Coalition appoints pro-abstinence charity Life to key sexual health forum, while omitting British Pregnancy Advisory Service A group which is opposed to abortion in all circumstances and favours an abstinence-based approach to sex education has been appointed to advise the government on sexual health. The Life organisation has been invited to join a new sexual health forum set up to replace the Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health and HIV. Stuart Cowie, Life’s head of education, said: “We are delighted to be invited into the group, representing views that have not always been around on similar tables in the past.” In contrast, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) has been omitted from the forum despite its long-term position on the previous advisory group and 40-year track record in providing pregnancy counselling nationwide. “We are disappointed and troubled to learn that having initially been invited to the sexual health forum we have been disinvited, particularly now we understand that Life have been offered a seat at the table,” said Ann Furedi, chief executive of BPAS. “We find it puzzling that the Department of Health would want a group that is opposed to abortion and provides no sexual health services on its sexual health forum.” Cowie said Life would seek to build “common ground” with other members of the panel. “If we can be involved with other people in reducing [the number of abortions] then that fits with our charitable objectives and I don’t think is unpalatable to anyone else, regardless of their position on when life begins.” However, Life’s support for greater emphasis on abstinence when it comes to sexual education is likely to be one of a number of areas where it will be a collision course with other members of forum. For example, Life has been critical of literature about contraception which had been distributed by the sexual health charity, Brook. They will sit alongside each other at the forum. Life claimed that teenagers were not being told that condoms only gave partial protection against some STIs (sexually transmitted infections) and little or no protection against others. Brook’s national director, Simon Blake, said its literature was based on clinical evidence and linked the provision of such information to underlying figures from abortion statistics released on Tuesday which showed a reduction in teenage conceptions, despite an overall rise in the number of abortions. The under-18 abortion rate has reduced from 17.6 per 1,000 women in 2009 to 16.5 per 1,000 women in 2010. Blake said: “Having made such massive progress, what we have to do is sustain that … and not go back to a time when the young had really poor sexual and relationship education and see a rise in teenage pregnancy rates and sexually transmitted infections as a result.” The new committee has held one meeting but Life was not represented. The invitation to the group by Anne Milton, the public health minister, appears to have caught some forum members by surprise. It could yet open up another area of disagreement within the coalition. The former Liberal Democrat MP Evan Harris, warned on Tuesday night that the organisation’s presence could prevent the panel functioning properly. “When you have an organisation campaigning against the law and against current policy on sexual health, which is pro-contraception and about ensuring that abortion is a choice, then the risk is that you prevent the panel being given access to confidential information,” he said. “It can prevent the advisory panel having frank and open discussions because you have a group there that is committed to opposing current policy.” A Department of Health spokesperson said: “To provide balance, it is important that a wide range of interests and views are represented on the forum. Marie Stopes International and the British Pregnancy Advisory Service have similar interests. We offered them shared membership but they declined, and after careful consideration we concluded that it was not feasible to invite both organisations.” BPAS asserts that the department withdrew the offer of ‘shared membership’. The forum consists of representatives of the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV; the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists; the Association of Directors of Public Health; the British HIV Association; the Terrence Higgins Trust; Brook; the Family Planning Association; the Sex Education Forum and National Children’s Bureau; Marie Stopes International; and Life. The department said the criteria applied in terms of appointments to the group was that the core membership would be drawn from national level organisations with a remit covering sexual health across England. They also had to be able to demonstrate clear evidence of impact in improving sexual health and must have a sufficient infrastructure to be able to field deputies at a senior level in the organisation. Life also become a founding member last week of a new Sex and Relationships Council, which was launched in parliament with the endorsement of the education secretary, Michael Gove. The council which includes the Christian-run pro-abstinence group the Silver Ring Thing, says it aims to bring the voice of what it describes as “value-based, parent centred” sex and relationship education (SRE) providers to policy discussions on the future of SRE in schools. A total of 189,574 abortions were performed in 2010 – a 0.3% increase on the previous year, the figures released on Tuesday show. Marie Stopes described the rise as small but warned the figures sent a warning for the government’s family planning strategy. “There are three key areas that need to be focused on: education, access and choice,” it said, calling for the delivery of “comprehensive and standardised sex and relationship education in all schools”. In its response to the figures, the Family Planning Association said: “Clearly there needs to be a much better relationship and tighter integration between local contraceptive and abortion services. Despite the advances, women still live in a postcode lottery. Where you live dictates how quickly you’ll get an abortion. This is unacceptable.” Life, which provides its own pregnancy counselling services and describes itself as non-denominational, reacted to the figures by suggesting that a “cooling off” period before abortions could play a role in reducing the number being