BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

The Mitzvah to Speak Lashon Hara

2008-07-27T23:05:00.000-04:00

Let Them Talk

Rabbi Mark Dratch

JSafe: The Jewish Institute Supporting an Abuse Free Environment

“You are not allowed to say negative things,” they are told. “There’s no proof!”

The prohibition of Lashon Hara (slander, gossip, tale-bearing) is often used as a tool to silence abuse victims and their advocates from speaking out against abusers. “There are no witnesses.” “You can’t make this public.”

“Keep the secret! Remain silent!” And so women, girls, boys, and men are silenced and are often unable to get the help that they need or appeal for the support that they deserve. By invoking lashon hara improperly, the community to which they turn not only revictimizes them, but enables their abusers to continue abusing them and, potentially, others as well.

These attitudes are articulated by many: rabbis, friends, neighbors. They find expression in many places, including the following rabbinic legal responsum. The rabbi is asked whether one should report to the legal authorities a father who one suspects of sexually molesting his daughter or a teacher who one suspects of sexually molesting his student.

In response, he warns that, unless there are two valid witnesses who actually saw the assault, it is forbidden for anyone to speak about it at all, even the victim. He forbids others who may have learned of the molestation through hearsay or circumstantial evidence from saying anything, categorizing their comments as motzi shem ra - slander, distortions, and lies. In his opinion, the daughter’s disclosure is unacceptable: she is a minor, a female and a relative. The mother’s testimony is unacceptable: she is a relative and a female. The doctor’s opinion is unacceptable; based on his examination of the child, he can only testify that she had been abused, not who abused her.

Furthermore, the rabbi asserts, there is a hazakah (a legal presumption of human behavior) that a father does not molest his daughter, and, unless proven otherwise, this presumption overrides any concerns that may be raised. There being no acceptable or legally obtained evidence to support the accusation, any mention of it at all is prohibited.1
This response is unacceptable. Is it really prohibited for victims of abuse - whether child or adult, woman or man - to speak of the mistreatment and exploitation that they suffered?

Is this really what Jewish law expects when it comes to protecting individual innocents and society as a whole from real and potential perpetrators?

What are the laws of lashon hara? How do they apply to cases of domestic violence and child abuse? What do the sources really say?

May a survivor speak out? May others repeat the allegations they heard?

The Prohibition

“You shall not go up and down as a slanderer among your people; nor you shall stand by the blood of your friend; I am the Lord” (Lev. 19:16)

is the basis of the biblical prohibitions proscribing lashon hara (talk that is damaging to another’s reputation and is true), motzi shem ra (talk that is damaging and is false) and rekhilut (tale bearing). These prohibitions include not only speaking derogatorily, but listening to deprecating speech as well. The great works of Shemirat HaLashon and Hafetz Hayyim, authored by the revered sage Rabbi Yisrael Meir ha-Kohen Kagan (1838-1933) are the essential works in this area, and no discussion of lashon hara can begin or proceed without them. (For the purpose of this article, unless otherwise noted, the term lashon hara will be used to refer to all derogatory speech, including motzi shem ra and rekhilut as well.)

While these prohibitions are serious and consequential, they are not absolute. There are times when one must share disparaging and critical information with others.

There is a duty, for example, to testify in a court of law and to reveal information about another’s illicit behavior.2

What situations require disclosure? What are the conditions under which disclosure may take place?

At first glance, unless the speech fulfills all of the conditions necessary to be accepted as legal testimony, i.e., the statement of two valid witnesses, male, religiously observant and unrelated to each other or the subject of their testimony, any disclosure should be prohibited. The Talmud, Pesahim 113b, relates that one of three persons that “the Holy One, blessed be He, hates” is “one who sees something indecent in his neighbor and testifies against him as the sole witness.” Because a Jewish court requires two witnesses, the testimony of a single witness is invalid and ineffective. There being no possible appropriate and legal consequence to this revelation, the witness has succeeded in doing nothing more than defaming a person’s character.

The Talmud relates:

As it once happened that Tuviah sinned and Zigud alone came and testified against him before R. Papa, [whereupon] [R. Papa] had Zigud punished. ‘Tuviah sinned and Zigud is punished!’ exclaimed [Zigud], ‘Even so,’ said [R. Papa] to him, ‘for it is written, “One witness shall not rise up against a man, (Deut. 19:15)” whereas you have testified against him alone: you merely bring him into ill repute.’ R. Samuel son of R. Isaac said in Rav's name: Yet he (the single witness) may hate [the sinner].

The prohibition against lashon hara does not only pertain when one’s intentions are negative, i.e., the discrediting of another’s reputation—to shame him or degrade him; they apply even when one one’s intentions are neutral or one’s statements are merely in jest.3

The Obligation to Speak
There are times when a person is obligated to speak out, even when he is the sole informant and even though the information is disparaging. Specifically, if a person’s intent in sharing the negative information is for a to’elet, a positive, constructive, and beneficial purpose, the prohibition against lashon hara does not apply.4 Motzi shem ra, spouting lies and spreading disinformation, is always prohibited. And if the lashon hara serves as a warning against the possibility of future harm, such communication is not only permissible, but, under certain conditions it is compulsory. This applies even when one is the sole source of the information; the prohibition represented by Zigud’s testimony in Pesahim 113b applies only in a court setting.5

Although Hafetz Hayyim disagrees with this distinction and maintains that solitary testimony is prohibited both in a court and outside of a court,6 even he agrees that where there is a to’elet, such speech is permitted.

