring, wait for the bling"
"Sexually speaking, it has been said that men are like microwaves and women are like crock pots." Huh?
“[Students] need to know that, when used every time, condoms at best only provide a 50% reduction in the transmission rates of syphilis, gonorrhea and Chlamydia. They should be told that condoms do not appear to provide any protection from HPV, (which causes 99% of all cervical cancer).” SO NOT TRUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So essentially the message that a lot of these abstinence programs are promoting is:
-The girl needs to be the "strong" one and keep a boy from his urges
-Be a big money grubbing whore who withholds until you get a rock
-If you take a pledge for virginity you'll be in with the cool kids, if that's what cool passes for these days - I wouldn't know, I thought cool was thinking for yourself.....
-Deny all of your normal feelings of desire and get involved in bible studies
-If you do have desires, don't masturbate
-If you have sexual desire, you clearly have not been praying hard enough
-If you give in to having sex, you haven't just made a mistake, you've ruined your life, made yourself undesirable to any good man and you've destroyed your childrens' pure yet-to-be-born souls.

BAD GIRL, NO RING FOR YOU! As if all a girl ever wanted was to register for a blender and make her husband waffles on Sunday morning. I've done both, but seriously, it's not all I'm about people.

Yom haKippurim

The day of atonement has come and gone. I was actually asked the question three times this year - "What do you wish someone on Yom Kippur?"

The answer is "tzom kal" (the tz is pronounced like the zz in pizza) which means "An easy (or meaningful) fast". You can always go by the old standby of a good new year.

This has been your public service announcement of the day.