Site: http://www.nocirc.org/. Salient points:

"• No national or international medical association recommends routine circumcision.

• Only the USA circumcises the majority of newborn boys without medical or religious reason.

• Medicalized circumcision began during the 1800s to prevent masturbation, which was believed to cause disease.

• Today's parents are learning that the foreskin is a normal, protective, functioning organ.

• Today's parents realize circumcision harms and has unnecessary risks.

• Circumcision denies a male's right to genital integrity and choice for his own body."

Story here. Excerpt:

'Marilyn Milos, 69, of Forest Knolls was a nurse at Marin General Hospital in 1979 when she witnessed her first circumcision. The experience changed her life. After researching the procedure, she became convinced it was not only unnecessary but harmful. She says she was later fired from her job for sharing her opinions with patients and has spent the last 30 years crusading against circumcision as founder of the nonprofit National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers.

Q: What do you remember about that first circumcision?

A: As we walked into the nursery, the baby was strapped down to a plastic board. I called it "the rack" when I worked there. The baby was pulling against the restraints. Then the doctor started to cut and that baby let out a scream I've never heard come out of the mouth of a human, ever, and it became louder and louder. My bottom chin began to quiver and then tears poured over my eyes, and the doctor looked at my face and said, "There is no medical reason for doing this."'

Story here. Excerpt:

'THE death toll in the Eastern Cape’s winter circumcision season has risen to 24, the provincial health department said today.

Spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said four youths had died in the Eastern Pondoland region in the past 24 hours.

Two of them had been attending legal initiation schools, the others illegal schools.

The situation in the region had prompted local State doctors to go out in teams with police to treat youths at the schools, Kupelo said.

“They say they can’t watch these boys dying any longer. The situation is very bad in that part of the province.”
...
Circumcision-related deaths are usually as a result of septicaemia from infected wounds, or dehydration, which happens when initiates are denied water by their carers.

Eleven unregistered traditional surgeons and nurses have been arrested this season. – Sapa'

Story here. Am I the only one who thinks using the slang term 'butt' is a bit inappropriate considering the seriousness of the accusation? Excerpt:

'ALLEN, Texas - A former teacher at Allen’s Lowery Freshman Center faces formal charges for allegedly burning a 14-year-old mentally disabled boy on the buttocks with a cooking pan.

A Collin County grand jury indicted 45-year-old Susanne Means earlier this month on injury to a child charges.

Police said Means was a special education teacher at the freshman center in March when the incident allegedly happened.

The mentally disabled boy’s father told police his son had two 12-inch circular “scald” marks on his buttocks. The boy said Means had burned him with a hot pan, according to the arrest warrant affidavit.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'Encouraged and surprised by the success of a one-day men's health clinic in Windsor, health care professionals say more similar programs are needed in the community to screen men for cancer, diabetes and other illnesses.
...
The clinic, the first of its kind in the community, was staffed by two SCHC physicians and two oncologists from the Windsor Regional Cancer Centre, as well as other SCHC staff and volunteers from the Windsor and Essex County Prostate Cancer Support Group. They offered screening for prostate, testicular, colorectal and skin cancer, as well as testing for diabetes and high blood pressure, among other chronic conditions. The initiative was supported by the cancer centre's foundation and the Canadian Cancer Society.'

Article here. Excerpt:

Story here. Excerpt:

'Most hookers spend only a few hours or days behind bars when they're busted. Twenty-eight-year-old Tiffany Ann Moore of Knoxville may end up spending the next three to 15 years in a state prison cell for the crime of selling her own body.

Moore differs from most of the 525 other known prostitutes arrested in Knox County over the past five years in one significant way: she is HIV-positive.

Moore's medical condition means that when she turns tricks for a living she's committing a felony called aggravated prostitution. Women without HIV face misdemeanor prostitution charges that often add up to no more than probation and a fine.

Article here. Excerpt:

Article here. Excerpt:

'Male and female perpetrators of domestic violence exhibit similar levels of controlling behaviour. This is one of the findings of a study presented at the British Psychological Society Division of Forensic Psychology annual conference 23 June 2009 at the University of Central Lancashire, Preston.
...
"Men and women perpetrators of domestic violence were found to have very similar levels of financial control, sexual control and intimidation in relationships. This leads us to believe that we can't only attribute controlling behaviour to men."
...
"The results of this study tell us that we need to challenge some of the assumptions around domestic violence if we are to really tackle the issue and develop programmes that prevent continued violence, one such assumption is that controlling behaviour in relationships is unique to men."'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Too many unemployed guys have stopped hunting for jobs. Too many fathers know the names of the attendants at the golf course, but not the names of their children’s friends.

Too many Casanovas want sex without commitment or the emotions that come with intimacy. And too many fellows brag about having a mistress and a wife or a “baby mommy and a bizzybody” as another popular song promotes. proclaims. These are not the actions of men. These are the behaviors of boys and “shawty don’t need no” boy.

Article here.

'WINDHOEK, Namibia (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says the Obama administration will put women and girls first in the fight against AIDS.

Rodham Clinton addressed an international AIDS conference in Namibia by video hookup Wednesday.

She says her government will prioritize preventing mother-to-child transmission of the virus that causes AIDS, and work to ensure girls are not forced into prostitution or early marriages.

Africans have welcomed the election of Barack Obama, who has roots in Kenya and is America's first black president. But Africans also have applauded George W. Bush, Obama's predecessor, for an AIDS campaign launched in 2003 that expanded AIDS prevention, treatment and support programs in 15 hard-hit countries, 12 of them African.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'TUESDAY, June 30 (HealthDay News) -- Don't automatically blame mom: A crying, colicky baby can be just as much the result of dad's state of mind, Dutch researchers report.

Other studies have found that depression among mothers can be related to excessive crying or colic, a common problem with newborns, but the researchers said that little was known about whether fathers' emotions and behavior also have an effect.

"Up to now, almost all attention went to the prenatal effects of maternal depression on child development, leading to the development of detection and treatment programs that focused on mental well-being of mothers," said lead researcher Dr. Mijke P. van den Berg, a psychiatrist at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam.
...
"This study demonstrates in a paradoxical way the importance of fathers, in that fathers' measurable depression during pregnancy is a risk factor for excessive infant crying at 2 months of age," Shaw said.

Article here. Excerpt:

"How harassment over child custody and child support eventually killed my brother who had preleukemia. It is a sad Father's Day this year.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Well, that didn't take long. With the unfortunately predictable political sex scandals continuing to grab headlines in the MSM, and the astonishing amount of commentary on them, I'm only surprised that a blog like this one from former Bush Press Secretary Dana Perino in the National Review didn't come out earlier (National Review, 6/25/09).

Article here. Excerpt:

'On June 20th, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a press release describing a new "public service campaign...promoting fatherhood." The press release directs readers to the website www.fatherhood.gov, and breathlessly promises a public service announcement by none other than President Obama himself. Needless to say, that was an offer I couldn't refuse.