Tag Archives: women

Megan Amram brings the sadlaughs on women and science

she went to Harvard

Megan Amram brings the sadlaughs on women and science

By on 3 Aug 2015commentsShare

Comedian, author, and self-advertised Harvard graduate Megan Amram is at it again — on her quest to bring science to us hot hobos, also known as women, she is launching a video series on “sexy science.” In the first episode of Experimenting with Megan Amram, Amram builds a (biological) potato clock and, more saliently, interviews engineer and Caltech aeronautics professor Beverley McKeon. Topics include: What’s it like to be the first female director of the Graduate Aerospace Laboratories at the California Institute of Technology? and, Do they have Miami in England? What about Beyoncé?

The bigger question in all this is: Is something like fluid dynamics easier for women to understand when framed as a discussion on air-drying your nails? Probably not! If anything, Amram’s antics draw attention to the clarity and confidence of her expert guest, and serve as a refutation of the perniciously prevalent idea that women can’t understand science and are really just around to look good.

Source:
SERIES PREMIERE: EXPERIMENTING WITH MEGAN AMRAM

, Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls.

Share

Please

enable JavaScript

to view the comments.

Find this article interesting?

Donate now to support our work. A Grist Special Series

Meat: What’s smart, what’s right, what’s next

Get Grist in your inbox

Originally posted here:  

Megan Amram brings the sadlaughs on women and science

Posted in alo, Anchor, Everyone, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Megan Amram brings the sadlaughs on women and science

Anti-Abortion Hackers Claim to Have Stolen Data That Could Take Down Planned Parenthood

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Update, July 27, 4:45 p.m. EST: Planned Parenthood released a statement confirming it has notified the FBI and the Department of Justice to investigate the cyber attack. “Today Planned Parenthood has notified the Department of Justice and separately the FBI that extremists who oppose Planned Parenthood’s mission and services have launched an attack on our information systems, and have called on the world’s most sophisticated hackers to assist them in breaching our systems and threatening the privacy and safety of our staff members,” Executive Vice President Dawn Laguens said. “We are working with top leaders in this field to manage these attacks. We treat matters of safety and security with the utmost importance, and are taking every measure possible to mitigate these criminal efforts to undermine our mission and services.”

A hacker group calling itself 3301 is claiming to have penetrated Planned Parenthood’s databases and is threatening to release the personal information of employees working for the non-profit organization, along with other sensitive data. The Daily Dot spoke to one of the alleged hackers, who denounced Planned Parenthood as an “atrocious monstrosity.” A senior Planned Parenthood executive tells Mother Jones that the group is investigating the alleged hack.

“Obviously what Planned Parenthood does is a very ominous practice,” the alleged hacker, going by the identity “E,” said. “It’ll be interesting to see what surfaces when Planned Parenthood is stripped naked and exposed to the public.”

The group—whose name, according to The Daily Dot, appears to be a nod to “a famous group of secretive cryptographers known as Cicada 3301″—claims it will release the names and addresses of employees “soon.”

The potential breach comes amid intense controversy surrounding Planned Parenthood after an anti-abortion group released hidden-camera footage appearing to show top Planned Parenthood officials discussing the sale of tissue from aborted fetuses. Though the footage was heavily edited, pro-choice groups fear the ramifications that could potentially follow from the sting operation. A slew of anti-abortion politicians, including Ben Carson and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), have used the videos to denounce the organization and justify defunding it.

“We’ve seen the claims around attempts to access our systems,” Executive Vice President Dawn Laguens said in a statement to Mother Jones. “We take security very seriously and are investigating. It’s unsurprising that those opposed to safe and legal abortion are participating in this campaign of harassment against us and our patients, and claiming to stoop to this new low.”

