Pope Benedict criticizes homosexual behavior

Pope Benedict said Monday that saving humanity from homosexual or transsexual behaviour was just as important as saving the rainforest from destruction.

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The Catholic Church teaches that while homosexuality is not sinful, homosexual acts are. It opposes gay marriage and, in October, a leading Vatican official called homosexuality "a deviation, an irregularity, a wound."

The pope said humanity needed to "listen to the language of creation" to understand the intended roles of man and woman. He compared behavior beyond traditional heterosexual relations as "a destruction of God's work."

Hmmm. Seems like "behavior beyond traditional heterosexual relations" might just be proof that you've been making up this "god" of yours.

He also defended the Church's right to "speak of human nature as man and woman, and ask that this order of creation be respected."

Sure, those of us that disagree with you can respect this "order" of yours. Too bad you can't seem to do the same for those that are different than how you think they should be.

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Teens' Nude Pics "Spread Like Wildfire"

Teenagers are increasingly snapping naked pictures of themselves on their cell phones, officials say, with the photos often falling into the wrong hands.

Sometimes the photos end up in everyone's hands, via the Internet.

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Experts: Nude Cell Phone Pictures Now Part Of Teen Dating

Forget about passing notes in study hall; some teens are now using their cell phones to flirt and send nude pictures of themselves.

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"A lot more girls are aggressive," said Ray, 18. "Some girls are crazy and they are putting themselves out there."

God damn it, I was born too early. When I was in high school we had to draw stick figures of ourselves and pass those around because we didn't even have digital cameras to take still pictures, much less video.

Ah, the joys of youth.

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Straight or gay? U.S. court says Web site can't ask

A roommate-finding site cannot require users to disclose their sexual orientation, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Thursday, in the latest skirmish over whether anti-discrimination rules apply to the Web.

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Should La Senza target girls of five with underwear like this?

The garments are advertised on the store's website, which says: "Introducing La Senza's latest collection – La Senza Girl, why should grown-ups have all the fun?"

The site, which boasts that its adult collection is "sexy, sensual, flirty and romantic", claims the underwear is intended to offer young girls "coverage" before they are ready for a training bra.

But politicians, children's charities and campaigners have hit out angrily at the chain, saying it is putting children at risk and encouraging teenage pregnancy.

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Study: Spanking can bring problems later

Professor Murray Straus concludes that children who are spanked are more likely as adults to coerce partners to have sex, to have unprotected sex and to have masochistic sex.

Other studies have shown the link between spanking and physical violence, but Straus said his research is the first to show a link between corporal punishment and sexual behavior.

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Internet Pushes Polyamory to Its 'Tipping Point'

Polyamory is just the kind of thing you'd expect in an era of love without borders, where time and distance no longer prevent us from finding true mates, and when no one has to live alone with their kink, desire, fantasy or love style -- because someone, somewhere shares it.

Read more. Love many.

Must We Fear Adolescent Sexuality?

But if the American data appear to confirm conventional wisdom that raging hormones and peer
pressures put teenagers at risk of making unwise sexual decisions, public health data from other
countries challenge this commonly held knowledge. International comparison demonstrates that
developed countries vary dramatically in the degree to which the sexual maturation of teenagers
leads to adverse outcomes. No country forms a more stark contrast for comparison with the United
States than does the Netherlands: Dutch teenagers are far less likely to either become pregnant or
contract an STD than are their American peers.

A fascinating article and well worth the read.

Read more (PDF version).

Or html version.

Same-Sex Couples Just as Committed as Heterosexual Counterparts

Same-sex couples are as committed and happy in their romantic relationships as heterosexual couples, find two studies in the January issue of the journalDevelopmental Psychology.

The authors of the studies say their findings challenge the stereotype that same-sex relationships aren't as healthy or secure as heterosexual pairings.

I know quite a few heterosexual pairing that are not healthy or secure.

