Inside Gloria's Mind

Visit Spain, get naked

Wearing a Smile and Nothing Else

MADRID (Reuters) - Naked people ride the escalator and lie down in the park. Two young women pose naked on the steps of a famous monument. The pamphlet makes Barcelona look like a haven for nudists.

Two thousand such pamphlets were handed out in recent days by nudists wearing only a smile.

But publicity from the pamphlets, produced with government aid, forced the mayor on Monday to come out and say the city did not encourage people to "go nude in the street."

Support for straight spouses

Straight answers

You're heterosexual. Your spouse is not. This national organization was formed to help you cope.

When "Mary" discovered that her husband of 28 years was in love with a man, her rage was almost overwhelmed by another feeling — a sinking despair that she had no way to win him back.

For years, Mary said, she had suppressed painful suspicions her husband was gay. Even after he said so, she hoped he was merely exploring. But many therapy sessions later, both alone and as a couple, she realized the man she still loved had found what he truly wanted.

"If my husband left me for a woman, I could compete with that — I could say maybe if I lost weight or paid more attention to him or took trips with him," she said. "By leaving me for a man, there was nothing I could do. I don't have the right body parts."

Identity theft laws impact TGs

Transgender People Are Finding It's Tougher to Change a Name

To many transgender people — those men and women who, gay or straight, identify with the opposite sex — changing their name and gender on official records is as important to their identity change as surgery or hormone therapy, advocates say....

The increasing concerns of identity theft have made name-change processes for transgender people even more difficult to undertake, attorneys said.

"Identity theft is a very real and growing problem," said Michael Hernandez, an attorney who helps transgender people with their name changes. "I don't think anybody really gave much thought about how it impacted the transgender community."

Usually, the process of changing one's name is relatively easy and in most cases it requires just a marriage license or divorce decree. For transgender people, the process — which varies from agency to agency — is more complicated because they must change both their name and their sex.

Advocates say the policies are insensitive because they don't "correspond to the everyday experiences of transgender people."

Fruity critics of candy wrappers

Fruity sweet wrappers spark complaint

A Catholic college has complained about new Haribo sweet wrappers which it claims portray fruit in sexual positions.

"We are shocked at the shameless presentation of sexual practices on the wrapping, which includes not only sexual intercourse but also fellatio and cunnilingus," wrote the St Blasien Jesuit College near Bonn.

New TV documentary on teen sexual behavior

Health professionals and educators, set up your TiVo or VCR now. Parents, watch this with your adolescent kids and use it as an opportunity to let them express their own feelings. Before you guide them, try to understand them.

Discovery Health Channel Premieres TEEN SEX, a Documentary Examining the Truth About Sexual Activity Among America's Teens

On Wednesday, September 22 at 10 PM ET/PT, Discovery Health Channel premieres TEEN SEX, a fast-paced documentary detailing the intimate accounts and alarming statistics of sexual activity among young teenagers.

Meet teenagers from across the country as they share honest and powerful accounts of growing up and dealing with the pressures and frustrations surrounding sex. Viewers learn that teens today have a much tougher time trying to decipher what's taboo and what's acceptable given society's mixed messages. TEEN SEX also contrasts the teens' interviews with equally frank interviews from their parents who are grappling to deal with this controversial subject.

53% of over-40 Chinese males impotent

This seems like a high number. I wonder what kind of results a US study would yield.

What's particularly sad is that there are very effective treatments now for impotence. Wiith drugs such as Viagra, Levitra and Cialis, and testosterone therapy all readily available, a significant number of men with ED can resume normal, active sex lives.

Over 50 percent of Chinese men impotent and too shy to seek help: survey

BEIJING (AFP) - More than 50 percent of Chinese men over 40 suffer from varying degrees of impotence and most delay seeking treatment because they are too embarrassed, according to a nationwide survey.

The six-month study of 1,000 people in major Chinese cities suggested 52.5 percent of men over 40 suffer from erectile dysfunction to some extent and 90 percent of those afflicted said their sex lives were badly affected.

Good brassieres make good fences

Owners, Agency Reach 'Bra Fence' Accord

The agency recently cut about 20 bras off a barbed-wire fence near a state-managed fishing site along the Missouri River. That riled property owners Frank Cooper and Shirley Cleary, who saw a "bra fence" in New Zealand and liked it.