More:  

Anti-Abortion Hackers Claim to Have Stolen Data That Could Take Down Planned Parenthood

Posted in alo, Anchor, Cyber, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Anti-Abortion Hackers Claim to Have Stolen Data That Could Take Down Planned Parenthood

Enviros, Tea Partiers, and the Christian Coalition all agree: Florida needs more rooftop solar

Enviros, Tea Partiers, and the Christian Coalition all agree: Florida needs more rooftop solar

By on 10 Jul 2015 3:26 pmcommentsShare

There’s an increasingly energetic fight brewing in Florida — one that has odd battle lines, bringing Tea Party activists and environmentalists together against monopoly utilities and big-money right-wing groups like Americans for Prosperity, and turning city governments against neighboring city governments.

The issue at stake? Whether state law should be amended to allow organizations other than utilities to sell electricity, which would clear the way for more rooftop solar power.

Florida is one of only five states in the country that actively bars third parties from selling electricity. (Another 20-plus states don’t explicitly bar it, but don’t allow it either — what this means for solar companies is unclear, one group that tracks the issue told PolitiFact.) So Floridian homeowners aren’t allowed to buy energy from companies that install solar panels on their roofs.

The state’s utilities, at the moment, only draw 1 percent of their electricity from solar, despite the fact that the state ranks third in the country in terms of potential to generate solar energy, and despite the fact that solar energy has become cost competitive with fossil fuels and is often a safer investment for utilities.

A growing coalition — including environmentalists, the League of Women Voters, the Christian Coalition, and Tea Party activists who see the ban as meddling in the free market — is pushing to get rid of the third-party electricity ban. They’ve been gathering signatures to put an initiative on the 2016 ballot, called the Solar Choice amendment, that would allow businesses and individuals to sell up to two megawatts of solar power.

The utility companies have asked the Florida Supreme Court to throw out the ballot amendment, even before signature gathering is done. They have found allies in shadowy out-of-state, pro-big-business groups, but also recently won the support of the Florida League of Cities, a group of municipal governments. Last month, the league filed a brief with the Supreme Court in support of the utilities’ position, arguing that member cities would lose tax revenue.

But then a number of members of the league dissented, calling the brief “alarmist, unsupported and speculative” and asking for it be withdrawn. These dissenting city officials wrote:

The substantive arguments in The League’s brief are aggressive, speculative, and some are well outside the League’s scope or expertise. For instance, the brief argues that the amendment might create inequitable rate structures between solar and non-solar customers. When did the League’s interest include utility regulatory ratemaking design and policy?

“There’s a number of city leaders who are pretty disgusted with the league,’’ South Miami Mayor Philip Stoddard told The Miami Herald. “It feels like a really parochial organization that’s been co-opted by Florida Power & Light.”

One side effect of all this is that Florida’s utilities, which had seemed content to shrug off the state’s solar potential, are announcing new solar projects. But leaders of the rooftop solar movement told the Tampa Bay Times back in May that this was a cynical move aimed at quieting their rising voices.

The next big development in this saga will come when the state Supreme Court rules on the ballot measure. The court has scheduled a hearing on the issue for Sept. 1.

Share

Please

enable JavaScript

to view the comments.

Find this article interesting?

Donate now to support our work.

Get Grist in your inbox

Read this article: 

Enviros, Tea Partiers, and the Christian Coalition all agree: Florida needs more rooftop solar

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, LG, ONA, Radius, Safer, solar, solar panels, solar power, Uncategorized, wind energy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Enviros, Tea Partiers, and the Christian Coalition all agree: Florida needs more rooftop solar

These Antidepressants May Increase the Risk of Birth Defects

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Babies born to women who took certain antidepressants during pregnancy may have an elevated risk of birth defects, according to a study published Wednesday in the medical journal BMJ.

Over the past few years, researchers have come to conflicting conclusions about the health impacts of taking common antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, early in pregnancy. Some studies have found prenatal exposure to SSRIs to be associated with heart and brain defects, autism, and more, while others have found the risk to be minimal or nonexistent.

