California Supreme Court Strikes Down Gay Marriage Ban
The California Supreme Court has overturned the state's ban on gay marriage in a 4-3 decision: The California Supreme Court ruled today that same-sex couples should be permitted to marry, rejecting state marriage laws as discriminatory. [...] The long-awaited court opinion, written by Chief Justice Ronald M. George, stemmed from San Francisco's highly publicized same-sex weddings, which in 2004 helped spur a conservative ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on May 15, 2008 14:34
Sweetie-gate
Barack Obama has a "bad habit" of addressing "all kinds of people" as "Sweetie" in casual conversation, although he's trying to quit. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama has apologized to WXYZ reporter Peggy Agar for calling her "sweetie" during a campaign stop Wednesday in Sterling Heights. Obama apologized in a voicemail he left on Agar's cell phone at 3:16 p.m: "Hi Peggy. ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on May 15, 2008 08:04
Girls Sports Injuries More Severe
A long, anecdote-laden New York Times Magazine feature, "The Uneven Playing Field," examines the fact that, excluding football -- which girls generally aren't allowed to play -- female athletes are getting injured far more frequently and seriously than their male counterparts. Girls and boys diverge in their physical abilities as they enter puberty and move through adolescence. Higher levels of ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on May 10, 2008 09:32
Conservapedia, The Gay Friendly Encyclopedia
Of the most Popular pages in Conservapedia, "The Trustworthy Encyclopedia," 7 of the top 10 and 17 of the top 50 have variants of the word "homosexual" in their titles. 2. Homosexuality (2,391,500 views) 3. Teen Homosexuality (417,124 views) 5. Arguments Against Homosexuality (332,492 views) 6. Homosexual Agenda (331,597 views) ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on May 2, 2008 10:42
Mother’s Diet Influences Sex of Baby
A new study finds that a mother's diet during pregnancy influences the sex of the baby, giving new meaning to the old adage, "you are what you eat." Oysters may excite the libido, but there is nothing like a hearty breakfast laced with sugar to boost a woman's chances of conceiving a son, according to a study released Wednesday. Likewise, a low-energy ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on April 23, 2008 08:09
A ‘Masculine’ Debate? Seriously?
Megan McCardle and Mark Kleiman have been discussing on their respective blogs whether Barack Obama will be seen as "masculine" enough when pitted against John McCain for the general election. Kleiman thinks that Obama will come off as "more manly" than McCain because he's black and plays basketball. McCardle isn't so sure, because he thinks that Obama is ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on April 18, 2008 08:27
Why Beautiful Women Marry Less Attractive Men
YahooNews has a feature on "Why Beautiful Women Marry Less Attractive Men." The obvious answer, it seemed to me, was regression to the mean. Apparently, though, it's more complicated than that: The reason, researchers suspect, is that men place great value on beauty, whereas women are more interested in having a supportive husband. [...] The finding "seems very reasonable," said ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on April 11, 2008 12:58
Hitchens Calls Sully ‘Lesbian’
A Media Matters report of remarks made by Christopher Hitchens in a weekend television debate with Andrew Sullivan is getting some blogospheric attention. On the April 5 edition of MSNBC's Tim Russert, Andrew Sullivan and Christopher Hitchens debated the significance for Sen. Barack Obama of comments made by his former pastor Jeremiah Wright about a trip Wright took with Louis Farrakhan ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on April 8, 2008 07:45
Racism Under Every Barack
Matt Yglesias argues, persuasively, that John McCain's "biography tour" is a strange campaign strategy, especially given that the candidate with the more impressive military background has lost almost* every presidential election since 1960. He then goes off on a tangent: What I'll say on behalf of this strategy is that it's the best way I can think of to try to ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on April 2, 2008 07:19
Hillary Clinton Hysteria
James Poulos contemplates Hillary Clinton's hysteria and Hillary Clinton Hysteria. Christopher Hitchens and then Stanley Crouch summing up M(r)s. Clinton. There is no way around the uncomfortable fact that both men use the world 'hysterical' to pin the tail on a complex of emotional pathologies that's inseparable from Hillary Clinton's womanhood. As mannish as she sometimes tries so hard ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on April 1, 2008 16:45
Saudi Woman Killed for Chatting on Facebook
"A young Saudi Arabian woman was murdered by her father for chatting on the social network site Facebook." The Guardian's Damien McElroy: The unnamed woman from Riyadh was beaten and shot after she was discovered in the middle of an online conversation with a man, the al-Arabiya website reported. The case was reported on a Saudi Arabian news site as ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on April 1, 2008 12:31
Obama Change America Has Been Hiding From America For Fear of Being Killed
The novelist Alice Walker takes to the pages of The Guardian, where "Comment is free," to explain how Barack Obama can save America from our pitiful white selves and absolve Hillary Clinton's original sin. When I have supported white people, it was because I thought them the best to do the job. If Obama were in any sense mediocre, he would ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on April 1, 2008 12:19
Pentagon Follows Travel Rules, Blamed For Them
A Politico story headlined "Pentagon balked on gay partner travel" is generating some buzz. Actually reading the story, though, makes it clear "the Pentagon" did no such thing -- and not just because buildings can't balk. Prior to the Easter recess, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was forced to intervene with Defense Secretary Robert Gates in order to get Democratic Rep. ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on April 1, 2008 11:34
How Whorable is Prostitution?
The Eliot Spitzer saga has reopened the debate as to why prostitution should be illegal. Reason's Kerry Howley has written several posts on the subject arguing that, while anti-prostitution laws are sold under the guise of protecting women, they're really just a form of "slut shaming" aimed at limiting women's sexual freedom. Anti-prostitution laws add a layer of legal sanction to ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on March 14, 2008 13:49
Identity Politics and the 2008 Campaign
Dan Drezner makes an interesting point about identity politics and how it's playing out in this campaign: I don't doubt that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have suffered a multitude of small slights in their professional and personal lives because of their gender or race. However, if you think about this as a contest to see who has suffered the greatest ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on March 5, 2008 12:41
