Saving The World’s Women
Posted by Michelle Moquin on August 24th, 2009
Once again, business before pleasure. My apologies yesterday for posting two video demos of ‘Six Days In Fallujah”. Last night I fixed it and replaced the first one with a peak at the “Darfur Is Dying” video. I have no idea how I posted two of the same and didn’t notice it until last night. Oops. Maybe it was because yesterday morning before writing my write, I was feeding Lucy and cracked my head on the underside of the concrete countertop on the up swing. Ouch. Hmm…anyway….If you missed seeing the video demo, you can see it now.
Hi Mark: I didn’t see your comment from Saturday until now. In fact I didn’t see anyone’s comment on Saturday after you. Anyway, you are doing nothing wrong. Why the ‘regulars’ seem to not have an issue commenting is totally unknown to me. I appreciate your persistency in trying though. As I have mentioned umpteen times before, it is all the luck of the draw who gets in and who doesn’t.
And as Peter mentioned to Anna, “I don’t think Michelle would want to prescreen every comment.” You got that right Peter.
So in answer to your question Anna, “No you do not have to clear your articles with me first. Sorry that you and whoever else is having problems commenting.” And no you are not monopolizing :)
On another note, I am was so sad sorry to read your story. It sounds like ‘Sinbad’ was a pretty cool and well loved man, who will be dearly missed. Hafa adai.
Thanks Helena for posting that article and filling in for health info.
Cathy: My pleasure. This is America and in spite of our big marketing campaigns for non-fat this and zero-calorie that, many people struggle with their weight here. Thanks for helping them out.
Doug: You’re welcome. Let me know if and when you play.
India: Yeah…it made me chuckle. :)
Anonz: Thank you for your comment. However, it reminded me that I have really not covered much lately on Darfur. A write is in order. Thank you. As always it is good to hear from you. I’m happy that you are well.
So….onto today’s topic. Has anyone seen the awesome cover of yesterday’s NY Times Magazine? Not to mention all of the articles inside? The topic? “Saving The World’s Women”. It’s about time the plight of women in the world is the headlining focus, and an issue that needs to be addressed over and over…in our faces daily.
Care.org. has a tag line that is very enlightening:
“As Women….We are half the world, yet we are 2/3 of the worlds illiterate, yet we are 3/4 of the world’s refugees and displaced people. But together we can change the whole world.”
I read the stats and my eyes well up with tears. And then I read the last sentence: ” But together we can change the whole world”, and I get chills, knowing that it is so true.
And then I see the featured article on the cover: “Why Women’s Rights Are The Cause Of Our Time”, and I smile thinking, “Yes! Finally recognition.” The present situation of the plight of women around the world and the lack of women’s rights is recognized as a cause that is more important than anything…it is the cause of our time. Bravo! NY Times for recognizing the cause and featuring it on your cover. Thank you for taking women’s right seriously.
More on the mag:
The New York Times Magazine of Sunday Aug. 23 will be devoted to issues confronting the world’s women, especially women’s rights.
The cover features the headline, “Why Women’s Rights are the Cause of Our Time,” the title of an article by Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and his wife Sheryl WuDunn. Adapted from their book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, the essay says empowering women can help solve many of the world’s problems, including poverty and terrorism.
“All in all, [the magazine] will be a very memorable treatment of an issue that increasingly is being seen as central to economic development,” Kristof said in a June 30 blog posting. “One of the reasons for this issue – and for Half the Sky – is that there’s growing recognition that if you want to fight poverty and extremism, you need to educate and empower women and bring them into the economy. A country can’t grow and be stable if half the population is marginalized.”
Other items in the magazine spotlight the importance of ensuring women’s access to maternal health care, education and economic opportunities, and the need to eliminate gender inequality in social, cultural and political areas.
Magazine highlights include:
• An interview with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who discusses the Obama administration’s plan to push women’s rights issues on a global scale.
Here’s an excerpt:
Q: In your confirmation hearing, you said you would put women’s issues at the core of American foreign policy. But as you know, in much of the world, gender equality is not accepted as a universal human right. How do you overcome that deep-seated cultural resistance?
