In relationships today, all that "sugar and spice and everything nice" crap seems to have been flung over broads' shoulders, out the nearest window, flushed down the drain. Women seem to be all about taking an aggressive stance. "Getting their man" so to speak. Men on the other hand seem more laid back. Men are taking the role of the court-ed while women are stepping up and willingly taking on the role of the court-er. Society is changing. Gender roles are changing. Stars are re-aligning with newly discovered moons.

The result of such a change is confusion. Confusion because there are some of us who aren't re-aligning, and others who are leading the re-aligning campaign. But at the end of the day, we still have the same wiring. Believe it or not ladies, we are not men. This in no way means I believe that we shouldn't vote or work or any of that stuff. We are not supposed to be the pursuers. Not to say we sit by and wait. Nope, not that either. We should be more coy. We should take greater efforts to not be classless in our pursuits of a certain man. We should be setting the pace of the man's pursuit.

What about gay couples? Are they meant to define gender roles so they (I mean WE) can then figure out who does the pursuing? From what I'm understanding, two women who are interested in each other will never hook up because neither of them is supposed to call the other! If we can refrain from engaging in a homophobic debate about gays and lesbians and look at gender roles in relationships, how do gay couples deal with:

1. phone calls
2. who pays for dinner
3. who opens the car door

those sorts of things. It seems the author's main argument is anchored on defining gender roles, so I'm curious.

A 9-year-old boy and his 3-year-old sister were found stabbed to death in their home, and authorities were questioning the parents Thursday after finding several knives they believe were the murder weapons, police said.

. . . female violence is much more hidden from view. This makes it terribly easier for us to pretend it doesn't exist -- the FBI profile of serial killers is distinctly male even though female serial killers each rack up more corpses because no one suspects them -- and also pretend that female violence is a bizarre, incomprehensible aberration when it does happen (which is why it's often easier to blame a nearby man).

After a 10-month investigation, the commission found the club required multiple forms of identification from some black customers, used discriminatory hiring practices, applied a dress code only to black patrons and denied entry using other policies rarely applied to whites.

Parker, who is a member of the Article 8 Alliance, which supports the ouster of four judges on the state's Supreme Judicial Court who ruled in favor of same-sex marriage, demanded that the book be removed from the school library and that his son be pulled from discussions about homosexuality whether they are in planned lessons or arise spontaneously.

I watched this video, and this is obviously a troubled little girl. But I'm even more troubled by adults who can't find a way to deal with a five-year-old, and feel the need to call the police. I'm not one to throw race into every situation, but it disturbs me at my core to see three white police officers handcuffing and arresting a five year-old Black girl for acting up. I'm getting disturbing 1960s flashbacks -- "bed waves of fear and paranoia."

Judging only by the anecdotal evidence of the stories and the video, as well as my experience with children, it's hard for me not to suspect that this child is being abused emotionally and physically, or she has some undiagnosed hyperactive or emotional disorder.

WASHINGTON, April 25, 2005 — Every year, hundreds of thousands of children are abused and neglected in the United States. Child welfare specialists say it's an epidemic caused by mental illness, drug addiction and poverty.

A new report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found an estimated 1,500 children in the United States died from abuse or neglect in 2003. The majority of them were under the age of 4.

[. . . ]

Many social workers say they are stunned by an increase in abuse in the middle class, putting additional strain on a system already under pressure.

"It covers across the socioeconomic spectrum," Bilchik said. "So this isn't about just impoverished families."

Over the coming days and weeks, we’ll be fueling a national conversation about the affect the irresponsible corporate behemoth has on our economy. Our goal is to spread the truth about Wal-Mart’s countless abuses on their employees, suppliers, and the communities they do business in.

This week, we’re kicking off by shedding light on Wal-Mart’s voracious appetite for public subsidies. Last Friday, Americans everywhere filed their federal tax returns and paid their fair share.

But it's hard to argue that America is becoming more colorblind when we're still missing one benchmark: When will Hollywood dare release a major movie in which Denzel Washington and Reese Witherspoon fall passionately in love?

For all the gains in race relations, romance on the big screen between a black man and a white woman remains largely a taboo. Americans themselves may be falling in love with each other without regard to color, but the movie industry is still too craven to imitate life.

