A health certificate makes more sense than banning BMIs below a certain range. When I was a model I didn't diet at all, had big boobs, muscles, fairly large bones, and was certainly not anorexic (my favorite snack was feta cheese piled in the cavity of an avocado, for pete's sake). I was 5'9" and weighed between 121 and 125, which meant I had a BMI of between 17.9 and 18.5, in other words, low enough to get me banned in Madrid. It's not unusual for active young people to be this thin without any special effort.

Papaya

On NPR, I listened to the testimony of the once 14 year old girl today that Warren Jeffs forced to marry her cousin against her will in that fundamentalist Mormon sect that resides in Colorado City, AZ. It was heart-wrenching to hear how that teenage girl's innocence and will was stolen from him. I hope Jeffs is found guilty and I hope he serves the max.

Anyone wishing they could spice up their afternoon with a video about breast-feeding set to a reggae beat?

Since reggae music is the official music of people who smoke cannabis as part of their religion, shouldn't people avoid reggae music if they're against cannabis and for taking away the children of people who get caught with cannabis in a home where children live?

If you want people locked in a cage and their children sent into foster care, then isn't it kind of unethical to enjoy the music they created while they were doing the thing for which you want to lock them up and send their children into foster care?

Just wondering.

Our culture seems to run on music created by potheads. Why do we love their music but hate them enough to kick them out of school, take away their food stamps, their children, their right to live in public housing and their freedom and their dignity?

Any upswing in the use of non-condom contraceptives, especially hormonal (pill, patch, ring, implant, IUD), will result in an upsurge of STD's. I was just reading an article in the SACRAMENTO BEE about the burgeoning rates of chlamydia, syphillis, and gonorrhea of the vagina, anus and throat.

Some of them have no symptoms and are spreading rapidly among the non-monogamous. Non-treatment can lead to sterility chronic illness, and sometimes death; repeated treatment of recurring infections can lead to antibiotic resistance.

Bummer.

when the women in their 20s becoming accidentally pregnant were in highschool about the time abstinence education was taking hold? If you don't educate people correctly about birth control use then they'll most likely get inaccurate information from the street.

Plus, from the accounts I have read throughout the years about these courses, a lot of emphasis was put on how scary and bad getting an STI is. I remember learning about birth countrol and different STIs in my sex education classes and there wasn't any moralizing about either. We just learned the facts. So I'm not surprised, after kids being scared senseless about HPV (these same abstinence educators were lobbying very hard to get warnings printed on condoms that condom use isn't effective against HPV), that they would say things like "getting an STD is worse than getting pregnant." HPV was a pet infection amongst the abstinence crowd because it's widespread, easily spread and incurable. Same reason they were so upset about a vaccine for it being marketed.

Its not that hard to get screened for STIs. Most Planned Parenthood clinics have free screenings weekly. They also give out free condoms. A little education goes a long way. You can be sexually active (with multiple partners) and remain healthy. The less fear and shame involved with STI screening and prevention, the less spreading will occur. Plus, the less shame involved in having an STI means that more partners will be told about exposure.

But even here on Salon I recall someone equating Michael Vick's herpes status as equal to his dog fighting. But I'm guessing if that same person had a cold sore on his lip, he wouldn't think twice about it...

Yes it's true.

We make rape victims figure out how to stop rape. We make people that get beat up figure out how to stop muggings.

If they can't figure it out, and if they can't figure it out within a few hours, they are probably liars. Or criminals. Or pedophiles.

Very nicely played Allie. Blame the victim much?

My solution is simple:

That means you need to:

A) Acknowledge false positives

B) Acknowledge the very real harm and grevious injustice false allegations do

C) Create disincentives for creating a false positive.

a) Rebuttable presumption of joint, shared custody. This will eliminate the zero sum game, I win, he loses or I win, she loses of sole custody battles.

b) Name rape victims. Rape is a horrible crime of power. There is no need to feel shamed if you are a rape victim. You are a victim. Take the shame out of it and strip the power of being able to hide from the rapist. Name rape victims.

c) If there is evidence that a false allegation of molestation, domestic violence, or rape has been made. PROSECUTE.

If you want to drive false negatives to zero, you have to eliminate the incentives inherent in the system that drive false positives up.

And you have to stop idiotic simplistic progaganda like Allie's that immediate classify men as pedophiles if they don't answer her question to her liking on her timeframe.

Hey Allie, I very much hope you get a nice juicy false allegation tossed your way. Maybe you'll stop blaming the innocent victims.

" families participating in "nurse-ins" at Applebee's restaurants, a chain that has earned praise from the nursing set for its breast-feeding-friendly policies."

Praised? Praised, ummm, no. Please do some basic fact checking. They are doing the "nurse-ins" BECAUSE APPLEBEES IS NOT BREAST-FEEDING FRIENDLY. It was on Broadsheet itself a few weeks ago. Why would there be a protest regarding an establishment that already follows the law and protects the rights of nursing mothers/infants?