Clinton: You have to recognize how deep-seated it is, but also reach an understanding of how without providing more rights and responsibilities for women, many of the goals we claim to pursue in our foreign policy are either unachievable or much harder to achieve.
Democracy means nothing if half the people can’t vote, or if their vote doesn’t count, or if their literacy rate is so low that the exercise of their vote is in question. Which is why when I travel, I do events with women, I talk about women’s rights, I meet with women activists, I raise women’s concerns with the leaders I’m talking to.
I happen to believe that the transformation of women’s roles is the last great impediment to universal progress – that we have made progress on many other aspects of human nature that used to be discriminatory bars to people’s full participation. But in too many places and too many ways, the oppression of women stands as a stark reminder of how difficult it is to realize people’s full human potential.
• An article on philanthropy among women; and
• An interview with Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who discusses what the world would be like if it were run by women.
I have yet to read the issue as I just got light of it this morning. But I’m excited to get online and read the stories later of this aft. Not every article is on line so if you want to read it all, try to find a copy of the magazine. It’ll be worth it.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: Your Bad Ass Bitch Editor
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August 24th, 2009 at 8:34 am
I have probably been boring Adam with my accounts of our war with England so he has decided to take me on a tour of the rest of America’s wars. The ones I would have missed since I died at least a century earlier.
Yesterday he landed us in South Carolina in the year of our Lord 1860. The air is thick with hatred for the newly elected President Abraham Lincoln.
I have been furiously reading back papers published during his campaign for the office. He has been called a freed nigger in disguise. And the members of the Senate from Mississippi and South Carolina have been hinting that the South will not stand for the election of a President that claims he will not allow slaves in new territories joining the United States.
The papers of the South have caricatures of Lincoln as an ape and various monkey references are tossed our at every opportunity. The papers have made the South rabid against Lincoln. It seems that the South has been convinced by the papers that they will have to give up their slaves if Lincoln is elected. Slaves our number the white man in the south by almost 20 to one.
They have made a science of breeding their niggers. I do not mean this disparagingly. It is the term used to describe the various levels of color that can be achieved by white men breeding with their stock.
Some of the journals suggest that if a man breeds with his first born daughters the children they have will be of superior stock, color wise. A subsequent breeding with his grand children that are of light skin will produce a white or almost white children that could be sold abroad as a white or put in the brothers of the westward groups looking for white women or sold to the French who are anxious for spice in their beds, or white men who prefer boys.
There appears to be no limits to the various ways of breeding their stock. It seems that the white women down here have been convinced that sex is not to be pleasurable, but rather a duty she has to submit to to enable her husband to extend his family name. She is not a success until she bears him a male child. The women here are very much at ease with their men breeding the stock.
They see themselves as privileged to be a white woman in a land that value only men. The men encourage their sense of pride by pretending to be chivalrous. A fine act indeed considering that they consider their women little more than chattel.
Since the men with land marry very young women, there are a lot of deaths during child birth. Adam says it is because the women are forced to bear children before their pelvic has developed enough to safely bear children. So they die a very painful death while giving birth.
The Catholic church has long had a policy to handle the loss of women in Europe do to the breeding of child brides. They call it the “sanctity of life”. What it really means is that it is okay for the man to kill his wife to insure that he has a male heir. Very clever those catholics to convince the woman that dying to give a man a male heir is god’s will.
I asked Adam to take me back a few years so that I may get a better baring on what is occuring. He said that he would back up slowly so that i could feel the plot from prior knowledge. I arrived with the gentleman from Mississippi Jefferson Davis campaigning to become the first president of the South. He has told a group of very rich southerners that he will deliver to them a new nation, the Union of the Confederacy that will make them even richer.
Adam has planted us in the mist of a very interesting conspiracy. It seems that the whole idea of forming a new country came not because the South wanted to preserve slavery. But because a few rich men saw an opportunity to break off a big peace of land from the Union to do business with the French and a few other countries at their benefit.
