I highly recommend this documentary, particularly for people in government who may touch on the social policy file, however remotely. We are in the midst of facing the threat of legalized prostitution, and I’d say this documentary cuts through the “choice rhetoric” of legalized prostitution quite nicely. It is very disturbing but I personally believe it’s best not to pave over these issues and pretend they don’t exist. Human trafficking, forced prostitution and “regular” prostitution are all branches of the same tree and they are happening all around us.

There are many scenes that leave a big impact. One for me was the tour of a legal, safe brothel in Amsterdam and the interview with the owner who “found it strange” 20 years ago when he started, but apparently has gotten used to selling human flesh now. “Here’s the panic button,” (well done on heeding the legal requirements) and “here’s where the man can wash up, and here’s where the woman can wash up” (thank you again, legalization, for making sure these places are “spic and span.” On a side note, I’ve read documents outlining what legal prostitution must look like in New Zealand and considering you are reading about the sale of human bodies, the admonitions not to smoke in legalized brothels are quite funny… Sex with many multiple strangers, every day, all day=AOK. Smoking, however, carries terrible health risks.) Back to Amsterdam: “We put clean sheets here…” He thinks the women are working there “because they need the money.”

You’ve heard the phrase that all it takes for evil to persist is for good men to do nothing, but sometimes it takes a good man, bit by bit being drawn into an evil industry by the promise of money, while maintaining a veneer of civility. Evil doesn’t always wear horns, sometimes it looks like a mild-mannered, polite Dutchman, making sure the sheets are clean and the panic button works.

Incidentally, since I believe each human heart is capable of evil, I also think he could be redeemed from this life he has chosen. And the end of the movie features many such individuals, including one guy who had trafficked women. It also features the redemption stories of prostitutes, both those who were forced into it and those who went in “freely” (result of sexual abuse in their childhoods).

I’m sure the title led you to believe there would be some hot babe in this post. And so there is, just more literal. Beautiful baby, apparently with a modelling career. But I always feel a little sad when I see people with Down Syndrome, because I know so many of them didn’t make it into the world.

Nefarious: Merchant of Souls is a documentary about human trafficking playing in Ottawa tomorrow (that’s Tuesday) at 7 pm. Location: Sunnyside Wesleyan Church, 58 Grosvenor, in Old Ottawa South. I’ll be there.

Mike Schouten argues here for banning late term abortions. If you are a pro-lifer who believes in legislative action on abortion, I can’t see why you wouldn’t support this. My main goal is cultural change and the consideration of what abortion is in the hearts and minds of individuals such that abortion would become unthinkable. Still, this is one area where the cultural mindset supports legislation and so, since it is already the will of the people, it could and should be put in place.

Cool story.

While he may have had his doubts at the time, in hindsight Gramantik now says her announcement of impending parenthood was great news — Zelinka is heading into the Olympics in the best shape of her life, and one of Canada’s top hopes for a medal in track and field. …”Before being a mother, you get caught up in you, you, you, this is what I need. Now I’m not taking so much, I can give to her and feel good about that,” Zelinka said. “She’s just a little girl and I can do so much for her and she looks up to me so much.

I agree. No one has it all. And a major life choice is to be happy with what you have, in the moment, instead of seeking the mythical beast of “having it all” right now.

Ms. Mayer should be congratulated for landing her new job. Not because she is a woman, or pregnant, but because she has been recognized for her achievements and potential to achieve even more. She will have the power to shape the Internet experiences of billions of people. She will also have the power to shape the life of a single person, her son. Her job will allow her to buy him the best nannies and external child care available, but it will not buy him time with her. If she feels comfortable with that, that is her choice. But she won’t be having it all. She will just be doing what men have done for centuries: creating children, and staying on the job.

Altogether too sensible, that Tasha.

Vintage ads–hilarious.

I mused in the grocery store lineup the other day that glossy women’s magazines, all of them, have been producing exactly the same product, apparently for decades, providing “good news for thousands of girls who have no sex appeal.” An amazing feat of marketing.

(h/t)

Worth a chuckle. I love it when America’s Finest News Source gets in touch with God for a story. When I was a journalist, He never gave me the money quotes like this:

Mountains, above all else, are undoubtedly my most splendid creation,” God proclaimed. “Mountains are incredibly tall. They are also miles wide and are filled with millions upon millions of tons of earth. These facts alone make them objectively more impressive than human beings.”

Sometimes when I’m tired of the petty, mean, bloviating blogosphere I go to Momastery to rekindle my hope in humanity.

This birth story is beautiful, and not quite the story you think it is.

Here’s a nice cheery way to make an important point: the point being that we ought not to be spending BILLIONS on artificial contraception for women in developing nations, but rather teaching them how to understand their own reproductive cycles so that they can achieve or delay pregnancy NATURALLY.  Learning from Mother Nature – what a concept.

I take this from an earlier post I wrote on a similar subject.  Does Melinda Gates know that the Report from the 2009 Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS reported that 50% of all newly acquired HIV infections across the globe are occurring in women of reproductive age? Why? Because powerful steriod-based drugs (read DepoProvera – Melinda’s preferred method of contraception not for herself, but for poor women) alter their immunity and cervical flora, making them more susceptible to infection.  Once they have contracted HIV, these contraceptives have a debilitating effect, in that they lead to a deadly progression of the disease.

But back to this clever, perky little video – I especially like the line, “You’re targeting a lot of Islamic and Catholic countries with your plan, and the reality is a lot of women don’t want to choose between their religion and their method of family planning.”  Isn’t that so.