http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-na-menabort7jan07,1,2766675.story?coll=la-headlines-frontpage&ctrack=5&cset=true

Above, is a link to an article in the LA Times about abortion and how a woman's decision to have one is choice that effects her partner as well as herself. The article hits an emotional artery by opening with an anecdotal lead of a father who always thinks about his son Jaime and talks to often-even though this young son was never born but aborted. The antiabortion movement is currently attempting to challenge the notion the "her body, her choice " mantra of the pro choice.

Now, at the risk of sounding like a bush supporter, I must come out and say that the thought of an abortion makes me sick and sad.

Despite my personal feelings toward abortion, I am still pro-choice. While I don't think that abortion is a choice I could ever make, I am lucky-I'm not pregnant and therefor don't have to worry about making it. Choosing to get an abortion is not like choosing which blazer to wear or what pair of shoes to buy, it's much bigger. It's a life-changing decision that the woman will have to live with forever-no matter what choice she makes.

It is for this reason that I became enraged with men who are so passionately pro-life. It angers me that they should have such strong conviction about a matter that doesn't effect them. Now, the article above does raise a fair argument-men are cheated when their sex partner (wife, random hook-up, girlfriend or whatever) makes the decision without their knowledge or consent. And while I sympathize with these men to an extent, I still believe that the woman has the right to choose-because ultimately she is the one who HAS to make a choice.

If a woman gets pregnant-the man has a choice to 1) accept responsibility and discuss What choice works best for them (or her) or 2) walk away and deny any responsibility.
The woman doesn't have this option. THE woman has no choice but to make a decision-raise the child, put the child up for adoption, abortion. In deciding to have the child, it is the mother who must bear the brunt of the work for nine-months. It's not as if moms-to-be could just hand the fetus over and say "Fine, you want the kid so bad, you carry it around for nine months." Maybe if this were an option there would be less abortions or just men would be having it. So until there is some type of medical breakthrough which would allow a man to bear the brunt of responsibility during pregnancy-men need to keep there mouths shut on the subject-or keep their pants on.

=DA HEADLINE in Monday’s Daily News, “He regrets his role in ‘postal’ vid,” implied that Richard Marino, the subject of a YouTube video, was sorry for an incident in December at a Brooklyn post office. Marino, in fact, is not sorry. The News regrets the error.

From regretthiserror.com as linked to by Medibostro.

"You are not a pop star with a No. 1 album, so you don't know," [Brittney Spears Lawyer Anne]Kiley told the judge, according to TMZ.com.
------After telling the judge that spears hadn't answered the telephone for drug testing b/c she was sleeping. Courtesy of New York Daily News "Gossip Page"

In other news, Beantown beat Denver in the Celtics vs. Nuggets game on Weds. Go Boston...who says the team sucks. Can't wait to go home to CT and watch the game on TV. =D

I just finished watching the TRAVESTY called the MTV VMAs. Brit's opening was HOT...like a hot mess!
What the hell was that? She didn't sing..she didn't dance she just gyrated and lip synced. No kisses, no cat suits, no sparkles or snakes. The show was a snooze from the jump off. Perhaps her lack of mobility was a result of her 40 inch heels she was wearing. Maybe if she laid off the fast food she could have looked thin without standing on stilts. Plus, her outfit was BORING. The only entertaining part was watching the confused reaction of the crowd.
Even Alicia keys, known to be smart, seemed flustered and confused during her hosting gig.
SARAH SILVERMAN is not funny. She is boring...and obnoxious. Brit is a schmuck, but damn leave her kids alone.
Overall, the show was an ADD kids dream. What was with all the cutting back and forth? I hear it was done on purpose, but why?
The only things that didn't suck were Chris Brown and Alicia Keys. Granted Brown was lip synching, but atleast he gave a performance. Plus, he is adorable, if only I were 16.
Alicia sang well, and the song was okay...but what was with her hair? Where is What Not TO Wear when you need 'em?
What a crappy show!

