Teenage girls should be offered implants or IUDs as birth control

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Doctors should be recommending IUDs or hormonal implants as birth control to teenage girls, the nation’s leading gynecologists group said Thursday.

Though sexually-active teens may prefer the pill, the patch or even wishful thinking, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said that IUDs and implants are more long-lasting and effective alternatives that users don’t have to remember to use every time.

The IUD and implants are safe and nearly 100per cent effective at preventing pregnancy, and should be ‘first-line recommendations’, read the organisation’s updated guidance for teenagers.

Both types of contraception are more invasive than the pill, requiring a doctor to put them in place. That, and cost, are probably why the pill is still the most popular form of contraception in the U.S.

But birth control pills often must be taken at the very same time every day to be most potent. And forgetting to take even one can lead to pregnancy, which is why the pill is sometimes only 91per cent effective.

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How a Family of 4 Lives in a 320 Sq. Ft. Home (Pretty Happily)

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While many of us commit to the three decades it takes to pay off a mortgage, Hari and Karl Berzins come at home ownership from a completely different viewpoint.

They live in a tiny 8-by-21-foot home they built with salvaged materials in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Counting the loft space with its three feet of headroom, that’s 320 sq. ft., or about the size of most people’s master bedrooms.

It might be a tiny house, but it’s paid for. “We wanted to really cut back our overhead as far as we possibly could and own what we live in outright so we have the choice to do what makes us happy,” says Hari, who works part time for a non-profit while husband Karl works as a chef.

Sharing that 320 sq. ft. are the Berzins’ two kids, ages 7 and 9, and a Great Pyrenees, a 3-foot-tall dog weighing in around 90 pounds.

The inspiration to live tiny came to the Berzins after they lost both a business and a 1,500-sq.-ft. home in Florida during the recession. While they didn’t want to go into debt again, they do value home ownership, so Hari and Karl moved into an affordable two-bedroom rental and spent the next year saving $25,000 to buy the 3-acre lot in Virginia where their tiny house now sits.

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Obama: Michelle Could be President but “She has too Much Sense” to Run

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Photo credit: WisPolitics.com

[Yesterday afternoon, Obama called into a local DC radio station and claimed that Michelle has little interest in politics but could be president anyway.]

‘She definitely could be the president but she will never run for the presidency because she has too much sense,’ President Obama said.

‘Her focus is on her kids and the work that she’s doing around the country to help make sure kids are eating right and getting exercise.’

Indeed, Mrs Obama has invested her time and energy into her anti-childhood obesity campaign, Let’s Move!, in addition to her work with Vice President Joe Biden’s wife, Jill, on efforts to support military families.

‘She’s happy to support me. She thinks the work I’m doing is important but I can guarantee that [politics] is something she’s not gonna be doing,’ President Obama gushed.

His 48-year-old wife, and mother to the couple’s two daughters, had earlier revealed that she did not have any desire to go into politics.

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Woman Beats, Sends Iranian Cleric to Hospital for Saying She Needed to Cover Herself

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Photo credit: tinou bao

An Iranian cleric said he was beaten by a woman in the northern province of Semnan after giving her a warning for being “badly covered,” the state-run Mehr news agency reported.

Hojatoleslam Ali Beheshti said he encountered the woman in the street while on his way to the mosque in the town of Shahmirzad, and asked her to cover herself up, to which she replied “you, cover your eyes,” according to Mehr. The cleric repeated his warning, which he said prompted her to insult and push him.

“I fell on my back on the floor,” Beheshti said in the report. “I don’t know what happened after that, all I could feel was the kicks of this woman who was insulting me and attacking me.”

Since the 1979 revolution that brought Shiite Muslim religious leaders to power, women in Iran have been required to cover their hair and body curves in public with head-scarves and loose-fitting coats, to protect religious values and “preserve society’s morals and security.”

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Cheerleaders May No Longer Display Bible Verses in Texas School District

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[Publisher’s update: A judge intervened temporarily allowing the display of bible verses. Click HERE for an update to the below story].

A high school football team in Texas will no longer run through paper banners that reference the Bible as they take the field after the school district’s superintendent banned the use of religious messages on the banners. The school had received a complaint from a national atheist organization.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), a national atheist organization based in Madison, Wis., wrote a letter to the Kountze Independent School District in Kountze, Texas, telling the district to stop allowing its high school football team to run through the Scripture-based banners.

“It is our information and understanding that Kountze High School cheerleaders regularly display religious banners that the football team runs through before athletic competitions. We understand that each week a different bible verse is displayed for all to observe …You must take immediate action to stop these religious banners from being part of school-sponsored events. It is illegal for a public school to organize, sponsor or lead religious messages at school athletic events,” FFRF Staff Attorney Stephanie A. Schmitt said in her letter to the district.

The letter goes on to claim that allowing such banners is offensive to non-Christians and is unconstitutional, even if the creation and use of the banners is student-led. One case FFRF cites in support of its point is the case of Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe, in which the Supreme Court decided against allowing student-led prayers to be announced at football games because the games are school-sponsored functions.

The Kountze Independent School District’s superintendent, Kevin Weldon, says he doesn’t like the idea of getting rid of the banners but he feels he has no choice.

Read more from this story HERE.