The latest "Guess Who" is about a white man in love with a black woman, and that's a comfortable old archetype from days when slave owners inflicted themselves on slave women. Hollywood has portrayed romances between white men and (usually light-complexioned) black women, probably calculating that any good ol' boy seeing Billy Bob Thornton embracing Halle Berry in "Monster's Ball" is filled not with disgust but with envy.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Consensual sodomy between members of the U.S. military no longer would be a criminal act under a proposal sent to Congress by the Pentagon's legal office and made public on Thursday.

Gays could still be drummed out of the military for openly discussing or acting on their sexual preferences. But the separate criminal rule against consensual sodomy would be changed to bring the military legal code closer to that governing civilians, according to the April 7 memorandum.

Tragically, this tendency toward compassion by our community was cynically and opportunistically exploited in 1991 by then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. Although his career history had even then betrayed his racial self-hatred, he was not at all reluctant to describe allegations against him of sexual harassment by an accomplished, distinguished Black woman as a “high-tech lynching” of a Black man. True to form, much of the village came to his defense. As everyone knows, Thomas rewarded the African community’s love and support with a series of legal opinions that, in some cases, are so anti-Black (maybe even anti-human) that even his most reactionary Supreme Court colleagues have distanced themselves from his analyses.

For example, without the benefit of a group discussion, the general analysis of O.J. Simpson’s plight was that although he purposely distanced himself from our community, his lack of malice toward us, and the fact that he had been the target of an indisputably sloppy, if not racist police investigation, made him worthy of support by the African community.

Rice’s crime is that she is so eager to please her boss that she not only carries out his plans, but she also initiates and orchestrates projects that further his objectives, even if Africans are unnecessarily harmed in the process. The relationship between Bush and Rice may not be as between master and slave, as Mugabe suggests. Rather, it may be more akin to the relationship between master and pet. Bush says “fetch” and Rice runs as fast as she can. Bush says “sic ‘em” and Rice doesn’t pause, even if the identified victim is from her community. Should our village protect such a person? In the same way that the world assumes a pet’s master will care for his animal, perhaps we are best served by allowing Bush to take care of his pet Negro while we Africans focus on the more important task of struggling for our liberation.

We know that he has had the reputation of being rigid in his position as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, silencing and expelling theologians, priests and nuns whom he perceived as not being orthodox.

[. . . ]

We do believe in the spirit of 'prayer and work' that is the motto of the Benedictines.

We do believe in miracles.

We share a deep sadness that one of the world's most homophobic religious leaders has been elevated to the papacy, and regret that his policies will continue to devalue the rich spiritual gifts of LGBT people and women of faith.

My faith teaches that all people can change, so my prayers today are that the eyes of Cardinal Ratzinger -- now Pope Benedict XVI -- will be opened to the unique giftedness and blessing that LGBT people can be to the Church. And my prayers today are with my brothers and sisters in the Roman Catholic Church, and those whose lives will be harmed by church policies that treat LGBT people with less than unconditional acceptance and dignity.

“Based on his history and his demagoguery it is nearly impossible to imagine that this new Pope will usher in an era of reconciliation and welcome. Ratzinger has been the author and voice of oppression and attack on GLBT people.

“In anticipation of the announcement of who would be the next Catholic Pontiff, Sam Sinnett, President of the national gay Catholic organization Dignity USA, said, ‘We do hope there will be a little more listening, and an end to the virulence of the anti-gay language.’

"One therapist hurt our marriage and actually caused our separation," said the husband, Jim, who did not want his last name used out of concerns for his privacy.

"She told my wife, 'You don't have to put up with that,' " referring to his battle with alcoholism, he said.

According to Johnson and U.S. intelligence officials, statistics that the National Counterterrorism Center provided to the State Department reported 625 "significant" terrorist attacks in 2004. That compared with 175 such incidents in 2003, the highest number in two decades.

The statistics didn't include attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq, which President Bush as recently as Tuesday called "a central front in the war on terror."