The BMJ study, led by researchers at the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, shed light on the matter by analyzing federal data of 38,000 births between 1997 and 2009. Researchers interviewed the mothers of children with certain birth defects associated with SSRIs, asking if they took certain antidepressants during the first three months of pregnancy or the month prior to it. Unlike many previous studies, which looked at the effects of SSRIs as a group, the researchers looked at the health impacts of five specific drugs. They found that two drugs were associated with birth defects, while three of the drugs were not. Here are the details:

Sertraline (Zoloft): No increased risk of birth defects. (This was the most common of the five drugs, taken by forty percent of the women on antidepressants.)
Paroxetine (Paxil): Babies were between 2 and 3.5 more likely to be born with heart defects, brain defects, holes between heart chambers, and intestinal deformities.
Fluoxetine (Prozac): Babies were two times more likely to experience heart defects and skull and brain shape abnormalities.
Escitalopram (Lexapro): No increased risk of birth defects.
Citalopram (Celexa): No increased risk of birth defects.

Researchers are quick to note that even in the case of paroxetine and fluexetine, the absolute risk of these defects is still very small. If mothers take paroxetine early in pregnancy, for example, the chance of giving birth to a baby with anencephaly, a brain defect, rise from 2 in 10,000 to 7 in 10,000.

Some doctors worry that studies like this dissuade mothers who truly need mental health treatment from seeking it—particularly since the stress associated with depression in the mother can impact the health of the baby. Elizabeth Fitelson, a Columbia University psychiatrist who treats pregnant women with depression, described this tricky balance to the New York Times earlier this year: “For about 10 percent of my patients, I can readily say that they don’t need medication and should go off it,” she said. “I see a lot of high-risk women. Another 20 percent absolutely have to stay on medication—people who have made a suicide attempt every time they’ve been unmedicated. For the remaining 70 percent, it’s a venture into the unknowable.”

View original article – 

These Antidepressants May Increase the Risk of Birth Defects

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, GE, LG, ONA, Radius, solar, solar power, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on These Antidepressants May Increase the Risk of Birth Defects

Everyone Who Cheered On the US Women’s Soccer Team Should See These Stats

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

When the US women’s national team routed Japan in the World Cup finals Sunday, more than 20 million viewers tuned in, making it the most-watched soccer match ever in the United States. To put that in perspective, more Americans watched Sunday’s matchup than last year’s men’s World Cup championship (roughly 17 million viewers) or all but Game 6 of this year’s NBA Finals.

Still, the amount of money earned by the entire women’s field compared to what the men made in Brazil is striking. As Mary Pilon points out in Politico:

…the total payout for the Women’s World Cup this year will be $15 million, compared with the total for the men’s World Cup last year of $576 million, nearly 40 times as much. That also means that the Women’s World Cup payout is less than the reported $24 million to $35 million FIFA spent on its self-aggrandizing fiction film, United Passions.

And that disparity trickles down to the women’s champ: The USWNT will earn $2 million from the victory, nearly 18 times less than the German men’s team received after winning the 2014 World Cup ($35 million). Even the US men’s team, which was bounced in the round of 16 that year, earned $8 million.

As BuzzFeed‘s Lindsey Adler writes, “When the disparity in pay for women athletes versus men is raised, the argument often veers toward television ratings, with claims that women’s sports are watched by significantly fewer people.” Although that argument may not hold up for American audiences, it’s worth noting that early viewership figures for this year’s World Cup suggest that women’s matches, though steadily attracting a global audience, are still far below that of the men’s World Cup (188 million on average).

FIFA generated much of its revenue between 2011 and 2014 from TV and marketing rights from the 2014 World Cup, and it remains to be seen how much money in commercial revenue the women’s games will produce. (The men’s World Cup brought in $4 billion.) So while the most recent ratings suggest that the popularity of the Women’s World Cup at home and abroad is heading in a positive direction, it will take far more to close the money gap.

