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Written By Kirsten Hudson
A rushed lifestyle seems to be the norm today, and even you organic foodies might shove off good quality homemade food once in a while in favor of fast no-fuss microwaved meals. (Even if you feel bad about it.)
Much controversy surrounds the safety of cooking food in microwave ovens. And separating the fact from the fiction might actually surprise you health nuts. Heard about radiation poisoning from microwaves? That’s actually a

Alex Smith seems to have finally won over his legions of doubters among 49ers fans. But in national circles, he’s still viewed with skeptical eyes, as in, Is Alex Smith really a playoff-caliber quarterback?
Smith has a grand opportunity to quiet the naysayers on Saturday, as he leads San Francisco into its NFC divisional playoff game against the visiting Saints. In fact, with the possible exception of Tim Tebow, no player’s reputation stands to benefit more from a strong performance in the weekend’s games.
But if Smith has a poor showing in a loss to New Orleans, and especially if he commits the costly turnover he avoided throughout his breakout season, the critics are sure to circle like sharks.
“Smith isn’t capable of being a true winner. The 49ers need more than a game manager at

Magic Mulatto, Mrs. YoMama, Touching A Tar Baby, Your Boy, Orbameo, Watermelons on the White House Lawn, cartoons with the President Obama’s head and a chimpanzee’s body, references to monkeys who escaped the zoo being related to the First Lady, and the list goes on with the racial slurs that have been hurled at this President and his family. Along with these is the recent attack of racial slurs against 11-year-old Malia, his youngest daughter.
Along with these insults is the greatest insult of all coming from the birthers with racism bubbling from every word that they speak. There is not any way that rational people would have initiated this very bizarre discussion regarding the citizenship of the President unless it was undergirded by the blinding energy of racist

A few months ago, I was in the grocery store roaming the bread isle. Wheat, white, pita, English muffins… Boring, boring, boring. And, then I spotted it: Goldfish Sandwich

Although the Senate is much given to admiring in its members a superiority less obvious or quite invisible to outsiders, one Senator seldom proclaims his own inferiority to another, and still more seldom likes to be told of it.
Henry Brooks Adams, The Education of Henry Adams
The Republicans’ newest way of countering criticism that Congress spends more time on recess than it does working occurred when it went home for the Christmas holidays. The criticism occurs because in 2011, Senate and House Members were in session for 112 days, according to the Library of Congress, leaving them 253 days of free time. (These numbers are imprecise. They may have inadvertently worked a few more days than shown.) To counter the impression that they do not work very hard, the Republican senators agreed to pretend they were working when most of them were spending the holidays away from

There was a feature article in a recent (Jan. 10, 2012) USA Today, generally very complimentary of a nutrition guidance system I helped develop, now helping some 20 million or more shoppers each week in some 1,600 supermarkets from coast to coast. But I’m not here to enjoy the view of this coverage from altitude; I want to chip away at the particulars.
I admit it: I occasionally eat a chip. Usually, when I do so, it’s a whole-grain corn chip, baked or fried in canola oil, lightly

I constantly overhear women saying they need to find the “perfect” dress, be it lunching with girlfriends or talking to their salesperson. But really, what makes a dress perfect? The silhouette, color, style, length, brand, or simply all of the above? I find that it’s actually easier to find a “match made in heaven” when you’re not searching for something specific because you’re less paranoid and most likely are not on a time constraint.
I have now found myself to be one of those girls in need of the “perfect” dress. Finding dresses that I like isn’t hard, but it’s about finding one that feels and looks wow. The dress is for my birthday party in early February, so I want it to be special and rather

Six Missouri republicans — “the stupefy me six,” let’s call them — are hard at work trying to make Missouri kids stupid. House Bill 1227, introduced in the Missouri House of Representatives on January 10, will, if enacted, require “the equal treatment of science instruction regarding evolution and intelligent design,” according to the bill’s language.
In other words, the bill will require the equal treatment of religious opinion and science, depriving Missouri kids of the knowledge they need to compete in the knowledge economy, and robbing them of a clear understanding of how to tell the difference between real knowledge and someone’s truthy opinion.
Freshman representative Rick Brattin (R-District 124) is the sponsor of the bill; its cosponsors are John McCaherty (R-District 90), Charlie Davis (R-District 128), Andrew Koenig (R-District 88), Sue Allen (R-District 92), and Darrell Pollock (R-District 146). It is the fourth antievolution bill of 2012, joining Indiana’s Senate Bill 89 and New Hampshire’s House Bills 1148 and 1157.
There is so much that is wrong with — and uncaring about — this antiscience legislation that it’s hard to know where to begin.
First, let’s call a spade a spade. It’s

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Source:espn.go.com

Jessie Sherman is the pseudonym for a writer who has been trying to find a way to write about her open marriage for the last seven years. Because explaining and understanding the whole thing has been so challenging, The Archeology of Open Marriage series is her attempt to pick up some of the pieces, turn them upside down and tell the story that way.
If your husband is cheating on you and his lover gives him a scarf, he might try to hide it from you, tucking it into his sock drawer or leaving it at work. But if you’re in an open marriage your husband might wear that scarf 24/7, morning, noon and night.
“Uh, hon, could you give the scarf a rest, please?” I said the other morning when he walked into the kitchen, the cotton scarf knotted at his neck.
“Sure,” he said, untying it.
It’s not that I’m in denial of my husband’s new girlfriend, it’s just that I like my open marriage in its proper place. That’s one of the things I’ve had to figure out these last seven

