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Lisa Shannon became an activist in Africa after watching a moving episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show. Alice Walker has played a key part in the feminist movement for years. Recently, they shared their thoughts on rape in the Congo. More »
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• Avril Lavigne teaches young girls the importance of narcissism. • Indianapolis is the most sexually satisfied city? Uh, okay. • France's only female 3-star chef is opening a cooking school in Valence. • Scientific breakthrough! Sexually inhibited women have a harder time getting off. • Men are the "vanilla gender" and are what female job performance is based on. • Women are often "being cheated" by microfinance programs, according to Time. We still gave to Kiva. • Prozac may cure lazy eye. • Accused rapists will not be prosecuted because the mentally disabled woman and alleged victim is not a "reliable" witness. • Almost 3,000 websites produce the bulk of child porn on the internet. More »
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On the front page of the New York Times website is a glowing profile of Barack Obama's mother, Stanley Ann Dunham Soetoro, who died of ovarian cancer in 1995. Soetero lived the bohemian '60s counter-culture dream, except she replaced all the LSD with Indonesian microfinance non-profit work. She was born in Kansas and went to the University of Hawaii, where she met Barack Obama senior, the college's first African student. The marriage didn't work out, and a few years later she got hitched to Indonesian student Lolo Soetoro. "She always felt that marriage as an institution was not particularly essential or important," Stanley Ann's friend Nina Nayar told the Times. The only important thing to Stanley was to be loved deeply. But enough about her relationships; Soetero's career trajectory was impressive as hell. She was getting her doctorate at the University of Hawaii when Barack was a teen, and decided that she wanted to do her field work in Indonesia. Barack did not go with her, and that decision, more than any other, seemed to shape his destiny. More »
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