"We decided it would be fun to do that here in Montana," said Cooper, who contends Fish, Wildlife and Parks violated his speech and property rights.

An accord has been reached, but not without some bumps along the way.

The flap over the bra fence began in July, when the Cooper/Cleary family held a "Beer, Brat and Bra Bust" party at the family's Missouri River vacation cabin. Friends provided bras of various descriptions, plus little black lacy things, for the fence.

"We're talking people 50 to 83 years old, all respectable citizens, like attorneys, social workers, retired professors," Cooper said at his home in Helena. "We drank a little wine, ate a few brats and christened the bra fence."

The pornification of India

A thought piece on the spread of pornography throughout the world and its implications for India.

The Naked

Pornography is now hipper and bolder. Nona Walia raises the curtain on the effects of porn.

Porn is becoming hipper and acceptable. Visual imagery of pornography is fast becoming popular culture worldwide. And the pornographic curve is rising in India too.

X-rated robbery

And to think that people say porn has no socially redeeming value!

Norwegian porn star captures cops and robber chase on film

"There were four of us in the apartment getting ready to start shooting an X-rated movie when we heard noise outside. So we turned the lens towards the scene" where the action was taking place, Thomas "Rocco" Hansen told Norwegian tabloid VG's online edition.

MO and sexy billboards: we don't care if it's Constitutional

Yeah, Missouri doesn't need no stinking Constitution.

(And then these same people wonder why kids today have so little respect for laws?)

Adult businesses challenge Missouri ban on sexy billboards

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The owners of a Kansas City strip club and a company that operates adult bookstores along Interstate 70 are suing the state over its ban on sexually oriented billboards near state highways.

The law was signed by Gov. Holden in June and took effect Aug. 28, a day after the lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Kansas City. It prohibits such signs within one mile of state highways and gives businesses three years to bring existing billboards into compliance.

Backers of the law said it would help reduce crime and protect children from being exposed to sexually oriented businesses. But the lawsuit, filed by Gala Entertainment of KC Inc. and Passions Video Inc., claims the law violates the companies' First Amendment rights to free speech.

"When I testified in Jefferson City that they couldn't single these businesses out, the comment made to me was, 'We don't care if it's constitutional or not. We're sending a message,'" said the plaintiffs' attorney, Dick Bryant.

I have a modest proposal. Let's take all the legislators and lawmakers, politicians and judges, who willfully, knowingly violate the US Constitution and let's try them for treason.

Kids of gay couples in the classroom

This lengthy article in the Dallas Morning News is a must-read for parents, educators and activists alike.

More kids of same-sex couples reaching school age

WASHINGTON – The nation's schools, a historic battleground for social controversy, are wrestling with a variety of gay and lesbian issues. The latest: a wave of children with same-sex parents is reaching school age.

Nationwide, about 250,000 children have same-sex parents – a trend not limited to cities with large gay populations, according to census data culled by Gary Gates at the nonpartisan Urban Institute....

Gay issues have stirred conflict and parental concerns for years, as students have pushed cultural boundaries by forming gay-straight clubs, bringing same-sex dates to proms and resisting harassment and bullying. Now, as gay parents send their kids off to school, new concerns are being raised, reflecting anxiety about premature questions from children regarding human sexuality....

In Lafayette, La., last fall, a 7-year-old was sent home with a disciplinary note after telling a classmate that his two moms are gay, which he defined as "when a girl likes a girl." The note Marcus McLaurin carried home said: "This kind of discussion is not acceptable in my room." And, in the report, Marcus wrote, "I sed bad wurds" in describing his family.

Down low in Hindustan

A compelling argument for why politicians should seek to strike down laws which criminalize homosexuality in India.

Can he do it?
by Karan Thapar

....My advice to this young MP is to move a private member’s bill decriminalising homosexuality by repealing Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. Written in 1871 it reads: “Whosoever voluntarily has anal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal shall be punished with imprisonment for life.”

The case against Section 377 is almost irrefutable. Firstly, India is perhaps the only serious democracy where the law criminalises what consenting male adults choose to do in the privacy of their bedroom. ....

There is, however, a second argument — based on practicality rather than principle. By criminalising the sexual orientation of homosexuals society forces them to seek their pleasures furtively and thus makes them liable to blackmail and criminal vendetta. And if they catch infection it’s unlikely they will openly seek treatment. Fear of the law prevents it and that, in turn, undermines efforts to control AIDS....

