Medical blog » Freedom

Is Friday World Nude Day about freedom or fitness? How to get ready

admin — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 05:16:45 +0000

Is Friday World Nude Day about freedom or fitness? How to get ready
I have to tell you a true story. My husband and I travel pulling a travel trailer. The closest campground we could find to where we wanted to go was a nudist campground. We said “What the heck” we don’t have to be nude. We showed up and seeing older people (my age and up) nude was a bit strange. My husband rode in a cart with a nude woman who was very comfortable – why shouldn’t she be – this is her thing. We didn’t stay here – not because of the nudity but because the additional $30 on top of the $30 hadn’t been disclosed to us.
World Nude Day is today and it is about setting yourself free. It’s about nude, not lewd. It’s about having fun … with your clothes off.
Get nude.
Get a mate to film you.
Do something funny.
Upload it on the website for all to see.
Top 10 global entries chosen by official judges.
Winner decided by judges combined with public vote for prizes.
you will see 4 men and 4 women. One of the men is older than the others so he isn’t in the shape the others are. The women probalby don’t look like most of us who have had children. Is World Nude Day about freedom from clothes and why? Or is it about beautiful bodies and why? I’m not going to write a socialogical dissertation here but it is food for thought. At 30 even 40 I would have taken off my clothes so for me it’s about both – freedom and allowing myself that freedom but at the same time not being so self concious that I’m really not free. Thoughts?
If you want to do both then dye your hair red, made a heart out of a red piece of sticky paper, wear a red bandana – you get the idea.
. It’s a little late to get ready for today but it’s not too late to get ready for next year. The first thing I want you to do is get naked by yourself and look in the mirror. Some of you don’t want to but you have to come face to face with your body – either accepting it or wanting to change it. After you’ve made up your mind on how you want to proceed skim through some of my articles for tips and keep coming back for more articles and tips to changing the look in the mirror.
A long term study in Norway has been following 1,000 volunteers who first entered the study in 1979 They were children then. In this study, which has just been published in the journal, Pediatrics, all of the study’s volunteers were checked…
,
,
On Oprah.com three studies were talked about trying to establish, once and for all, the best way to drop pounds. Naomi Barr has the results. You can read about all the diets: South Beach, Zone, Ornish, Low Fat, Low Carb on and on and…
I herniated a disc many years ago and was told by a surgeon (I didn’t have surgery) not to run anymore. He said that the benefits do not out weigh the negatives. So I give people credit who still run and this Irishman is certainly running. Richard Donovan…
Michael Phelps was suspended from competition for three months by USA Swimming, the latest fallout from a photo that showed the Olympic record holder with a a marijuana pipe – called a bong. The sport’s national governing body also cut off its…
It’s taken years for overweight Americans to discover what the South African bush people knew innately — or so the story goes. Forever, the bush people have nibbled a native succulent (versus a cactus) plant called Hoodia gordonii . Guess what?…
,
,
,
,
,
,
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the only woman on the nation’s highest court and one of its most consistent liberal voices, had surgery today for pancreatic cancer. Ten years ago she had colon cancer. It is said that the cancer…
.Quote by John KeatsOh, how many girls dream of being a ballerina. My youngest daughter took ballet lessons and danced…
,
,
Dodger Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax born Sanford Braun, a high school baseball teammate and friend of Fred Wilpon the owner of the Mets were was among the clients who lost money investing with Bernard Madoff, according to a court filing released Wednesday…
The Dartmouth Outing Club (DOC) was founded by a Dartmouth student named Fred Harris in 1909. Dartmouth College, the prestigious Ive League college is located in Hanover, New Hampshire. DOC started just to stimulate interest in out-of-door…
,
,
,