In a lawsuit filed in King County, Wash., Dawnell Leadbetter said that she was contacted by a debt collection agency in January and told to pay a $4,500 for downloading copyright-protected music or face a lawsuit for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

[. . . ]

But no court authorized Comcast to release names and addresses of its customers, or notified his client that her information had been given to an outside party, Lybeck said.

"A lot of people will be shocked at the billions of dollars we've spent and the results they're going to see, which confirm previous examinations of the Soviet-style screening system we've put in place," Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., told The Associated Press on Friday.

Much of the report's criticism focused on whether the department got its money's worth. It noted, for example, that the agency paid for advertisements that were never made or that were sometimes of poor quality. Investigators did not turn up any evidence that the administration paid Williams to personally promote its policies in his newspaper columns and television appearances. But they did not look into whether the agreement produced covert propaganda, leaving that issue to the Government Accountability Office, which is also investigating.

"The department paid for work that most likely did not reach its intended audience and paid for deliverables that were never received," the report said. "The advertisements (ads) that were produced under the work requests appear to be of poor quality, and the department has no assurance the ads received the airtime for which it paid."

The most important thing about blogs that I read, though, is that I avoid blogs with Ads on them ... even political ads that lean in my direction. It ads a touch of sleeze to the medium and makes me wonder how brutally honest these people can be if they're now trying to bring in advertisers. I don't want to be a product that a blogger is selling to an advertiser. I'm worth more than $50 a month, or whatever the going price for banner ads is.

What - a wannabe Goth who hides behind religion because he’s too chickenshit to stand up for himself?

Then homeschool him. The school has a dress code for a reason. If you can’t abide by it, keep him home and he can wear whatever he wants. It’s one thing to teach expression of self and another to teach respect for rule, regardless of how much you don’t like them.

President Bush said Thursday that the public should know as much as possible about government decision-making, but national security and personal privacy including his need to be protected.

"I believe in open government," Bush said at a meeting of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. "I've always believed in open government. I don't e-mail, however. And there's a reason: I don't want you reading my personal stuff."

An Army reservist was arrested on charges of holding seven Mexicans at gunpoint at a rest stop in southern Arizona, where civilian efforts to watch for illegal immigrants have raised fears of vigilante violence.

Officials said Haab used his vehicle to stop the seven men from driving away from an interstate rest stop Sunday, then ordered them to lie on the ground or be shot.

WASHINGTON, DC -- African-Americans who thought that hate crime laws would protect them against rampaging white racists are in for a shock: A new FBI study reveals that blacks are proportionally one-and-a-half times more likely to be arrested for hate crimes against whites than vice versa.

"This new hate crime study is Jesse Jackson's worst nightmare," said Steve Dasbach, Libertarian Party national director. "It appears that he and other African-American leaders have been duped into crusading for laws that have condemned a disproportionate number of blacks to prison.

Hate Crimes: Criminal Law and Identity Politics," a book by James Jacobs and Kimberly Potter offers revealing statistics in the arena of interracial crime and hate crimes. In 2000, the study found that 75 percent of interracial violent crime involved black offenders and white victims, 10 percent were white offenders and black victims and the other 15 percent were different combinations. Such a discrepancy isn't entirely shocking; after all, there are about six times as many non-Hispanic Caucasians in the United States as African-Americans. What is shocking is that in 1998, the FBI reported 2,084 "anti-black" hate crimes committed by whites and 567 "anti-white" hate crimes committed by blacks. In other words, despite the fact that crimes committed by blacks against whites occur seven times as much as the opposite, someone from the latter category -- a crime committed by whites against blacks -- is four times as likely to be charged with a hate crime. This demonstrates that hate crimes seem to be nothing more than crimes committed by one of a majority against a minority.

. . . we find that blacks were victims of 2,030 racially motivated offenses committed by whites, while whites were victims of 524 racially motivated offenses committed by blacks. Thus whites were responsible for 79.5 percent of these interracial hate crimes, and blacks 20.5 percent.

While this may appear to support the popular assertion that whites are likelier than blacks to commit hate crimes, we must remember that the total population of non-Hispanic whites is about 6 times larger than the total population of non-Hispanic blacks. When we factor this population disparity into the equation, we find that the "average" black is actually about 50 percent likelier than his or her white counterpart to commit what is classified as a racially motivated hate crime. Because this fact so radically contradicts most Americans prevailing worldview, one would think it might be big news deemed worthy of discussion by activists and academics alike. But in fact these are among the most underpublicized numbers in all of criminal justice.