The idea of getting the South to go along by stroking their racial hatred and fear of losing their slaves was an idea conceived by Jefferson when he was Secretary of War and a several others in their cabal.
So I watch as millions of men, women and children are about to be killed maimed and slaughtered to enable a few greedy men to gain a nation to pilfer. Adam is walking me through a path he has taken more than a few times he tells me.
He says each time he takes the path is because he sees a similar event in the present and he goes back to remind himself of the need to not get too close to a people who because of their greed, and racial hatreds they can so easily be manipulated by those who would play on them for economic gain.
That may be his opinion. But I am fascinated by the political and social maneuvering. I am watching a war people are willing to wage in the South because they believe their liberties are being tread upon. The fact that that liberty is the liberty to deprive another of his seems to be lost in the discussion.
I think that Adam is trying to use subtlety to point out to me that I should cease bragging about the Constitution of the United States of America that I helped devise because it was not a document to advance freedom for all as much as it was a document to pretend to advance freedom for all while conveying that liberty only on white men with property.
I admit here for him to read at his leisure that I stand corrected.
Alexander H.
August 24th, 2009 at 8:44 am
Thank You Michelle for your kindness. I waited up to hear from you.
Hafa adai
Anna
August 24th, 2009 at 9:18 am
After Infidelity
Joy Browne, PhD
No woman in her right mind would suggest that adultery strengthens a marriage. But a relationship can survive and even thrive afterward if the wounded partner finds the courage to demand answers to three questions…
Why did this happen? Saying, “I was drunk” or “It just happened” doesn’t cut it. If it “just happened” once, it could just happen again — so there’s no basis for resurrecting trust. The unfaithful partner must figure out the real reason — “I felt old and was trying to feel young again” or “I miss the way we used to make love.” Once the problem is acknowledged, it can be worked on.
How can you promise it won’t happen again? A fidelity plan identifies the lesson learned (“No fling is worth endangering our marriage”)… puts constraints in place (“I’ll be home by 6 pm every night”)… and offers options (“I’ll go with you for counseling or do whatever you want to show how sorry I am”).
What’s in it for me if you cheat again? This idea came about when a caller to my radio show said her cheating husband wanted another chance. He loved his boat — so I said, “If he’ll sign a document saying that if he cheats, you get the boat, then you’ve got a shot. Before he’s unfaithful again, he’ll think, ‘Bimbo? Or boat?’ If he won’t sign, he’s not willing to put his heart into fidelity.”
Bottom Line/Women’s Health interviewed Joy Browne, PhD, a clinical psychologist in New York City. Her internationally syndicated call-in radio show, The Dr. Joy Browne Show, is the longest-running of its kind (drjoy.com). She is the author of many books.
August 24th, 2009 at 9:20 am
Choice between hope and manipulated fear.
To be sure, time does not fix the endless greed, energy depletion. Considering the current fuel price is hovering around $60 to $70 per barrel in this economy, supposedly it might be equivalent to the peak price last year while the similar runaway premiums keep on rising, heading for financial ruin. And it is firmly believed if people fail to build a bridge for the next generations, the current generation, too, can not avoid falling off the cliff, as the world-wide overpopulation & immense consumption in conventional energy and the other resources no longer allows waste.
As usual, when the positive effects including job creation and savings generated by investments are left out of the equation, fear and scare are left alone. Today choice between hope and manipulated fear lies with people’s will.
August 24th, 2009 at 9:22 am
I would also like to suggest everyone sign this petition to ask Obama to support the single payer option.
They have reached about 75,000 signatures and are trying to hit 100,000 http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/publicoption_bo/?r_by=5577-2124294-_HOlzrx&rc=mailto1
Please forward to anyone who might want to sign the petition to support a single payer health care.
August 24th, 2009 at 9:47 am
Hello India. I am not at all insulted. Bravo, you have taken the Men’s quote “Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free” and presented the Women’s comeback quote “Nowadays, 80% of women are against marriage, WHY? Because women realize it’s not worth buying an entire pig just to get a little sausage. It does makes a great comeback to the Men’s insult. Thanks for the humor.
