It's an open thread! Pleeeeease feel free to chat, blogwhore, and link-share in the comment thread...
So below is what my cartoon sockpuppet Bookworm Bob & I have been looking at into the weekend.
• The New York Times' Can A Boy Wear A Skirt To School?:
BY now, most high school dress codes have just about done away with the guesswork.Girls: no midriff-baring blouses, stiletto heels, miniskirts.
Boys: no sagging pants, muscle shirts.
But do the math.
"Rules" + "teenager" = "challenges."
If the skirt is an acceptable length, can a boy wear it?
Can a girl attend her prom in a tuxedo?
In recent years, a growing number of teenagers have been dressing to articulate - or confound - gender identity and sexual orientation. Certainly they have been confounding school officials, whose responses have ranged from indifference to applause to bans...
The article goes on to talk about High School dress codes across the country. Recommended read.
• Opposition piece from Focus On The Family's/CitizenLink's Lawmakers Consider Special Rights for Homosexuals:
The Senate held a hearing on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) this week. ENDA would enshrine special rights for homosexuals in the workplace, based on sexual orientation and gender identity.Craig Parshall, senior vice president and general counsel for National Religious Broadcasters, was the only witness to speak against the bill, although a number of pro-family groups are campaigning against it. &t it. Throughout the hearing, Parshall heard cries for fundamental fairness and rights.
"What about the civil rights, the civil opportunities and privileges of private enterprise," he said, "to conduct its business free of these exotic new value systems?" ...
Exotic? About half of the states in the country have nondiscrimination laws based on sexual orientation, and about a quarter of the states have nondiscrimination laws based on gender identity. Hardly exotic laws.
• Los Angeles Times' California's best years have passed, voters say In a survey of 1,500 registered voters, 80% say the state is on the wrong track. Respondents express little confidence in state politicians and candidates, even as support for Obama remains high.:
Frustrated at California's woes, voters are sharply pessimistic about whether the next governor will be able to move the state in the right direction, and most believe California is in the midst of a long-term decline, a new Los Angeles Times/USC poll shows....There was little confidence that the next governor, whoever he or she may be, would be able to successfully battle California's problems. Voters were split over whether the winning candidate would be able to bring about "real change." More than half of voters said that California's problems are long-term in nature and will not ease substantially when the national economy recovers.
"I just feel like we are spinning our wheels," said Tracey Blair, a mother of two from Mar Vista who described herself in a follow-up interview as an independent-minded Democrat. "I don't feel like it's going anywhere at the moment. . . . It's a feeling of -- like we've peaked." ...
...Asked whether California was headed in the right direction or was on the wrong track, only 14% said the state was moving in the right direction. That was the lowest such finding since October 1992, when an equal percentage expressed dismay. It was statistically equivalent to the 17% level reached just before the 2003 recall swept out Democratic Gov. Gray Davis and installed Schwarzenegger. Altogether, 4 in 5 Californians surveyed said they felt the state was headed down the wrong track -- slightly worse than in 2003...
*Sigh*
• Our not quite Wiener Story Of The Day: The Tehran Times' Red, processed meats linked to prostate cancer:
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Men who eat a lot of red meat and processed meats may have a higher risk of developing prostate cancer than those who limit such foods, a large study of U.S. men suggests.Researchers at the National Cancer Institute found that among more than 175,000 men they followed for nine years, those who ate the most red and processed meats had heightened risks of developing any stage of prostate cancer, or advanced cancer in particular.
The findings, reported in the American Journal of Epidemiology, add to a conflicting body of research on meat intake and prostate cancer risk. Because studies over the years have come to different conclusions, experts generally consider the evidence linking red and processed meats to the disease to be limited and inconclusive.
These latest findings do not settle the question. But they do suggest that processed red meats and high-heat cooking methods -- namely, grilling and barbecuing -- may be particularly connec connected to prostate cancer risk, according to Dr. Rashmi Sinha and her colleagues at the NCI...
So...I'm confused. Are wieners -- as processed red meat -- evil, or not so evil? Engh, never mind. Most are too fatty anyway.
• Our Wiener Story Of The Day: WCAX.com's Burlington Honors Hot Dog Lady:
The Queen of Hot Dog's in Vermont was honored Saturday.Lois Bodoky, known to most as "The Hot Dog Lady", received red carpet treatment today.
For 28 years Bodoky operated a hot dog cart on Church Street.
She retired in 2005.