The truth of the matter is that sex between men is not as exceptional as we think it is. Nor is the taboo against it universal. A recent but unpublished study by the UNFPA has revealed that unmarried men in rural India are more likely to have sex with another man than with commercial sex workers.

Olympic tattoos

If you are a tattoo/body mod fan, you might enjoy this slideshow that Yahoo has compiled of the body art that Olympic athletes displayed at this year's games.

Olympic tattoos--slideshow

(Note: I don't know how long Yahoo keeps its slideshows active so the link may not be active a few weeks from now)

Book: The Japanese Art of Sex

Interesting review of a book (by American writer, Jina Bacarr) about Japanese sex and sensuality. Something fans of shibari might be interested in checking out. I've added it to my "Neocortests" list (right) if you want to get a copy at Amazon.

Dim the lights and loosen your obi

The Japanese Art of Sex: How to Tease, Seduce and Pleasure the Samurai in Your Bedroom

Conventional wisdom has it that Western people link sex with shame, but Japanese don't. A moment's reflection reveals problems with that claim, but what's not in doubt is that when the twain meet, the cliches fly as fast as the sparks.

The falsely exoticized image of the geisha as complaisant nymphet popularized in the West by Gilbert and Sullivan and Puccini remains stubbornly popular, for example, even though a "real" geisha these days is more likely to be a nonagenarian banjo-plucking crone.

But stereotypes often are based on truths, albeit oversimplified ones. The major strands of Judeo-Christian tradition hold that sex for non-procreative purposes outside the institution of marriage is to be frowned on, or is outright wicked, while in Japan, a society unburdened with the concept of original sin (though Shinto imposes taboos on impurity), pre- or extramarital sex is condoned or even encouraged.

American self-styled "Japanese sex expert" Jina Bacarr has plundered the erotic traditions of court, teahouse and soapland and written a titillating book that is part cultural primer, part sex manual.

In the first five chapters of The Japanese Art of Sex, Bacarr introduces various Japanese cultural icons and practices that have a strong sensual component--geisha, kimono, bathing, tea ceremony, incense ceremony, gardens, mono no aware (appreciation of ephemeral beauty), food, among others--and attempts to draw an overt link between them and sex, with mixed and occasionally hilarious results.

Log Cabin Republicans won't back Bush

Sunday I questioned why gays would vote GOP this year...and now the answer appears to be that many won't.

Note, by the way, that it seems that Rove is counting on thankful evangelicals to make up the loss of gay votes.

Gay Republicans say they are unlikely to back Bush, GOP platform
Many upset at president's support for Marriage Amendment, a draw for evangelicals

Leaders of the Log Cabin Republicans said Sunday the group is unlikely to endorse Bush next week in the wake of the move by a conservative-dominated GOP platform committee to strongly support a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and oppose legal recognition of gay civil unions.

"The president's support of the federal Marriage Amendment, and (political strategist) Karl Rove's decision to use gay and lesbian Americans as wedge issues ... and the outrageous and insulting platform language has jeopardized that endorsement," said Patrick Guerriero, executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans....

Such anger is a sharp reversal from four years ago, when Bush broke GOP ground by courting gays in a highly publicized meeting in Austin, Texas, with a dozen Log Cabin members. An estimated 1 million gays and lesbians voted for Bush in 2000.

But when same-sex marriage suddenly vaulted to the forefront of the gay rights movement last year with the Massachusetts court decision legalizing such unions, religious conservatives insisted Bush endorse a constitutional amendment to ban them. Bush complied in February. Rove made clear that he considered the 4 million votes of evangelicals believed to have stayed home in 2000 essential to Bush's re-election.

Monday morning humor

A few silly bits to ease your back-to-work blues.

A farmer had five female pigs. Times were hard, so he decided to take them to the county fair and sell them. At the fair, he met another farmer who owned five male pigs.

After talking a bit, they decided to mate the pigs and split everything 50/50. The farmers lived sixty miles apart. So they agreed to drive thirty miles each, and find a field in which to let the pigs mate.

The first morning, the farmer with the female pigs got up at 5 a.m., loaded the pigs into the family station wagon, which was the only vehicle he had, and drove the thirty miles.