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Why 10 is too young for your first Brazilian

Last year Nair, makers of hair-removal products, released their Pretty range, aimed at 10 to 15-year-olds, or, as they call them, "first-time hair removers". Yes, you heard right. Ten-year-olds. Girls — children — in grades 5 and 6, encouraged to wax and chemically remove hair from their barely pubescent bodies. As online site Gawker put it, what's next: Baby Brazilians?

Well, it seems that someone heard that throwaway phrase and spied a business opportunity, because Australian website girl.com.au is now promoting a feature about Brazilian waxes, otherwise known as a torture device in which all the hair in a woman's nether regions is ripped off with a combination of hot wax and a high pain threshold. The website, which appears to be mostly read by girls in the nine to 14 age bracket, says of the Brazilian: "Nobody really likes hair in their private regions and it has a childlike appeal."

10?

The things businesses do to try and make more money.

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How much does your beauty or ugliness affect your salary?

Not only do beautiful people get paid better than those considered ugly, research has found that they're also more intelligent than their ugly counterparts.

One of the leading researchers on beauty and success, Daniel Hamermesh, an economist at the University of Texas, found over a decade ago during a series of surveys in the United States and Canada that when all other things are taken into account, ugly people earn less than average incomes, while beautiful people earn more than the average, says The Economist.

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Beautiful people seem to be more intelligent too. In detailed studies done on the link between beauty and intelligence by Mark Prokosch, Ronald Yeo and Geoffrey Miller, who work at the University of New Mexico, they found that bodily symmetry was linked to performance on intelligence tests.

Companies with more beautiful people also have higher profits. Dr Hamermesh's study of "Dutch advertising firms showed that those with the most beautiful executives had the largest size-adjusted revenues-a difference that exceeded the salary differentials of the firms in question", notes The Economist.

So what happens when genetic engineering finally occurs (and it will occur, maybe not in your or your child's lifetime, but it will happen) and everyone is "beautiful"?

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Preteens Trading Fairy Wands for Fishnets

The Halloween costume trend is not only leading to tense mother-daughter standoffs, but it is also part of a far larger worry that young girls are becoming sexualized. Task forces of psychologists study the trend. Books and academic articles are being produced with such titles as the upcoming "So Sexy So Soon" and "From Barbie to Britney: The Sexualization of Childhood." And yet the costumes sell.

Read the rest.

Study Seeks DNA Clues on Homosexuality

While initial results aren't expected until next year — and won't provide a final answer — skeptics are already attacking the methods and disputing the presumed results.

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Dr. Alan Sanders of Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Research Institute, the lead researcher of the new study, said he suspects there isn't one so-called "gay gene."

It is more likely there are several genes that interact with nongenetic factors, including psychological and social influences, to determine sexual orientation, said Sanders, a psychiatrist.

Still, he said, "If there's one gene that makes a sizable contribution, we have a pretty good chance" of finding it.

But...

Many gays fear that if gay genes are identified, it could result in discrimination, prenatal testing and even abortions to eliminate homosexuals, said Joel Ginsberg of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association.

However, he added, "If we confirm that sexual orientation is an immutable characteristic, we are much more likely to get the courts to rule against discrimination."

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Man jailed in anti-gay row

A CAMPAIGNER against gay rights was locked in a police cell for eight hours after he refused to be served by a homosexual librarian.

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Now he has been banned from his local library after telling a gay employee he wanted to be served by a different member of staff because he was opposed to same-sex `marriage'.

What a fucking idiot.

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"Mom" and "Dad" banned in California Schools

""Mom and Dad" as well as "husband and wife" have been banned from California schools under a bill signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who with his signature also ordered public schools to allow boys to use girls restrooms and locker rooms, and vice versa, if they choose."

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The bills include SB777, which bans anything in public schools that could be interpreted as "negative" toward homosexuality, bisexuality and other "alternative lifestyle choices." There are no similar protections for students with traditional or conservative lifestyles and beliefs, however.

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