Use it or Lose it?

Those who have sex later, particularly men, seem to experience more sexual dysfunction, according to a new study (Hat tip: Larry):

While past research has linked early sexual activity to health problems, a new study suggests that waiting too long to start having sex carries risks of its own.

Those who lose their virginity at a later age -- around 21 to 23 years of age -- tend to be more likely to experience sexual dysfunction problems later, say researchers at Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute's HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies.

The article points out that psychological factors are likely to play a part in this sexual dsyfunction:

From a clinical standpoint, there are often dynamics other than the desire to be abstinent until marriage, such as fear of intimacy, body image problems, alcohol and drug abuse, and sexual dysfunction," he said. He adds that these factors "might influence the delay of sexual debut as a means of avoiding sexual issues."

Okay, so if you want to know the real reason for this study, it seems to be apparent by the end of the article:

The researchers say this preliminary evidence may point up detrimental effects of abstinence-only education.

The authors write that the study "lends credence to research showing that abstinence-only education may actually increase health risks," adding that other approaches may better equip young people to avoid both short- and long-term sexual health consequences.

I am not a fan of abstinence-only education, but I wonder how much of this particular research is driven by a desire to find fault with providing these programs in schools?

PJM Political

If you missed the PJM Political show last night on XM, you can now listen to it here.

Amy Alkon has a column at PJM about rich people having too many kids. Okay, maybe adopting kids around the world like a fashion accessory like Angelina Jolie is a bit much but in general, I'm glad those with money are having kids. Would it be better if they were poor?

A Bound Man

Last night, I read the insightful new book by Shelby Steele entitled, A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can't Win. Steele's book offers an in-depth analysis of race relations in this country and he uses Obama's iconic success as a jumping off point to discuss the conundrum of how blacks are bound by racial constraints:

In Shelby Steele's beautifully wrought and thought provoking new book, A Bound Man, the award-winning and bestselling author of The Content of Our Character attests that Senator Barack Obama's groundbreaking quest for the highest office in the land is fast becoming a galvanizing occasion beyond mere presidential politics, one that is forcing a national dialogue on the current state of race relations in America. Says Steele, poverty and inequality usually are the focus of such dialogues, but Obama's bid for so high an office pushes the conversation to a more abstract level where race is a politics of guilt and innocence generated by our painful racial history -- a kind of morality play between (and within) the races in which innocence is power and guilt is impotence.

Steele writes of how Obama is caught between the two classic postures that blacks have always used to make their way in the white American mainstream: bargaining and challenging. Bargainers strike a "bargain" with white America in which they say, I will not rub America's ugly history of racism in your face if you will not hold my race against me. Challengers do the opposite of bargainers. They charge whites with inherent racism and then demand that they prove themselves innocent by supporting black-friendly policies like affirmative action and diversity.

The problem with this bargain/challenger paradigm for Obama is that as a Democrat, he must please blacks who seem to respect challengers such as Al Sharpton more, but whites want "the iconic Negro, the bargainer in whom they see their own innocence and the nation's redemption." Obama needs both the black and white vote to do well in the primaries so, according to Steele, in essence, he is a "Bound Man."

Steele gives his prescription for blacks on how to break the chains of being a bound man, and that is black responsibility. He states:

And here is the pathos of American race relations. Obviously, black responsibility is the greatest -- if not the only -- transformative power available to blacks. How could it be otherwise? Just because we were oppressed, it does not follow that there is a force other than our own assumption of responsibility -- our own agency -- that will lift us up. Where in all of human history has one group been lifted up by the guilt or goodwill or need for innocence of another group? Where have former oppressors transformed their former victims?

Where, indeed? Read the whole book if you get a chance: Steele's last chapter is simply poetic and serves as a wake-up call for all of us who wish to transcend identity politics and move into a new era of interacting with each other in more humanitarian ways. Bargaining and challenging may be great ways to manipulate, but they are not great maneuvers for achieving freedom--which should be the goal of all democratic societies.

Office Mate or Bad Date?