HOWIE
August 24th, 2009 at 10:08 am
Hello Adam and Mr. Hamilton. I have read the comment Alexeander H. claims to have blogged today and I am very suspicious of several things concerning the authenticity of your comment.
I know that you, Adam have the ability to visit the past and the readers of Michelle’s blog have been told that you have been visiting the past and particularly Mr. Hamilton, however I do not believe that this was written by Alexander H. as stated.
The errors are too abundant such as using the word peace when you meant to write piece or baring when you meant to write bearing. Such an educated man as Mr. H. would not make such spelling errors. Also the vernacular is too modern and I feel I am being fooled by a trickster. However, I did learn some true history from your comment that the Constitution of the United States of America that you helped compose, was not a document to advance freedom for all as much as it was a document to pretend to advance freedom for all, while conveying that liberty only on white men with property.
Mr. Hamilton, can you explain why I get the feeling that this is not genuinely written by the real Mr H. I have stated my case, can you defend yourself?
Adam, you are always welcome to stop by for a visit. Mr. Hamilton is invited too. Al and I would love to converse with either or both of you gentlemen. This invitation goes out to any of the Tao who we have conversed with over the past year.
HOWIE
August 24th, 2009 at 10:10 am
G’Day mates
The terrorists are at it here. You americans better be wary.
___________________________________________________________________
Australian police have arrested four people in Melbourne accused of plotting a suicide attack on an Army base. The men are believed to have ties to Al Shabab, an extremist Somali organization that has been linked to Al Qaeda.
The four Australian citizens, of Somali and Lebanese descent, were arrested in a massive predawn raid that involved more than 400 police officers searching 19 locations, reports The Guardian. It was the culmination of a seven-month investigation during which police say they discovered the men had received training in Somalia and were planning to attack a military barracks in Sydney and kill as many soldiers as possible before being killed themselves.
———————————————–
Todd
August 24th, 2009 at 10:33 am
Mr. Howie:
Thank you for the compliments. I pride myself on my ability to adjust to my surroundings. A lesson most thoughtfully taught by my beloved mother. It was a skill that enabled me to learn much from the financial geniuses of their times in Europe.
I used the expertise they taught me to design the banking system that made the United States of America a respected and competitive world power. Unfortunately it was altered in the last 30 years to produce the debacle you have today.
Thank you for recognizing my strived in mastering your dialect. As for the spelling I refuse to check my writing if what I am writing is of the moment. Today I do not write to convenience or to educate.
I do it because it interest me to record my discoveries.
Speaking of which Adam has deposited us in Charleston, South Carolina. We are observing Maj. Robert Anderson as he tries to devise a way to ration the limited supplies of food and provisions until he can get help from the Union.
The Confederate militia has sent him several correspondences. For weeks they have attempted to threaten, cajole and plead with him to surrender. He has steadfastly refused.
We are surrounded by thousand of confederates armed with artillery batteries. They have formed a government of the Confederacy with Jefferson Davis as their President and they mean to exert their authority to claim their territorial sovereignty.
I anxiously await the outcome.
AH
August 24th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
Hi Mischa, interesting reads this weekend…just caught up. Re: yesterday’s post, I once wrote a long blog entry re: the gaming industry giants, so yes it is about money, they couldn’t care less about enligtening people or giving them a real experience, or I should say, they only wnat to so that if the sale of the game results in lots of $’s in profits.
I give to CARE.org regularly, mostly bc they do prioritize women and their daily plights and i actually believe that most of the monies get to work for the women and not so much to administrative costs.
I have no q’s for AH though it was extremely interesting reading today re: slavery/breeding/Lincoln.
Anonz, you were brief and although you did not address me, I will address you: so glad that you are alive and well, but since you are, why not comment more often? I’ve missed you here : )
Edward, everyone already gave their two but since you don’t believe I’m ‘real’ (like I should care) I’ll just say: ‘You’re Fired!!!’ now do the right thing and give your clients their dough back, you know you don’t deserve it and I don’t give a shit what program your running. Btw, stop running the one in your head that is telling you who is ‘real’ or not!