performed. Some secular organisations have been growing increasingly worried that Tory ministers are opening up government to the agendas of faith-based and pro-life groups. Some of the same groups have already been preparing to capitalise on the government’s big society agenda, which would potentially allow them to replace secular groups in terms of providing services. In Richmond, south-west London, the Catholic Children’s Society has taken over the £89,000 contract to provide advice to schoolchildren on matters including contraception and pregnancies.The Christian-run charity Care Confidential, is involved in providing services crisis pregnancy advice under the auspices of Newham PCT in east London. Care’s education arm, Evaluate, was one of the founding members, alongside Life, of the Sex and Relationships Council. Meanwhile in parliament, the battle lines on abortion are set to be drawn again after cross-party amendments to the health and social care bill were put forward by anti-abortion MPs in a bid to tighten the rules on terminations. The first amendment, put forward by Nadine Dorries and Frank Field, would establish a new precondition for any women having an abortion to receive advice and counselling from an organisation that does not itself carry out terminations. Sexual health Health policy Health Sex education Ben Quinn guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Coalition appoints pro-abstinence charity Life to key sexual health forum, while omitting British Pregnancy Advisory Service A group which is opposed to abortion in all circumstances and favours an abstinence-based approach to sex education has been appointed to advise the government on sexual health. The Life organisation has been invited to join a new sexual health forum set up to replace the Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health and HIV. Stuart Cowie, Life’s head of education, said: “We are delighted to be invited into the group, representing views that have not always been around on similar tables in the past.” In contrast, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) has been omitted from the forum despite its long-term position on the previous advisory group and 40-year track record in providing pregnancy counselling nationwide. “We are disappointed and troubled to learn that having initially been invited to the sexual health forum we have been disinvited, particularly now we understand that Life have been offered a seat at the table,” said Ann Furedi, chief executive of BPAS. “We find it puzzling that the Department of Health would want a group that is opposed to abortion and provides no sexual health services on its sexual health forum.” Cowie said Life would seek to build “common ground” with other members of the panel. “If we can be involved with other people in reducing [the number of abortions] then that fits with our charitable objectives and I don’t think is unpalatable to anyone else, regardless of their position on when life begins.” However, Life’s support for greater emphasis on abstinence when it comes to sexual education is likely to be one of a number of areas where it will be a collision course with other members of forum. For example, Life has been critical of literature about contraception which had been distributed by the sexual health charity, Brook. They will sit alongside each other at the forum. Life claimed that teenagers were not being told that condoms only gave partial protection against some STIs (sexually transmitted infections) and little or no protection against others. Brook’s national director, Simon Blake, said its literature was based on clinical evidence and linked the provision of such information to underlying figures from abortion statistics released on Tuesday which showed a reduction in teenage conceptions, despite an overall rise in the number of abortions. The under-18 abortion rate has reduced from 17.6 per 1,000 women in 2009 to 16.5 per 1,000 women in 2010. Blake said: “Having made such massive progress, what we have to do is sustain that … and not go back to a time when the young had really poor sexual and relationship education and see a rise in teenage pregnancy rates and sexually transmitted infections as a result.” The new committee has held one meeting but Life was not represented. The invitation to the group by Anne Milton, the public health minister, appears to have caught some forum members by surprise. It could yet open up another area of disagreement within the coalition. The former Liberal Democrat MP Evan Harris, warned on Tuesday night that the organisation’s presence could prevent the panel functioning properly. “When you have an organisation campaigning against the law and against current policy on sexual health, which is pro-contraception and about ensuring that abortion is a choice, then the risk is that you prevent the panel being given access to confidential information,” he said. “It can prevent the advisory panel having frank and open discussions because you have a group there that is committed to opposing current policy.” A Department of Health spokesperson said: “To provide balance, it is important that a wide range of interests and views are represented on the forum. Marie Stopes International and the British Pregnancy Advisory Service have similar interests. We offered them shared membership but they declined, and after careful consideration we concluded that it was not feasible to invite both organisations.” BPAS asserts that the department withdrew the offer of ‘shared membership’. The forum consists of representatives of the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV; the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists; the Association of Directors of Public Health; the British HIV Association; the Terrence Higgins Trust; Brook; the Family Planning Association; the Sex Education Forum and National Children’s Bureau; Marie Stopes International; and Life. The department said the criteria applied in terms of appointments to the group was that the core membership would be drawn from national level organisations with a remit covering sexual health across England. They also had to be able to demonstrate clear evidence of impact in improving sexual health and must have a sufficient infrastructure to be able to field deputies at a senior level in the organisation. Life also become a founding member last week of a new Sex and Relationships Council, which