So the mistletoe is going up and the office Christmas parties are starting to organize. You've had your eye on the cute man or woman down the hall and you figure what better way to get to know them than over the office copy machine--uh, make that at the boss's house during the holiday party--hopefully, you are single while considering this. Office romance, good idea or bad? That depends, according to a new book entitled Office Mate: The Employee Handbook for Finding--and Managing--Romance on the Job.

The authors of the book, Helaine Olen and Stephanie Losee, are experienced office daters, having met their husbands on the job, and they offer numerous tips for those considering a relationship at the office. Many people are appalled by office dating to which Ms. Losee responds:

...You can surf the Internet and hook up with complete strangers. You can let some dude in a bar pick you up. But you can't turn to that cute man in the cubicle next to yours--the guy you know really well, the guy you've been working with for months, the guy who's been vetted by Human Resources--and let him know you're interested because it's appalling?

Uhh, maybe it's because you're afraid of being charged with sexual harassment or creating a hostile work environment, particularly if you are a guy--but even women have that problem. So the book addresses that concern with a recommendation: "Don't violate sexual harassment law." Then they proceed to tell you how--sort of.

They explain the types of behavior that qualify as sexual harassment under federal law and state that repeated requests for romance are no-nos. They also note that the law defines sexual harassment by the way the victim perceives it, not the way that the harasser does. Okay, but this seems quite unfair, what if we decided that people could just be found guilty because someone "felt" that they had been robbed? Why is it that due process seems to fly out the window where sexual harassment or domestic violence issues are concerned. I'll give you three guesses but if you are a regular reader of this blog, you will know the answer.

Anyway, after reading all this, if you are still considering an office romance, this book is definitely worth a read if you want some excellent tips on how to woo an office mate. You can also learn why it is a mistake to reject someone by email, what to do if your ex breaks your heart and you have to slink into the office anyway, and what to do when your workplace is a romantic wasteland.

Just as an aside, has anyone out there had an office romance? If so, how did it work out? Or if you haven't, did a sexual harassment charge play a part in your decision not to date at the office?

Should Spouses Who Kill their Children be Awarded Alimony?

This court case of a mother who killed her 14-year-old son is troubling (Hat Tip: reader_iam):

Linda Calbi was originally charged with murder, but the charges were later downgraded to aggravated assault, based on expert reports that medical error contributed significantly to the boy's death. She was sentenced last year to three years in prison and won't be eligible for parole until November 2008.

The Calbis were divorced in 2001 after 15 years of marriage. A few months after Matt's death, Chris Calbi fell behind his alimony payments and filed papers in court seeking a reduction or termination of his payment obligations.

"She took the life of her oldest son, scarred her younger son for the rest of his life, and tore the fabric of my soul from me," Chris Calbi wrote in papers filed in Superior Court in Hackensack. "To reward this evil and violent woman by allowing her ... to derive a financial benefit from the family she destroyed ... can only be described as a perversion of our justice system."

A judge ordered him to continue making payments, then later interrupted alimony for the period that Linda Calbi is incarcerated.

But Chris Calbi's arrears had risen to more $40,000 by then, and the judge ordered him to pay $400 a month to his ex-wife's prison account.

I would have to agree with the father's analysis; to be forced to pay this killer (the beating she gave her son caused internal injuries) alimony is truly a perversion of our justice system. No one who kills their child should be rewarded with monetary support from a spouse. More and more, it seems our society rewards horrible acts with money, prestige and sympathy. There has to be a line drawn somewhere. The law should be changed.

Holiday Drivers

Is it my imagination or are the current crop of holiday drivers mean as snakes and nuts to boot? I have been flipped off twice this week by drivers--both who were at fault. One driver with some real Christmas spirit--with a tree in the back of his truck for goodness sakes--ran a stop sign, almost hit us and had the gall to flip us a bird. Another car was using the turn lane to drive in as if it were a regular lane and was mad that I was there--uhh, turning. Naturally, the two young guys in the car had to jump up and down flipping birds. Then to top it off, a car crossed two lanes of traffic while I was going straight and nearly plowed into me; only by quickly pulling to the other side of the road did I avoid a collision. And they looked mad at me! Anyone out there experience this level of holiday cheer while out cruising around?