Link – 

Everyone Who Cheered On the US Women’s Soccer Team Should See These Stats

Posted in Anchor, ATTRA, Everyone, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Everyone Who Cheered On the US Women’s Soccer Team Should See These Stats

Tell women about birth control that works — and they’ll choose birth control that works

Tell women about birth control that works — and they’ll choose birth control that works

By on 17 Jun 2015commentsShare

Straight from the “no shit” department: Counseling clients at family planning clinics about the proven effectiveness of contraceptive methods results in more clients choosing more effective methods, and in turn, reducing unintended pregnancy. Fancy that!

A study published today in The Lancet shows what happens when you provide training on effectiveness-based contraception counseling — which includes discussion of long-acting reversible contraceptives such as the IUD and hormonal implant, the most effective forms of birth control — to 20 Planned Parenthood clinics. After monitoring these clinics (and another 20 that did not receive the training), the study authors found a significant difference in contraception choices made.

From The Atlantic:

The results were striking: 71 percent of the providers who received the training discussed IUDs and implants with their patients, but just 39 percent of those in the control group did so.

In the intervention group, 28 percent of women ended up choosing IUDs or implants, compared with 17 percent in the control group. Among women who had gone to the Planned Parenthood for family-planning services, the effectiveness counseling reduced the rate of unintended pregnancies by half over the course of a year.

So — talk to women about birth control based on what actually, really, truly works, and they will choose birth control that actually, really, truly keeps them from getting pregnant when they don’t want to be.

The next step, obviously, is making said birth control more accessible. Baby steps — or should we say, no-baby steps.

Source:
An IUD in Every Uterus

, The Atlantic.

Share

Please

enable JavaScript

to view the comments.

Get Grist in your inbox

Jump to original: 

Tell women about birth control that works — and they’ll choose birth control that works

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, ONA, oven, Radius, solar, The Atlantic, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Tell women about birth control that works — and they’ll choose birth control that works

Educated Liberal Journalist With Friends Pays Money to Join Bike Cult

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Last year, a SoulCycle opened up in our office building. There were dozens upon dozens of bright young things lined up around the block for days. I don’t mind admitting that I thought they were lunatics. They looked like lunatics—albeit attractive lunatics. In the months since, the lines have faded away, but every day I have walked past a robust collection of SoulCyclists constantly milling about on our sidewalk.

I have had a gym membership in one form or another since I was a #teen. For most of that time I was paying $120 a month to “go to” Equinox. Occasionally when I’d be overcome with guilt about wasting money on a membership that I always found an excuse to avoid, I would go to the website, hover my cursor over the CANCEL MEMBERSHIP button…but then stop. This will be the month I get serious about going. That was a fantasy. (Let the record show that I have finally let it expire. This is progress.) Anyway, gyms and personal fitness are a constant thing in my mind if only because I am acutely aware how ridiculous it is that I spent many thousands of dollars to go to a gym all together like 50 times. This guilt and shame keeps me up at night.

Last week, Alex Abad-Santos published a post at Vox called “I used to make fun of SoulCycle. Now I’m an addict.” I immediately mocked it.

Then something terrible and predictable happened.

Then came the inevitable.

A friend agreed to go with me at 7:30 pm last Monday. This is perhaps a good time to point out that SoulCycle is ridiculously expensive. Your first class is $20. After that it goes up to $30+. Twenty dollars poorer, I prepared to feel like an idiot and huff and puff and hate it, but I figured I would then write about how dumb it was. “Local Man Proclaims Vox Wrong” would be the headline.

So Monday comes and my friend flakes because friendship is just a construct. Going alone seemed far more daunting than going with her, and by 5 pm I was convinced I’m not going to go. My ankle hurts! I’m tired. Work work work. But I had paid that $20! I wasn’t going to let this be like Equinox. Not again. So I drag my lazy, crazy ass down to the first floor of our building.

I walk in and am immediately embarrassed. There are lots of women there waiting for the class to begin, and at first I see not a single other man. I approach the lady at the counter.