was launched in parliament with the endorsement of the education secretary, Michael Gove. The council which includes the Christian-run pro-abstinence group the Silver Ring Thing, says it aims to bring the voice of what it describes as “value-based, parent centred” sex and relationship education (SRE) providers to policy discussions on the future of SRE in schools. A total of 189,574 abortions were performed in 2010 – a 0.3% increase on the previous year, the figures released on Tuesday show. Marie Stopes described the rise as small but warned the figures sent a warning for the government’s family planning strategy. “There are three key areas that need to be focused on: education, access and choice,” it said, calling for the delivery of “comprehensive and standardised sex and relationship education in all schools”. In its response to the figures, the Family Planning Association said: “Clearly there needs to be a much better relationship and tighter integration between local contraceptive and abortion services. Despite the advances, women still live in a postcode lottery. Where you live dictates how quickly you’ll get an abortion. This is unacceptable.” Life, which provides its own pregnancy counselling services and describes itself as non-denominational, reacted to the figures by suggesting that a “cooling off” period before abortions could play a role in reducing the number being performed. Some secular organisations have been growing increasingly worried that Tory ministers are opening up government to the agendas of faith-based and pro-life groups. Some of the same groups have already been preparing to capitalise on the government’s big society agenda, which would potentially allow them to replace secular groups in terms of providing services. In Richmond, south-west London, the Catholic Children’s Society has taken over the £89,000 contract to provide advice to schoolchildren on matters including contraception and pregnancies.The Christian-run charity Care Confidential, is involved in providing services crisis pregnancy advice under the auspices of Newham PCT in east London. Care’s education arm, Evaluate, was one of the founding members, alongside Life, of the Sex and Relationships Council. Meanwhile in parliament, the battle lines on abortion are set to be drawn again after cross-party amendments to the health and social care bill were put forward by anti-abortion MPs in a bid to tighten the rules on terminations. The first amendment, put forward by Nadine Dorries and Frank Field, would establish a new precondition for any women having an abortion to receive advice and counselling from an organisation that does not itself carry out terminations. Sexual health Health policy Health Sex education Ben Quinn guardian.co.uk
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Carrie Keagan on her new VH1show, ‘Big Morning Buzz Live,’ that aims to bring daytime talk to a new generation. (May 23)
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Carrie Keagan on her new VH1show, ‘Big Morning Buzz Live,’ that aims to bring daytime talk to a new generation. (May 23)
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The lighter, slimmer, cheaper new version of Barnes & Noble’s e-reader has a black-and-white touch screen and aims squarely at the “grandma” demographic _ or at least those craving a simpler e-book reader. (May 24)
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The lighter, slimmer, cheaper new version of Barnes & Noble’s e-reader has a black-and-white touch screen and aims squarely at the “grandma” demographic _ or at least those craving a simpler e-book reader. (May 24)
Continue reading …My goodness! Dana Milbank is acting like a real reporter , actually fact-checking the “truthful” Republican presidential hopeful, Tim Pawlenty: “President Obama unfortunately doesn’t have the courage to look the American people in the eye and tell them the tough truth,” Pawlenty informed Matt Lauer on NBC’s “Today” show. “I’ll do that.” In a phone interview with Hot Air blogger Ed Morrissey, he promised “a serious, tell-the-truth, courageous message.” And in Des Moines, Pawlenty delivered an announcement speech, “A Time for Truth,” that contained 16 instances of the word “truth” in the prepared text. But just an hour after unburdening himself of these truths in Iowa, the candidate went on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show and told a bit of a fib. The talk-show host, who serves as the unofficial gatekeeper to the Republican nomination, presented Pawlenty with a 2006 newspaper article in which he said that “the era of small government is over” and that “government has to be more proactive, more aggressive.” The truth-teller beat a hasty retreat. He claimed that he had merely been referencing somebody else’s words — “I didn’t say those words myself” — that his political opponents had “pushed that falsely,” and that the newspaper was motivated by political bias and was forced to issue a correction. To verify Pawlenty’s truthfulness, I looked up the article, from the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and discovered that Pawlenty had taken some liberties with the facts. The article is all about Pawlenty’s efforts as governor to take on drug and oil companies and other practitioners of “excessive corporate power.” It includes his boast that many ideological Republicans “don’t even talk to me anymore” because of his support for things such as the minimum wage. “The era of small government is over,” Pawlenty told the newspaper. “I’m a market person, but there are certain circumstances where you’ve got to have government put up the guardrails or bust up entrenched interests before they become too powerful. . . . Government has to be more proactive, more aggressive.” The newspaper did issue a “clarification,” but only to say that Pawlenty’s quote about small government was “in reference to a point” made by the conservative writer David Brooks — one that Pawlenty, from his other comments, obviously agreed with . Now, the funny thing is, Pawlenty would probably be a better presidential candidate carrying that message. Certainly, there are still Republicans who’d turn out to vote for a Republican candidate who isn’t a right-wing nut case. Unfortunately, the basic requirement for a successful GOP primary candidate is still a noticable measure of insanity, so he’s just going to have to make things up as he goes along.