Update: Speaking of road rage, here is a pretty funny video from a movie of two women drivers who duke it out in a parking lot, make sure you catch the bumper sticker on the back of one of the cars stating, "War is not the answer."

Rudy's My Man!

So, if you're bored today and want to take yet another quiz, how about the Ultimate 2008 Presidential Matcher? Here are my results:

Ultimate 2008 Presidential Candidate Matcher Your Result: Rudy Guiliani   The former New York City mayor emphasizes his tough foreign policy stance. His primary issue is national security, and would continue to pursue Bush's war on terrorism. Guiliani is liberal on social issues, favoring civil unions for gays and abortion rights. He is more conservative on tax policy, healthcare, and social security. He wants to expand nuclear energy to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
John McCain
Mitt Romney
Ron Paul
Hillary Clinton
Barack Obama
John Edwards
Dennis Kucinich
Ultimate 2008 Presidential Candidate Matcher Take More Quizzes

You can take it here.

A First I would Like to Forget

SayUncle mentions a couple of firsts he experienced this week; one was listening to our podcast on the Second Amendment with Bob Levy and the other was going to the local Greyhound station in Knoxville. The latter first is amazing to me, given that in the earlier part of my life, I spent a great deal of time at the Greyhound bus station going various places and can't imagine never having spend even one day at the local bus terminal. A trip at nineteen was the most memorable bus ride I can remember. I rode back from San Francisco to Knoxville on a Greyhound bus and it was one of the worst experiences of my life.

The ride was three days long and I sat next to a woman eating fried chicken for a day and a half. She made no qualms about taking up part of my seat and I sat slumped to one side for most of the ride trying to sleep in the middle of the night. I spent a day just going through Texas and have no fond memories of the place--you will understand this if you have experienced the seamy side of small towns on a bus for days at a time. I was traveling with a friend but the bus was packed and we could not get a seat together. At one point on the trip, people were standing in the aisle and had no seats. This led to some pretty grumpy behavior that soon turned ugly.

The driver stopped at one Texas town and told everyone to get off to eat and that we had only 45 minutes. "If you are not back on the bus, I'm leaving without you," he groused. The passengers herded off like cattle and went to find a fast food place for lunch. My friend and I got some food and got back on the bus, fearful that we would be left behind. At exactly 45 minutes to the second, the bus driver pulled out to the dismay of several passengers whose comrads had not come back to the bus. The driver took off and the passengers became irate and started accusing the driver of being prejudiced--the passengers he left were black and the driver was white. One passenger then stated that he was hijacking the bus, pulled a knife and starting yelling at those of us who were seated. My friend and I had been through such hell on that bus at that point that we looked up with boredom and tried to go back to sleep. The driver pulled into a police station that was nearby and the "hijacker" was taken off the bus and our ride continued. After this experience, I swore I would never ride a bus again, but I did and had a number of other adventures that I will not bore you with.

My bus riding days are pretty much over, and I doubt that I will ride a Greyhound again, but after my last airplane flight, I can honestly say that I can't really tell the differece between an airplane and a bus with wings.

What Accent do You Have?

I was reading The Corner the other day and came across a quiz entitled, What American Accent do You Have? My results?

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Inland North   You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop."
The Northeast
Philadelphia
The Midland
The South
Boston
The West
North Central
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Well, this doesn't really fit what most people from other areas than the South tell me. When I am in New York, people almost always detect a Southern accent but when I am in the South, people say I have a Northeast accent--the switch back and forth probably comes from living in both areas. And I have never called a soda "pop" in my life. What about you?

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope all my readers enjoy their Thanksgiving!

If you want to take a break from the family festivities--you can tune in tonight (Thursday) to XM Channel #130, POTUS �08 at 6:00 PM Eastern/3:00 PM Pacific for Pajamas Media�s weekly PJM Political show (And at 11:00 PM Eastern/8:00 Pacific for a rebroadcast) to hear me interviewed by Ed Driscoll about surviving political warfare at the holiday dinner table.

