epic fail.

i mean, "hiatus." that's what it's called when you dispense with frivolities [read: fun things] in your life in order to dedicate the paltry amount of attention that you have in a million directions at once. or do we call that "college"? i'm so confused.

anyway, lots and lots and lots of things have gone down since i wrote last but most of them are kind of old news. making women pay for their own rape kits? pshhht. what, do i think you were born yesterday? certainly not. even mccain's belittling of the "health" exception has been so widely reported on for the last two days that you don't need to hear it from me.

so i'll stick to what i do best: sex ed stuff, which doesn't get as much play when kindergartners aren't involved [who knew?]. so good news first! it seems the folks in gloucester, mass have decided to distribute contraceptives in school [looks like the community didn't go for the whole limited education thing]. parental consent is required - just like it is for sex. am i right? so we'll see how that goes. i'll be interested to follow this story more, though we probably won't hear much about it if things go well.

RH reality check has a really great [dare i say comprehensive?] rundown of the presidential candidates' positions on sex education. i'm pretty savvy, and you're probably pretty savvy [or on your way to becoming so], but maybe you should let your more conservative friends know who the real extremist on sex ed is, according to a recent poll in parade, among others. why do so few people support ab-only? oh, i don't know, maybe because it doesn't work.

in other news, the european council of the EU decided this summer to focus on girl children. the full summary is here, and there's a synopsis of the main points here. unfortunately this "focus" doesn't include any bite in its bark, at least not for the time being, but when i'm not busy being cynical, i think instead that the fact that the three main indicators the EU chose to use as a metric were sex and relationship education, healthy body image, and reducing disparities in educational accomplishments. GOOD. CALL.

speaking of body image, i have lots of things to say about a really excellent movie my forum screened last night on that topic, among others, but i'll save it. until then, if you live in california, vote no on 4 and 8. and if you don't live in california and you can spare a few dollars to a cause that needs them more than obama, you should donate.