Ok, it’s time to collapse, I’ve done one too many downward dogs this weekend ; )
Luv, Zen Lill
August 24th, 2009 at 6:28 pm
Hi India, and how are you? I can’t say I recognize the name.
I thought your “ Men Are Like” to be hilarious, I especially liked #8. Not because it is necessarily the funniest, but that one seems to apply to me more than the others.
I might be afflicted with the Peter Pan Syndrome. There are worse things I suppose.
Did you really think that your joke warranted an apology to me? In advance no less.
Don’t be silly, I thought it was a hoot.
You have a great sense of humor.
Touch`e
Al
August 24th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
Hi Michelle,
I would have to agree with Zen Lill on the video games, and that is sad. Seems nothing is done without a profit motive these days.
That motive seems much more pronounced than when I was younger.
I did play the game “dying in Darfur”
Thanks for that link.
A.H. had some very interesting comments today concerning slavery and his take on the Civil War and it’s causes. Fascinating fellow that AH.
Hey there Zen Lill,
How’s your MoJo been cookin’? Everything else OK? Hope so.
Al
August 24th, 2009 at 7:42 pm
Oh yeah, Hi Adam! It’s been a bit since we heard from you.
August 24th, 2009 at 8:29 pm
AH
Is it okay that I address you as AH? I don’t have the feeling for grammar tha Howie has but I sense that you are for real. I have been researching the Civil War for a film that is to be made in Canada. The stuff about Ft Sumter is amazing. Please tell us more. I am especially interested in the details concerning what was going on inside the fort.
Claire
August 24th, 2009 at 8:49 pm
Zen Lill
I have been moving between Africa and the Middle East so often that it has been difficult for me to make time work for me. I have thought about you often. I imagine you sailing effortlessly through the demands of motherhood and those of your new job.
My ego wants to have you need my assistance. The knight on that horse is an ever present male fantasy. I resist it by reminding myself that a woman is equally capable of self assertion.
I wanted to address you personally when I wrote in to thank Michelle. But I didn’t want it to come off as an excuse to tell you that it has been a difficult time working without my daily shot of your poignant comments.
Thank you for remembering me fondly. I do the same dally when I conjure up an image you handling that beautiful body of yours amid the responsibilities of being a business woman.
I envy the eyes that get to greet you each day.
Anonz
August 24th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
Alexander
I am so curious about this time travel thing you and Adam have going on. How do you feel when it is happening? Is the time real? I mean is a hour in the past the same as an hour? Let me rephrase that. If you spend an hour in the past does that correspond to and hour in the present.
Can the people you are observing see you? Can you be affected by the events that occur while you are in the past. Can you be shot. or captured?
Loris
I am not american, but the concept of traveling to the past is fascinating.
August 24th, 2009 at 9:50 pm
Anonz
The ladies here are excited to hear from you again. We love reading your laments to Zen Lill. I warm myself to the words you whisper to Zen Lill.
Are you surely committed or is there a chance for a visit to Aachen? My family owns the Pullman Aachen Quellenho hotel. Stop by and I promise you a visit you will not forget.
Ich mache Ihren Besuch gänzlich erfreulich
Heba
August 24th, 2009 at 9:54 pm
Oh and AH, get Adam to take you to visit the Nazi SS during the war. I am proud of my family’s war service. I would be thrilled to hear of some of their exploits.
Heil Hilter
Heba
August 24th, 2009 at 10:13 pm
Thank God you are alive. I thought you had met with some misfortune or that you had run off with Zen Lill. You make living with my husband tolerable. I imagine you are pleasing yourself on me when he services himself at my loins.
He is so disgusting. if I didn’t need his money I would have left him and his tiny weenie long ago. You utter the sweet words that make me long again for a male’s touch. I have been fucking the butcher’s wife on the side to satisfy my sexual needs.
She is (pardon the pun) a pig. But she loves to fondle me and suck my toes. i enjoy shoving sausages up her snatch. Sometimes I sprinkle Holly juice on them to make her scream.