Or you can just listen to the interview here at Pajamas Media.

Podcast: Robert Levy on the Second Amendment

Today we interview Robert A. Levy who is a senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute, and the driving force behide the effort to overturn Washington D.C.'s gun ban on Second Amendment grounds. To date, in D.C. no one but police officers and retired officers are allowed to have a gun in their home for self-protection. Mr. Levy hopes this case will change that.

He's won the D.C. Circuit and the case is to be heard before the Supreme court. We talk to Mr. Levy about the background of the case, why he filed it and if the decision will be a big issue in the 2008 elections. You can read a recent op-ed by Mr. Levy in the LA Times entitled, Unholster the 2nd Amendment to learn more about the case or listen to the interview or do both.

You can listen directly -- no downloading needed -- by going here and clicking on the gray Flash player. Or you can download the show and listen at your leisure by clicking right here. You can get a lo-fi version, suitable for dialup, by going here and selecting lo-fi. And you can always get a free subscription via iTunes -- and we'd like it if you did. Our show archives are at GlennandHelenShow.com.

This podcast was brought to you by Volvo Automobiles. Music is by Todd Steed and the Suns of Phere.

Ask Dr. Helen: Holiday Fun or Holiday Hell?

My PJM column is up:

Not everyone looks forward to sitting around the Thanksgiving table with their extended family, notes PJM advice columnist Dr. Helen Smith - particularly those whose politics differ from members of the clan. She offers a food-fight prevention survival guide.

So, go read the column and let me know here or there if you get into heated political discussions with family and friends at the holidays and if so, how you handle it. It might just keep the rest of us out of jail this holiday season!

Grants for me but not for thee

The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) serves few male victims even though it was reauthorized in 2005 to include male victims of violence; in fact, a recent report from the General Accounting Office (GAO) shows that only 3.9% of legal aid money goes to males for legal assistance. Do men not ask for legal help or is it refused when they do? If the latter, it is no wonder men without funds cannot get custody of their kids or do so poorly in divorce settlements. Thanks to Jon for pointing out this report.

Things I Learned in Yale

Okay, in Yale Alumni Magazine, that is. Glenn is an alumni of the law school and yesterday, while rather bored, I picked up the magazine and thumbed through it. Here is what I learned. First, most doctors can't do stats:

Almost every medical school student takes a course or two in biostatistics to learn how to understand research data. But Donna Windish, an assistant professor at the School of Medicine, has shown that the information often doesn't stick. "A significant percentage of physicians-in-training do not understand the statistics they encounter in the medical literature," she says.

In her own teaching, Windish had seen that trainees often read only the abstracts, or "ignored the statistics and skipped right to the results." This practice turns out to be common throughout the medical profession -- and potentially troubling. "An abstract usually says little about methods of design, conduct, and analysis," says Windish, citing an earlier study that showed frequent data mismatches between the abstract and the paper.

"Doctors don't necessarily need to know how to do the mathematical calculations," Windish says. "They need to understand the concepts and how to use them."

Funny, talk to most doctors and they will tell you that only MDs can prescribe because they "know all that calculus, stats and stuff." Really? I've never seen a doctor do any calculations to write a prescription. Now, I've learned that many of them them don't know how to interpret a piece of research thoroughly. That really breeds confidence.

Next, I found out in the magazine that:

Morning people are more likely to be emotionally stable than their "night owl" counterparts. Yale psychology postdoctoral researcher Colin DeYoung and his colleagues studied 279 students in an introductory psychology class at the University of Toronto and found a moderately strong correlation between "morningness" and character traits associated with stability.

Uhmm, okay, but I am not sure I buy this theory for the population at large. Undergrads are notorious for partying at night and sleeping during the day. When they have kids or get older and have to be at a job, I wonder if this still holds true? Can't researchers ever get away from studying undergraduates, who are such a peculiar type of cohort that findings may not carry over to other people at different points of life or in different environments?

