A new movement calling itself Coffee Party USA has sprung up and is asking people to address civic concern over a cup of coffee. This weekend the party is encouraging people all over the country to have meetings to discuss what they think needs to change in our government. This all began when founder Annabel Park started a Facebook page that quick grew to over 120,000 members. Anyone can join a local chapter by going to CoffeePartyUSA.com.

Because most of the people behind this movement have liberal backgrounds, some are calling Coffee Party USA the left’s alternative to the Tea Party, but Coffee Party spokesman Camron Moore explains, ” It’s not about coffee or tea, It’s about this simple question: Are we as Americans getting the leadership and representation we need from our elected officials? If we can all agree we have, increasingly, not been well represented, how do we change this? We welcome dialogue with all parties, and organizational affiliations. Our desire to sit down and talk and have dialogue first is very different from the Tea Party. In the end, we might agree with them about a lot of things, but our journey there is going to be different.”

Encouraging increased participation in civic life sounds good to me as long as the agenda on the table is a progressive one and meetings do not degenerate into the senseless frenzy we saw this summer at some of the Tea Party gatherings where discussing divisive social issues was never on the agenda. This weekend will tell which path Coffee Party USA will take.

Check out the video below to learn more about this weekend’s events or their facebook, flickr, or website for more information on how you can participate.

Asylum: Coffee Party USA Aims to Drink Tea Party’s Milkshake

Whenever I hear the risks that come at the end of a birth control commercial, I tend to gulp. While it is without a doubt necessary to have protection, hearing the possible risks including blood clots, stroke and heart attack make me worry about what is in my future. Well it looks like the 12 million women in the United States who take the contraceptive pill can be reassured that the good out weighs ways the bad.

Research, published in the British Medical Journal, followed 46,000 women for nearly 40 years and found “that in the longer term, women who used oral contraception had a significantly lower rate of death from any cause, including heart disease and all cancers, compared with women who had never taken it.”

Sounds pretty good? If you are like me you are waiting for some type of catch to come in unfortunately there is one. These findings are based on tests of first generation birth control pills rather than the more modern types that are used now, since their study began in 1968. Therefore we will have to wait another 30 or 40 years before we know if Orth-Tri-Cyclen or Yaz are going to have the same results. I hope they incorporate the Ring, Patch, Shot and any other Birth Control methods into the study so that more women can feel safer about their use of contraceptives.

Reuters: Women on the Pill Live Longer: Study

The Itawamba County school district’s board in northern Mississippi decided this week to cancel its prom because of what they referred to as “recent distractions,” alluding to an 18-year-old high school senior Constance McMillen’s interest in bringing her girlfriend, also a student, to the dance. Apparently school policy requires that senior prom dates be of the opposite sex. Yeah rules like these still exist–talk about not treating all students equally.

McMillen along with the ACLU of Mississippi urged the district to change their policy arguing that banning same-sex prom dates violated McMillen’s constitutional rights. And what does the school do? They decide they would rather cancel the event for everyone than let in someone they feel is not worthy of participating because of her sexual preference. What a way to teach kids to hate gays and lesbians from the start! The worst part is that instead of supporting her against this blatant act of homophobia, McMillen said that her fellow students have been attacking her and even blaming her for ruining their senior year.

After the board’s decision, the ACLU filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Oxford to force the school district to sponsor the prom and allow McMillen to bring whom she chooses and wear what she wants. I look forward to the outcome of this lawsuit and am at least happy McMillen has some support in this ordeal although I wish it came from within her own community. McMillen’s case is a sad reminder that in many places throughout this country, children and young people are not taught to accept each other’s differences and respect them. I wonder when we as a country will change our mindset but when the majority of states won’t even recognize same sex marriage, it seems that we still have a long way to go before we can even approach the Bible Belt.

Associated Press: Lesbian teen sues over prom flap; back at school

Aradhana discusses her decision to move away from her family and friends to Utah in order to marry a man she had only known for six months. In her interview, with a lot of honesty and thoughtfulness she talks about the joys and challenges of being newly married, an Indian American, and a recent Utahn.

Age? 32

Places you have lived in? New York, Bangalore (India), and Salt Lake City

Places you would like to live in? Seattle, San Francisco, and London

What do you do? Communications professional – currently at a higher Ed institution

How much of an adjustment was married life for you initially? Did you feel you had to compromise a lot?