"When I teach I try to demonstrate to students how complex race and ethnicity are," Dr. Richards said. "My secondary goal is to improve race relations, and when people discover that what they thought about themselves is not true - 'I thought I was black, but I'm also Asian and white' - it leads them to have a different kind of conversation about race. It leads them to be less bigoted, to ask the deeper questions, to be more open to differences."

"I think the test is really interesting; I had to know," said Ms. Best. "But it makes me question, why are we doing this? Why do people, especially in this country, want to know? Why are we, as a people, so caught up in race? Maybe we haven't progressed as much as we thought we had."

Yale and the 248-year-old congregation are at a crossroads. The university has announced that as of July its chapel will no longer be affiliated with United Church of Christ, the successor to what was once referred to as the Congregational church.

Though the decision is one of several aimed at making the Yale campus more welcoming to all faiths, the church's congregants have criticized the university for turning its back on its Congregational past and leaving them feeling unappreciated and adrift.

Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist has for years been railing against the alleged dangers presented by "judicial activism." But recently, as we saw with the Terri Schiavo case, many conservatives have ratcheted up the rhetoric, giving the impression that the American legal system is being run by liberal neo-Nazis who are so evil that they inexplicably want to starve the disabled to death!

Let's consider a couple of relevant facts regarding the Schiavo case that make it hard to swallow the argument that this was yet another case of liberal judicial activism run amok.

And then there's Warren Chisum, the resolution's author, peddling his own patented version of reality:

"You can't find anyone in this amendment that's discriminated against," said Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, who wrote the amendment and sponsored the state's Defense of Marriage Act passed during the 2003 legislative session. "Homosexuals coming up and saying, 'We're married, too.' That's what this protects [married couples] against."

Thanks, Warren, but no thanks. Hombre and I can maintain our own marriage without any interference from the state, and we can mind our own damn business while doing so.

Well-informed business executives agree. A recent survey of chief financial officers at major corporations found that 65 percent regard immediate action on health care costs as "very important." Only 31 percent said the same about Social Security reform.

But serious health care reform isn't on the table, and in the current political climate it probably can't be. You see, the health care crisis is ideologically inconvenient.

First, America's traditional private health insurance system, in which workers get coverage through their employers, is unraveling. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that in 2004 there were at least five million fewer jobs with health insurance than in 2001. And health care costs have become a major burden on those businesses that continue to provide insurance coverage: General Motors now spends about $1,500 on health care for every car it produces.

[Ros-Lehtinen] is breaking ranks with her party and co-sponsoring a bill that would repeal the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. As you probably know, the 12-year old policy allows homo-gay soldiers to serve their country, as long as they don't stare at any of their fellow soldier's asses or salute their superiors with "Girl those boots are, fierce!!"

Arthur J. Finkelstein, the political guru who helped engineer the defeat of one Democratic luminary, Mario M. Cuomo, has his sights set on another: Hillary Rodham Clinton.

[. . . ]

As a political consultant, his standing has been diminished after suffering a string of defeats during high-profile United States Senate races around the country, including New York, North Carolina and Florida.

One of his most significant losses came in 1998, with the defeat of Senator Alfonse M. D'Amato of New York, Mr. Finkelstein's chief political patron in the 1990's. During the 1996 election cycle, Mr. D'Amato, who was then chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, had made Mr. Finkelstein the committee's chief strategist and pollster.

Recently, Mr. Finkelstein suffered another major blow when Mr. Pataki picked a new state party chairman, Stephen Minarik, who then, with the governor's support, terminated a contract the party had with Mr. Finkelstein and his associate, Kieran Mahoney.

Mr. Finkelstein and Mr. Mahoney, who have been among Mr. Pataki's closest advisers for more than a decade, were among the chief architects of his victory over Mr. Cuomo in 1994.

And Mr. Finkelstein drew criticism within national Republican circles when he said that Republican efforts to court evangelical Christians could hurt the party.