Finally, I learned that working at Starbucks can save your life. There was an interesting book reviewed in the magazine with the intriguing title, How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else. Apparently, the author, who is a member of the Yale class of 63, got a plum job with J. Walter Thompson ad agency only to lose it at the age of 53. Then he goes on to have a number of misfortunes including impregnating a mistress, getting kicked out by his wife, a brain tumor etc. He loses his job and ends up working at a Starbucks in Manhattan and loves it. Naturally, the book review makes fun of this fact, describing the author as a "Starbucks sycophant" but whatever.

The book sounds fun and interesting enough to consider for my collection of reading material that I can never get to since I am too busy reading magazines such as the one described for no other reason than it was sitting beside me on the coffee table.

East Tennessee Women Bloggers

The WBIR Style show here in Knoxville did a story on East Tennessee women bloggers featuring myself, Cathy at Domestic Psychology and Katie Allison Granju, author of Attachment Parenting. The show is supposed to be about moms who stay home and connect on the internet. Yep, that's yours truly, a sweet mom who just blogs her heart out to connect with others. You can view the video here--just click on the icon on your right.

Dreaming as Emergency Training

I was leafing through Psychology Today recently and came across an interesting article on dreaming entitled, Dreams: Night School (you have to subscribe to get the whole article). The article takes a look at why we dream according to one Finnish researcher, Antti Revonsuo:

A dream researcher at the University of Turku, in Finland, Revonsuo believes that dreams are a sort of nighttime theater in which our brains screen realistic scenarios. This virtual reality simulates emergency situations and provides an arena for safe training. As Revonsuo puts it, "the primary function of negative dreams is rehearsal for similar real events, so that threat recognition and avoidance happens faster and more automatically in comparable real situations."

Faced with actual life-or death-situations--traffic accidents, terrorist attacks, street assaults--some people report entering a mode of calm, rapid response, reacting automatically, almost without thinking. Afterward they often say the episode felt unreal, as if it were all a dream. Threat simulation, Revonsuo believes, is why.

Revonsuo began studying dreams and had his students keep logs. He found that dreams were filled with "dangerous events, negative emotions, monsters, chases, escapes, fights and near-death experiences. These weren't the misfirings of diseased brains. Threat dreams were the norm, accounting for a staggering two thirds of all dreams."

So, next time you have nightmares and wonder what the heck is wrong with you, just remember, it may be nothing more than a rehearsal for dealing with real life danger and your mind's way of learning to more quickly and efficiently respond to that danger.

John Hawkins at Right Wing News has an interview up with Kathleen Willey, the author of Target: Caught in the Crosshairs of Bill and Hillary Clinton. I have the book here in the house and have yet to read it--but I look forward to doing so and seeing what she has to say.

Checkbook Daddyhood

Should involuntary fathers have to foot the bill? Advice Goddess Amy Alkon says no:

Men who make it clear they don�t want kids shouldn�t be forced to pay child support, writes Amy Alkon, who has no patience for unscrupulous women luring unwitting partners into checkbook daddyhood.

Read the whole thing here.

Update: You can see more about this debate on men's reproductive rights at an old post of mine on the same topic here.

Carnivals

Grand Rounds is up at Doctor Anonymous's blog.

Update: And of course, check out the Homeschooling Carnival at Nerd Family Blog.

Airlines and Obesity: An Expensive Proposition or Just Plain Discrimination?

Kim du Toit thinks it's unfair to pick on fat people on airlines. So do I. I recently flew and sat next to a man who was overweight. We had no problems, he was pleasant, talkative and friendly. He took up only one seat. Why should he pay more than me?

Ask Dr. Helen: Kissing Cousins and More

My latest PJM column is up:

Is marrying your cousin acceptable behavior - and is it a health risk for your future children? Dr. Helen Smith answers the question, and offers advice to a young woman with a boyfriend who seems a little too eager to commit.

You can read the column here.