Rabbi Eliyahu ben Hayyim (Ra’anah) even allows seeking derogatory information about someone and permits the soliciting of witnesses of a possible transgression. Although Rosh7 bans such a public appeal unless two witnesses have already come forward against the alleged sinner - after all, “fishing” publicly for evidence against someone is itself damaging to that person’s reputation - Ra’anah explains that that applies only when there are no reasonable suspicions against the individual at all. But, when one is certain that a sin has been committed and that there exist witnesses who have not come forward, he may go public with an appeal for their testimony and a court may even threaten those reluctant witnesses with contempt if they do not appear.8

Commentators maintain that the distinction between derogatory speech that is solely detrimental and derogatory speech that serves a helpful purpose derives from the biblical verse itself. They point to the juxtaposition of the two clauses of the verse, “You shall not go up and down as a slanderer among your people” and “nor you shall stand by the blood of your neighbor” (Lev. 19:16) and note that although there is a prohibition of defamation (clause 1), that prohibition is overridden by the obligation to save another or to testify in his behalf (clause 2).9

Thus, the verse should be read, “You shall not go up and down as a slanderer among your people; but, nevertheless, you shall not stand by the blood of your neighbor (and you must speak out in order to prevent harm).” This obligation includes protection not only from physical harm, but protection from monetary and spiritual harm as well.10

Rambam codifies this reading as a matter of law:

Anyone who can save another and does not save him violates, “You shall not stand on the blood of your neighbor.” Therefore, one who sees his friend drowning in the sea or being attacked by robbers and is able to save him; or if he hears that others are conspiring to harm him and have set a trap, and he does not reveal this information to him, he violates that which is said in the Torah, “You shall not stand on the blood of your neighbor.”11

To’elet is a factor in permitting not only otherwise forbidden speech, but it is a consideration in all interpersonal (bein adam le-haveiro) prohibitions as well. R. Elhanan Wasserman writes:

All interpersonal injunctions are prohibited only [when the act is performed in a] destructive and deleterious manner, for no positive benefit. For example, the prohibition of “Do not hate your brother” prohibits only sinat hinam (wanton hatred), i.e., when he did not see him commit an illicit act. But if he witnessed an illicit act, it is permissible to hate him… So too regarding the prohibition of physical assault; Rambam wrote that this applies only if he strikes another in an aggressive manner…So too regarding the prohibition “You shall not go as a tale bearer”- one is permitted to speak lashon hara concerning those involved in disputes in order to quell the argument… Thus, all of this indicates that all these prohibitions are permitted for the purpose of to’elet.12

Nevertheless, there is widespread misunderstanding of the laws of lashon hara and many invoke this prohibition as an excuse for not sharing information, even when that information would be beneficial to another person. R. Yisrael Isser, author of Pit’hei Teshuvah, cautions against being overly righteous by being reluctant to share helpful, but derogatory information:

The Magen Avraham and the mussar books (ethical treatises) write at length concerning the prohibition of lashon hara. I have found it appropriate to write about the other side. There is a sin even greater than [speaking lashon hara], and one which is more widespread, i.e., the sin of refraining from informing another about a situation in which one can save him from being victimized - all out of concern for lashon hara… One who behaves in this manner, his sin is too great to bear and he violates, “You shall not stand by the blood of your brother.”13

R. Yisrael Isser emphasizes that this obligation to speak out applies not only when a person is in physical danger, but also when he is subject to potential financial or personal harm.

In addition, R. Yisrael Isser maintains that while some are tainted:

“if his intentions are good, i.e, for the purpose of warning his fellow and saving him from ‘the snare of the fowler,’ it is a great mitzvah [to share information] and a blessing will come upon him.” 14

The Listener
Although the Torah also prohibits listening to lashon hara, one may not lightly dismiss or ignore derogatory information that he hears about another person. While he should not accept unquestioningly a negative report as definitive, he should, nevertheless, consider that it might be true and proceed suspiciously and cautiously (derekh hashash be’alma), in light of the information he received.15 Gedaliah ben Ahikam, the assassinated governor of the Jews following the destruction of the First Temple, did not pay attention to such a report and, as a result, he was held liable for the deaths of eighty men.16 The Talmud explains that

“owing to the fact that [Gedaliah] should have taken note of the advice of Yohanan the son of Kareah (who told him that Shimon b. Netaniah wanted to kill him) and did not do so, Scripture regards him as though [Gedaliah himself] had killed them himself.”17

The Abused: Obligatory Lashon Hara
Often, a person who has been the victim of abuse or violence wants to share this information with others. Sometimes it is with a friend or family member. Sometimes it is with a police officer18 or therapist or lawyer or advocate.

Sometimes it is for the purpose of seeking legal or psychological help, sometimes it may be to warn potential victims of harm or danger, and sometimes it may be just to unburden herself.19

Said Rava,

“As to slander, though one should not believe it, one should nevertheless take note of it.” There were certain Galileans who were rumored to have killed a person. They came to R. Tarfon and said to him, “Will the Master hide us?” He replied, “How should I act? Should I not hide you, [the avengers of the blood] would see you [and kill you]. Should I hide you, I would be acting contrary to the statement of the Rabbis, ‘As to slander, though one should not believe it, one should take note of it.’ Go you and hide yourselves.”
See Hafetz Hayyim, Hil. Issurei Lashon Hara 6:10.