Gay America, at least the one I belong to, knows that you are hurting our cause because the middle of the road conservative just sees a group of gay people who are invading the privacy of another.

While you might not care what conservatives think, I do. I know, and anyone who honestly looks at these issues knows, that we don’t have to convince gay people we are right. We spend a lot of time preaching to the choir. I’d be willing to bet that few, if any, of the commenters on BlogActive or AmericaBLOG are middle of the road conservatives who think you are doing a wonderful job. But guess what? They see what you are doing. And like it or not, they disagree with what you’re doing.

According to a government document provided to The New York Times by a federal official earlier this week, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has asserted that both girls are "an imminent threat to the security of the United States based on evidence that they plan to be suicide bombers." No evidence was cited, and federal officials will not comment on the case.

Its mysteries deepened as teachers and neighbors gave details of the Guinean girl's life, like the jeans she wore under her Muslim garb, her lively classroom curiosity about topics like Judaism and art and her after-school care for four younger siblings while her parents, illegal immigrants who have lived in the United States since 1990, eked out a living.

"I just can't fathom this," said her art teacher, Kimberly Lane, who has repeatedly called the youth detention center but like Ms. Carr was not allowed to speak to the girl, who has no lawyer. Among the unanswered questions they raised was why, if she was really a suspect, no F.B.I. agent had shown up to search her school locker or question her classmates, who sent her letters of support.

"This is a girl who's been in this country since she was 2 years old," Ms. Lane said. "She's just a regular teenager - like, two weeks ago her biggest worry was whether she'd done her homework or studied for a science test."

Arthur J. Finkelstein, a prominent Republican consultant who has directed a series of hard-edged political campaigns to elect conservatives in the United States and Israel over the last 25 years, said Friday that he had married his male partner in a civil ceremony at his home in Massachusetts.

Mr. Finkelstein, 59, who has made a practice of defeating Democrats by trying to demonize them as liberal, said in a brief interview that he had married his partner of 40 years to ensure that the couple had the same benefits available to married heterosexual couples.

The Rude Pundit doesn't know about you, but he's a little, let's say, concerned about the notion of groups of gun-wielding paranoid white people "guarding the borders," as the Minuteman Project purports to do. The Minutman Project is a group of pathetic rednecks and redneck wannabes who get the chance to "patrol" the Arizona wasteland at the Mexican border in desperate hopes of hog-tying Paco and Jacinta and dragging them to the Border Patrol. It is led by a man whose last name sounds like a computer game of a gay orgy, Chris Simcox. Simcox last led the Tombstone Militia, but, since "Tombstone Militia" sounds fuckin' scary, they're now the "Minutemen."

Reacting to Fox News host Alan Colmes's reference to news reports that white supremacists may have joined the Minuteman Project's efforts to prevent illegal immigrants from entering the United States via the Mexican border, Minuteman organizer James Gilchrist condemned supremacists but contended that "there are supremacist groups out there of all races, colors and creeds" and accused Colmes of "picking on" the white supremacists. Gilchrist has acknowledged that "white supremacists want us to wage a full battle at the border," but has denied that he is a racist: "Some people have said I'm racist, and that's just not true. ... My son-in-law is a full-on Mexican, and my grandson is half-Mexican."

DENVER, April 6 (UPI) -- Colorado Gov. Bill Owens has vetoed a bill that would have required all hospitals in the state to inform rape victims about emergency-contraception pills.

Owens, who is Catholic, cited freedom of religion in his veto message and told a sponsor of the bill his decision was not based on religious faith, the Denver Post reported.

Colorado governor vetoes rape pill bill

CINCINNATI Apr 4, 2005 — Justin Jeffre, a former member of 98 Degrees, wants to be Cincinnati's next mayor, saying his love for his hometown and desire to make it better motivated his decision to run.

"I am serious about this, and I intend to win," Jeffre, 32, said last week.

WASHINGTON Apr 5, 2005 — Critics of the USA Patriot Act want the kind of real debate they were denied when the sweeping anti-terrorism law was passed 45 days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales says he's willing to accommodate them, but he wants all the law's expiring provisions to be renewed.

