Egypt Gets Modern about Sexual Assault

The Arabs - maybe getting "with it"? 

In Cairo, Sharif Gomaa pulled his van alongside Noha Rushdie Saleh last June and grabbed her breast so hard that she fell. Now, he's going to jail for three years - the first time an Egyptian has EVER gone to prison for sexual harassment. 

But it wasn't easy to take him there. In Egypt, grabbin' a boob is almost like saying a very naughty hello. According to a Reuters poll, an insane 83% of women have been harassed but only 3% ever report the incident. Police don't listen to complaints and most Egyptians think if harassment happens, usually the woman brought it on herself because she didn't wear a veil or hijab - yet harassment occurs even in those cases (72% of the 83% polled)!

After the harassment occured, Noha called out for people to help her, but they told her she was crazy. She jumped on the hood of her attacker's car to keep him from driving off. Noha and her friend managed to drag Gomaa into the police station - where a policeman refused to investigate the complaint. She actually had to put Gomaa and a policeman in her car and drive them to the booking station herself. 

Even though the judge called the case "trivial" (for shame!), Noha got her man in the end, and for that we're going to say "cheers" over some tea and cakes. 

From My Friends at Planned Parenthood

Abortion is on the rise in Mexico - but wait - not because of any "liberal" abortion policy there. In fact, Mexico damns abortion with all of its might! There are extremely intense legal restrictions in the country that, even though abortion is technically legal, make it extremely difficult for the average Mexican woman to obtain an abortion. These legal restrictions have pushed Mexico to an unsafe place - an above average rate for abortions worldwide at 33 abortions per 1,000 women of reproduction age. Legal obstacles and fear and lack of access = these kind of numbers: 

In 2006, 149,676 women were treated in Mexico's public hospitals for complications resulting from unsafe abortions.

Yeah, yeah, this has nothing to do with America per se, but it has a little something to do with WOMEN. This could easy be "149,676" American women, like your daughter, your sister, your aunt, your best friend. Would you want to see them in the hospital because they had to go to some back-alley doctor?

My mother grew up under Communism in Romania - no access to birth control, no abortions - because Ceausescu (glorious leader) wanted to grow the population to work on the farms. He didn't care that babies were being born into families that didn't want them, not because they didn't love them, but because there was no food for them. Babies should be born into families that can give them a chance to survive and thrive, not just because they "should be" born. 

This nugget of truth means you MUST (I'm talkin' to you South Dakota, Colorado etc. etc.) vote NO on the anti-abortion measures being proposed on the ballot in November. See a list here.

Christie Brinkley's Ex is Troubled Douchebag

In case you haven't been watching television, we live in America, the land of non-accountability. Nobody ever blames themselves for their actions - you can see this behavior from your boss, your kids, and Chairman Fuld of Lehman Brothers. 

But when it's your ex-husband blaming you for his own infidelity, that is just so disrespectful and mean-spirited. 

He has an interview with Barbara Walters for 20/20 coming out this week. During the interview, he goes on about how Brinkley wasn't there for him emotionally (he wasn't getting a "thank you now and then") and that's why he had to cheat. 

It's called counseling, it's called family. Sometimes they are supportive, most of the time they don't say thank you. Not an excuse!