VALIDATING & LISTENING TO A VICTIM
IS KEY TO THEIR RECOVERY!

~~~~~~
1 Teshuvot Mishneh Halakhot, XIV, no. 58.
2 See Lev. 5:1.
3 Hil. Lashon Hara, kelal 4, Be’er Mayyim Hayyim, no. 1 citing Hil. De’ot 7:5.
4 See Hil. Lashon Hara, kelal 10 and Hil. Rekhilut, kelal 9.
5 Semag, prohibition 213; Sefer Hareidim 24:30.
6 Be’er Mayyim Hayyim, Hil. Lashon Hara, kelal 3:1.
7 Teshuvot haRosh 7:7.
8 Teshuvot Ra’anah I:111 quoting Teshuvot haRashba II:229.
9 See Ha’amek Davar; Ha’amek She’eilah, Parashat Vayikra 68:2; Or haHayyim; Meshekh Hokhmah.
10 Rashbam to Baba Batra 39b, s.v., u-man de’amar; Sefer HaMitzvot, neg., 297; Hinukh, mitzvah 237; Teshuvot Mishkenot Ya’akov, Hoshen Mishpat 12.
11 Hil. Rotzei’ah 1:14. See also Tur and Shulhan Arukh, Hoshen Mishpat 426:1.
12 Kovetz He’arot, Yevamot no. 70. In applying this ruling, R. Ovadia Yosef, Teshuvot Yehaveh Da’at, IV, no. 7, obligates a physician to report to the Department of Motor Vehicles a patient afflicted with epilepsy in order to have that patient’s license suspended. He rules that this obligation to prevent harm not only overrides the prohibition of speaking negatively about another, but even supersedes the doctor-patient privilege of confidentiality.
13 Orah Hayyim, no. 156
14 See also Hafetz Hayyim, Issurei Rekhilut, kelal 9.
15 Nidah 61a,
16 See Jeremiah 39.
17 Nidah 61a.
18 Issues of mesirah and arka'ot are beyond the scope of this paper. Nevertheless, there is ample precedent in Jewish law to allow a victim to report her abuser to civil authorities.
19 Because the overwhelming majority of subjects of violence and abuse are female, we will refer to victims in the feminine. It must be noted, however, that men and boys are also victims of domestic violence and child abuse as well, and that their ability to deal with abuse is much harder and more complicated for a variety of sociological reasons.

JSafe

Drink The KooBama-Aid

2008-07-26T21:01:00.001-04:00

I was out of town for a while recently taking a needed break with my kids. We went into a local Target and passed by the books section. I have a couple little voracious readers (like Mom!) on my hands, so we all took a look for reading material. I saw no less than 3 (three) books for Young Readers on Barack Obama. All about the Obamessiah and how wonderful, hopeful, change-worthy and perfect the Obaminator-Who-Will-Save-Us-All is!

NOWHERE (and I looked) NOWHERE did I see any books about John McCain (not even McCain's book!) in any area of the book sales or any books by or about Hillary Clinton. None. Nada. Zip.

I was in a hurry but I did fire off a letter to the manager of this Target when I got home. I am still infuriated that Obamanite's brainwashing, cult tactics have extended to our children... non-voting age kids. Nowhere was McCain's military experience and heroism seen nor where any girls shown they can do & be whatever they want by just the mere presence of Hillary books.

Am I one of the last standing non-Sheeple? Kids for Obama?? Camp Obama??

"DRINK THE KOOL-AID --- DRINK THE KOOL-AID" (running... screaming!!)

Camp Obama: Eager to “Empower You”

This is a letter sent to a supporter of the Obama Campaign:

Dear ___________,

You have an opportunity to play a major role in this nationwide movement for change.

Dedicated volunteers like you have brought us this far. But to execute our strategy for the general election, we need supporters to step into one of the most important roles of our campaign.

If you’re ready to take the next step, you are invited to attend a two-day Camp Obama training session near you.

Learn more about this special opportunity and apply to attend Camp Obama right now:

Camp Obama trainings offer a unique, in-depth look at the strategies and techniques that have driven this campaign.

These two-day sessions, to be held August 15th - 16th, are led by experienced Obama campaign staffers and other professional organizers who are eager to empower dedicated supporters like you.

After completing a camp session, attendees will be asked to fill essential volunteer positions in battleground states — these are demanding roles, but they are a vital part of our election strategy.

Supporters with experience in community organizing or political campaigns are strongly encouraged to apply. But the only requirement is that you support Barack and be ready to turn your enthusiasm and energy into action.

Here are some of the skills you’ll learn at Camp Obama:
• Tactics that will help you creatively and effectively organize voters
• Tips to increase the visibility of the campaign in your area
• Keys to mobilizing other volunteers to join our movement

Apply now for a Camp Obama training near you:

We’re excited to invite our most dedicated supporters to get involved with the campaign in this crucial role.

Thank you for everything you’re doing to build this movement,

Obama for America

He wants to empower you to use the strategies that have driven this campaign? Like what, for instance?

Bullying at the caucuses? Those kinds of tactics? Having someone with an “Obama for America” sign sitting at a table inside an Indiana polling location to help voters with any “confusion” or “questions.”

Camp Obama training? Anything like EST training? The Forum? The Secret? Do they let you go to the bathroom? Forgive the snark, but this is beyond New Age.

I cannot profess to understand what ‘techniques’ will be taught at “Camp Obama” but the verbiage of these “two day sessions” sounds like indoctrination. It smacks of all day intensive self-help workshops. Are they practicing the Vulcan mind meld? Acceptance into the Borg Collective?

And let’s not forget the Kids for Obama page…

I seem to remember Sens. McCaskill and Casey saying their kids were ’screaming’ at them to vote for Senator Obama. We are looking to elect the President of the United States, not to get a shiny new toy. I, typically do not consult kids or teenagers, whose brains are not fully formed yet, when making important political decisions that will affect my family and my country’s future.

I have never seen any campaign employ these methods and if some of the paid bloggers for Senator Obama are indicative of those versed in the ‘techniques’ he is talking about, then I am very worried indeed.

The vile rhetoric that has been used repeatedly all over the internet, the verbal attacks leveled at Hillary supporters out in public, the “techniques” of Obama supporters walking around with camera phones threatening to take pictures of Hillary supporters – this all strikes me as a form of voter intimidation.

The rock star mindset of this campaign: the huge rallies, the ‘uplifting’ non-specific, hopey/changey pablum filled speeches designed to enflame without posing solutions, all strike me as more of the mass marketing of Obama. As I have stated previously, there is a danger when one is more than involved, but enthralled.

I fear this two-day training camp is teaching a pitch that sells a symbol without substance.

Much like the man himself.

What say you?

SOURCE

Characteristics of Cults
FROM THIS WEBSITE

The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.
Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.
Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).
The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry—or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).
The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).
The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society.
The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).
The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).
‪The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt iin order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.
‪Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.
The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.
The group is preoccupied with making money.
Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.
Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.
The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group.

A Time of Forgiveness

2008-07-25T14:08:00.000-04:00

BEYOND THE THREE WEEKS

The month of Av brings with it forgiveness similar to the experience of Yom Kippur.
By Michael Strassfeld

At first glance, this part of the festival cycle seems out of step with the cycle of our personal lives. For most of us, summer is a time of ease and enjoyment of the outdoors. The natural cycle is marked by the continued growth of spring plantings. But our history, with its mythic dimensions, forcefully reminds us that there can be another kind of summer, one whose heat is a consuming furnace rather than beneficent warmth.

Anyone who has spent a summer in Israel can more easily understand how the Three Weeks is in fact in consonance with the natural cycle. There the afternoon sun seems to bleach all the color from the landscape. Movement slows or comes to a halt in the afternoon--for even if the sun is no hotter than in the United States, it seems to beat down unrelentingly on the land's inhabitants. One can easily become parched and debilitated just from spending a few hours outdoors. No longer are the prevalent colors the greens of spring that decorated the synagogue on Shavuot; rather, the colors are a blazing white of sun on stone and the contrasting deep blacks of shade. Thus in Israel it is easy to call up images of a burning temple and a desolate land.

The 17th of Tammuz & the Golden Calf
This aura of desolation reflects the fall from the heady moments of Egypt and Sinai. No sooner is the unique experience of the revelation at Sinai over [on the holiday of Shavuot] than Moses and God disappear for 40 days. Feeling lost, the people turn to a golden calf (on the 17th of Tammuz). [The sin of the golden calf is ascribed by tradition, if not historical scholars, to the 17th of Tammuz.]

The air is filled with a sense of loss and abandonment: the people abandoned by God, God abandoned by His people, each longing for the other, each eager to renew the covenant of Shavuot, the trust of that night of the Exodus when we faithfully went off into the desert with only God to sustain us. No rain, no sustenance, no wave offerings, no joy. Illusions or ideals seem to have melted under the fiery rays, of the summer sun with no sheltering wings to protect us.

Tisha B'Av [the ninth of Av]erases the last innocence and brings home the difficulty of living by the covenant, for the covenant means being chosen for strife, anger, and even destruction and persecution, as well as love. No longer a mountain suspended over our heads (as at Sinai), nor as yet a sukkah of our own construction, we cringe in the heat of the day, and even find solace in the blackness of three long weeks of night and nightmare. We sit as mourners on Tisha B'Av, first remembering and then bewailing what could have been.

Heading Toward Yom Kippur
The two worst sins of the desert are attributed by tradition to these two days respectively: the golden-calf incident on the 17th of Tammuz and the incident of the spies [who reported that the Land of Canaan was unconquerable] on Tisha B'Av. The first incident, only 40 days after the Revelation at Sinai, shows how quickly the people forgot the Sinai experience in seeking a tangible image to worship. The second incident occurred in the second year of the Exodus. Because they believed the spies' report that they could not defeat the inhabitants of Canaan, God condemned that whole generation to die in the desert; only their children would enter the Promised land. These rejections of God and of Eretz Yisrael can be regarded as prophetic of the later historical experience when the Jewish people were exiled from both God and the land.

The rest of Jewish history is an attempt to work our way back. According to tradition, the Israelites received final forgiveness for the golden-calf incident when Moses came down from Mount Sinai at the end of the third period of 40 days. That day was the 10th of Tishrei--Yom Kippur.

Just as Yom Kippur brings forgiveness for the golden-calf incident of the 17th of Tammuz, so the minor holiday Tu B'Av [the fifteenth of Av](according to one tradition) brings forgiveness for the spies' incident of Tisha B'Av. It marks, in fact, the end of the 40 years of wandering [with the death of the generation that had left Egypt] and immediately precedes the entrance to the promised land. No longer abandoned in the desert, we, as part of the mythic dimension of Judaism, can end our aimless wandering and finally move onward.

Rediscovering Joy After Tisha B'Av
Tu B'Av provides a contrast of joyous celebration following the ever-deepening gloom and mourning of the Three Weeks. Coming seven days after Tisha B'Av, Tu B'Av symbolically serves as the end of the shiva--theseven days of mourning for the dead. Just as the mourner ends shiva on the morning of the seventh day, so may we cast off the blackness of despair and go out of our house of mourning wearing white and dancing and courting in the fields as did the maidens of old in Israel.

From Tu B'Av we are ready to move on to Elul, a prelude to the High Holiday season with its themes of renewal and return. In fact, the period of Elul embodies a process of courtship between us and God. This theme of courtship is captured in the traditional belief that the Hebrew letters of the word Elul are an abbreviation for the phrase Ani le-dodi ve-dodi li--"I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine," referring to God and Israel. Estranged from each other during the Three Weeks, Israel and God rediscover each other beginning with Tu B'Av and initiate the slow and at times painful process of becoming lovers again. This process climaxes with Yom Kippur, when we are forgiven for that original breach of faith, the incident of the golden calf, which began this whole process of mourning and renewing on the 17th of Tammuz.

Michael Strassfeld is rabbi at the Society for the Advancement of Judaism in New York City. He is the founding chairperson of the National Havurah Committee and is the author, editor or co-editor of numerous articles and books, including The Jewish Catalogue series.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Why Meditation Works

2008-07-24T23:13:00.000-04:00

Brain Scans Reveal Why Meditation Works
Melinda Wenner

Special to LiveScience.com

If you name your emotions, you can tame them, according to new research that suggests why meditation works.

Brain scans show that putting negative emotions into words calms the brain's emotion center. That could explain meditation’s purported emotional benefits, because people who meditate often label their negative emotions in an effort to “let them go.”

Psychologists have long believed that people who talk about their feelings have more control over them, but they don't know why it works.

UCLA psychologist Matthew Lieberman and his colleagues hooked 30 people up to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machines, which scan the brain to reveal which parts are active and inactive at any given moment.

They asked the subjects to look at pictures of male or female faces making emotional expressions. Below some of the photos was a choice of words describing the emotion—such as “angry” or “fearful”—or two possible names for the people in the pictures, one male name and one female name.

When presented with these choices, the subjects were asked to pick the most appropriate emotion or gender-appropriate name to fit the face they saw.

When the participants chose labels for the negative emotions, activity in the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex region—an area associated with thinking in words about emotional experiences—became more active, whereas activity in the amygdala, a brain region involved in emotional processing, was calmed.

