Discuss, or just immortalize you Mother's Day salutations on the internet right over here.

The controversial cover?

And, yes, the image is, with good reason, erotic. Once again, Sarah Hrdy:

The baby sucking on the receiving end of this let-down reflex brings with it pleasurable sensations, bordering on and blending into the erotic. Whether or not the earth moves, these are powerfully conditioning sensations. To classify maternal sensations as "sexual," and therefore in puritanical minds to condemn them, is to privilege sexuality in a very non-puritanical way, implying that sexual sensations are more important than the equally powerful sensations that reward women for caring for babies.

But Northern Europe is the best place for such a person. This fact, however, should not be ignored: Belgium is in the top 8; DR Congo is in the bottom 8. Reflect on that for a moment.

As for the US? It's 25, between Belarus and the Czech Republic.

• Derek Erdman

See it here!

Slog tipper Fnarf emailed this tip: "Remember this story? And everyone said 'fake, no way she actually went'? Compare this."

"You asshole," I wrote back. "We're all traumatized now."

Fnarf's rejoinder: "Too hard core for Slog? You posted a dildo. How traumatized do you think I am now?"

Dear Kevin,

Get away from your parents! They have become dependent on you for some twisted escape. They are crazy and this is not healthy for anyone involved. Maybe you could "cut the cord" on that hot air balloon and then float it on over to Child Protective Services.

Your friend,

Grant

Continue reading »

Based solely on their band photo.

China Daily:

BEIJING / NANJING - A man calling himself "eagle dad" recently stirred up a public controversy after he uploaded a video of his 4-year-old son, whom he had forced to run naked in the snow, to the Internet.
The father He Liesheng, 44, considers himself a new Chinese parental archetype in the tradition of the so-called "tiger mom".
"When the old eagle teaches its young, it takes the young eagles to the cliff side, beats them and pushes them to teach them to use their wings, and I believe I am helping my son in this way - to force him to challenge limitations and exceed his own expectations," said He.

WaPo:

Overpraising children is under attack, which is interesting because almost exactly a year ago, one mother’s philosophy of withholding praise was receiving the same treatment.

Yesterday, The Post’s Michael Alison Chandler wrote about a trend in which teachers refrain from showering kids with “Good try!” at every turn.
Studies show that easy, unearned praise interferes with students’ learning.

“A growing body of research over three decades shows that easy, unearned praise does not help students but instead interferes with significant learning opportunities. As schools ratchet up academic standards for all students, new buzzwords are ‘persistence,’ ‘risk-taking’ and ‘resilience’ — each implying more sweat and strain than fuzzy, warm feelings,” Chandler writes.

There is, in short, no such thing as "earned praise" when it comes to a child. A child is a dry loss, which is why it's better to see the family as a form of communism. At the end of childhood, a person must rate his/her family not by how much praise or rewards they received but by the quality of the communism.

Chime in over here! In other news, liquor stores are open until 8 pm tonight.

WaPo:

Michelle Hickman told the breast-feeding advocacy group Best for Babes that she had been Christmas shopping when her baby woke hungry. She found a remote area and tried to discreetly breast-feed, but several employees tried to discourage her, and when that didn’t work, embarrass her so that she’d stop.

Now the Facebook page where the nurse-in is being organized has more than 3,000 members. Hundreds of them signed up this week as media picked up the story.

Antoine LaFromboise, a Target spokesman, told me that Target had apologized to Hickman and was aware of the planned nurse-ins.

LaFromboise said that store employees will “feel proud to support” the women who join the protest. “Guests who choose to breast-feed in public places in our stores should feel welcome to do so.”

The culture has beaten me. My son will not listen to me. It seems he wants to learn how to drive a car. How many times have I told him that a true gentleman maintains a strict wall of ignorance between himself and that machine. A true gentleman uses public transportation. A true gentlemen walks to the store or park. Driving is so... middle class.

My daughter refused to accept this gift.

CNN:

In a study Gershoff co-authored that examined 20,000 kindergartners and their parents, she found that 89% of black parents, 79% of white parents, 80% of Hispanic parents and 73% of Asian parents said they have spanked their children.

But why do so many black parents approve of disciplining their children that way? The answer is complicated, experts said.

Some researchers have suggested it's a legacy left by the brutality of slavery. Some say it's rooted in fear - that if parents don’t use force to demand obedience, someone else will. Others said African-American parents, in aggregate, are disproportionately lower-income, have less education and are more likely to follow a religion that implores them not to spare the rod for fear of spoiling the child - all factors that correlate with use of corporal punishment, regardless of race.

Charles Mudede, The Stranger's parenting-issues editor: "Very pleased that my son is doing very well in math and biology and sucking in the arts. This is a relief."

Hey, you know that guy who's accused of sexually abusing kids while employed as a coach at Penn State? Rick Santorum gave him a “Congressional Angels in Adoption” award!

Take it away, Thomas Fitzgerald at the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Then Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum thought enough of Jerry Sandusky nine years ago to sponsor the former Penn State defense coordinator for a “Congressional Angels in Adoption” award, citing his work with a non-profit group he founded to provide care for foster children.

“Its philosophy is simple: it is easier to develop a child than to rehabilitate an adult,” read the citation from Santorum in the awards dinner program from Sept. 24, 2002.

Sandusky, of course, has been charged with sexual abuse of young boys and Penn State University is under fire for its handling of reports of the coach’s suspicious behavior. The burgeoning scandal reportedly is about to force legendary head coach Joe Paterno to retire.

Santorum, a 1980 PSU graduate, is one of the school’s most distinguished alumni – a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination who represented Pennsylvania in the U.S. Senate from 1995 to 2007. A social conservative and champion of adoption, Santorum is staking his candidacy on an appeal to family values.

VS:

CHESAPEAKE, Va — Creating a colourful pile of wrappers, the medical centre technician upends a basket of Skittles, Hershey bars, Twizzlers and other candy onto the bed of an x-ray machine.

Suzanne Mailler is demonstrating a procedure that will be repeated scores of times on Monday evening at the Chesapeake, Virginia medical clinic Patient First.

Across America, paranoid or justifiably cautious parents will bring in their children's trick-or-treat goodies for screening. Their fear is that the candy given to their children by strangers will be laced with glass, metal or other foreign objects.

Patient First, an organization that's been x-raying candy for the past decade in "37 centers in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania," has yet to find this person who puts needles or bits of glass into candy. The reality? This is the reality:

"Children taking their candy to hospital on Halloween night risk involvement in traffic accidents," along with the additional drawbacks of overcrowding radiology departments and emergency rooms with excited children, the study concluded.