Breast Cancer Awarenes Month

Lest we ever forget that for all the struggles we move through each and every day, there have been many before us who have forged the path, endured, and challenged us to fight the very thing that wishes to tear us down.

Fanny Burney Pioneered Breast Cancer Awareness

Here's to those brave women we have known who continue on in the legacy we choose to honor them with and to those brave women we know who continue to show us what bravery, strength, perseverance, and life is all about.

My Gay Soapbox

Let me see how many people I can annoy with this post. If there isn't a one, then I guess Habladora might have a leg to stand on as far as this blog not reaching the people who need to be challenged. However, I believe I can annoy someone. I've managed to do it before on topics that I fully anticipated to be innocuous. So, come on people, don't let me down now. Read the following article by Bill Maher about how the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy can be obliterated by one swipe of the pen from a man with Noble Prize winning character.

Let me just provide snippets to get you going:

But there is one thing the president can do with the stroke of a pen: He can let gays serve openly in the military. It's called an executive order. Harry Truman wrote one in 1948 for blacks in the military, and that was that.

Health care and the environment are complicated, but it's not hard to keep track of the places that God allows you to put your pee-pee. I mean, you can count those places on one hand. And that hand isn't something you should be using either. A year ago, if you had asked your average wing-nut neighbor what he thought about health care reform, he would have shrugged his shoulders and gone right back to eating his Moon Pie. But he's pissed-off about it now, why? Because it's in their nature to be pissed-off. They have a pre-existing condition called the Conniption Fits. The tea-baggers have taught us all an important lesson in modern politics: If you want to be taken seriously, act like a fucking loony-tune.

In fact, let me explain how the right-wing mind works: wing-nuts get up in the morning, get their "news" from Fox or Drudge, and then spend all morning drinking coffee and getting all worked up about whatever Fox and Drudge tell them to get worked up about. "Mexicans - Grrr! Socialism - Grrr! Van Jones - I don't know who he is, but sure... Grrrrrr!" By the time Rush comes on at noon, they're ready to just start demanding we build a wall around Andy Dick. And when Glenn Beck shows up at five, they're seeing red - right through the blue from the Viagra.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-maher/new-rule-everyone-deserve_b_315406.html

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-maher/new-rule-everyone-deserve_b_315406.html

Health care and the environment are complicated, but it's not hard to keep track of the places that God allows you to put your pee-pee. I mean, you can count those places on one hand. And that hand isn't something you should be using either. A year ago, if you had asked your average wing-nut neighbor what he thought about health care reform, he would have shrugged his shoulders and gone right back to eating his Moon Pie. But he's pissed-off about it now, why? Because it's in their nature to be pissed-off. They have a pre-existing condition called the Conniption Fits. The tea-baggers have taught us all an important lesson in modern politics: If you want to be taken seriously, act like a fucking loony-tune.

In fact, let me explain how the right-wing mind works: wing-nuts get up in the morning, get their "news" from Fox or Drudge, and then spend all morning drinking coffee and getting all worked up about whatever Fox and Drudge tell them to get worked up about. "Mexicans - Grrr! Socialism - Grrr! Van Jones - I don't know who he is, but sure... Grrrrrr!" By the time Rush comes on at noon, they're ready to just start demanding we build a wall around Andy Dick. And when Glenn Beck shows up at five, they're seeing red - right through the blue from the Viagra.

I've got to admit here. On those rare days when I force myself to go to the gym and swim rather to drive home and have a beer on the deck, I am greeted in the locker room by Glenn Beck. Delightful I tell you. Not much beyond Grrr moments that I can tell. I promise that I will write a comment card about this next time I am there. Put on the local news. Put on Food Network. Don't put on shows that are designed to do nothing but incite.

Until I accomplish that, here is my proactive post. Don't Ask Don't Tell is ridiculous. Banning gay marriage is ridiculous. I'd like to say I have faith that Obama, Mr. Yes We Can, believes that we can indeed provide equal rights. Maybe a skosh of optimism is bleeding through there. In fact, it probably is. That doesn't mean it can't be done. It just might not start with him. It might start with you all out there reading this. You might be giving a supportive head bob or you might be seething. Either way, it's got you thinking that equal rights are equal rights and religious beliefs that engender fear don't automatically grant the right to oppress perfectly beautiful human beings.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-maher/new-rule-everyone-deserve_b_315406.html

P.S.
Air Force Academy Censors Professor for Discussing Gays in the Military

Reported Rapes on the Decrease

I've written posts and responses in the past that have landed me in some hot water. I've been in trouble for trying to explain the backlog that exists in forensic science, especially when it comes to sexual assault cases. I've been in trouble because my job as an unbiased scientist who has to testify in court is bound by the notion that it is not my place to label the sexual assault a rape. Oh yes, I have played the role of devil's advocate in a way that is uncomfortable for me.

So, it pleases me to be able to provide a post that has a glimmer of hope. True, it is only a glimmer, but hope has to start somewhere. If it didn't, I wouldn't be able to face my job each day. USA Today provided the following post: Reported Rapes Hit 20-year Low.

Reported rapes have fallen to the lowest level in 20 years as DNA evidence helps send more rapists to prison and victims are more willing to work with police and prosecutors, victims advocates and crime researchers say./

It is clearly a combination of factors of which forensic DNA analysis is only a small piece of the puzzle. DNA evidence obviously makes it easier to establish a link between perpetrator and crime. The national DNA database allows for the linking of heretofore unsolved crimes. Prosecutors are able to rely on something beyond eyewitness identification, which during times of stress on the victim are historically inaccurate. The truth to that is made all the more obvious by the presence of The Innocence Project.

I'm not suggesting that the system is perfect yet. In fact, if you look at one of the links at the bottom of the article above you will find the following: 1-Year Rape Conviction.

Two state lawmakers are questioning a plea agreement that will allow a man to serve only one year in jail on a conviction for raping a 4-year-old girl.

Nineteen of the 20 years of a sentence against 64-year-old David Harold Earls were suspended as part of a plea agreement reached with Pittsburg County prosecutors.

I have to believe, however, that despite some clear failings by our legal system, that the criminal justice system is starting to get it right. There is a long way to go. There is still a backlog of sexual assault cases, which is a direct result of lack of funding. There is only so much a department of five scientists can do.

Still, it does seem as if the pieces are falling into place and that provides me with a reason to keep doing what I do...not that I ever really needed a reason in the first place.