By contrast, when the subjects picked appropriate names for the faces, the brain scans revealed none of these changes—indicating that only emotional labeling makes a difference.

“In the same way you hit the brake when you’re driving when you see a yellow light, when you put feelings into words, you seem to be hitting the brakes on your emotional responses,” Lieberman said of his study, which is detailed in the current issue of Psychological Science.

In a second experiment, 27 of the same subjects completed questionnaires to determine how “mindful” they are.

Meditation and other “mindfulness” techniques are designed to help people pay more attention to their present emotions, thoughts and sensations without reacting strongly to them. Meditators often acknowledge and name their negative emotions in order to “let them go.”

When the team compared brain scans from subjects who had more mindful dispositions to those from subjects who were less mindful, they found a stark difference—the mindful subjects experienced greater activation in the right ventrolateral prefrontral cortex and a greater calming effect in the amygdala after labeling their emotions.

“These findings may help explain the beneficial health effects of mindfulness meditation, and suggest, for the first time, an underlying reason why mindfulness meditation programs improve mood and health,” said David Creswell, a UCLA psychologist who led the second part of the study, which will be detailed in Psychosomatic Medicine.

Howard Stern Vows: 'I Will Never Vote For a Democrat Again'

2008-07-24T17:11:00.000-04:00

For years I credited Howard Stern, that's right, Howard Stern -- with ending my Post Partum Depression where drugs and doctors could not. I still do. I listened via earphones when my children were infants & toddlers. Just hearing something funny and ADULT somehow helped save my sanity. I scraped and saved to get a Sirius radio for myself when he made the switch too.

Stern has, in my opinion, over the years shown some laser-like insight about politics. I completely agree with him here as well.

And if you don't like him -- turn the dial.

Satellite radio talk show star cites 'gangsterism,' 'communism' for holding up XM/Sirius Merger deal
By Jeff Poor

Sirius Satellite Radio host Howard Stern supports the merger of his network with XM Satelitte Radio and is fuming at Democratic opposition on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) panel.

After FCC commissioners announced they have reached a deal to approve the merger of Sirius (NASDAQ:SIRI) and XM (NASDAQ:XMSR), Stern ranted about Democrats’ ‘gangsterism’ and ‘communism’ and the obstacles to the merger.

Stern described a phone conversation he had with his agent, who he described as a “liberal Democrat kind of guy.”

“I go, ‘That’s it!’” Stern said. “[I] go, ‘You know what Don, I’ve voted Republican and I’ve voted Democrat. I have vowed I will never vote for a Democrat again. I don’t give a [expletive] – no matter who they are. I don’t care if God becomes a Democrat.’ I said, ‘I backed Hillary Clinton, I backed Al Gore, I backed John Kerry. I am done with them.’”

Stern took it a step even further and called Democrats on the FCC “communists” and referred to their tactics as “gangsterism.”

“The fact that these Democrats on the FCC are communists,” Stern said. “They’re for communism. They don’t want to see companies – this is gangsterism. I said, ‘This is crazy.’”

The FCC commission is a five-member panel made up of three Republicans and two Democrats. The Democrats include Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps. The Republicans include FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, Robert McDowell and Deborah Taylor Tate. Tate had been the swing vote on the proposed merger and on July 24 The Wall Street Journal reported she would vote in favor of the merger.

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO: CLICK HERE

Obama Might Even Be a Rock Star

2008-07-24T00:02:00.005-04:00

I'm unusual, not so typical,
Way too smart to be waiting around.
Tai Chi practices, snowboard champion,
I can fix the flat on your car.

I might even be a rock star.

- Miley Cyrus, "ROCK STAR"

The way the press is drooling behind Obama on his overseas 'tour' you'd think a Beatles reunion - complete with bringing George Harrison & John Lennon back from the dead, was afoot.

This carefully planned rock star turn to portray Obama in a Presidential light is transparent to me -- unfortunately, the Obamanites are swallowing it whole.

What can we do to wake up America that this guy is not qualified? That's he's cherry-picking his information. That his minions are not being honest. Someone figure out what can be done... and FAST... to leave him in Denver next month.

OBAMA'S OVERSEAS EDUCATION
By RALPH PETERS

FROM the late 18th through the 19th century, young men of means went on a "grand tour" abroad to finish their educations. Some returned with fond memories, others with artifacts pried from temple walls - and the remainder with syphilis.

Sen. Barack Obama's grand tour offers fewer opportunities for mischief and misfortune, but we all must hope that he learned from his travels and wasn't just checking the blocks.

Set aside your political preferences (I'll be voting for Sen. John McCain): Whoever wins, all sensible Americans want our next president to perform well. So let's consider the pros and cons of Obama's wheels-down-wheels-up visits to Afghanistan, Iraq and Europe.

First positive: He went. Foreign policy never interested Obama until it offered a political opportunity with Iraq, nor has he ever shown much interest in our military. But magic can happen when you touch down on foreign soil and rub shoulders, however briefly, with our troops.

And Obama's no dummy. Behind closed doors, he'll have listened carefully to our generals on the ground. He won't change positions publicly before November - but he wants to be a successful president.

If elected, he won't let himself be branded as the man who lost Iraq after it had been won. He'd give a speech in February or March to the effect that the reality we face has changed, and we must change with reality.

Obama would no more shut down our military operations in Iraq than would McCain. The Americans that an Obama administration would disappoint are those on the hard left.

So, while I wish the senator had spent some time down with our combat troops (long enough to sniff the reality of those field latrines in the summer heat), the fact that he went at all is a positive step.

On the negative side, this has been the most carefully staged campaign trip in US electoral history. The media, who've slavishly adored Obama, are about as welcome as rattlesnakes on the back porch this time around. (Reporters who failed to ask tough questions when they had the chance won't get another shot before Election Day.)

Will Obama don body armor and a helmet for a streets-of-Baghdad photo op? It looks like his handlers have already nixed that as too risky - their iron law for the trip is "no Dukakis-in-a-tank moment."

As for the briefings the senator and his entourage received . . . well, Gen. David Petraeus is far too honorable to leak his take on the encounter, but it would've been interesting to watch Obama's body language as he listened.

Bottom line on that leg of the trip? Obama saw, if only from the air, how wild and rough Afghanistan is. So he'll tone down his talk about sending ground troops across Pakistan's border. And even if his Iraq visit kept him inside a security bubble (safe from terrorists and the media), he still felt the summer heat and got some sense of how things are going. That's all good news.

