Evening News Reads for 110711: The Devil is in the Details

Good Evening!

A quick post for you today.  Tomorrow Mississippi voters head to the polls to vote on an amendment to the states constitution, that in effect makes a fertilized egg a person…with more rights than a woman or any of Mississippi’s former fetuses.

This post from American Prospect reviews the ridiculous right wing legislative bullets aimed at women and labor unions and voter rights.

State Referendums to Watch Tomorrow

Although eyes have already turned toward the presidential election in 12 months, several important referendums with potentially drastic consequences are on the ballot this November. Many of them revolve around issues that are already making the rounds on the edge of the national consciousness; whether these ballot initiatives pass or not is sure to determine whether these issues dominate the conversation leading up to the election between the incumbent president and whatever Republican candidate manages to survive the increasingly Real World-esque primary season. Here are the most important referendums and issues to know for tomorrow.

This next story was particularly interesting for me, and I think many of you will too.  Widespread Sexual Harassment in Grades 7 to 12 Found in Study – NYTimes.com

Nearly half of 7th to 12th graders experienced sexual harassment in the last school year, according to a study scheduled for release on Monday, with 87 percent of those who have been harassed reporting negative effects such as absenteeism, poor sleep and stomachaches.

On its survey of a nationally representative group of 1,965 students, the American Association of University Women, a nonprofit research organization, defined harassment as “unwelcome sexual behavior that takes place in person or electronically.” Over all, girls reported being harassed more than boys — 56 percent compared with 40 percent — though it was evenly divided during middle school. Boys were more likely to be the harassers, according to the study, and children from lower-income families reported more severe effects.

We see in the news lately that Sexual Harassment is treated with distain on the part of the victims.  Cain’s campaign has raise over 2 million in the last few days, money from idiots and assholes who’s misogynist attitudes and anti-female beliefs are making life a living hell for women in the US.

“I was called a whore because I have many friends that are boys,” one ninth-grade girl was quoted as saying. An eighth-grade boy, meanwhile, reported, “They spread rumors I was gay because I played on the basketball team.”

The study asked students to reflect on the 2010-11 school year in an attempt to capture the prevalence of sexual harassment, the effects it has on the harassed and the reasons the harassers engage in the behavior. It also questioned students about preventive measures. Coming amid increased attention to bullying and cyber-bullying, the report aimed to highlight the damaging effects of inappropriate sexual comments, online rumors or lurid Facebook posts.

“Bullying is getting a lot of attention,” said Holly Kearl, an author of the report and program manager of the university association’s Advocacy Fund. “We don’t want schools to forget about sexual harassment” and not talk about it, she said. Ms. Kearl said some schools that talk to students about sexual harassment and how to respond to it have been successful in reducing it. “We want to encourage schools to know what Title IX is,” she said, referring to the federal law that prohibits discrimination based on gender in schools, “to have a coordinator and to publicize it.”

Give the post a read, girls who develop early seem to be more of a target for sexual harassment. My daughter has already had her share of harassment, albeit in a subtle form. When she found out that her little “boyfriend” was only interested in her boobs, she told him to fuck off…I am so proud of her.

This past week I wrote about a girl who was literally punished to death by her parents. Here is an article on the Pearls, whose book on biblical punishment is unmistakably an excuse used for the cruelty some parents feel justified giving  to their children.

Deaths Put Focus on Pastor’s Advocacy of Spanking – NYTimes.com

The pastoral mood in the hills of Tennessee offered a stark contrast to the storm raging around the country over the Pearls’ teachings on child discipline, which advocate systematic use of “the rod” to teach toddlers to submit to authority. The methods, seen as common sense by some grateful parents and as horrific by others, are modeled, Mr. Pearl is fond of saying, on “the same principles the Amish use to train their stubborn mules.”

Debate over the Pearls’ teachings, first seen on Christian Web sites, gained new intensity after the death of a third child, all allegedly at the hands of parents who kept the Pearls’ book, “To Train Up a Child,” in their homes. On Sept. 29, the parents were charged with homicide by abuse.

More than 670,000 copies of the Pearls’ self-published book are in circulation, and it is especially popular among Christian home-schoolers, who praise it in their magazines and on their Web sites. The Pearls provide instructions on using a switch from as early as six months to discourage misbehavior and describe how to make use of implements for hitting on the arms, legs or back, including a quarter-inch flexible plumbing line that, Mr. Pearl notes, “can be rolled up and carried in your pocket.”

This next link discusses the quality of honey sold today…it looks as if most grocery and big retail stores sell a “Corinthian leather” version of real honey. That Honey in Your Bear Might Not Be Honey | Mother Jones

If you’ve been feeding your kids spoonfuls of honey for their coughs this fall, you might want to think again about where that honey comes from. Food Safety News, a site set up by food safety lawyer Bill Marler, reports today that lab tests show that most honey sold on supermarket and drug store shelves today isn’t really honey, according to safety requirements set by the Food and Drug Administration.

That’s because it’s been so ultra-filtered that it’s largely pollen-free. Pollen is a key ingredient in real honey, and thought by some people to have medicinal and allergy-fighting properties.

But according to Food Safety News, you won’t find much pollen it in American store-bought honey. Their tests found that:

• 76 percent of samples bought at groceries had all the pollen removed, These were stores like TOP Food, Safeway, Giant Eagle, QFC, Kroger, Metro Market, Harris Teeter, A&P, Stop & Shop and King Soopers.

• 100 percent of the honey sampled from drugstores like Walgreens, Rite-Aid and CVS Pharmacy had no pollen.

• 77 percent of the honey sampled from big box stores like Costco, Sam’s Club, Walmart, Target and H-E-B had the pollen filtered out.

• 100 percent of the honey packaged in the small individual service portions from Smucker, McDonald’s and KFC had the pollen removed.

Finally, this new discovery in the art world is fascinating. Devil found in detail of Giotto’s fresco Photos | Devil found in detail of Giotto’s fresco Pictures – Yahoo! News

A detail of a fresco by Giotto is seen in the Basilica of St Francis in Assisi in this picture released to Reuters on November 5, 2011. Art restorers have discovered the figure of a devil hidden in the clouds of one of the most famous frescos by Giotto in the Basilica of St Francis in Assisi, church officials said on Saturday. The devil was hidden in the details of clouds at the top of fresco number 20 in the cycle of the scenes in the life and death of St Francis painted by Giotto in the 13th century. The discovery was made by Italian art historian Chiara Frugone. It shows a profile of a figure with a hooked nose, a sly smile, and dark horns hidden among the clouds in the panel of the scene depicting the death of St Francis.

That is all I have today…What are you finding interesting this Monday Evening?