Well, we found each other through a more traditional route (we’re both Indian, Keralite, and Hindu) and then took the express lane; we met and wed in six months (with monthly conjugal visits along the way – ha!) and then I moved to south lake city, where my husband has lived for the past 10 years. So, I had a lot of friends and cousins who were concerned that I was making a decision that was so unlike me and at a time when I was feeling extreme pressure to get married. But I was unwavering in my decision, regardless of the anxiety that I felt deep within myself. I just moved forward with the gut instinct that he was an innately good person. Everything else remained to be seen. He took the same risk.

Now being married over a year, how have things evolved?

Initially, I thought it would be overwhelming work, compromise, and sacrifice that everyone told me it was going to be but I’ve been more than pleasantly surprised by the playfulness we share. But we’re both in our 30s, so we have a strong sense of self and even a stronger impulse to protect that, so after many heated arguments, we learned to respect each other’s individuality. Now we’ve found our own flow and rhythm. We’ve been married only a year and a half and so, it would be ridiculous for us to expect a medal when our second anniversary comes around. And, many long-married couples warn us – “wait until you have children [for the true litmus test].”

How much do you rely on your husband for certain things and do you feel there is a balance in marriage that you are happy with?

I think for most women it’s the financial equation that comes into play here. Do you earn/invest/save/contribute/own as much as he does? My husband is much more financially savvy and secure than I am. I came into this marriage with a non-profit salary, zero savings, and a high-interest student loan that I’m continuing to repay. I never understood the true value of money – just that I would get by somehow. Funny how he’s helped me understand the importance that it plays in my own independence. But in all other areas I feel like we both have room to grow.

You mentioned you felt extreme pressure to get married. How much did family play in to your decision and growing up in a family that was not born in the United States, did you feel you were raised differently? How did this affect your American lifestyle?

Hell yeah. Isn’t that why Jhumpa Lahiri continues to be successful with her writing?

I think if you’re from an immigrant family, you are separate and different from the “mainstream” American population. And though I was born and raised in this country, I’m still asked some variation of: “But where are you really from?” The benefit of that is

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The gap being your  your loosey goosey vagina???

Why does almost every advertisement in pink end up being offensive to women? Oh that’s right, because the use of the color pink is only the start of the stereotypes used to target women in advertising. The vaginal gel known as Benostan can be used as a lubricant, while at the same time offering firmness to your vagina during intercourse. They should team up with the folks at “My Pink Button” and sell this crap as a two for one special.

copyranter: Ladies (and Gentlemen): PINK!

News broke recently that convicted felon and former sprinter Marion Jones signed a one-year contract with WNBA’s Tulsa Shock. While many people know her as a former champion, most remember that she was stripped of her five Olympic medals after admitting in 2007 that she was using a designer steroid called the “clear” to help her performance during the games.  Jones also spent six months in a Texas prison for lying to federal prosecutors about doping and her role in a check-fraud scam. The terms of the contract with Tulsa were not disclosed but no doubt, it must be a good deal for the 34-year-old who played basketball extensively in the past, but has never been on a WNBA team. At a recent news conference she said,” “The word redemption is not in my vocabulary, I’m a competitor, I want to play against the best in the world, and I know that I will be doing that.”

While the president of the team Steve Swetoh believes Jones deserves a second chance (and probably isn’t too sore about attracting more people to the game because of the controversy), the announcement of Jones’ return to professional sports was the object of much criticism as many feel that his may send the message that steroids may get you a slap on the wrist but when money talks, rules can be easily broken and you can get more than just one chance to start over again. However, watching male athletes such as A-Rod and Mark McGuire use steroids and go free while remaining as popular as ever does seems like quite a double standard.

What do you think? Does Jones deserve a second chance after using drug, cheating, lying about it and spending time in prison?

Associated Press: Marion Jones signs with WNBA’s Tulsa Shock

While Sandra Bullock is applauded for not eating anything for days before the Oscars, professional haters like Howard Stern and Joan Rivers love to watch their ratings soar when they attack successful actresses who are not a size zero. NEVER, do we hear the same acrimony towards men in their penguin suits at award shows–oh no now that is just too boring! While I refuse to post their videos (unfortunately you can easily find them allllll over the internet) because I do not want to help spread their inane comments, I do wonder why a woman like Rivers who not only developed bulimia but also admitted to contemplating suicide because of the pressures the industry put on women in it to look young and thin forever, would spend so much of her time picking and beating down other woman all to squeeze in the last seconds of her career. You would think that someone who fought hard to build her own career among the big men of comedy and late night would be more supportive of other women in her industry.