But the European leg may prove more difficult to stage-manage. The continent's journalists are furious that Obama's staff treats them with less consideration than President Bush's has.

And his advance team already made one whopping gaffe in Berlin. Dissuaded from having him speak in front of the Brandenburg Gate, Obama's staff picked a nearby alternate site: the Victory Column. Oops: The victories that commemorates are Prussia's successful invasions of Denmark, Austria and France. It's no symbol of European unity - and the French and Brits were already miffed that Obama gave precedence to the Germans on this trip.

Worse, the monument was a favorite of Hitler's - incorporated into his plans to rebuild Berlin according to the vision of Nazi architect Albert Speer. Hitler ordered the column moved to its present location.

Somebody didn't do his or her homework.

What's worrisome here is the mixture of naivete and cynicism. Obama's staffers reportedly have been giving orders in Berlin as if they'd just won the war, pressuring the Social Democratic Party (the sister party of our Democrats) to turn out as large a crowd as possible for the senator's speech.

The senator will get his crowd. But he's also going to get a level of scrutiny he's avoided until now. And he just may find that Europe has interests as parochial as those of Southside Chicago.

Obama has shown us, at last, that he's willing to sit down with our generals in Iraq and Afghanistan. The question now is whether he's willing to learn.

SOURCE

Jesse Helms and the Theatre of the Depraved

2008-07-23T22:46:00.000-04:00

by Susie Day

On July 8, the resplendently Caucasian, flag-loving, fag-hating, five-term Senator Jesse Helms exited the political scene, stage right, to begin his long-awaited dirt nap. All the world being a stage, a host of players, including Dick Cheney and John and Cindy McCain, assembled sorrowfully near the starred-and-striped coffin containing the body of the hidebound conservative who never changed, never apologized. Seeming to take his cue from absurdist theater, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell eulogized Jesse Helms as one of the "kindest" men in Congress. No matter who you were, intoned McConnell, "he always had a kind word and a gentle smile."

Strangely, there was nothing in McConnell's script about the time Jesse Helms, in an elevator with fellow senators – including Carole Moseley-Braun just after she'd spoken in the Senate, denouncing slavery and the Confederate flag – turned to his friend Orin Hatch and said, "I'm going to sing 'Dixie' until she cries." Or the times he called civil rights activists "Communists and sex perverts," and accused "Negroes and whites" on a march from Selma to Montgomery of participating in "sex orgies of the rawest sort." Or when he described gay men and lesbians as "weak, morally sick wretches" who engage in "offensive and revolting conduct."

Then there is Jesse's deeply kind Senate record. FOR: tobacco companies. AGAINST: the Civil Rights Act; school desegregation; affirmative action; sanctions against Apartheid South Africa; commemorating the birthday of Martin Luther King; HIV-positive people entering the country; funding for "indecent" art; funding for AIDS research…

Verily, Jesse Helms's brand of kindness makes Jesus look like a commie fag. That is why we – the Theater of Morally Sick Negro and White Wretched Communist Perverts – wish to salute Jesse Helms in a powerful piece of government-funded, rightwing performance art! Since most of us can't remember our lines, we've decided to rip off Marcel Marceau's loveable little character, "Bip," and present this play in pantomime. Observe.

Act I

A lonely horizon in liberal America. Bleak. Desolate. Depraved. Enter Bleep, the sad, heterosexual mime. A teardrop glistens on Bleep's whitened face; the ends of Bleep's mouth dip downward; even the stripes on Bleep's little shirt droop dejectedly. Bleep suffers because the world is full of MORALLY SICK NEGRO AND WHITE WRETCHED COMMUNIST PERVERTS. (Since this is one of those cutting-edge, didactic opuses, disgusting slides of lunch-counter sit-ins, ACT-UP demonstrations, women's peace groups, Nelson Mandela walking out of prison, etc., are flashed onto a scrim, so we can see what the real problem is.)

Bleep dejectedly whistles "Dixie" as he mimes packing his wee lunch, picking up his briefcase, and setting off for work. Pressing a make-believe button, he steps unsuspectingly into an invisible elevator. Suddenly, horrible rap music blares, as Satan – played by Carol Moseley-Braun – enters and pantomimes slapping Bleep silly. She tries to strangle Bleep with a kente cloth, then dances luridly away, inadvertently dropping her handbag.

Alone in the elevator, Bleep kneels in prayer. He vows to lead a more decent life and fight MORALLY SICK NEGRO AND WHITE WRETCHED COMMUNIST PERVERTS. Then, from Above, a spotlight falls and caves in Bleep's head. We laugh until our sides ache, in keeping with government standards of decency.

Act II

Bleep, now wearing a neck brace and a cross, is ready to fight the good fight! He picks up Satan's handbag and begins walking with it through a park, toward FBI headquarters, where he plans to become an agent. As Bleep walks, he tips his hat in a wholesome way to unseen nannies pushing strollers. He pauses to pet imaginary kitties and sniff phantom daisies. Naturally, you can tell exactly what is happening because Mime is the universal language!

Suddenly from nowhere, a gang of MORALLY SICK NEGRO AND WHITE WRETCHED COMMUNIST PERVERTS sees Bleep's purse and decides he is "coming on" to them. Overcome with sexual lust they cannot control, due to their inferior genomes, they pile on top of Bleep and participate in a sex orgy of the rawest sort!

Boxer shorts, bras, condoms fly tragically across a maroon-tinted backdrop. A witch cackles. Somebody gets an abortion. A couple of extras, dressed as the HIV virus, recite marriage vows. But because only criminals have rights in this society, Bleep is the one who ends up in the police station.

Act the Third

A farmhouse. Bleak. Desolate. Foreclosed. Because of his whiteface privilege, the cops have released Bleep with a warning. Enter Bleep, distraught and bitter. Big Government has failed him. Bleep has decided to "Kill them all and let God sort them out." As he waits for his sheets to come out of the dryer, Bleep smears his body with Semtex and sprinkles dynamite on the floor. Then he rolls around in an arty, yet Pro-Life, fashion.

A knock at the door. Pete Seeger has just wrecked his boat, the Clearwater, about a mile downstream. Will Bleep let him use the phone so Pete can continue to clean up the Hudson? Covered in explosives, Bleep seethes with rage at this final communist insult. Opting to become the first ever rightwing Christian suicide bomber, Bleep hurls his little body at the interloper, blowing up the entire theater and everyone in it.

Which only goes to show how evil MORALLY SICK NEGRO AND WHITE WRETCHED COMMUNIST PERVERTS really are.

The End. Maybe.

SOURCE

Michael Savage: Engage Your Brain Before Putting Your Mouth in Gear

2008-07-23T00:32:00.000-04:00

As the parent of a child with ADD and the aunt of an award winning, honor student with a form of autism -- I decry and loathe Savage's remarks... I also suspect he may have said them for the publicity and attention he'd get by making them. Unfortunately, like Don Imus, he will recover to verbally abuse another day.

Protesters Decry Radio Commentator Michael Savage's Remarks About Autism

Protesters gathered outside WOR-AM in New York City on Monday over syndicated radio commentator Michael Savage's remarks last Wednesday describing "99 percent of children with autism as brats."

Some parents of autistic children have called for Savage's firing after he described autism as a racket last week. "In 99 percent of the cases, it's a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out," Savage said on his radio program.