“Hi, I’m here for my first class and I’m very embarrassed and scared and please don’t laugh at me but if that’s a part of the ritual of the first time I understand.”

“OK, don’t worry. You’ll be fine.”

She directs me into a unisex locker room which immediately makes me wonder if I am the first straight man ever to do SoulCycle. (I am not.) I get into gym attire and put on cycle shoes. Cycle shoes are weird. There are like stupid clips on the bottom and you can’t walk properly with them. You walk like an idiot. I walked like an idiot, is what I’m trying to say.

We—maybe six men and 60 women—wait to go into the spin room. I do not make eye contact with anyone. The doors open and out comes the previous class. They are drenched in sweat. We enter—I apprehensive, they eager—and find our preassigned bikes. A second nice lady comes and asks if it’s my first time and helps me click my dumb shoes into the dumb bike. The room is very dark. She tells me that there are hand-weights under my seat. I do not know why I will need hand-weights. I babble on about how a friend was supposed to come with me but bailed. She does not believe my friend exists.

The music starts and the instructor, Kelly, arrives.

“Is it anyone’s first time?” Kelly shouts. I am too shy to acknowledge that it is my first time. “Great! So we all know what we’re doing.” I’m going to die. For the next 45 minutes we pedal to EDM while Kelly shouted inspiring buzzwords at us.

Some inspiring new age bullshit. Soulcycle

But it isn’t just pedaling. Remember the hand-weights? You do moves with them. You also do moves without hand-weights. A lot of it has a rhythmical dancing quality.

Here’s how the more seasoned Abad-Santos describes the experience:

The moves vary from crunches (while riding, you drop your elbows and support yourself through your abs) to tap-backs (you thrust your hips backward while riding out of the saddle), and many of them hit weird muscles you didn’t know existed. You’re also told to position yourself in a certain way (hips back, arms tucked close to your body, shoulders locked down, etc.) that ensures you’re getting a good workout.

There are “hills” — intervals where you crank up the resistance and pedal against it — where it feels like you’re moving your legs through thick mud. There are fast sprints that will make you gulp oxygen and feel like your lungs are leaking. There’s even an arms section where you curl and press your biceps and triceps until they fail, all while pedaling. You never stop pedaling; if you stop pedaling, a cannon sounds and you’re airlifted out of the arena. By the end of every class, I’ve left a small puddle of glistening sweat beneath my bike and my shirt is soaked through.

For some reason, I find all of this thrilling.

Here is the thing about SoulCycle: It totally is new age weirdness. It totally is a therapy session. It totally is a cult. It totally is really hard. But I get it! I get the allure! It’s fun. It’s releasing. It’s cathartic. It pushes you more than I’ve ever been able to push myself. Even those dumb cycle shoes shoes proved pretty cool! (They make it really hard to fall off the seat!)

Ivylise Simones

SoulCycle is like working out in a nightclub while someone tells you “it’s not your fault.”

And after you feel pretty great!

It’s probably not for everybody. But I like it. I’m going back. I bought the five class pack. I’m a cultist.

Originally posted here: 

Educated Liberal Journalist With Friends Pays Money to Join Bike Cult

Posted in alo, Anchor, ATTRA, Casio, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Educated Liberal Journalist With Friends Pays Money to Join Bike Cult

Could This Bill Prevent Another "Gamergate"?

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

The United States government has a pretty poor track record when it comes to tackling violent online threats: Between 2010 and 2013, federal prosecutors pursued only 10 of some 2.5 million estimated cases of cyber-stalking, according to Rep. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.). With new legislation introduced on Wednesday, Clark aims to step up the fight against trolls and protect victims of internet threats, particularly women. The Prioritizing Online Threats Enforcement Act would beef up the Department of Justice’s capacity to enforce laws against online harassment and fund more investigations of cyber-crimes.

