Give Women Birth Control, Prevent Pregnancies!

Here’s an item from the annals of “no shit, Sherlock!” science: A UCSF study shows a stunning decrease in unintended pregnancy and abortion when women are dispensed a year’s supply of birth control pills at once. What’s stunning is not the basic trend line, but the magnitude of the study’s findings. Science Daily recaps it: [...]

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Potty Humor Caturday

As you might imagine, my seven-year-old loved this. The gray tabby midway through the clip looks quite a lot like Grey Kitty – including her expression of pure confusion. (Click here if you can’t see the clip.)

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Elton John as a Swamp Flower?

This weekend I took the kids to see “Gnomeo and Juliet,” a trippy retelling of Shakespeare’s tragedy using … garden gnomes. Since the soundtrack was all Elton John, the kids needed to meet him in his ’70s finery. It doesn’t get much finer than his appearance on the Muppet Show. You tell me, please, if [...]

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You Thought Wisconsin Was Hosed? Take a Look at Ohio

First things first: If you’re local to SE Ohio and already know why you should contact Jimmy Stewart today and give him an earload on why SB 5 is bad for Ohio, why here’s his phone number! (614) 466-8076 – and email! SD20@senate.state.oh.us – I’m sure he’ll delight in hearing from you. [Update, 2/21/11, 9:50 a.m.: [...]

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Defunding Title X: What Goes Around, Comes Around

This week I’m reading Michelle Goldberg’s masterful The Means of Reproduction: Sex, Power, and the Future of the World with one of my classes. In it, Goldberg traces the history of foreign aid for women’s health – especially reproductive health – from its Cold War, Rockefeller/Ford/Guttmacher beginnings to the present era. In 2011, well into [...]

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Caturday: Battle Hymn of the Kitteh Wampus!! World Domination, Here We Come

Yesterday, as I was trying to figure out how to tell a colleague where to find my blog on the Google, I did a quick test run – and here’s what I found: This blog has finally landed on the #1 search spot on the google for “kittywampus”! We have finally beat our archrival, Urban [...]

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Want to See Rape Culture in Action? Write a Post about Rape Culture

Overnight, a wannabe commenter tried twice to post a comment calling Lara Logan a tramp and accusing her of having sex in the streets of Cairo for money. This person is a known troll (who will never be allowed to post on this blog), and obviously she (or he?) is only one horrible person. Yet [...]

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What the Reaction to Lara Logan’s Attack Says about Rape Culture

If you haven’t already heard, CBS News correspondent Lara Logan was viciously attacked by a mob of men last Friday during the celebrations at Tahrir Square. She was sexually assaulted and beaten. A group of women and soldiers came to her aid. She flew back to the United States and is convalescing in a hospital [...]

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The Domino Theory, Revised

Back in the good old days of the Cold War, when I was a kid and all the Soviet missiles were aimed at me and my kin in North Dakota, the domino theory held that if one nation fell to communism, so too would all of its neighbors. The process was liable to end with [...]

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An Unsentimental Post about Love

With my partner a whole ocean away from me, I’m not in a very lovey-dovey mood for Valentine’s Day. That leaves plenty of time to think about what allowed Love to sneak out of courtly ballads and Shakespearean plays and into the hearts of average Americans. And no, it’s not chick lit or rom-coms. The [...]

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“Safe Spaces” and Banning Male Commenters

Henceforth, Kittywampus is banning all dudely commenters. Exceptions will be made if you bathe regularly, did not serve in the Boer War, have never called me a twat, and have never insulted the patron cat of this blog, Grey Kitty. Oh, and if you’re that dude who created Hufu, you got banned months ago. (That [...]

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After Mubarak: What Roads Lead to Democracy?

As glad as I am that Hosni Mubarak is gone, and as happy as I am for the Egyptian people, I can’t help but think that the road to democracy is still long and perilous, riddled with potholes, and – hardest of all – unmarked with signage. Yes, Mubarak has fled, and good riddance. What [...]

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Less Traumatic Surgery for Some Breast Cancers?

Here’s the backstory: Up to now about 20 percent of breast cancer patients – those found to have cancer in the lymph nodes under their armpits – had those nodes cut out as if they were little balloons that could carry metastases to anywhere in the body. And indeed, sometimes cancer spreads via the lymph [...]

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The Boobs of Lake Wobegon

In my offline reading this week, I came upon an argument for the allure of big boobs. The writer stated that all men prefer large breasts – and that women with small ones risked being misread as men. Well, I’ve never been mistaken for a man, even though I’m decidedly not one of those gals [...]

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After a Gunshot: The Perils of Partial Information

Just after 10 this morning I got an email from the campus police, reporting that a gunshot had been heard in or around one of the dorms at 6:15 this morning. One student – who had been videotaping himself – had caught it on tape, and the police confirmed that it was indeed a gunshot. [...]

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A Heartfelt Apology to the Turnip

My deepest apologies to any turnips who feel slighted by the previous post’s title. In so many, many way, turnips have far more to offer than John Kasich. For one, turnips are strikingly prettier than Kasich, as evidenced by the photo in my last post. For good measure, here is more documentary evidence of their [...]

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The Turnip-esque Intellect of John Kasich

(Image from Flickr user Ali Graney, used under a Creative Commons license.) Less than a month in office, Ohio’s new governor, John Kasich, has given us plenty of reason to doubt his integrity. He tried – and failed – to keep media away from his inauguration. That was a silly little thing, really, but it [...]

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Giffords’ Husband in Space? When a Predicament Really Isn’t One

Would you leave your gravely injured mate on earth while you blast off for several weeks in outer space? Today came reports that Gabrielle Giffords’ husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, may be planning to do just that in April. Salon describes Kelly’s choice – to fly, or to stay home and support his wife through rehab [...]

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Facebook Thinks I’m Old

So every time I’ve logged into Facebook recently, this ad keeps popping up: I do like handsome men! I do like men a few years older than me! (Emphasis on: a FEW.) It’s just that … I’m 47. Only 47. I’m still years from qualifying for the senior meal at Denny’s or Bob Evans. And [...]

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