This week, all eyes are on Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor as the Senate confirmation hearings rule the media (and not just sleep-inducing C-SPAN, for once). This is a historic time for the United States, as Sotomayor may become the first Hispanic and only the third woman to serve on the Supreme Court.

But what do we know about this woman?

To help you stay informed, we’ve filtered through the media’s deluge of reports on Sotomayor and have compiled this handy fact sheet, summarizing her rulings and positions on some important issues: Read More »

Paris Hilton speaks out….against The Hills.

Britney Spears is still a mess.

Spend less on laundry.

Where does Sonia Sotomayor stand on abortion?

We totally heart print dresses.

And the best foreplay toy is….

Katy Perry doesn’t do one night stands.

Obama has chosen his Supreme Court nominee.

Beyonce is super fierce.

Exercise doesn’t help your metabolism.

Is the media being unfair to Kate Gosselin?

10 things you didn’t know about orgasms.

Although you probably do not know who Lilly Ledbetter is (I didn’t know until this past week), you should thank her.

For the last ten years of her life, Ledbetter has fought for equal pay rights in the work place for women. After experiencing pay-based discrimination because of her sex (and learning about it through anonymous letters in her work mailbox), Ledbetter filed a complaint of gender discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Making a long story short (however, you should read the whole story over at CNN), President Obama stepped in and signed the Lilly Ledbetter Equal Pay Restoration Act this past week making the fight for women’s rights and equality better upheld through the law.

While I feel gratitude for Ledbetter’s ongoing battle with the Supreme Court and Congress to pass this act that will give women the rights they warrant and money that is rightfully theirs, I know that work is still left to be done.

It may seem hard to believe, but to this day, full-time working women get paid “on average, only 77 cents for each dollar full-time working men get paid,” according to the Wage Project. This happens in every occupation across the nation, and while it impacts women in different ways, the reality of it is that hardworking women with outstanding college degrees lose money in their pockets simply because of their sex.

Think about it. Imagine working at the same place, doing the same job as a man (who has the same degree and amount of experience as you), putting in the same hours, only to find out he is, in fact, making more money than you on an annual basis. How is that fair? It’s not, at all.

But it is reality. Read More »

And Now the News with Kandy Korrespondent

On Wednesday, the US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of ending the death penalty for the crime of child rape. This is the second such ruling this year. Last September an unofficial national moratorium on the death penalty went into effect when the court agreed to hear two appeals to lethal injection arguing that the practice causes extreme pain constituting cruel and unusual punishment. The moratorium was ended when the court finally ruled on April 16th that Kentucky’s, the state in question, guidelines for lethal injection did not in fact constitute cruel and unusual punishment.

The death penalty tends to be considered a “third-rail” issue along the lines of abortion. The sudden willingness of the highest court to rule on such cases seems to mark a shift in this regard. Anti-death penalty activists are hopeful that this current trend will end in an eventual ban on its usage. The United States is one of the few “western” countries to still use the death penalty.

In Other News:

Also on Wednesday, during a phone-in town hall meeting Presidential hopeful John McCain told a Floridian voter that only World War III would justify reinstituting a national draft. While this calms some fears, the fact that he failed to define World War III of course still leaves the issue a bit open to interpretation. Given the current ambiguous nature of the so-called “War on Terror”, it is unclear at what point a conflict would in fact obtain such a label. Read More »

Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em I always say. The “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” case went in front of the nation’s highest court yesterday and a decision is expected soon. For those of you living in a hole, ” at issue was whether Frederick’s free-speech rights were violated and the discretion schools should be allowed to limit messages that appear to advocate illegal drug use”.

According to CNN, “Joseph Frederick, then 18, unveiled the 14-foot paper sign on a public sidewalk outside his Juneau, Alaska, high school. Principal Deborah Morse confiscated it and later suspended the young man.”

The article continues:

“The incident occurred in January 2002 just outside school grounds when the Olympic torch relay was moving through the Alaska capital on its way to the Salt Lake City, Utah, Winter Games”.

“Though he was standing on a public sidewalk, the school argues Frederick was part of a school-sanctioned event, because students were let out of classes and accompanied by their teachers.

“Morse ordered the senior to take down the sign, but he refused. That led to a 10-day suspension for violating a school policy on promoting illegal drug use”.

Sounds to me like the principal and the school board oughta load one up and pass it around. Amiright?

Read the article.

http://www.joemanna.com