Yes, to a person who wants it. No, to a person who doesn't.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter what Joe or Mary's outsider feelings are about sterilization. Because Joe or Mary aren't the Bob or Sue having the procedure. Joe and Mary don't know Bob and Sue's health and heart.

If you don't like twenty-somethings being sterilized, don't be a twenty-something who is sterilized. Voluntary sterilization is a perfectly legal procedure.

I found this article to be a tease that, oddly, did not make me want to buy the book. It didn't give enough hard stats about quinceañera costs or emotional interviews with the quince girls (whether they had a backyard barbeque or a ridiculous spectacle). So the article makes me think the book won't have this info either.

Elaborate quinceañera ceremonies seem the logical extension of the Wedding Industrial Complex(TM). I find myself wondering which is more appalling: elaborate quinceañera ceremonies or elaborate weddings. Surprisingly (to me), I'm finding the elaborate wedding more appalling:

• You only become a woman once (quinceañera) but people get married multiple times.
• Elaborate weddings perpetuate the notion that the wedding day is the bride's day and it's all about her; it isn't--there is a groom involved. Quinceañera is legitimately about the girl.
• A coming of age (quinceañera) is something all [latina] women can experience that inducts her into adult society. Weddings are often viewed as "entering adulthood," ergo you're not an adult unless you're married.

There is a true spirit of bi-partisanship in non-support for Alberto Gonzales. It’s a beautiful thing.

But Gonzales does have a supporter: Orrin Hatch. Hatch was on this past Sunday’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, talking over Chuck Schumer and George Stephanopoulos. Apparently, we the people shouldn’t even be talking about Gonzales because “He was a partner in one of the top law firms in the country!” And this whole U.S. Attorneys General scandal is really “about the Democrats. They’re using him as a punching bag to get to the President.” http://www.observer.com/2007/orrin-hatch-lays-egg

Some interpret Hatch’s support as part of his campaign to succeed Gonzales as Attorney General. After his This Week performance, I see it as the exact opposite. Orrin Hatch is throwing his support behind Gonzales because he really, really does not want the job. Being Attorney General for the lame duck period of this administration would be two giant steps backward and the possible end of Hatch's political career. Hatch’s support smacks of desperation: please, please, please don’t ask me to be Attorney General!

I'm a little skeptical about the mechanics of this, too. However, I don't think a Google search of "men forced to rape" would be a very good idea while I'm sitting at my desk at work.

Here are three:

• 1. The sample pool was 500 men and 1000 women from an undergrad Intro Psych Class. This is often the case with many studies and does not necessarily yield a representative sample for a study.
• 2. In designing the survey questions, the researches compiled the “reasons for sex” from reasons given by a broader socio-economic and age range of… psych students.
• 3. The phrasing of the question was “Please indicate how frequently each of the following reasons led you to have sex in the past.” You then rank on a one-to-five scale indicating this reason led to none, some, a few, many or all of your sexual experiences. Does this mean the reason had to be the only or primary reason you had sex or could it just have been a minor factor?

So really, we’ve only just compiled some of the reasons for sex, and it’s unwise to extrapolate any data from it. And if you do, you’ve only learned more about why psych students do it or why psych students think other people do it.

RandomUsername, but then you see the baby in real life and think, holy sh-t, that's one fugly baby! Oy.

The website for "Pageant Photo Retouching" is on a do-it-yourself webpage designed by Kid Pageant Guru (?) Alycia Collins ironically named: http://www.naturalbeautiescontest.homestead.com/retouch.html

Natural Beauties? Really?

There's a page on the site where Collins gives a shout out to some of her various pageant beauties accompanied by their retouched photos. One pageant mom at least had some sense: "Little Jozelle! Mom requested to not have your photos posted, but I want you to know how proud I am of you!"

Anonymous, the cleft palate and mole issues you address do not seem to be the retouches these particular sites are referring to. And glad the surgeries went well.

This is definitely not normal... because people who put their kids in pageants are not normal. 'Nuff said.

Although I pretty much agree, I usually dislike painting individuals with such a wide brush. Anyone care to weigh on the healthy side or at least not un-healthy side of baby and kid pageants?

The show seems to have an unclear mission. It's as though they started out with an idea: Let's have a show about lonely guys learning how to meet women and make connections! Which sounds fine and good. And then they tried to turn it into a crappy game show.

I wonder if the contestants realized what they'd gotten themselves into. The show can't seem to decide whether the guys are "lovable losers" or "hapless horndogs." http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/the_pick_up_artist/series_about.jhtml

What are the challenges and how does one win one on The Pick-Up Artist?

The show would probably work better as a "What Not To Wear" type of show*--here's what you're doing wrong and here's what to do better to be the best version of you. I'd say I'd wait and see but I'll likely never watch the show.

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*But probably wouldn't get nearly as much buzz. Which I guess is the point.