As my colleague Tim Murphy has reported, Clark first started looking for ways to curb internet harassment after learning that her district was home to Brianna Wu, a video game developer targeted with a flood of rape and death threats from “Gamergate” trolls. Since September, Wu has reportedly received 105 death threats after tweeting her opposition to Gamergate, an online movement that led to the harassment of women involved with video gaming. “All I am asking is for law enforcement to go and get a case together and prosecute,” Wu told Wicked Local. “Because law enforcement has basically treated online threats as if they don’t matter, they have unintentionally created this climate.”

“It’s not okay to tell women to change their behavior, withhold their opinions, and stay off the internet altogether, just to avoid severe threats,” Clark told members of Congress on Wednesday. “By not taking these cases seriously, we send a clear message that when women express opinions online, they are asking for it.”

Women are significantly more likely to face internet bullying than men. In one study by researchers from the University of Maryland, fake online accounts with feminine usernames faced 27 times more sexually explicit or threatening messages in a chat room than accounts with masculine usernames did. Over the past several months, women across the country, from actress Ashley Judd to feminist commentator Anita Sarkeesian, have raised the alarm about this type of abuse.

The federal government has the authority to prosecute individuals who send violent threats over the internet thanks to the Violence Against Women Act. But just one day before Clark’s appeal to Congress, the Supreme Court on Monday may have made it more difficult for prosecutors to go after trolls. In a 7-2 decision, the justices reversed the earlier conviction of a man in Pennsylvania who had used intensely violent language against his estranged wife, including saying he wanted to see her “head on a stick,” despite the fact that she testified that his postings made her feel “extremely afraid for her life.”

More here: 

Could This Bill Prevent Another "Gamergate"?

Posted in Anchor, Cyber, FF, GE, LG, ONA, PUR, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Could This Bill Prevent Another "Gamergate"?

The US Military’s Sexual-Assault Problem Is So Bad the UN Is Getting Involved

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

The US military has a problem with sexual violence. That’s the conclusion of the Universal Periodic Review Panel, a UN panel that aims to address the human rights records of the 193 UN member states. This is the second time that the panel has scrutinized the United States; the first was in 2010, when the list of concerns included detention in Guantanamo Bay, torture, the death penalty, and access to health care. Its latest report came out Monday morning, and there was a surprising addition to the predictable laundry list of US human rights violations.

In one of 12 final recommendations, the UN Council urged the US military “to prevent sexual violence in the military and ensure effective prosecution of offenders and redress for victims.” Other recommendations included stopping the militarization of police forces, closing Guantanamo Bay, ending the death penalty, and stopping NSA surveillance of citizens.

For years US lawmakers and activists have complained about sexual assault in the military, but this is the first time the United Nations has addressed the issue.

Representatives from Denmark and Slovenia were especially outspoken in their criticism of the United States for not doing enough to prevent and prosecute alleged cases of sexual assault. Vojislav Šuc, Slovenia’s representative, encouraged the US to “redouble efforts to prevent sexual violence in the military and ensure protection of offenders and redress for victims.”

Stephanie Schroeder, a military sexual-assault survivor who traveled to Geneva for the hearing, said in a press release, “Today’s outcome shows that redress can be won before the UN—and hopefully lead to meaningful change back home.”

The UN panels likely decided to investigate US military sexual violence in response to a report last year from the Service Women’s Action Network and Cornell Law School’s Avon Global Center for Women and Justice and the Global Gender Justice Clinic. It analyzed statistics from the Department of Defense, survivors’ stories from federal cases, and interviews with survivors.

The report concluded, “In cases where an act of sexual assault has already been committed in the military, the U.S. oftentimes fails to promptly and impartially prosecute and effectively redress the assault and thereby violates servicemen and women’s rights under international law.”