While the pigs were mating, he asked the other farmer, "How will I know if they are pregnant?" The other farmer replied, "If they're in the grass in the morning, they're pregnant, if they're in the mud, they're not."

The next morning the pigs were rolling in the mud. So he hosed them off, loaded them into the family station wagon again and proceeded to try again. This continued each morning for more than a week.

One morning the farmer was so tired, he couldn't get out of bed. He called to his wife, "Honey, please look outside and tell me whether the pigs are in the mud or in the grass."

"Neither," yelled his wife, "they're in the station wagon and one of them is honking the horn."

(Thanks to Jay for this)

This joke's from Bethie (a nice Italian girl). Image courtesy of Big Dick.

There's this salesman who is traveling thru a small town. He sees a circus tent and a sign that says "See The Amazing Italian!"

So the salesman gets intrigued and buys his ticket and goes inside.

All there is is a spotlight shining on a small table. There's three walnuts on it. The crowd fills up and soon the announcer says "And here is The Amazing Italian!" The crowd roars and out comes this little, old Italian guy. He stands behind the table. He bows. He suddenly drops his pants and whips out his enormous endowment. He slaps the walnuts, One! Two! Three! cracking them to smithereens.

The crowd goes wild and carries the Italian off on their shoulders.

Some ten years later, the salesman is going thru this town again, and he sees the tent and the sign, now faded, "See The Amazing Italian!"

The salesman can't believe the old guy is still alive, never mind doing his act. So he buys a ticket and goes inside.

There's still a spotlight and a table, but this time, instead of three walnuts there's three coconuts.

The Italian guy comes out, older and more stooped. He stands behind the table. He whips out his huge and by God it's hard male member, and smashes the coconuts, One! Two! Three! in no time flat. The crowd goes wild.

The salesman gets an appointment with the old guy in his dressing room. "I gotta know," the salesman asks, "you're older now, why three coconuts?"

The Amazing Italian says, "My eysa no gooda like they used to be!"

Dutch abortion sailors banned from land

Banned Dutch abortion ship vows to take Portugal to court

LISBON (AFP) - The operators of a Dutch boat made into a floating abortion clinic vowed to take Portugal to court after the country refused permission for the ship to enter its territorial waters.

Rebecca Gomperts, the doctor who five years ago founded the Women on Waves Foundation which manages the clinic, said the ban violated European Union rules on the freedom of movement between member states.

"We are definitely going to court," Gomperts told a televised news conference in Portugal....

"We came here to respect Portuguese law but we are treated like terrorists who threatened the security of the country," Gomperts complained.

Kentucky strip clubs fight back

N.Ky. clubs prepare case to fight sex business law

When local governments across the country push strip clubs around, those clubs have been known to push back -- and in some cases win big.

Courts have awarded judgments in excess of $1 million to clubs from Louisville to Anaheim, Calif., after zoning and other regulatory ordinances were ruled unconstitutional.

Some First Amendment experts -- many of whom have made fortunes from challenging sexually oriented business laws around the country -- say Northern Kentucky could be headed down the same road....

In recent years governments have moved away from the difficult process of prosecuting adult businesses under obscenity charges and moved toward controlling their activities through zoning and regulations.

Bradley J. Shafer, a lawyer based in Lansing, Mich., who is one of the country's top First Amendment lawyers, has been awarded more than $1 million in attorney fees and costs from municipalities that enacted aggressive laws controlling sexually oriented businesses.

Shafer has argued successfully against laws involving hours of operation, nudity prohibitions and buffer zones between dancers and patrons at various clubs. Those happen to be a few of the new rules in a new sexually oriented business ordinance adopted last week by the Kenton County Fiscal Court....

Over the years, Shafer said he has seen adult business zoned onto an airport runway, into the Pacific Ocean, and even the inside of a mayor's house. All such zones were overturned in court.

Bacterial remedy for vaginal infections

This new research is promising for women who suffer from frequent bladder or vaginal infections and the pills themselves may be available in health stores as soon as next year.

Good bacteria after bad Two Canadian researchers believe their patented strains of common bacteria will prove an effective natural treatment for infections in women Most people don't go to the drug store to pick up a bottle of bacteria. But two Canadian researchers and a Danish manufacturer are hoping to change that.

