Here’s the scene: You are a woman in the hospital for a routine surgery, the doctors knock you out and when you come to, they say everything was successful and send you on your way. What you may not be told is that while you were under, a group of medical students and their proctor came in and did a pelvic exam on you. Sound unlikely? Think again. read more »

The more open we are about our potential desires — as opposed to resistant because of our current desires — the more we figure out what we’re into. read more »

Tarting up the one we love is an all-too-rare chance to invite our partners into our fantasies and an opportunity for them to explore safe and dirty possibilities behind an indefatigable mesh façade. read more »

The Great Debaters, Honeydripper and American Gangster are all about African-Americans, and movies about African-Americans don’t win Oscars — nor, by and large, do the black actors appearing in them. read more »

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As those opposed to abortion see it, once a woman views the fetus, she will be unable to end its life. Richard Land, Ethics and Religious Liberty Commissioner of the conservative Southern Baptist Convention, is widely credited for popularizing this idea. “If wombs had windows,” he says, “people would be much more reticent to abort babies because they would be forced to confront the evident humanity of the baby from very early gestation onward. Pregnant mothers who see their babies on sonograms are far more likely to carry their babies to term.” read more »

A disturbing trend is afoot. In the past few months, in two countries, governments have relied on broadly-worded terrorism laws to put down social protests. read more »

New Haven, Connecticut, made national headlines on June 4 when it approved a plan to issue municipal IDs to all city residents — a scheme that would let undocumented immigrants use city facilities and enable them to open bank accounts. Some 36 hours later, a team of agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained 32 immigrants in the city’s Fair Haven neighborhood, which is mostly Latino. read more »

"The government has consistently exaggerated the importance of each alleged terrorist it has tried to prosecute, only to see its claims fall far short when they are subjected to the scrutiny of the judicial system." read more »