Me: Spending Money on Health Books

I admit it, the other day, I cracked and watched Oprah when I heard that Dr. Oz, the author of You: Staying Young: The Owner's Manual for Extending Your Warranty was going to be on talking about diet, exercise and other ways to stay young. I had told myself repeatedly to stay away from these silly daytime TV shows but I figured I might learn something more about how to stay in decent health. And I did. The show gave basic advice for people on how to eat right, exercise and take various vitamins such as fish oil. It did seem like a repeat of most of the stuff one should know, however, a refresher course every once in a while is good and I even went as far as to order the book from Amazon.com (but still chastising myself for letting it get that far). The book was kind of interesting although not what I thought it would be.

I was hoping the book would focus mainly on a concrete diet and exercise plan but alas, it did not. It was more of a guideline for staying young with tips scattered throughout the book on what to trash from your refrigerator such as saturated fat, (duh) trans fat, corn oil, soybean oil and simple sugars.

There are a set of tests in the book to see how fit you are. First, push-ups, here I flunked because with my ICD, if I even do one push-up (normal is 11-14 for a woman, 20-24 for a guy in his forties), I pull the wires in my chest and it hurts like hell; next came sit-ups where I barely did 27 (normal for a woman in her forties is 20-24, for a man 25-29); and finally, the balance test where you stand on one foot, close your eyes, put your hands out to your sides and time yourself. Amazingly, I made it over 30 seconds which is considered good. Try it and see where you stand or fall, depending on how good your balance is.

So, a bit disappointed with the absence of a detailed diet plan and recipes, I decided to go purchase You: On A Diet: The Owner's Manual for Waist Management and was very pleased with the book. The book had easy breakfast, lunch and dinner plans along with snacks and included dinner recipes for gazpacho, various soups, salads, fish dishes and even whole wheat pizza. There was even a section on exactly what to purchase from the fast food places to meet the requirements of their diet. For example, at Wendy's, the authors recommend the Mandarin Chicken Salad, at McDonald's, the Fruit and walnut salad or Caesar salad with grilled chicken or at Taco Bell, the Spicy Chicken Soft Taco. Good to know if you travel a lot or are an over-the-road trucker.

The diet book is kind of uplifting and cheerful and does really get you thinking about a holistic way of approaching health. Again, I didn't see anything here that was groundbreaking but if one follows the advice in the You books, I imagine some degree of health improvements would occur.

Follow-up on MIT Stabbing

The Wellesley student who stabbed her boyfriend is being held without bail (Hat Tip/Instapundit):

A judge ordered a Wellesley College student to be held without bail during a dangerousness hearing after she was accused of stabbing her former boyfriend several times as he slept in his MIT dorm room.

Twenty-year-old Anna Tang pleaded not guilty to charges of armed assault with intent to murder and home invasion related to the October 23rd incident.

Prosecutors say Tang gained access to her former boyfriend's dorm room early that morning and plunged a knife into his back as he slept.

At least this judge is taking the case seriously.

You're All Geniuses

Thanks to the Anchoress who sucked me into a couple of quizzes where I learned alot--okay mostly about how to waste time. First, I found out that the reading level of this blog is Genius! That makes all my readers geniuses--given the good taste you have in reading material, can't say that I'm surprised.

You can go here to find out your blog's reading level.

Then, I found out that my inner European is Russian, just like the Anchoress. No wonder I like her blog, we must have a lot in common.

Your Inner European is Russian!

Mysterious and exotic. You've got a great balance of danger and allure.

Who's Your Inner European?

So, if you're bored or just curious, go take the quizzes and see where you or your blog stand.

New Study Finds Birth Control Pills May Cause Heart Problems

I was watching the news this morning and saw a report that said the birth control pill could be linked to increased heart problems. I googled the study and found the following:

In a disturbing new finding, European researchers say taking birth control pills for a year may lead to an increased risk of heart disease. Researchers from Ghent University in Belgium looked at 1,301 apparently healthy women between the ages of 25 and 55 who had previously used oral contraceptives, half of whom used them for 13 years or more.

