Eideard

US health authorities on Friday urged all boys age 11-12 to get a routine vaccination against the most common sexually transmitted disease, human papillomavirus, or HPV.

Other changes as part of an annual update to US immunization schedules included a recommended hepatitis B vaccine to the protect the livers of adults up to age 60 who have diabetes and a vaccine against whooping cough for pregnant women…

The HPV vaccine has been approved for girls since 2006 but the CDC had not expressly urged it for boys, though boys were included among those who could receive it to prevent certain cancers and genital warts. Health experts have expressed hope that if pre-teen boys and girls are both encouraged to get the vaccine, the rate of infection will decrease in the general population.

About half of all sexually active adults will get HPV in their lifetime. There are more than 100 types of HPV, and most clear the body on their own, but some strains can linger and lead to cervical, anal or oral cancer…

The vaccine, currently recommended for girls age 11-26, has faced resistance from some parents over fears that immunizing young girls would encourage them to be promiscuous…

Which is about the dumbest piece of reasoning this side of legislation that says the Earth is flat.

I haven’t scoured it for details, yet – but, I imagine crap beliefs like this one is there in all its glory.

Voters in the town of Lead, South Dakota, have rejected a proposal that would have allowed nude dancing at bars in its historic downtown, a move supporters had said would give an economic boost to the struggling mining town.

The proposed easing of the state’s adult entertainment law was defeated by a vote of 535-303, Lead City Commissioner Casey Borsch said in a phone interview. He characterized turnout for the referendum as “considerably higher” than normal.

State law in South Dakota already permits nude dancing in bars — provided it does not take place within a quarter-mile of any residence, business or community gathering place.

But city commissioners in Lead, a town of about 3,000 near Deadwood in the Black Hills, voted in January to adopt a more lenient standard, eliminating the quarter-mile rule for their city by means of a special ordinance.

The commission acted after the owners of the Wild Thing Saloon on Main Street, located a few blocks from the town’s opera house and public library, brought in nude dancers for two days in December to see how popular it would be.

The event reportedly drew hundreds of extra visitors into Lead, best known as the site of the Homestake gold mine.

Opponents of the easing, which the commission passed 3-2, gathered enough signatures to put the ordinance to a public vote. On Tuesday, they prevailed.

Not the first time we’ve commented on laws – up or down – dealing with the topic. Since residents of the town seem to have spoken in democratic fashion, I presume there will be no attempt to legislate or litigate around that referendum, eh?

Patricia Dye and her public defender at arraignment in Juvenile Court

Warren County prosecutors searching Ohio law for felonies to file against Patricia Dye found a charge for rapists who pretend to be someone’s husband to lure their victims.

But the search failed to find any felony fitting the unique facts in the case of the 31-year-old Franklin woman accused of pretending to be a boy named Matt to help build sexual relationships with teenage girls in Springboro and Middletown…

To the chagrin of some observers around the country, Dye faces no prison — and no more than nine months in the county jail if convicted — as a result of the misdemeanor indictments against her.

Tracey Steele, director of Wright State University’s Criminal Justice program, said cases involving women pretending to be boys to lure girls into sexual relationships are “virtually nonexistent.”

“There’s no doubt we’re as unhappy as anyone out there that there isn’t a more high-level crime,” Nolan said.

Matt Nolan said prosecutors also were stifled by the absence of Ohio law making it a crime to pretend to be a different gender to pursue sexual relationships.

Amazing!

But, I have to chuckle over a state that has at least as many archaic attitudes as any bible belt border state and never even got round to thinking this one up – as a problem.

Half of urban teenage girls may acquire at least one of three common sexually transmitted infections (STI) within two years of becoming sexually active, according to a new study…

The researchers followed 381 girls enrolled at ages 14 to 17 years and found that repeated infection with the organisms that cause chlamydia, gonorrhea and trichomoniasis also was very common.

“Depending on the organism, within four to six months after treatment of the previous infection, a quarter of the women were re-infected with the same organism,” said Wanzhu Tu, Ph.D…

Within two years, about three-quarters of participants with an initial sexually transmitted STI were diagnosed with a second STI, although not necessarily of the same type. Within four years of an initial STI, virtually all (92 percent) of the participants had a subsequent STI.