The UN Human Rights Council evaluation targeted the military’s reporting process, in which the decision of whether to prosecute cases of alleged sexual assault or harassment is left to superiors in the chain of command rather than an outsider with experience in sexual assault. For years, activists and lawmakers in the United States have tried to change this protocol—but leaders in the military have balked at bringing civilians into bases and military academies to investigate alleged assaults. Advocates say that commanders should not be in charge of handling these cases, since they are not trained in legal or criminal matters and often directly supervise both the victim and the perpetrator. Victims often are afraid to report the assault, fearing retribution or inaction. In a 2014 RAND Corporation survey of service members who reported sexual assaults, 62 percent of those who responded claimed they experienced social or professional retaliation after reporting unwanted sexual harassment, including being fired.

Denmark’s representative to the UN Human Rights Council, Carsten Staur, recommended “removing from the chain of command the decision about whether to prosecute cases of alleged assault.” His comments marked the “first time that a human rights body has called upon the U.S. to remove key decision-making authority from the chain of command in cases alleging sexual violence,” noted Liz Brundige, the Avon Global Center’s director, in a press release.

The State Department, the Pentagon, and the US representative to the United Nations did not respond to requests for comment on the council report.

When the UN Human Rights Council last reviewed the United States in 2010, the US government promised to respond to all of the recommendations—including improvements to health care, criminal justice, and other areas of concern—with a written report of goals. This year, the UN Human Rights Council commended the US for six areas of “positive achievement,” including strengthening the social welfare system in the United States, creating a task force on 21st-century policing, taking some measures to address violence against women, upholding some of the rights of LGBT individuals, improving access to health care, and releasing details on CIA interrogation techniques. When the panel reviews the United States again, the US will have to update the United Nations on its progress on sexual assault in the military.

Of course, the problem of military sexual assault is not limited to the United States. Last year, Swedish UN official Anders Kompass leaked to French authorities an internal investigation detailing allegations that French soldiers on a peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic raped children and traded food for sex. Kompass said that he leaked the report because he was concerned that the United Nations would not disclose its findings or take action. Just last week, after the report was revealed by the Guardian, French prosecutors launched an investigation into the allegations. The whistleblower is now under internal investigation, according to the UN secretary general’s office, for a “serious breach in protocol” and risking victims’ privacy. French President Francois Hollande has declared he “will be merciless” if the allegations are proven true.

Visit link – 

The US Military’s Sexual-Assault Problem Is So Bad the UN Is Getting Involved

Posted in Anchor, Citizen, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, oven, PUR, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The US Military’s Sexual-Assault Problem Is So Bad the UN Is Getting Involved

Hillary can’t believe we’re still fighting over this whole reproductive rights thing, either

Hillary can’t believe we’re still fighting over this whole reproductive rights thing, either

By on 27 Apr 2015commentsShare

Last week, Hillary Clinton gave the keynote address at the 2015 Women in the World Summit, and fired a couple of shots at certain should-be-fossilized religious institutions that, for some reason, remain in a more or less constant tizzy over women deciding what to do with their uteri.

Far too many women are still denied critical access to reproductive healthcare and safe childbirth. All the laws we’ve passed don’t count for much if they’re not enforced. Rights have to exist in practice, not just on paper. Laws have to be backed up with resources and political will; and deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs, and structural biases have to be changed. As I have said and as I believe, the advancement of the full participation of women and girls in every aspect of their societies is the great unfinished business of the 21st century.

And then:

America moves forward when all women are guaranteed the right to make their own healthcare choices — not when those choices are taken away by an employer like Hobby Lobby.

OK! Hard to argue with that. And yet …

Of course, Clinton never uttered the word “abortion” in her speech, but conservatives are already up in arms about her so-called mission to open “the path to Abortion Nirvana,” which is not a set of words I could ever be dumb enough to make up.

So, to refresh: It’s 2015, some morons out there are still conflating reproductive healthcare with baby-killing sprees, and Hillary’s fed up — as are we all.

Share

Please

enable JavaScript

to view the comments.

Get Grist in your inbox

Link to article: 

Hillary can’t believe we’re still fighting over this whole reproductive rights thing, either

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, GE, ONA, organic, Radius, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Hillary can’t believe we’re still fighting over this whole reproductive rights thing, either