TresSugar

What Was That Senator?

GiggleSugar — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 03:00:00 -0700

Can someone please reload the senator? He's skipping again. Either that, or he didn't finish writing his speech before taking the podium and he's now stalling until a conclusion occurs to him. (Because ending his speech without a proper conclusion would just be BARBARIC!)

Mad Men: Is Birthing in the '60s as Bad as You'd Think?

TresSugar — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 07:00:00 -0700

Sunday's Mad Men told me more than I ever wanted to know about childbirth in the '60s. Betty Draper is hushed away from her husband upon arriving at the hospital, forced to fill out paperwork midcontractions, and bossed around by an unsympathetic nurse whose bedside manner approximates a warden's - you made your bed now have your baby in it.

What did I expect anyway - for Betty to have her baby in the master bath while Don burned lavender and massaged her shoulders. Of course not. But I also did not expect to see Betty give birth in a semiconscious state. I thought you were either awake or out. This in-between state, more formally known as twilight sleep, is made of a cocktail of drugs to relieve pain and induce amnesia. Because who wants to remember the birth of her child!

Today natural childbirth is applauded, so it's easy to be appalled by Betty's semiconscious experience. But was it oppressive or an initial, if flawed, step toward a better childbirth? Probably both! Read on

Life For Afghan Women: Not Better Under Karzai

TresSugar — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 11:45:00 -0700

Women everywhere fight for their rights - but women in Afghanistan have it particularly bad.

BBC reporter Jane Corbin was invited by a French charity, based in Herat, Afghanistan, that treats women who have self-immolated. Most of these women set fire to themselves to escape a forced marriage or a violent husband. In the photo above, a woman comforts her 20-year-old daughter in the hospital. In an attempted suicide to protest a forced marriage to an elderly man and escape rumors of an affair with a younger one, she set fire to herself and now suffers from burns over 85 percent of her body.

Although women were promised equality and human rights by the introduction of democracy, a new constitution, and President Hamid Karzai’s presidency in 2004, the reality of their situation is still bleak.

Sixty percent of women are still forced into marriage as children, sometimes as young as nine or 10. Since Westerners intervened, this was supposed to have changed under a law that stated girls under 16 should not be married. But police don't always investigate the crimes, and male judges often reduce the sentences of men guilty of harming women.

Some women are standing up to the Taliban, which is trying to turn back any minuscule gains women may have from new leadership. Prosecutor Maria Bashir, who requires security guards and has survived bombing attacks, is trying to protect women from men even though laws are supposed to do this. Bashir does this even though it puts her family in danger - the son of another lawyer was beheaded by people who thought he was her son.

A news story today makes an Afghan woman's plight almost unthinkable: a law has passed that allows a man to starve his wife if she refuses his sexual demands. Some accuse Karzai of allowing this barbaric law to pass so that he can get support from the conservative Shia support in next week’s presidential election.

There is a sliver of hope: there are women activists like Bashir who risk their lives fighting for women’s rights and, in spite of an 80 percent illiteracy rate among Afghan women, girls still dream of going to school and having a career.

5 Weird and Wacky Stories From This Week

CitizenSugar — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 10:00:32 -0800

Man Late For Flight Pretends He's an Air Marshal - Running late for a flight out of Florida, a man flashed fake police identification and claimed to be an air marshal. Once on board, the real air marshals recognized him as a fake and threw him off.
St. Louis Family Struggles to Save Its Cave - A family that converted a mining cave into a home has a big payment coming up on the property. If they can't get new financing, they're going to auction the place on eBay.
Woman Trades Kids For Bird and Cash - A Louisiana woman has been accused of selling two children in her care for a pet cockatoo and $175 cash to a couple who had been trying for years to have their own kid.
German Cashier Fired For Stealing $1.65 Sparks Capitalism Debate - Germans have erupted into a debate about unchecked capitalism after a cashier was fired after 31 years for allegedly stealing $1.65. National leaders are calling the sacking barbaric.
Man Accused of Putting Camera in Women's Bathroom - The assistant director of information technology at a private Massachusetts high school pleaded not guilty to putting cameras in the school's women's bathroom.

Source

Sarcasm: So Easy...

GiggleSugar — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 07:00:00 -0700

...Even a caveman can do it! Nick Kroll, of Geico commercial fame, recently appeared on "The View" and put Sherri Shepherd in her place on the whole evolution issue. Those cavemen sure know how to hold a grudge! But at least he didn't go "barbaric" and bang a club over her head, right? (Although I wouldn't have blamed him if he did.)