Uganda to outlaw circumcision

From News24.com
Uganda will pass a law banning female genital mutilation, which is rampant among pastoralist tribes in the country’s eastern region, the president said in a statement on Friday.
“The way God made it, there is no part of a human body that is useless,” President Yoweri Museveni told a gathering in the eastern Karamoja district.
“Now [...]

Hardships make people stronger, who’d've guessed?

A couple of days ago a study was published here in DK, and every major news source covered its findings. Here’s the article from The Copenhagen Post.
Mental illness is apparently less likely among children growing up with two mothers.
The study found that while five percent of children from traditional families developed conditions such as depression [...]

An update

A while back I wrote about the state of sentencing in abuse-cases here in Denmark.
Overall, our track record is not impressive. The couple who each got sentenced to 5 months for violently abusing the woman’s daughter during a period of (at least) 4 years, they appealed their case – as did the DA. Now both [...]

Proposal: Forcibly committing pregnant substance abusers

A recent proposal has been made here in Denmark, and I am so disturbed by it I hardly know where to begin. I managed to find a news site in English who had the story.
New legislation could allow pregnant alcohol and drug abusers to be committed against their will in order to protect their unborn [...]

Babies having babies

Everyone’s heard of the story out of UK. 13 year old Alfie and 15 year old Chantelle becoming parents. And I’m sure they’ll try their hardest. Only days later a stay emerged here in Denmark. Two 13 year olds are having a child together, except they’re no longer together. The news quote the boy as [...]

There’s abuse and there’s abuse

In 2007 the verdict came in a case that horrified pretty much every Dane. Known as The Tønder Case a father was sentenced to 10 years in prison for having abused his two daughters sexually as well as having ‘rented them out’ to other men. The oldest daughter was abused from when she was 2 [...]

Dog Saves Baby

BBC writes:

An eight-year-old dog has touched the hearts of Argentines by saving the life of an abandoned baby, placing him safely alongside her own new puppies.
The country’s media are calling him “the miracle baby”.
He was born prematurely to a 14-year-old girl in a shanty town outside the capital, Buenos Aires.
She is said to have panicked [...]

Sonya Renee

Because sometimes a truly awesome Poetry Slam contestant shows up on the radar.
Because this one, Sonya Renee, is so right it hurts.
Because more people ought to listen to the uncomfortable truths she’s speaking.
Because Women Deserve Better:

Go here for a transcript.
Via Feministe

Girls’ maths, boys’ reading

Via Feministing this article came to my attention.
It is interesting reading and confirms, what I suspected all along. People’s skills at anything improve, if they’re told they have the potential to learn. And opposite: when told you’ll never learn, your skills will be significantly poorer. I could’ve told them that, but it’s nice that there’s [...]

Disturbing

This picture is from 2002

It is a Japanese vending machine that sells schoolgirl panties. According to PhotoMann Travel Photography where I found it, they are ‘used’ scholgirl panties. I have no idea what they mean by putting used in inverted commas. Does that mean used but not by schoolgirls? Not used but treated with whatever [...]