Savage offered no apology in a message posted Monday on his Web site. He said greedy doctors and drug companies were creating a "national panic" by overdiagnosing autism, a mental disorder that inhibits a person's ability to communicate.

On his radio show last week, he said:

"What do you mean they scream and they're silent? They don't have a father around to tell them, 'Don't act like a moron. You'll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don't sit there crying and screaming, you idiot.'"

The government estimates about 1 in 150 children have some form of autism. But many experts believe these unsociable behaviors were just about as common 30 or 40 years ago and that the increase is mostly caused by a surge in special education services and a corresponding shift in diagnoses.

Children's advocates want Savage to apologize and retract his statements. They are also calling for a boycott of stations that air Savage's show.

WOR posted this statement on its Web site:

"The views expressed by Michael Savage are his views and are not those of WOR Radio. As Michael Savage is a syndicated show, the content is the responsibility of the syndicator, which is Talk Radio Networks. Unfortunately, it is impossible for WOR Radio to know the subject matter in advance of airing. WOR is in the business of serving the community in which we broadcast. That is our stated goal, and we will continue to do so. We regret any consternation that his remarks may have caused to our listeners.

Savage's statement was also posted on the WOR710.com Web site:

"My comments about autism were meant to boldly awaken parents and children to the medical community's attempt to label too many children or adults as "autistic."

Just as some drug companies have overdiagnosed "ADD" and "ADHD" to peddle dangerous speed-like drugs to children as young as 4 years of age, this cartel of doctors and drug companies is now creating a national panic by overdiagnosing "autism" for which there is no definitive medical diagnosis!"

Wendy Fournier of the National Autism Association, a parents' advocacy group, said she was invited to speak Monday on Savage's three-hour program by Savage's boss, Mark Masters of Talk Radio Network, which syndicates the show across the country.

Fournier called Savage's comments "way, way, way over the line and cruel."

"I'm hoping to make him see the reality of what these kids are facing," she said. "You can't fix it by telling a kid to shut up. It's like telling a kid with cancer to stop being sick."

Evelyn Ain, whose 8-year-old son has been diagnosed with autism, said she had never heard of Savage and couldn't believe what she had heard when she first listened to the remarks. She organized the demonstration Monday outside WOR-AM.

"That isn't just freedom of speech, it is hateful speech when you say 99 percent of children with autism are brats," she said. "I'll tell you, I wish I had a brat."

Savage, with more than 8 million listeners a week, is talk radio's third most popular personality behind Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, according to Talkers magazine. He's made a living off bold, outrageous statements: His brief MSNBC show was canceled after he told a caller he should "get AIDS and die, you pig."

Peter Bell, executive vice president of national advocacy group Autism Speaks, said he isn't aware of any big controversy about overdiagnosis of autism. He said Savage's remarks, effectively blaming parents, reflect an outdated point of view.

"He's an entertainer, he does these things for attention," Bell said. "I think we should, to the best we can, ignore it."

Autism Speaks also posted this statement on its Web site:

"One important goal of increasing awareness about autism is to foster a greater level of acceptance and understanding of the very real and significant challenges it poses to individuals with the disorder and their families. The good news is that we see more and more expressions of this compassion every day and everywhere, from classrooms and playgrounds to ballparks and supermarkets. Unfortunately, there are those who are apparently incapable of feeling compassion. They deserve our pity, not our scorn."

SOURCE

Pay Attention to the Differences

2008-07-23T00:13:00.002-04:00

Come on! We had to wait until NObama the clown was the Democratic presumptive nominee to see the differences between he & Hillary? The ObamaPalooza Tour of the Middle East & Europe is going on now and seems to be photo ops and sound bytes for the obviously CLUELESS Obamessiah.

Am I the only one who sees this? Are we ready to put this empty suit/ talking head in the White House!? No readers, I'm not fixated -- I'm FRIGHTENED!

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE VIDEO CLIP IF YOU'RE ON AN AGGREGATOR

So Barack Obama is finally making his highly touted trip abroad. What does he do when he is on his way to Afghanistan, the country about which he could not be bothered to actually hold a meeting as Chair of the Senate’s Subcommittee on European Affairs (and NATO)? He plays basketball. Hoops. Roundball. We are currently fighting a war in Afghanistan, and he spends part of his less than two whole days there playing a game. Wow. Have we not had enough of almost eight years of an adolescent in the White House?? Do we REALLY want another one?? From what I understand, he isn’t even all that great!! Yet, he spends all of this time on the campaign trail playing basketball. Have a debate?? Oh, he is WAY too busy for that!! But he can sure find time to go shoot some hoops! Bush has his bicycle, and Obama has his basketball. It boggles the mind.

MEANWHILE, Hillary continues to work for women and the military. That is what SHE has been spending her time doing. Not hanging out and playing some game, but actually working. In this video, she is fighting for the rights of women particularly as it relates to choice.

And, she took the time to mark the 160th Anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention. This is her statement:

July 19, 2008

Statement of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on the 160th Anniversary of the Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York

Washington, DC – “Today we honor the trailblazers who 160 years ago rejected the status quo and gathered together in Seneca Falls, New York, to demand economic and political opportunities for American women. Thanks to the courage of 68 determined women and 32 brave men, generations of Americans who followed in their footsteps pushed our democracy closer to fulfilling the promise of opportunity for all. It took almost 75 years for women to win the right to vote, and another century for women to see gains in employment and education and economic status. But the ideal of women’s rights never died, and those fighting for it never gave up the struggle.

This anniversary gives us the chance to reflect on our progress, assess the present, and look to the future. Just as we are the beneficiaries of brave generations past, we must also be the benefactors to generations to come. We must appreciate our progress, but also acknowledge areas where we still fall short of our ideals.

As a nation, we’ve widened the circle of freedom and opportunity but while we’ve come a long way, there is still so much work to do. It is our responsibility to those who gathered in Seneca Falls to keep their spirit of determination alive — to keep standing up to inequality, shattering glass ceilings, breaking down barriers, and opening doors for women across the country and around the world.”

While Obama gallivants around in his “O” plane, playing games and pretending that all of the world leaders support his plans (which are HILLARY’S plans he stole), Clinton is working hard in the Senate for the American people. I don’t know about you, but I want the hard worker as president, not the game player. But that’s just me. And about 18,000,000 others…