“To our knowledge, this study provides the first data on the timing of the initial STI and subsequent STI following the onset of sexual activity in urban adolescent women,” said Dr. Tu.

The study also found that screening for STI may not be initiated until several years after sexual activity begins, especially for girls with earlier onset of sexual activity…

The study focuses on lower income urban adolescents; a group characterized by early onset of sexual activity, multiple sexual partners, and high STI rates.

As a result of their findings, the researchers call for STI screening in sexually active teenage girls within a year after first intercourse and for retesting of infected girls every 3 to 4 months. Continuing surveillance may be necessary…

Eeoough! Maybe I shouldn’t miss being a young dude, after all.

Obviously – it worked

Farmers in an eastern Indian state have asked their unmarried daughters to plow parched fields naked in a bid to embarrass the weather gods to bring some badly needed monsoon rain, officials said on Thursday.

Witnesses said the naked girls in Bihar state plowed the fields and chanted ancient hymns after sunset to invoke the gods. They said elderly village women helped the girls drag the plows.

“They (villagers) believe their acts would get the weather gods badly embarrassed, who in turn would ensure bumper crops by sending rains,” Upendra Kumar, a village council official, said from Bihar’s remote Banke Bazaar town.

“This is the most trusted social custom in the area and the villagers have vowed to continue this practice until it rains very heavily.”

India this year suffered its worst start to the vital monsoon rains in eight decades, causing drought in some states.

Something interesting had to come from climate change. South of Greenland.

Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

Evangelist Tony Alamo is going to prison.

A raid forced in haste, a prosecution relying on decade-old memories and a jury dealing with a century-old morality law could have given Alamo, 74, a chance to walk away from sex-crime charges a free man.

The five women he took as underage “wives” when they were as young as 8 didn’t let that happen.

Jurors cried with the women through their testimony, listening as they related how Alamo told them God commanded them to be his sexual partners and even molested one girl while in federal prison. They did not falter under cross-examination, staring down the man who took their childhood and exploited their faith.

“I just don’t want him to hurt anybody else,” the woman Alamo took as a “bride” at age 8 said on the stand, weeping. “I don’t want him to touch my little sister. She’s only 12…”

“I’m just another one of the prophets that went to jail for the Gospel,” Alamo called to reporters as U.S. marshals escorted him back to jail.

Shouts of “Bye, bye, Bernie” — Alamo was born Bernie Lazar Hoffman — came from a crowd gathered to watch.

Throw away the key!

UPDATE: Practically the same as throwing away the key. Found guilty – and sentenced to 175 years.

The Barbie doll has been given a make-over for her 50th birthday and been given tattoos.

The doll now comes with a set of sticker tattoos so children can make her look like their heroes, such as Jordan, Amy Winehouse or Cheryl Cole…

“Customize the fashions and apply the fun temporary tattoos on you too. Choose from Barbie or Nikki dolls, both include additional fashions, tattoo stamper and tattoos.”

But parents have expressed concern.

So, would you buy this doll for your kids? What’s your answer when your daughter says, “I want a tattoo like Barbie?”

What if she’d like to be tattooed like this Barbie Doll?

Tryouts for the New England Patriots cheerleaders

A Catholic priest whose sexual abuse of seven schoolgirls was uncovered 30 years later by two victims who met on the Friends Reunited website has been jailed for a year.

Father Peter Carr, 73, was exposed when the two women now in their 40s – one a solicitor, the other a singer – swapped online recollections about how he rubbed paint on their naked bodies before school plays.

They complained to police who found that other girls invited to join productions at the boys’ school in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, were subjected to similar abuse.

Gloucester crown court judge Martin Picton told Carr that he had done the church “much damage. What you did was not minor. They [the girls] have had to face life with a sense of being degraded and humiliated,” he said…

One woman who went on to become a singer said after the sentencing that she had not expected Carr to be jailed. “I didn’t think a prison sentence would necessarily change anything because he doesn’t think he has done anything wrong,” she said.

“If you had asked me in my 20s, I might have wanted revenge, but now I am just satisfied that he isn’t going to die with everyone saying what a fantastic priest he is.”

The most demented never think they’ve ever done anything wrong.