For more than 22 years, microbiologist Gregor Reid and urologist Andrew Bruce have sung the praises of Lactobacillus, bacteria they say can help keep women free of bladder and vaginal infections. Together, they have isolated and patented two strains of the beneficial bacteria that essentially fight the ''bad'' microbes that cause the infections.

Approximately one million Canadian women suffer from bladder and vaginal infections annually. Symptoms include the recurring urge to urinate and soreness in lower abdomen, back or sides; typically, urination is difficult, painful and tinged with blood.

While a faculty member at Queen's University in 1973, Dr. Bruce began to examine what distinguished healthy woman from those with reoccurring bladder infections. He determined that healthier women had higher levels of Lactobacillus, naturally occurring bacteria that travel from the rectum to the vagina along the outer skin. Once Dr. Reid joined the project in 1982, the duo devoted themselves to isolating and testing strains of the bacteria....

Today their natural remedy is being put into capsules and sold to women in Malaysia and Hong Kong. Each capsule contains more than five billion Lactobacillus bacteria and needs to be taken daily to fend off infections. The probiotic, called Urex-Cap-5, costs $18 (U.S.) for a package of 30 capsules and is produced by a Denmark-based pharmaceutical firm, Chr. Hansen.

The remedy could be available to North American consumers within a year, pending approval by Health Canada and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Reid said. With 15 clinical trials behind it, the researchers believe their remedy will be given a quick green light as a dietary health supplement.

The researchers' most recent studies found that daily oral use of the probiotic restores Lactobacilli in the vagina and reduces yeast, E. coli and other harmful organisms by more than 50 per cent.

Log Cabin Republicans feel betrayed

I've met a lot of gay Republicans over the years. While I didn't agree with them, I could understand their reasons for supporting candidates who did not seem very gay-positive. In fact, Clinton's"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy was, to my mind, sheer political nonsense that didn't fix or even address any of the real problems with gays in the military. So GW's promise of "Compassionate Conservatism" perhaps suggested something better, more intelligent, and less interventionist when gays cast their votes in 2000.

That was then. This is now. The idea that any gay person would be a party loyalist in this year's election is mind-boggling. I'm not a single-issue kind of voter but still, if there was a party whose platform was to limit a woman's human rights, I wouldn't belong to that party.

Gays in GOP call platform 'slap in the face'

The Republican Party will unveil a platform at its national convention in New York City that includes even more extreme anti-gay language than an earlier draft version contained, a move called "vicious and mean-spirited" by the leader of the nation's largest gay GOP group.

In addition to a call for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, GOP officials have added new language to the party's platform which says judges should not force states to "recognize other living arrangements as equivalent to marriage."

"They're not just trying to prevent civil marriage equality," said Log Cabin Republicans (LCR) Executive Director Patrick Guerriero in a statement. "They want to marginalize part of the American family by barring not just marriage but also civil unions, domestic partnerships and indeed any benefits or protections for gay and lesbian families."

Pentagon's disservice to US servicewomen

I applaud the L.A. Times for publishing this editorial. The morality is pretty skewed when the military will pay for officers' wives to get bigger boobs, but won't cover essential health services (such as legal abortions) for servicewomen.

(See, Jay, I believed you when you wrote to say that all the fancy plastic surgeries probably are done on officers' wives and not enlisted women.)

Pentagon Abortion Politics

Join the military, see the world and get a nose job courtesy of Uncle Sam.

Heck, get breast implants if you'd like, or laser eye surgery, even liposuction. Taxpayers will pick up the tab because, according to the Pentagon officials quoted in recent news accounts, military surgeons need operating room practice....

But if a servicewoman gets pregnant and doesn't want to be, the Army and the other military branches aren't nearly so accommodating. In fact, a poor woman on welfare has more options than one who volunteers to serve her country. The military won't pay for an abortion unless a base doctor decides that the pregnancy endangers a woman's life, a circumstance doctors define on a case-by-case basis. As a result, military abortions are so rare that there seem to be no data on how many have been performed.

Yet federal tax dollars cover abortions for poor civilian women under Medicaid if they get pregnant because of rape or incest, as well as if their lives are on the line. Military doctors will perform an abortion for rape or incest victims only if the soldier pays. That rule applied to the victims of the 822 sexual assaults reported to Army officials in 2003. Many of those women were serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait, where they can't easily get an abortion in a local hospital either, regardless of their ability to pay.