Continue reading …My goodness! Dana Milbank is acting like a real reporter , actually fact-checking the “truthful” Republican presidential hopeful, Tim Pawlenty: “President Obama unfortunately doesn’t have the courage to look the American people in the eye and tell them the tough truth,” Pawlenty informed Matt Lauer on NBC’s “Today” show. “I’ll do that.” In a phone interview with Hot Air blogger Ed Morrissey, he promised “a serious, tell-the-truth, courageous message.” And in Des Moines, Pawlenty delivered an announcement speech, “A Time for Truth,” that contained 16 instances of the word “truth” in the prepared text. But just an hour after unburdening himself of these truths in Iowa, the candidate went on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show and told a bit of a fib. The talk-show host, who serves as the unofficial gatekeeper to the Republican nomination, presented Pawlenty with a 2006 newspaper article in which he said that “the era of small government is over” and that “government has to be more proactive, more aggressive.” The truth-teller beat a hasty retreat. He claimed that he had merely been referencing somebody else’s words — “I didn’t say those words myself” — that his political opponents had “pushed that falsely,” and that the newspaper was motivated by political bias and was forced to issue a correction. To verify Pawlenty’s truthfulness, I looked up the article, from the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and discovered that Pawlenty had taken some liberties with the facts. The article is all about Pawlenty’s efforts as governor to take on drug and oil companies and other practitioners of “excessive corporate power.” It includes his boast that many ideological Republicans “don’t even talk to me anymore” because of his support for things such as the minimum wage. “The era of small government is over,” Pawlenty told the newspaper. “I’m a market person, but there are certain circumstances where you’ve got to have government put up the guardrails or bust up entrenched interests before they become too powerful. . . . Government has to be more proactive, more aggressive.” The newspaper did issue a “clarification,” but only to say that Pawlenty’s quote about small government was “in reference to a point” made by the conservative writer David Brooks — one that Pawlenty, from his other comments, obviously agreed with . Now, the funny thing is, Pawlenty would probably be a better presidential candidate carrying that message. Certainly, there are still Republicans who’d turn out to vote for a Republican candidate who isn’t a right-wing nut case. Unfortunately, the basic requirement for a successful GOP primary candidate is still a noticable measure of insanity, so he’s just going to have to make things up as he goes along.
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The Dell XPS 15z may not be the gamechanger we’d hoped for, but it’s one heck of a Windows PC, and today the aluminum and magnesium alloy machine is on sale in the United States starting at $999. You’ll find a total of five different configs available online, with the base model providing a 2.3GHz Core i5-2410M processor, 6GB of DDR3 RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GT525M graphics with 1GB of dedicated video memory, a 500GB 7200RPM hard drive and a slot-loading DVD burner, plus loads of connectivity inside and out — including dual-band 802.11a/g/n and a pair of USB 3.0 ports. (Whew.) $1,500 ups the ante to a 2.7GHz Core i7 rig with 8GB of RAM, 2GB of VRAM and 750GB of rotating storage, not to mention a nice bright 1080p display. Strangely, there’s no solid state option on tap, but you can nab that 300-nit, 1920 x 1080 LCD screen for an additional Benjamin no matter which config you choose. Find all your options at our source link, and while you’re at it, why not read our full review ? Continue reading Dell’s XPS 15z goes on sale in the US, shiny aluminum is yours from $999 Dell’s XPS 15z goes on sale in the US, shiny aluminum is yours from $999 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 May 2011 17:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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How did the Republican presidential hopeful rack up $500,000 in debt at a posh jeweler? NewsFeed has some ideas.
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