What is the use of being beautiful if you have to marry and fuck a man 30 years older than you? i married him when I was 16 and he was 46. Now i am 26 and he is the only dick I have ever had. He know that I fuck the butcher’s wife, but he would kill me if I fucked another man.
You could have this pussy and he would not dare accost you. You have the protection of Madaline. Now there is a woman whose cunt I could eat all day.
I long for Mother Russia. These bolivians are barbarians. There country is diseased. The people here are perverts. They sleep all day and fuck all night. Women are but so much meat for the men’s dalliance.
Rescue me Anona and feast between the legs of a gorgeous woman. If I do not make your head spin with my beauty leave me to this foul fate.
If I could send you a picture I would. I live in Nazca. My husband owns a gold mine here. He is such a big shot. Come to me Anonz. I have salted away millions. We could have a wonderful life.
Sandra.
August 24th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
Adam
Would you tell us how that going to the past works?
August 24th, 2009 at 10:26 pm
Some women are pure sluts. The way they go after that Anonz fake is shameful. Real men are sitting here waiting to meet decent women.
I live in Austria and I can’t stand the lust I see on this blog for that gun for hire american. If he is all he claims to be, why doesn’t he go home and get married like a decent man?
If you women want to meet a real man, let me know.
Horace
August 24th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
A Simple Solution to Aches and Pains
Roger Herr, PT
If you wake up feeling achy, tired or sore, it could be a sign that you need a new mattress. But some mattresses are far better than others — especially if you have a chronic condition, such as arthritis or varicose veins.
TIME FOR A NEW MATTRESS?
About one-third of Americans sleep on mattresses that are at least eight years old. That’s not necessarily a problem — age alone is not always the best way to determine whether it’s time to replace a mattress. Some high-quality mattresses last 10 or more years.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR
When shopping for a mattress, consider these features…
Density. For years, the standard recommendation has been an extra-firm mattress for people with back pain and/or arthritis, and a firm mattress for everyone else. But there’s no independent research to support this recommendation — most studies are conducted by mattress manufacturers — and this advice actually can be harmful for some people. For example, if you have fragile skin (a common problem among older adults), a firm mattress can cause painful pressure.
There is no perfect density for everyone — you must try out mattresses to see which is most comfortable for you and best supports the natural “S” curve of your back.
My advice: Go mattress shopping at night, when you are likely to be tired. That way, you’ll get a more realistic assessment than you would if you went first thing in the morning, when you are likely to feel refreshed. Wear loose clothing, such as a T-shirt and sweatpants, and lie on mattresses in your preferred sleeping position. If you have a bed partner, lie together on mattresses to see how they respond to your body weights. Be sure that the mattress seller offers you a trial period (14 to 30 days), so that you will have a chance to try out the product with an option to return or exchange it.
Height. Contrary to popular belief, a taller bed is usually safer than a shorter one. The standard height of most mattresses is 14 inches. Some additional height can be a significant help if you must get in and out of bed with chronically painful muscles or joints — or after an injury.
My advice: Your sleeping surface (including the bed frame, box spring — if any — and the mattress when you are sitting on it) should be 20 to 25 inches above the floor.
Material. There are a handful of materials that comprise virtually all the mattresses sold in the US.
Coil-spring mattresses are owned by the majority of Americans. The most flexible coil-spring (usually made of steel) mattresses have smaller coils — at least 680 coils per mattress is most comfortable for many people. For people who weigh more than 250 pounds, however, larger-coil mattresses (about 400 coils per mattress) typically last longer and provide better support. Examples: Sealy and Shifman (Bloomingdale’s house brand). Price range: $350 to $20,600.
Memory-foam mattresses, which use heat- and pressure-sensitive material that adjusts to the contours of your body, are the most popular foam mattresses. These mattresses provide support at all the pressure points of your body but may feel too hot for people who experience night sweats or for women who have hot flashes. Examples: Tempur-Pedic and Dormia. Price range: $400 to $7,500.
Latex (rubber-based) mattresses mold to the contours of the body. Examples: King Koil, Sealy and Stearns & Foster. Price range: $700 to $4,000.