SOURCE

'Fat People Aren't Unstable' -- For This We Needed a Study?

2008-07-22T23:56:00.003-04:00

First let me say I don't like being fat. Yes, I diet and yes, to the degree my disability (unrelated to my weight) allows me - I do exercise.

A while back someone posted really malicious things about my weight and even my disability online. Called me names and said things about me worthy of a 5th grader with a D- average. Believe it or not, it didn't bother me because I am o.k. with it. I don't like it but I do realize that I am NOT an 'out of control' eater -- I have a number of medical problems and have had numerous surgeries, medications and medical procedures that contribute to my size. And like I said, I don't like it.

However, I still have to deal with the same discrimination that a "fat by their own hand" person deals with. It's one of those situations that really shows a lot of humanity for how INHUMANE it can be. And far too common:

NEWSFLASH: BIGOTRY NOT BASED ON FACT.
by 'fillyjonk'

This should make me happy, I guess:

EAST LANSING, Mich. — New research led by a Michigan State University scholar refutes commonly held stereotypes that overweight workers are lazier, more emotionally unstable and harder to get along with than their “normal weight” colleagues.

With the findings, employers are urged to guard against the use of weight-based stereotypes when it comes to hiring, promoting or firing.

Mark Roehling, associate professor of human resource management, and two colleagues studied the relationship between body weight and personality traits for nearly 3,500 adults. Contrary to widely held stereotypes, overweight and obese adults were not found to be significantly less conscientious, less agreeable, less extraverted or less emotionally stable.

Instead, possibly because I am really stressed lately and have been particularly tense today, it just pisses me off that this study was even done (and funded) in the first place. It’s like doing a fucking study on whether Jews are obsessed with money. What the fuck is the point of this? Proving that negative stereotypes aren’t based in fact? Are you kidding? Why would you legitimize them enough to consider them a valid object of study?

I know I’m being a little unreasonable, because after all I welcome studies that show that fat people don’t eat more than thin people on average, or aren’t sicker than thin people on average, or don’t cost more to the health system. But these are situations in which people are basing their misconceptions on existing flawed science; the addition of new science is valuable for refuting that. Actually bothering to do the social science research to refute nasty stereotypes backed only by bigotry and anecdata… well, it’s as appalling to me as an extensive study on stereotypes surrounding any other group. Fat people aren’t mean? That’s your study? Are you fucking KIDDING me?

And get this part:

Roehling, who’s also a lawyer, said the practical implication of the research is that employers should take steps to prevent managers from using weight as a predicator of personality traits when it comes to hiring, promoting or firing.

Oh wow, thank goodness this study was done, then. Because if negative assumptions do turn out to be true on average, that means you should totally judge people’s personalities based on their looks, since there’s no such thing as common cause and things that are true of a group on average are true of every member of that group. If black men are imprisoned at a higher rate than white men, that can only be because black men are criminals and you should never hire one! If there are fewer women than men in the sciences, that can only be because women are dumb at thinking and you shouldn’t give them high-level jobs!

WHAT THE HELL IS THIS BULLSH*T, I EXPECT THIS FROM EVERYONE ELSE, BUT ACADEMIA, YOU ARE MOTHERF**KING DISAPPOINTING ME

SOURCE

Clinton Will Fight "INSULTING" Abortion Plan. Where's Obama?

2008-07-22T00:09:00.001-04:00

From the NY Times 7/19/08:

A Bush administration plan to define several widely used contraception methods as abortion is a “gratuitous, unnecessary insult” to women and faces tough opposition, Sen. Hillary Clinton said on Friday.

Hillary Clinton:

… joined family planning groups to condemn the proposal that defines abortion to include contraception such as birth control pills and intrauterine devices.

It would cut off federal funds to hospitals and states where medical providers are obligated to offer legal abortion and contraception to women.

“We will not put up with this radical, ideological agenda to turn the clock back on women’s rights,” the New York senator told a joint news conference with New York Rep. Nita Lowey, also a Democrat, at Bellevue Hospital.

“Women would watch their contraceptive coverage disappear overnight,” said Clinton.

The planned rule is aimed at countering recent state laws enacted to ensure that women can get contraception when they want or need it. It also would help protect the rights of medical providers to refuse to offer contraception.

Clinton said she has written a letter with Patty Murray, a Democrat senator from Washington, to Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt asking him to reconsider and reject the release of the proposed rules.

She also urged people to sign a petition on her website, www.hillpac.com, against the proposed changes.

“Our first effort is to get the Bush administration to rescind the regulation, not issue in its current form,” Clinton said. “If that doesn’t succeed, we’re going to be looking for legislative steps that we can take to prevent this regulation from ever going into effect.”

A copy of a memo that appears to be an Department of Health and Human Services draft provided to Reuters this week carries a broad definition of abortion as any procedures, including prescription drugs, “that result in the termination of the life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation.”

Conception occurs when egg and sperm unite in the Fallopian tubes. It takes three to four days before the fertilized egg implants in the uterus. Several birth control methods interfere with this, including the birth control pill and IUDs.

“If enacted, these rules will make birth control out of reach for some women. That’s a sure way to guarantee more unintended pregnancies and more abortions,” said Anne Davis of Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health.

Yes, as usual, Senator Clinton is working to protect the rights of women in this country. She doesn’t miss a beat. I wonder if Senator Obama has anything to say about this, or is he too busy playing a rock star in Europe. All the young women who voted for him might want to take note. Gentlemen, you might want to think about this, too. Ladies having access to proper contraception is sort of important to both of you, no? Governmental decisions affecting ‘choice’ affect everyone.

Remember who the true progressive is here. Remember who’s really got your back.

NARAL chose to betray Senator Clinton, even though she helped put them on the map, and always received a 100% pro-choice rating from them.

Senator Obama, on the other hand, voted “present” a number of times in the State Legislature when it came to women’s rights.

Many here might be too young to remember a song called “Superstar”:

Long ago and oh so far away
I fell in love with you before the second show
And your guitar just sounds so sweet and clear
But you’re not really here
It’s just the radio…

Don’t you remember you told me you loved me, baby
Said you’d be comin’ back this way again, baby…

What do you think, ladies? Is he? Now that he’s got your vote? Is he … coming back?

SOURCE