The most common procedure is "fibulation," which involves removing and suturing most external genital tissue, leaving only a posterior opening. In 1995, it was estimated that 98 percent of Somali women had undergone female genital mutilation. (Source: World Health Oranization. Fact sheet. Retrieved July 13, 1999. http://www.who.int/frh-whd/)

This site shows diagrams of what the body looks like after each type of procedure:

http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/pediatrics%3b102/1/153

And this is from wikipedia, explaining which types are most common amongst different groups of people:

"Female genital cutting is today mainly practiced in African countries. It is common in a band that stretches from Senegal in West Africa to Somalia on the East coast, as well as from Egypt (Who have just banned FGC[12]) in the north to Tanzania in the south, see Map. In these regions, it is estimated that more than 95% of all women have undergone this procedure. It is also practiced by some groups in the Arabian peninsula, especially among a minority (20%) in Yemen.[13]

The countries that practice FGC the most are Somalia, followed by Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, and Mali. Among ethnic Somali women, infibulation is traditional and nearly universal. In the Arab peninsula, Sunna circumcision is usually performed, especially among Arabs (ethnic groups of African descent are more likely to prefer infibulation).

Whilst FGC is widely practiced out in the open by Africans of all faiths, it is practiced in secrecy in some parts of the Middle East. The practice occurs particularly in northern Saudi Arabia, southern Jordan, and Iraq, and there is also circumstantial evidence to suggest it is present in Syria, western Iran and southern Turkey.[14] In Oman a few communities still practice FGC; however, experts believed that the number of such cases was small and declining annually. In the United Arab Emirates and also Saudi Arabia, it is practiced mainly among foreign workers from East Africa and the Nile Valley.

The practice can also be found among a few ethnic groups in South America and very rarely in India (Dawoodi Bohra community, a sect of the Shia Muslims of India [15]). In Indonesia[16] the practice is fairly common among the country's Muslim women; however, in contrast to Africa, almost all are Type I or Type IV, the latter usually involving the symbolic pricking of blood release."

should read "infibulation", not "fibulation"

From http://www.fgmnetwork.org/Lightfoot-klein/prisonersofritual.htm

"Female genital circumcision is ubiquitous at all levels of society in many countries of Africa. It is also practiced, more or less sporadically, in other continents of the world. In Africa alone, along an uninterrupted belt across the center of the continent and along the length of the Nile, an estimated 60-90,000,000 women are circumcised.

Female circumcision is an ancient blood ritual that exists in a variety of severities. Among some peoples, part or all of the clitoris is cut away. In others, the procedure further includes the ablation of the small and/or large labia. The most drastic operations are found along the Horn of Africa, in Northern and central Sudan, Southern Egypt, Djibouti, Somalia, parts of Kenya and Ethiopia. Here all of the above surgeries are inflicted. In addition, the skin of the outer labia is scraped clean of its inner tissue, and is then sewn together over the wound, so that only a tiny opening, intended to be barely adequate for passing urine and menstrual fluid, remains. This widely practiced procedure is called infibulation or Pharaonic circumcision.

While clitoridectomy and excision of the inner labia are found among Africans with a variety of religious and cultural orientations, infibulation appears almost exclusively among Islamic peoples. Infibulation is best described as a regional rather than a religious practice, however, since it is generally not found in an estimated 80% of the world's Moslems."

Thank goodness someone is supporting our troops. I shudder what to think might happen o The Troops if someone else were in charge. Why, they might be home before their newborn children graduate from high school! Can't have that. What with the support and all.

What a farce. And yet, for some 4000 dead Troops and their families, and countless more wounded, neglected, overused, under treated, and otherwise demoralized Troops, it's not funny at all.

Heckuva job.

whio posted this idea on Broadsheet the other day:

reply to any GOP smear tactic with "Oh, Karl Rove must have come up with that."

It's probably the truth.

Well, since about 2000, someone has been suggesting that if you are male and educated, you must be gay. Or possibly French. But in any case, you're unpatriotic.

(Hint: it wasn't a woman!)

Funny you mention how you had marriage and family first, then efucation, then career. And that you don't recommend that path.

David Brooks wrote a NYT Op-Ed piece about just that life path. He suggestd that women *should* marry young, have babies right away, and then when they are in their mid-30's, go to school, get that degree and start on a career while they still had time to climb the corporate ladder without getting interrupted by having kids. Brooks was convinced this would solve the working-mom connundrum, and more. It would cure society's ills! It would allow women to have it all! It would be better for everyone! It might even be slenderizing!

I remember thinking, as I read Brooks' column, how good things can sound on paper, while in reality .... bleagh!