A recent article in The New York Times "Cocaine: Hidden in Plain Sight" discusses the current trend for people to be open about their cocain usage.
The article quotes many bar and club owners about how they see it in the clubs a lot, and although they kick people out when they see it 9or so they claimed on record) it remains prevelent.
Apparently, the current "Meth crisis" has made it a media focus, with the cocaine problem going unnoticed. In the past, I have heard others say that Coke was no longer the problem drug of the moment.
I am not so naive that I don't know that Coke is every where, from NYC to small towns in Montana. Yet, what distirbed me about the article was the quote in which someone called coke "the new weed." I am not a fan of weed, which I know makes me odd, but I have learned to accept the fact that I am the minority in my stance against weed. I have begin to take for granted that I am the only one in the room who doesn't smoke, atleast occasionally. While I'd prefer to not be around it, I cAn handle it. However, I really don't need to have people doing lines of coke in my presence. One source in the article described that the attitude towards coke makes it m ore socially acceptable than cigarettes. Yeah, we all know the dangers of cigarettes, but when's the last time you heard of someone missing work to smoke a cigarette? Or a person robbing a convience store to pay for cigarettes the way many a coke/crack heads have (and continue to do)? Where have people gotten teh impression that coke is the safer version of meth? Is it because LiLo and KaMo have admitted to doing it that it is socially acceptable to use cocaine? I'm not much for coke, I'll stick to my diet pepsi.

Today was my third day of training at my new job as a cashier and sales associate at Serendipity restaurant and general store in Manhattan. one of my coworkers is kind of a jerk. This guy is 25, and only three years older than me. Today, he said something that really irritated me, after I commented on his rudeness towards my fellow female coworkers and I, he said "I don't have to be nice to you guys, I don't get with people I work with, so I have no reason to be polite to you." He went on to insist that when he likes a girl he treats her nicer than she ever dreamed of being treated. "I only act like this at work," he said.
Now the guy in question is not a complete prick. He can be nice, however, he is frequently rude, and arrogant. It is not that i care what he thinks of me, I could care less about whether he likes me or not. However, I feel he should treat us with respect anyway, whether he wants to "get with us" or not. Why is it that people save what should be common human decency--as human behavior reserved only for people who's pants they want to get in?
While I know many guys (and girls) put on similar acts, i find it nauseating that someone can be so open about this. What difference does it make that this guy is "much nicer outside of worker"? How nice are you if you are only nice to a girl you wanna get ass from?
Not very.
On top of this, this guy has the lamest game ever! He shamelessly checks out and flirts with any girl that walks by. After being called out about this blatant check out, he answered "Girls get self conscious when I don't check them out," Tsch, whatever dude. Equally nauseating, were his lines. Twice he told a girl that he didn't answer them because "he got lost in their eyes." "Girls go crazy when they hear that, you would if you didn't work with me..."
Sadly, the girls he said this too, did seem sickeningly, and surprisingly...flattered. While they seemed to find the line cheesy, the giggle implied that they bought. I imagine that the line would infuriate me and would probably be ignored or meet with a dirty look and snide comment about how many other girls he's said that too. While I often blame girls for falling for such stupid lines, thus encouraging guys to be sleazy, I can't help but wonder how many times, if ever I have fallen for a guy's stupid game.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westboro_Baptist_Church

This is not what religion looks like. I am not incrediably religious by any strech, but it sickens me to the core to think that these "people" if you can even call them that, would have the nerve to classify themselves as Christians. Relgion gets enough flack as it is, the last thing we need is this group making things worse.

The recent shooting at Virginia Tech. has been on many people's minds the past few days. Students at colleges across the nation have expressed grief over the situation, regardless of whether they knew anyone at the school or not. What is most disturbing over the situation is that despite the grief many people feel toward the situation, others are using the incident to further perpetuate hate.
The horrific act that occurred at VT was an act of a disturbed young man, who happened to be Asian, it was not performed by someone representative of Asian people. An article in The New York Times discusses how many Korean Americans are afraid of becoming a new target. One student already reported being spit on and taunted at school as result of the shooting. Following Sept. 11, Arab Americans were not the only people who faced prejudice, many people from the Middle East or India, regardless of religion, were attack. Even Spanish people, mistaken for being Arab because of their skin color were also targets of discrimination and hate. I worry that this will happen in this case, with people of Asian descent being punished for the acts of this one individual.
I find it deplorable that people would respond to such a tragedy with hateful acts. I don't understand how people can find comfort in spreading hate following such a tragedy.