Air beds contain inflatable chambers that provide support. These mattresses are adjustable, so each bed partner can select a desired level of firmness for his/her side of the bed. Air beds are a good choice if one bed partner is significantly heavier than the other. Examples: Select Comfort and Spring Air. Price range: $400 to $4,100.
THE BEST MATTRESS FOR YOU
Consider the following if you have a chronic medical condition…
Allergies. Natural latex mattresses (such as Vivètique) are designed to be hypoallergenic, antimicrobial and resistant to dust mites. To be labeled as “natural latex,” they must be composed of at least 50% natural rubber from rubber-tree sap.
Arthritis. If you suffer joint pain due to osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis, flexible support — from a coil-spring or memory-foam mattress — helps prevent potentially painful pressure points.
Back pain. A coil-spring mattress with or without a pillow-top (an extra layer of padding on top) or a memory-foam mattress usually helps support the natural curve of your back. If you sleep on your back, also consider placing one or two pillows under your knees to relieve the pressure on your back.
Pulmonary complications. If you suffer from congestive heart failure or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) — chronic bronchitis and/or emphysema — a firm-density mattress (such as coil spring) is best because it provides needed support to the back and torso, to facilitate breathing. Elevating the upper body by sleeping on extra pillows also helps prevent shortness of breath and other breathing difficulties.
Varicose veins. This condition, which usually occurs as a result of blood pooling in veins close to the surface of the skin, responds best to a medium-density mattress (such as latex). Whenever possible, prop pillows beneath your calves to elevate your legs at or above the level of your heart. This helps prevent blood from pooling in the lower legs.
THE RIGHT PILLOW
Your pillow should support your head in a way that lets your neck muscles relax. Consider your primary sleeping position…
Back sleepers usually prefer medium- to low-density pillows (typically labeled as “medium” and “soft”) because they provide the appropriate level of neck support.
Belly sleepers are usually more comfortable with low-density pillows — they allow you to easily turn your head to one side to breathe.
Side sleepers often prefer a medium- to full-density (“firm”) pillow, depending on the distance from the head to the mattress (a person with broader shoulders, for example, would require a more supportive, thicker pillow). A contour pillow (with a recess for the head and support for the neck) may be a good choice if you sleep on your back and/or side.
Bottom Line/Health interviewed Roger Herr, PT, a Seattle-based physical therapist, past president of the American Physical Therapy Association’s Home Health section and member of the board of the Physical Therapy Association of Washington.
August 24th, 2009 at 10:55 pm
My girlfriend introduced me to this blog about 11 months ago. We have been history for about 5 months. I suspect the only thing good that came out of that relationship was this blog.
I know she reads it every day. You may not recognize my alias, but you will recognize the fact that I still don’t forgive you for fucking my uncle. He was happily married to my father’s sister until I introduced him to you.
Just so you know. That sister of yours turns 18 August 28th. I will be looking in on her. She always did have a fondness for me.
Turn about is fair play.
Leroy
August 24th, 2009 at 11:36 pm
I found this on the web.
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In supposedly civilized and enlightened times, girls and women around the world suffer unimaginable atrocities: forced marriage, rape, mutilation and death in pregnancy and childbirth. It is impossible today to imagine that the slave trade could have been tolerated by the world for so long. So our duty is to deny future historians the opportunity to question how this generation allowed and participated in the abuse and suppression of girls and women.
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Helen
August 24th, 2009 at 11:54 pm
Here’s the rest.
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Yet, in supposedly civilised and enlightened times, girls and women around the world suffer unimaginable atrocities: forced marriage, rape, mutilation and death in pregnancy and childbirth. In Sierra Leone, a woman has a one in six chance of dying in childbirth in her lifetime — a grotesque transformation of what should be the happiest time in a family’s life into one of the most dangerous. Discrimination also means girls and women are more likely to be in poverty, denied schooling, deprived of health care, excluded from political and economic decision-making and die young.
In their important new book, Half The Sky, Pulitzer Prize winners Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn tell very human stories of this abuse, discrimination and neglect. They argue that more girls have been murdered in the last 50 years simply because of their gender than all the people slaughtered in all the genocides. It is a conclusion which shames the modern world because, like slavery, this oppression is officially-sanctioned.