The results found that women who had used the pills had an unexpected increase in the presence of artery-clogging plaque in key blood vessels in the heart and legs. This was especially true for the ones who had consumed high-estrogen ones sold decades ago.

The risk of blood clots was largest in women who smoked but it disappeared once they go off the pill. However, plaque deposits that raise the risk of heart attacks, stroke, and peripheral artery disease continue to build up for decades after a woman stops taking the pill, WebMD reports.

Having had a heart attack while on the pill, I believe it. Unfortunately, my doctors never put too much emphasis on the pill as a cause although they cautioned me to quit taking it and I did. Perhaps with this new research, more women will talk with their doctor about their personal risks such as high cholesterol or other factors before taking the pill so they can make an informed decision about their heart health.

Carnivals

Grand Rounds is up and take a look at the Carnival of Homeschooling as well.

Are Boys an Endangered Species?

Half as many boys as girls are being born in some places around the world�and pollution is the prime suspect.

Among the Chippewas of the Aamjiwnaang First Nation community living on the shores of the St. Clair River outside Sarnia, Ontario, tribal leaders were puzzling over a variety of health problems�from asthma to cancer to miscarriages�plaguing their families. The Aamjiwnaang�the name means �at the spawning stream��were shaken when they realized that there was a dramatic disproportion of girls to boys among them....

One of those worried is Devra Davis, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute�s Center for Environmental Oncology and professor of epidemiology at the university�s Graduate School of Public Health. Davis is the lead author of a June 2007 article in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives that found statistically significant reductions in male births and increased fetal deaths in Japan and among Caucasians in the United States since 1970. She and her co-authors note that this decline represents 135,000 fewer white males in the U.S. and 127,000 fewer males in Japan stretching over the past three decades than the normative rate would expect.

Read the rest.

My Efforts at Educating Officialdom

So I received this card in the mail announcing the new domestic violence reporting requirements for the Tennessee Department of Health. I decided to check out their website and found it to be lacking in the recent research on the role women play in domestic violence. I also noticed that the reporting form had the word "female" listed first under "patient" and under perpetrator in the first column listed:

o Husband
o Ex-husband
o Boyfriend
o Ex-boyfriend


So I sent them this letter:

Division of Health Statistics/DV
4th Floor, Cordell Hull Building
425 5th Avernue North
Nashville, TN37243

Dear Domestic Violence Reporting Coordinator:

As a licensed psychologist, I recently received a card on the new domestic violence reporting requirements that states that licensed professionals are now required to report cases of suspected or confirmed domestic violence/abuse to the Tennessee Department of Health. I am writing out of concern after reading the information on your site and noticing that much of this information is not updated with the most recent research on domestic violence.

I am a psychologist who has worked with numerous patients who have been victims of domestic violence over the years. As you may well know, domestic violence is not just perpretrated by men against women, it is also perpretrated against men by women. Many professionals do not know this and it is not apparent in your literature. For example, your information to EMS workers states:

"Approximately 98% of documented domestic assaults are committed by men against women. As a result, throughout this text, we will refer to the perpetrator as �he� and the survivor or victim as �she� even though some domestic violence is initiated by women and some cases involve people of the same sex."

Recent studies are finding that both men and women act out physically in relationships and in one recent study, women initiated violence in over 70% of cases. Here is some information from the head of the American Psychological Association:

"Several studies of domestic violence have suggested that males and females in relationships have an equal likelihood of acting out physical aggression, although differing in tactics and potential for causing injury (e.g., women assailants will more likely throw something, slap, kick, bite, or punch their partner, or hit them with an object, while males will more likely beat up their partners, and choke or strangle them). In addition, data show that that intimate partner violence rates among heterosexual and gay and lesbian teens do not differ significantly."

The source is here.

Another recent study in the journal "Violence and Victims" found that nearly twice as many women as men perpetrated domestic violence:

"The study, published in the journal Violence and Victims, also found no independent link between an individual's use of alcohol or drugs and committing domestic violence. In addition it showed that nearly twice as many women as men said they perpetrated domestic violence in the past year, including kicking, biting or punching a partner, threatening to hit or throw something at a partner, and pushing, grabbing or shoving a partner, said Herrenkohl."

