Ms. magazine reports that the FBI has updated the definition of rape to more accurately reflect the crime, which will help improve reporting and police response. The new definition replaces one written more than 80 years ago.
Katha Pollitt writes for The Nation: “What is it with progressive mancrushes on right-wing Republicans? For years, until he actually got nominated, John McCain was the recipient of lefty smooches equaled only by those bestowed upon Barack Obama before he…
Editors of The New York Times write: “. . . the message from Iowa was crystal clear: Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul, Jon Huntsman Jr., Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry all stand ready to restrict a woman’s right to make her own childbearing decisions a…
Amanda Marcotte writes for Slate: “Most of us, when we suffer from a traumatic situation, find that it increases our empathy with others in similar circumstances, and many of us are driven to become activists fighting to make life easier for people in similiar situations. But for Rick Santorum, trauma drove him in the other direction: It decreased his empathy for others in similiar situations, and caused him to want to increase their pain and suffering.”
Pandagon: “PZ Myers has a really cool blog post up now about a new theory of menstruation put out in a paper by Emera, Romero, and Wagner, who appear to be actual biologists…. It’s one of those things I want to flag for feminists particularly, because…