SM parent in legal trouble

Hmmm. I have no sympathy for bad parents but would like details of the claims that he's abusive and violent. Is that based on his SM activities or a criminal history of domestic abuse and/or assault or disorderly conduct? If you know this fellow (or this case), please comment with any info you may have.

S&M Dad Ordered to Give up Child

A father was in court Friday and ordered to give up his child after prosecutors say he made women walk around in dog collars and leashes.

Prosecutors say Chico Dyke is an abusive and violent man. He refused to turn over his daughter despite threats of jail time and fines. ....

News 4 WOAI obtained a copy of the affidavit. Court records show that the parents would run around the house nude and the children are in a filthy state.

Dyke is also known to have sadomasochism practices and he is known to be violent and abusive, court records state.

The affidavit also states Dyke forced to leave a grocery store because he was dragging two women around the store on dog leashes.

Dyke downplays the allegations.

"Yes, I've been in the company of a female with a collar on," Dyke said,"but she had the leash laid up on her shoulder basically."

"In this lifestyle, she is saying she's looking for a master," Dyke said.

Incestuous Toilet Voyeurism

That's right. You heard me. Incestuous Toilet Voyeurism.

Man Charged With Voyeurism

It should be the one room where privacy is a given. But at Roy Duane Adams house, prosecutors say the bathroom was his home theater.

"It ranks up there as one of the most bizarre videos that I've seen," said Commonwealth's Attorney Anne Haynie.

Adams is accused of setting up a hidden camera in his bathroom, then secretly video taping his relatives and friends. Little girls in the tub, his ex-wife and her friends on the toilet.

"It was a sexual turn on to him," said Haynie.

Ow

I would like to ask this woman about her social life....her sex life...and what happens when she has a head cold.

The world's most pierced woman, Elaine Davidson from Brazil, a resident in the Scottish city of Edinburgh, poses for a photographer during the 6th Ti-Tattoo Convention in Lugano, Switzerland, late Friday, Aug. 27, 2004.

Davidson claims to have upwards of 1,900 piercings, and has an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records. (AP Photo/Keystone, TiPress/Samuel Golay)

Buttfucking makes comeback in Louisiana

So now all the men and women who live in Louisiana can continue to have anal and oral sex without risking being arrested and forever after marked as sex criminals.

Put another way: until this ruling, whether you are gay, straight or bi, if you were caught going down on your lover or spouse in Louisiana, you could have been convicted as a sex offender and would never be able to get that crime off your record. That's right: you would have had to register as a sex offender wherever you lived in the United States for the rest of your life.

Judge strikes down portions of Louisiana sodomy law

A judge has ruled that portions of Louisiana law criminalizing consensual oral and anal sex between adults are unconstitutional and has permanently barred prosecutors in Jefferson Parish from enforcing them. The Louisiana Electorate for Gays and Lesbians sued the Jefferson Parish district attorney's office in 1996, after the office was dismissed from a case in Orleans Parish that resulted in a statewide ban on enforcement of the "crimes against nature" law.

The reconstruction of Larry Flynt

A rambling but interesting piece about how the bio-pic about Flynt, coupled with his liberal activism, have changed public perceptions of him as a pop cultural icon.

The People Meet Larry Flynt

I had arrived a few hours earier at the location of Flynt’s signing and promotion of his latest book, “Sex, Lies and Politics: The Naked Truth” at Bound to be Read , a book store at the corner of Grand and Victoria, Saint Paul’s answer to Beverly Hills. This corner, and the genteel reading emporium locted on it, made it an unlikely setting for the man who not only founded Hustler magazine but also Chic, Barely Legal, and a catalogue of videos and DVD’s with titles best left to YOUR imagination.

Ten years ago, the impending appearance of a man who prefers to be called Mr. Smut Peddler might have caused demonstrations by masses of Christians, like the kids I would later meet at the bus stop, or uber-feminists, like the ones I once saw marching angrily over to a local “Bunny Hunt” by Playboy back in 1998. Now, thanks to the 1996 movie on his life, the skewering of arch conservative hypocrites in the Senate, and the authoring of respectable books like the political tract he was promoting this evening, Larry Flynt is now as welcome as any visitor to Mayberry on “The Andy Griffith Show.”