Right to Life Movement Rallied by Freedom of Choice Legislation

admin — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 06:52:26 +0000

WASHINGTON – Activists on both sides of the abortion question will congregate Thursday at the annual March for Life protest
in Washington to debate the possible passage of the Freedom of Choice Act.
President Obama, speaking to Planned Parenthood
while a candidate, said he would sign the legislation should it pass Congress, and his vow has energized all sides of the
issue this year.
The FOCA as introduced to Congress in 2007, is umbrella legislation that aims to protect women’s health
and their right to “to begin, prevent or continue a pregnancy.”
“FOCA has definitely energized the Maryland (anti-abortion)
movement. We are receiving many more calls and inquiries to our Web site. We feel that the pro-life people are very concerned
and ready to take action,” said Angela Martin, executive director of Maryland Right to Life.
The act is designed to
eliminate the “threats that remain” to Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court abortion rights decision that prompted
the annual March for Life. Those threats include possible reversal of the decision and “legislative or administrative policies
that make abortion more difficult and dangerous to obtain.”
“It ensures … women, teenagers and poor women in particular,
that these services will be available to them every day, every month and every year and not be affected by political whims,”
said Frances Kissling, 65, former president of Catholics for Choice in Washington.
Consent laws that require minors
obtain parental permission before obtaining an abortion aren’t designed to provide full knowledge, but to “scare” and misinform,
she said.
The Freedom of Choice Act would allow just that — unencumbered reproductive choices, its advocates said.
Anti-abortion
activists see it as a license to kill.
“FOCA would eliminate restrictions on abortion nationwide,” said Martin, that
would include parental consent or waiting periods, for example.
“Waiting periods are there to protect women’s health
and reflect on the consequences (of an abortion). The ‘restrictions’ are meant to protect (women),” said Martin.
Proponents
of the bill say that it would provide access to family planning services, prevent unintended pregnancies and thus decrease
the need for abortion.
FOCA does restrict abortions after the fetus is viable, or can live outside of the woman, which
is approximately 24 weeks into the pregnancy, according to a 2008 study published by the Center for Fetal and Neonatal Medicine
and the USC Division of Neonatal Medicine.
“The most important aspect of a woman’s right is to determine her own reproductive
health. What’s the point of life, liberty and the other things if you have to buckle under someone else’s rule,” said Anne
Hale Johnson, 85, who gave $5,000 to Planned Parenthood last year.
Meanwhile the size of the March for Life continues
to grow, from 20,000 people in 1974 to 200,000, according to the group’s Web site, in 2006.
As long as abortion remains
legal, its opponents will continue to fight, whether it’s to attack the root causes of poverty or drugs, or in the legal arena,
they said.
Susan Gibbs, communications director for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, said: “We are going
to continue to be present. We aren’t going to walk away from it.”
Abortion has “spiritual, mental and psychological”
involvement, said Gibbs. “We’ve seen it.”
And Martin said: “FOCA violates the conscience rights of those that are opposed
to abortion.”
Capital News Service contributed to this report.

Up Is Down? Anti-Choice Movement on Freedom of Choice

admin — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 00:49:37 +0000

(FOCA) – legislation that would simply codify that which the Roe v. Wade decision affords
- legal abortion access for women. The Family Research Council says they want to reduce the number of abortions in this country but attempt to block government from instituting laws, like FOCA, that will actually protect women’s health and lives.
If enacted, FOCA, as a federal bill, would override all
state legislative abortion restrictions – which is
important (but not only) if Roe v. Wade were to be
overturned. It is a deceptively simple bill that is almost painfully difficult
to read in that it’s hard to imagine women still need this kind of explicit
legislative protection from government control over reproduction. The bill
states that
woman has the
fundamental right to bear a child, to terminate a pregnancy before viability, and
post-viability only when necessary to protect the life or health of the woman. FOCA
prohibits governments at all levels from interfering in those rights. But since
our two presidential candidates hold entirely different positions on Roe v.
Wade and access to legal abortion, FOCA is a critical consideration in this
election season for reproductive and sexual health advocates and anti-choice
activists alike.
The Family Research Council is using FOCA in yet one more
political attack this presidential election season, a $100,000 advertising
campaign trumpeting Obama’s support for the bill. Scott
the method behind the madness: “What the Family Research Council will not tell
you is that one of the reasons they want to overturn Roe v. Wade is not simply
to return the issue to the states, but to attempt to pass a federal abortion
ban outlawing all abortions in all fifty states.” No doubt that for anti-choicers, FOCA is a step in the wrong direction.
First, some background.
Roe v. Wade, in theory, strikes as close to a balance as
this country is likely to get between the rights of women to privacy and bodily
autonomy when making the decision to terminate a pregnancy and the rights of a post-viability
fetus that is able to live outside of the woman’s body.
However, Roe, thanks to never-ending state and federal legislative
challenges and an anti-choice movement more suited to crafting scripts for
dramatic storytelling than to advocating for true reproductive health care, has
been chipped away at so steadily that only a shadow of abortion access
protection remains for certain groups of women in this country.
Three years after Roe was enacted, Republican members of
Congress jumped in to mitigate what they saw as too much leeway for women’s
bodily autonomy. The Hyde Amendment passed, barring low-income women protection
from Roe. Hyde prevents federal taxpayer funds from covering abortion services
for women who cannot afford it. What does this mean for the low-income women whose access
to legal abortion was supposedly bestowed by Roe? It means Roe doesn’t exist
for them. Add in various state restrictions including mandatory waiting
periods, coercive ultrasounds, spousal consent (later ruled unconstitutional),
rights of refusal for health care providers who do not support abortion working
for public health care institutions, parental consent laws, mandatory biased
information and finally even a Supreme Court decision upholding
a ban on certain forms of late-term abortion without medical exceptions for a
woman’s health and life and, again, Roe v. Wade is often nothing more than a
hollow promise at this point.
That Supreme Court decision, Gonzales v. Carhart, upholds the so-called Partial-Birth
Abortion Ban – the ban that spurred the re-introduction of the Freedom of
Choice Act in 2007.
Because FOCA would undo years of erosion of the right to
access safe, legal, funded abortion, it pushes every anti-choice button.
According to Celine Mizrahi, Legislative Counsel for the Center for
Reproductive Rights, “FOCA would supersede existing restrictions and prevent
state legislatures from enacting measure that deny or interfere with a woman’s
ability to continue or end a pregnancy – thus avoiding the unjust disparities
that would result from individual legislatures determining the availability of
abortion in their state.”
Where do the candidates stand on FOCA?
Laurie Rubiner, VP of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund
says, “Barack Obama has consistently voted in favor of a woman’s right to
choose and supported efforts to reduce unintended pregnancies. Barack Obama is
not only a co-sponsor of FOCA; he says he will sign it into law.”
John McCain would not. McCain
reversing Roe v. Wade and, as Emily notes, his running mate, Sarah Palin (as
well as the Republican party platform)
even for women who are the victims of rape or incest.
to the
110th Congress urging them not to consider FOCA. But what’s at stake
is not only the protection of legal abortion in all fifty states but the
problems anti-choicers have
with insuring women’s access to a full range of reproductive and sexual health
care.
It may go without saying that the primary reason
reproductive health advocates want to see FOCA passed is not just as a protection
against anti-choice challenges to Roe, but as a
to protect women’s health and lives. Access to legal abortion
saves women’s lives, protects women’s health and ensures women and their
families the opportunity to plan for the families they want and care for the
families they have. It’s really that simple.
In countries where abortion is severely or entirely
restricted, illegal and unsafe abortions are responsible for upwards of 70,000
deaths, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Guttmacher has also found that “reducing
the incidence of unsafe abortion would result in an immediate and substantial
reduction of maternal mortality and improve maternal health.”
But.
Anti-choice religious leaders lobbying against FOCA have
decided that this is not at all the case, arguing (without credible evidence)
“we can’t reduce abortions by promoting abortions.” It should be noted,
however, that in the next sentence they also state that programs that promote
access to contraception do not reduce abortions either. For them – and
organizations like the Family Research Council – the only way to reduce
abortions is by, well, simply banning them – all scientific and medical
evidence to the contrary.
It is indisputable that access to safe, legal abortion
improves women’s health and lives. If our common goals are to ensure access to
care, promote comprehensive prevention strategies and protect the lives of
women and their families, FOCA would help get us there.
But if this is about waiting out a Supreme Court, which is
only slightly tipped towards safeguarding Roe v. Wade, the anti-choice movement
has a plan. FOCA would codify Roe so that regardless of who the next President appoints
to the court, women’s access to legal abortion would remain in all fifty
states. Without FOCA in place, overturning Roe would result in one of the worst
public health disasters this country has ever seen.
Anti-choice organizations like the Family Research Council
and others are terrified of the power that the Freedom of Choice Act holds. It
is a powerful piece of legislation, to be sure. Its power lies in the
opportunity it brings – ensuring that women, regardless of geography, age,
ethnicity, or income level, have equal access to abortion services, a public
health benefit by any standard.
Scott Swenson,