ALBANY, N.Y - State lawmakers unveiled a bill Monday that is believed to be the first in the nation to target modem hijacking, a practice in which thieves tap into people's computer modems to make international phone calls.

If passed, the law would allow telephone companies and the state attorney general to bring lawsuits against modem hijackers and their accomplices. The bill is expected to face a vote by the end of June.

BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- Harvard University did not discriminate against a library assistant who claimed she was repeatedly turned down for promotions because school officials saw her as "a pretty girl" whose attire was too "sexy," a federal jury found Monday.

Desiree Goodwin, who is black, also claimed that Harvard passed her over because of her race and gender. She had been seeking damages for emotional distress and lost wages.

Until the Superior Court ruling in late March, L.R.M.'s tactics had been successful. A lower court had ruled that because L.R.M. had been so successful in keeping the daughter and T.B. apart for so long, it was now in the child's best interest to remain separated from T.B. But the three-judge panel of the appeals court emphatically rejected that line of reasoning as having any legal basis. "Imagine a scenario where the same premise is applied to spouses," wrote Judge Michael T. Joyce in the court's uplifting ruling. "It is inconceivable that an embittered spouse who successfully estranges the children from the other spouse, to the point where the other spouse is unknown to the children, should be rewarded by a determination that it shall be in the best interest of the children not to have any relationship at all with the alienated spouse because of the custodial spouse's feelings," Judge Joyce continued. "The preposterousness of this scenario is equally applicable to the case at bar, despite [the non-biological lesbian mother's] non-traditional status." The appeals court chided a lower court, saying it "abused its discretion" by denying visitation rights to T.B. on the basis of this argument. The lower court had kept T.B. from seeing her daughter since 1997. It also had prohibited T.B. from seeing the little girl until the matter was fully resolved. The appeals court rescinded that specious ruling, and now T.B. will be allowed to visit her daughter immediately, in a guided setting.

Statistics for this year show that while a Level 5 math class, the highest, had 79 percent white students, a Level 2 math class, the lowest, had 88 percent black students. Levels 3 and 4 tend to be more mixed, though a school board member, Mila M. Jasey, said, "Some white parents tell me that they know their kid belongs in a Level 3 class but they don't want them to be the only white kid in the class."

But, Dr. Post said, "[The Pope's] behavior in response to the sex abuse crisis disappointed many Catholics. He seemed very reluctant to remove Cardinal Law or accept Cardinal Law's resignation. His personal relationship with the cardinal seemed to stand in the way of his being willing to address the problems of the archdiocese."

Dr. Post said Boston Catholics appreciated some of what the pope eventually did, including meeting with American cardinals about the crisis.

"But when he brought Cardinal Law back to Rome and gave him the appointment at Mary Major, that was more than puzzling - it was deeply disturbing to Catholics in Boston," Dr. Post said. "It seemed that he was being rewarded for bad behavior, and run-of-the-mill ordinary Catholics just saw this as de facto an insult to the people of Boston."

I thank God for bringing us a powerful and passionate voice for peace. As for the rest of the Polish pontiff's "achievements," Creator, forgive him. I do believe he knew not the harm he did.

Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich (D) issued an emergency rule Friday that requires pharmacies to accept and fill prescriptions for contraceptives without delay, after a growing number of complaints nationwide that some pharmacists are refusing to dispense birth control pills and the "morning-after" pill.

First daughters Jenna and Barbara Bush will be assigned to a high-tech unit in Iraq, the Air Force Human Resources Command has confirmed. Having finished basic training at the Officer Training School (OTS) at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, they are scheduled to receive advanced training in telecommunications at the School of Information Technology before deployment overseas with the USAF Information Operations Squadron. For security reasons, the exact dates have been withheld.

[. . . ]

"We'd always planned to do this," Jenna explained. "But first, we had to graduate from college, and then we had to help our father win the 2004 election, to ensure that America would continue to have the kind of strong, inspiring leadership it needs in these troubled times."

"Right," Barbara added emphatically. "But now that the election is past, it's time for us to serve this wonderful nation of ours in a new way - in a way that reassures the American public that standing up to terrorists and rogue states, even at the expense of personal risk, is always the right thing to do."