Chinglish bloopers

These rank right up there with the weird messages you get in fortune cookies.

'The slippery are very crafty!'

The Beijing Tourism Bureau recently held a six-month campaign (far too short) to improve basic English usage at 60 famous scenic spots visited by foreigners, such as the Palace Museum and the Great Wall. People coming across a confusing sign were asked to phone a hotline and report their find to the bureau for correction.

Problems range from obscure abbreviations, word-for-word translation of Chinese characters into English, improper omissions and misspellings. Some of my favorite 'Chinglish' blooper signs are:

"Little grass is smiling slightly, please walk on pavement" — in a Beijing park. I wonder where you’ll need to walk when the grass smiles strongly?

"Please keep your legs" — next to the escalator. Yes we wouldn’t want anyone else walking off with them!

"Reduces signs of premature senility" — on a bottle of face cream. This could be handed out to most of the world’s parliaments, for a different kind of smear campaign.

"Don't forget to carry your thing" — in the back of a taxi. Heaven forbid leaving your 'thing' behind. Best to keep it in hand at all times.

"To take notice of safe. The slippery are very crafty" — sloped entrance to mall opposite Beijing Railway Station.....

Child-porn: it's not just men

Most times when we think about child porn, we assume the criminals who produce, distribute and consume this stuff are men.

This tragic and depressing story about one family's grief illustrates a seldom discussed shameful fact: women too feed the sleazy, illegal world of child pornography.

APP.COM - Child-porn charge shocks family

George Schneider spends his days trying to comfort his daughter. He cries a lot. His wife, Cecelia, accused of child pornography and sexual abuse of a 2-year-old, remains in jail.

"I don't believe anybody could do this, especially that somebody you're married to for 25 years would," George Schneider said in a telephone interview.

Cecelia Schneider, a high school mathematics teacher, is accused of child endangerment and aggravated sexual assault.

Meanwhile, authorities yesterday rearrested a Manchester man on additional charges in a bicoastal, Internet sex probe that eventually pointed to Cecelia Schneider, 50, of Center Street, Little Egg Harbor.

Complaints against Schneider, suspended with pay from her job as a mathematics teacher at Monmouth Regional High School, Tinton Falls, allege that in 2002 she performed oral sex on the boy and produced and distributed child pornography, specifically a photograph of herself with the toddler.

New ruling on intact dilation and extraction abortions

Although I am pro-abortion, I am ambivalent about late-term abortions unless the mother's life is at risk. So I applaud this judge for making the right choice: letting the law dictate his decision instead of his own moral reservations about the procedure. It's not a decision I'd ever want to have to make.

Meanwhile, though, if the procedure is "Intact Dilations and Extraction" how come media always use the anti-abortionists' term for it? Hmmm.

Judge Revokes Partial-Birth Abortion Ban

NEW YORK - A federal judge declared the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act unconstitutional because it does not contain an exception to protect a woman's health, something the Supreme Court said is required in laws prohibiting types of abortion.

U.S. District Judge Richard C. Casey issued his ruling Thursday — the second such ruling in three months — even as he called the procedure "gruesome, brutal, barbaric and uncivilized.....

The law, signed last November, banned a procedure known to doctors as intact dilation and extraction and called partial-birth abortion by abortion foes. The fetus is partially removed from the womb, and the skull is punctured or crushed."

Gayspeak enters Canadian lexicon

Gay terms added to dictionary in Canada Oxford rewrites definition of marriage

...the second edition of the “Canadian Oxford Dictionary” — the country’s bestselling lexicon — includes definitions for the vernacular used by gays for years, from “gaydar” to “lipstick lesbian,” “cruisy” to “civil union.”

It also delineates the word “marriage” in much broader terms as “the legal or religious union of two people” without mentioning “a man and a woman.”

The release of the official Canadian dictionary this fall marks the first attempt to formally sanction gay-specific language and widely introduce it to the mainstream.....

The release of the official Canadian dictionary this fall marks the first attempt to formally sanction gay-specific language and widely introduce it to the mainstream. While publishers of United States dictionaries, such as Miriam-Webster, say they will not likely follow suit for quite some time, Oxford University Press, the house behind several country-specific dictionaries, plans on keeping up-to-date with gay lingo as it progresses.