No charges expected in Freedom bonfire injuries

admin — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 15:21:29 +0000

It’s unlikely that anyone will face criminal charges in the campfire flare-up that critically burned two Boston-area women during a New Year’s Eve party at a lakeside camp in Freedom, the town police chief said yesterday.
Witnesses told police the fire flared when one of the guests poured camp-stove fuel on a log of the fire, which appeared to be going out, said Police Chief Josh Shackford.
Three women were burned, and two remain at Maine Medical Center in Portland.
The most severely burned was Erica Swords, who suffered first-, second- and third-degree burns. She and Carolyn Kerr, both who live in the Boston area, were taken by helicopter to the Portland hospital. The third victim, Philadelphia resident Kelly Bogue, was treated at Huggins Hospital in Wolfeboro and released.
“From what I understand, the girls were actually on fire,” Shackford said.
The victim who suffered the least amount of burns had her fire put out immediately. The other two ran inside the camp, where they were patted down with blankets.
The party involved about 20 adults in their mid-20s who graduated from Holy Cross College in Worcester, Mass.
Shackford said he has spoken to Carroll County Attorney Robin Gordon, and they are not inclined to bring charges at this point. He has yet to speak to the victims, however.
“This was clearly a tragic accident. There was no intent to harm anybody,” he said. “It was a bunch of kids; somebody made a bad decision.”
Shackford said the fire was in an old, 2-foot-long hibachi grill. No one poured the lantern fuel on the flames, but one reveler was pouring it on the end of one of the logs in the fire. The logs were arranged in a teepee, a common way to start a wood fire.
Shackford assumes fumes from the fuel expanded into the air, caught a spark and ignited.
The three women were in a semicircle around the fire, he said.
Witnesses told police the fire flared about 5 seconds before midnight. The first emergency call was logged in at 12:01 a.m.
Associated Press material was used in this report.
Your source for stories and breaking news from New Hampshire.