Mother-Daughter Team Catch Serial Burglar With Pink Pistol (Just Like Mine)

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A mother and daughter duo and their pink pistol proved to be too much for a serial burglar who broke into their house in St Paul, Minnesota.

Rebecca Larson, 56, wrestled the robber who had grabbed a fistful of cash from her purse and her daughter Melissa Hickman, 34, held him at gunpoint until police could arrive.

The suspect, Marty Mark Childs, 52, had just been released from prison in May after serving four and a half years for a string of previous burglaries.

Ms Larson told KMSP-TV she was washing her car in the front of her house when she went inside and found that Childs had slipped in through an unlocked back door.

She caught him red handed — his fist still clenching about $8 he had pulled from her purse.

Read more from this story HERE.

Monica’s revenge: Lewinsky ‘to publish secret love letters to Clinton revealing his insatiable desire for threesomes and how he trashed Hillary’

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Monica Lewinsky is reportedly set to write a tell-all book about her affair with Bill Clinton – including her intimate love letters to the ex-president and how he had an insatiable desire for threesomes.

The former White House intern, 39, reportedly wants revenge on Clinton, who she believes escaped unscathed while she has never been able to shake the disgrace of their Oval Office trysts.

Friends claim publishers are scrambling to get their hands on the book, and after holding meetings, she has learned she could get as much a $12 million if she recounts every tawdry detail.

While she has not yet secured a book deal, her apparent attempts to cash in on the affair could rattle the Clinton marriage – and wreck Hillary’s bid for the presidency in 2016.

Speaking to the National Enquirer, her friends said the memoir could even spark further health problems for the former president, who has undergone heart surgeries.

Read more from this story HERE.

Tim Tebow Considering Run For Public Office

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Tim Tebow may one day take his “Wildcat” offense to another field entirely: politics.

The most talked about player in football said in an interview that once he’s done with football he’ll “at least look at and consider one day” a run for office.

“I haven’t ruled it out. Whatever avenue I feel like I can make a difference in, I’d love to do,” the Jets’ backup quarterback told ESPN New York. “I haven’t ruled out anything like that. It won’t be anytime soon in my future, but it’ll be something I’ll at least look at and consider one day.”

There’s no word on what office Tebow would consider seeking, or where.

Tebow went on to say that five years after his retirement, he’d hope to continue doing charity work through his foundation and “making a difference in people’s lives… . I look at that as what I want to do with my life. I love doing it. I’m a natural for it.”

Read more from this story HERE.

New Ad Tells Hispanics Obama is Too Pro-Abortion, Pro-Gay For Their Vote (+video)

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By Steve Ertelt. A new television ad is airing in the presidential battleground state of Nevada and it tells Hispanic voters their that President Barack Obama is too pro-abortion to earn their vote.

With Hispanic voters making up 20-25 percent of the Nevada electorate, the ad has the potential to increase Mitt Romney’s standing there by highlighting how Obama’s pro-abortion record doesn’t square with the culturally pro-life values most Hispanics have.

The text of the ad follows:

We Latinos are a people of faith and family. And we are tired of having our votes taken for granted by politicians who don’t share our values.

President Obama has endorsed same-sex marriage. He favors unlimited abortion. He has even tried to force churches to violate their beliefs.

President Obama is too radical. He does not share our values, he undermines them.

Alfonso Aguilar, executive director of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, released a statement about the ad: “President Obama has endorsed positions that run counter to the values of Hispanic families,” he said. “Even among pro-abortion politicians, he is considered radical. The HHS mandate that punishes businesses and religious organizations and imposes millions in fines is an abomination. Hispanic voters cannot tolerate this.” Read more from this story HERE.

Here’s the English-version of the ad here:

New York City: Soft Drinks Bad, Late-Term Abortions Okay

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New York City has two endangered species: Soda and babies. Unfortunately the city cares more about the soft drink than the human life.

Last week the city passed a measure that would make a large Coke at McDonald’s illegal but it’s still legal to kill 40% of the pre-born babies in the same city. Need a visual? [see the picture above].

New York City has an abortion rate almost double of the national average of 23%–and even higher in some demographics. In the city, more African-American babies are killed than are born. A recent report shows the city’s abortion rate at 40%, down from 41% in 2009, with some stunning numbers in the Bronx at 48% and a horrifyingly shocking number of 60% among African-Americans, which was unchanged from 2009. The website NYC41PERCENT.com reports “For every 1,000 African-American babies born, 1,448 were aborted.” That means being black in New York is basically being an endangered species.

Did you catch that? 60% of all African-American babies are killed before they can take a breath and the city is concerned about my choice to drink soda. It’s so ridiculous, illogical, and inane that one might think it’s a bad movie plot. However, it’s real and on Monday Business Insider reported that theater owners in the city have decided to sue to overturn the ban.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is behind this soda ban because he claims to be concerned about people’s health being in danger from obesity.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

“Obesity is going to kill more people in the world his year than starvation,” Bloomberg said.

Board member Susan Klitzman said the obesity problem in New York is patently obvious. “To not act would really be criminal.”

Deepthiman Gowda, a board member, called the initiative a “small” but “bold” and “exciting” step forward.

“The reality is we are in a crisis,” he said. “We need to act on this.”

So I have a message for the New York City Board of Health: the real health crisis you have isn’t in someone’s Coke; it’s in the destruction of your young.

Read more from this story HERE.