Saturday, the city unveiled a plaque outside Homeport, honoring her years of service to hungry customers. The location is where she operated the cart after her beauty shop burned down in the 70s.
Bodoky says she misses her customers, especially feeding the needy for free...
So anywho...It's an open thread! What are you thinking about today, or what books or articles have you been reading the past few days? Wanna share?
And again, please feel free to chat, blogwhore, and link-share in the comment thread because...it's an open thread! Woo-hoo! 
For those who think the postings about the personal lives of the Pam's House Blend baristas are self-indulgent, this is probably a diary to skip.
This is one of those save-for-the-weekend discussion kind of posts, and it's in the spirit of Pam's House Blend being a virtual lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender coffee house -- and in our PHB virtual coffee house, the baristas (I'm a barista!) will occasionally discuss what's going on in our lives.
So that said, on Saturday I posted my diary about finding out I have a normal male karyotype. Today is another a diary about another medical appointment at the Veterans Administration (VA) Medical Center, San Diego, from the past week.
Specifically, Friday was my last appointment at the Weight Control clinic -- they "released" me. For those who haven't been following my weight issues for the past two years, I had Gastric Bypass surgery on February 12th, 2008. From my peak weight of 296 pounds, I've lost about 125 pounds -- I've been maintaining my weight between about 165 and 170 pounds, and have been maintaining that weight range for se for slightly under a year.
The next "stop" in my treatment regimen is a consult to plastic surgeon for a possible tummy tuck. I have some excess skin around my waist, and I rash a bit underneath the fold of that excess skin. 
So, although the tummy tuck would be ostensively to treat the propensity I have to rash under the skin fold that came into being from relatively rapid weight loss, the obvious secondary result would be having the kind of stomach I could show off in a two piece bathing suit next summer.
Now that is an odd thought. From having a body seven summers ago where only wearing swim shorts was appropriate at the beach or pool, to having a body next summer where breasts and genitalia are appropriately covered in two pieces -- and skin shows between those two pieces -- at the beach or pool...well, that's an interesting change in life experience. 
So, a tummy tuck would definitely help my body to become more hourglass shaped than it is now. And, even though that wouldn't be my reason to have a tummy tuck, it is the reason a number of trans women I personally know have had that particular surgery. This is something to think about, my cissexual lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) blender friends -- what's the last surgery you had to better become your L, G, or B self? There is money pit of surgeries that trans women (like me) and trans men may have -- beyond genital reconstruction surgery -- to reshape our non-stereotypically male or female bodies to the more stereotypical norms of male and female body shapes. Consider yourself lucky if you don't need 'em.
~~~~~
Related:
* Surgery Set For February
* Dates Are Set, So Full Speed Ahead
* Under The (Hopefully) Tiny Knife Tuesday
* I'm Back! Well, Sort Of.
* Video: Autumn In The VA Hospital, Post Gastric Bypass
* Video: Autumn Gets A Stuffed Toy In The Hospital
* The Hammerhead Is Great -- Wanna See My New Tattoo?
* Reaching A Couple Of Personal Weight Loss Milestones
* Interesting Side Effects Of A Normal BMI
"This is Maddie. Maddie likes America because we have freedom here and Maddie believes in patient choice health care. She has come here to say she doesn't want government to take over health care. She wants to keep her plan," Rep. Shadegg said."Maddie knows if this bill passes, she knows her mom's health care will go away and won't be around for five years. If the bill passes then no more health care for her mom because it has to change. Maddie wants patient choice," Rep. Shadegg said.
"She doesn't want her mom's premiums to go up. She doesn't want her mom's taxes to go up by $730 billion, do you, Mattie?"
"She wants America's health insurance companies to have to compete with each other. She believes in choices, but most of all, she says, don't tax me to pay for health care that you guys want. If you want health care, pay for it yourself, because it's not fair to pass your health care bills on to me and my grandchildren," Rep. Shadegg said.
Michelle Bachman was just on a minute ago, wearing- I kid you not!- an Hawaiian lei.
Aloha- oy!!
More clips of note below the fold... including Charlie Rangel scolding John Boehner.
SC's Rep. Joe "You LIE! Wilson makes few clear points:
Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert, who brags about sentencing single mothers.
fefWatch as Indiana Rep. Steve Buyer starts screaming on the floor in his speech. He later interrupts CA's Henry Waxman:
Last, there is this clip, where NY's Charlie Rangel says, "Shame on you!" to Minority Leader from Ohio, John Boehner
I've heard the vote may not occur until 10 pm...
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