So a great challenge faces humankind: to match the abolition of slavery with the global emancipation of girls and women. This is not just moral reparation — though it certainly is that — rather, a fundamental empowerment essential for creating fairer, stronger and safer societies across the continents.
And it is in the interests of boys and men to do everything in their power to unleash the potential of girls and women and to champion their rights, because without their contribution we are all the poorer. So we will not rest until boys and men are persuaded to join our cause and therefore change their lives and our world.
Girls and women emancipated — claiming and exercising power — have made an enormous difference to their communities and the world. Enfranchisement also means more pressure to deal with the big issues affecting us all — women, men and children alike — transforming lives on the way. Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai has drawn attention to climate change with her Green Belt Movement. Cory Aquino brought democracy to the Philippines, while Aung Sang Suu Kyi continues to stand as a beacon of hope for the people of Burma. Their examples inspire us all and show that we cannot afford to let a future leader fail to emerge because she was never given the chance.
So in Liberia a nationwide network is giving rural women a voice from local to national to international level. A government-private sector partnership is also giving adolescent girls in urban centres, who missed out on a formal education, skills for the job market so that they can support their children.
We are clear that women are key to meeting the enormous challenges facing the international community. Thirty years ago this December, the UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. And next year marks the 10th anniversary of UN Resolution 1325 acknowledging the effects of war on girls and women and enhancing their participation in conflict resolution. As these landmarks loom, it is imperative that we drive forward the emancipation agenda globally.
The UN has a leading role, yet its response has been too fragmented and has lacked coherence.
In 2006 a High Level Panel recommended a new, powerful agency that could empower women throughout the world.
Its creation has been delayed too long.
It must be urgently established with strong, high-level leadership to support national efforts and strengthen co-ordination of the UN’s collective resolve to improve the lives of girls and women.
As evidence of Britain’s commitment we will at least double the UK’s core funding for the UN’s work on women’s equality through this new body, once established. We will also work tirelessly over the next three weeks to help make the agency a reality by the end of this current session of the General Assembly.
One of the new agency’s key roles must be to address violence against women. We welcome the call by the Secretary-General for all member states to address the use of sexual violence in conflict situations.
Liberia is working closely with other African countries to establish the Angie Brooks Center, developing women’s leadership skills around peace and security and ensuring that concrete action is taken on UNSCR 1325.
And all UK-led programmes tackling security and justice, particularly in conflict and post-conflict situations, will include support to girls and women affected by violence.
And because we know that keeping a girl in school is the best way to keep her safe and her community prospering, the UK and Liberia will give strong support to a major campaign being launched in October. Centered around the FIFA World Cup, it will help bridge the funding gap which denies most poor children — and especially girls — a basic education.
The experience in health, as in education, is that when fees are charged, girls and women are disproportionately deprived of essential care. So at next month’s UN General Assembly there will be a major event to improve the health of women and children, including support for free access to quality services. This will build on the work of the Taskforce on Innovative Financing for Health Systems, of which we were both members.
Global economic and social progress lies in every country empowering their female populations, with full participation in economic and political decision-making essential.
It is impossible today to imagine that the slave trade could have been tolerated by the world for so long. So our duty is to deny future historians the opportunity to question how this generation allowed and participated in the abuse and suppression of girls and women.
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Helen
August 25th, 2009 at 1:11 am
It is about 3:07 AM on April 12 in the the year of our lord 1861. Two confederate soldiers just gave Maj. Anderson a note that said that their commanding officer general Beauregard was notifying him that he would start bombarding Ft Sumter at 4:30PM unless he surrendered the fort.
We are about 68 and we are surrounded by thousands and this guy says he will not surrender. As an ex military officer. I admire his courage. This is what america is made of.
Adam is asking me if I want to stay for the bombardment. I can’t leave this brave officer. Unfortunately, I don’t know the out come of this situation. Adam had me agree to lose memory about the events I visit in the past.
That Adam does have a sense of humor.
AH