The source is here.

Psychiatric News also reports a study funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development that stated that men should not be overlooked as victims and that reciprocal violence leads to injury in men more often than women:

"Regarding perpetration of violence, more women than men (25 percent versus 11 percent) were responsible. In fact, 71 percent of the instigators in nonreciprocal partner violence were women. This finding surprised Whitaker and his colleagues, they admitted in their study report.

As for physical injury due to intimate partner violence, it was more likely to occur when the violence was reciprocal than nonreciprocal. And while injury was more likely when violence was perpetrated by men, in relationships with reciprocal violence it was the men who were injured more often (25 percent of the time) than were women (20 percent of the time). "This is important as violence perpetrated by women is often seen as not serious," Whitaker and his group stressed."

The source is here.

In summary, I would just like to request that professionals receive information on female on male domestic violence and that your website be updated to reflect the findings of current research in the field of domestic violence. My fear is that professionals will only report male on female violence and the men and perhaps children that are victims of domestic violence will be left out of the equation to suffer on their own.

Thank you in advance for your time and attention to this matter.

Helen Smith, PhD, HSP
Licensed Psychologist

So what do you think the chances are that they will respond or make changes to update their website with current data on domestic violence?

Help for Isolated Dads

Are stay-at-home dads so isolated that they need a convention to find other like minded souls? Apparently so, according to this recent column at Pajama's Media:

Fathers raising children full-time may seem like a rare breed, but there are enough of them to fill a convention hall. Brian Reid explains why an annual At-Home Dads Convention may sound absurd, but in fact, makes perfect sense.

You can read more here.

Weblog Awards

I was skimming through the Weblog Award Finalists and saw that our podcast The Glenn and Helen Show had been nominated in the "Best Podcast" category. Thanks to whoever nominated us. If you like our show, go vote for us, or if you don't, well... to each his or her own.

Podcast: The Daring Book for Girls

Today we interview the authors of The Daring Book for Girls about how girls can put a little adventure into their lives. The book teaches girls how to change a tire, run a lemonade stand, negotiate a salary and lots more. The authors discuss if kids are active enough today, women spies, advice on boys and whether or not Hillary Clinton is a "daring girl."

You can listen directly (no downloading needed) by going here and clicking on the gray Flash player. You can download the file and listen at your leisure by clicking right here. And you can get a lo-fi version, suitable for dialup, cellphones, etc. by going here and selecting lo-fi. A free iTunes subscription is available here, and you can visit our show archives at GlennandHelenShow.com.

This podcast was brought to you by Volvo Automobiles. Music is by Audra and the Antidote.

Bloggers in the News

Are we pampering our children by providing super safe playgrounds and schools games that deny them the skills they need to become effective adults? Nanny State author and blogger David Harsanyi says "yes" in an interview with Brian Williams on the NBC Nightly News. Take a look.

Neo-neocon has some thoughts on my PJM column on marriage in a post subtitled, "what's in it for me?":

But I have to say that the level of vitriol expressed in the comments section in response to this article by Dr. Helen at Pajamas Media surprised me and disheartened me, even though I�ve read similar discussions before online. The general flavor of comment after comment there�mostly from men�can be summarized as follows: �The bitch screwed me� with the corollary, �Women are all like that.� The formerly married say, �Never again,� and the never-married merely say, �Never.�

I see things differently; I think there are few places for men to go to talk with others about their feelings on relationships, love, marriage and kids. So when they have such a forum, a lot of pent up frustration may show through. The media, including daytime tv is mainly geared towards women who complain non-stop about men, their inability to communicate and how they are being kept down by these oafs, so there is always a place to vent. Experts are always telling men to open up about their feelings, then when they do, suddenly they are good-for-nothing selfish whiners. Seems a bit hypocritical to me.

Update: Neo-neocon has Part II up of "Getting Married: what's in it for me?"