I hate to go back to Trans 101 material after earlier having been able to use words as complicated as “cissexist” without any explanation, but in light of the recent bill introduced in Tennessee that would make it a crime for trans people to use the washroom that matches their identified sex, I thought I would offer a bit of a refresher for the people who’ve been spilling a lot of ink, pixels, and vitriol on the issue. I want there to be no doubt as to what I’m talking about among people who don’t know better or don’t want to know better.
So, when a person is born, there’s usually a declared sex for the child, based on a cursory inspection of genitalia. Sometimes the genitalia are ambiguous, and sex is often decided in those cases by the parents and/or doctors, based on an educated guess. (And that has a long history of not working out too well…) Those whose identified sex and declared-at-birth (or “assigned,” as is common parlance in trans activist circles) sex match are

Peter Facinelli looks a little like the young Tom Cruise: same slightly rabbity smile that radiates a sense of both supreme confidence and gnawing insecurity.
Facinelli has a wider face with more prominent cheekbones but he has the same athletic physicality and a looseness that Cruise has lost. Forget the weirdly anesthetized version of Facinelli in the Twilight series. Instead, watch Facinelli on the Showtime series Nurse Jackie to get a sense of his comic timing and his ability to play the butt of jokes.
Or watch him in the indy film Loosies, opening in limited release

The news last month was dominated by AT&T’s proposed acquisition of T-Mobile. The proposed merger generated considerable debate within the civil rights and progressive communities, with some organizations, including many labor unions, strongly in favor and others, principally consumer advocates, deeply opposed. While NCLR did not take a position on the issue, in the aftermath of the controversy none of us should lose sight of something AT&T is doing very right–embracing diversity.
AT&T’s strong record on diversity was confirmed in the most recent Corporate Inclusion Index (CII) released by the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility (HACR). HACR–of which I currently serve as Chair–is a 25-year-old coalition made up of 16 of the leading national Latino organizations in the United

A lot of people really dislike Elisabeth Hasselbeck. For one, she’s a Republican, which is like being on the second cast of Designing Women: no matter how funny Jan Hooks was, no one ever really got on board, because she was “no Jean Smart.” (And by “no one,” I mean no one but me. I love Jan Hooks so much, but that’s beside the point.)
I really love Elisabeth Hasselbeck. I’ve watched The View from the beginning, and it’s been a huge part of my life for the past 15

This Saturday, the 27th Annual Stellar Awards will take place at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, TN. The Stellar Awards is the premier gospel industry awards show in the nation. During the past year, a few of these songs have been in constant rotation in my heart and in my iPod. In this new year I have been reflecting on the songs that have been in constant rotation in my heart and in my

Celebrate. Commit. Connect.
Those are the new year’s resolutions for the Family Equality Council, and I hope they will be yours in 2012.
This year, we will mark the 30th anniversary of our organization. Over the past 30 years we have worked tirelessly to strengthen our families by building our community to support parents and children, sharing our stories to open hearts and minds, and raising our voices to create social justice for all families.
Today, because of our work, we have a strong community of parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren, who reach across this

Seldom do I see my image anywhere, and certainly not portrayed in non-stereotypical and non-heterosexist ways on the silver screen. As a matter of fact, if you Google “black lesbians” or “black lesbians in film,” you’ll get a plethora of porn sites to visit.
But writer-director Dee Rees’ semi-autobiographical coming-of-age drama Pariah gives me a glimpse of my younger self growing up in Brooklyn.
Pariah is about Alike (pronounced “ah-lee-kay”), a virginal, 17-year-old, African-American, lesbian high-school student living in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn. She doesn’t know how to come out to her parents, is eager to have her first sexual experience, and isn’t sure of the type of butch lesbian she wants to be: a “soft stud,” one of the “aggressive lesbians” (a subculture of young, butch lesbians who adopt a gangster hip-hop persona to complete for femme women), or something totally different.
“Alike knows that she loves women; that’s not the

A group of Illinois legislators and civil rights organizations has started holding meetings to strategize on moving from civil unions to full marriage equality for LGBT couples. Illinois state representatives Greg Harris, Deb Mell, Ann Williams, Kelly Cassidy, and Sara Feigenholtz, and state senator Heather Steans, as well as groups like Equality Illinois, Log Cabin Republicans, the ACLU, Lambda Legal, The Civil Rights Agenda, and the Human Rights Campaign, are looking at how to move forward legislatively on marriage rights for same-sex couples.
Representative Greg Harris told the Windy City Times that the legislation wouldn’t be introduced until 2013 at the earliest, and he gave some insight into how difficult it could be: “I do not delude myself into thinking this will be an easy process. But we need to take the first

SAMUEL & ALASDAIR: A PERSONAL HISTORY OF THE ROBOT WAR ** 1/2 out of ****
DEDALUS LOUNGE * 1/2
HOW THE WORLD BEGAN * 1/2
SAMUEL & ALASDAIR: A PERSONAL HISTORY OF THE ROBOT WAR ** 1/2 out of ****
THE NEW OHIO THEATRE
This inventive work doesn’t have quite enough emotional heft to take it to the next level. But it’s clever and fun and the individual elements and cast are strong enough to make you glad you saw it and want to see their next work. The story is multi-layered but quite simple, really. It takes place in a pirate radio station apparently in the former Soviet

This year’s massive consumer electronics show had plenty of shiny new screens, tablets, and ultra-books.
But if you looked closely, the star of the show wasn’t the hardware – it was the emergence of the connected world that is changing the way we live.
We’ve all expected our TV’s would connect to the web -and now that’s here. Our laptops and tablets, sure of course. But what about our shower?
iShower is a WiFi enabled streaming

Source:Associated Press
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OAKLAND, Calif. — With Dwight Howard getting fouled in record-setting fashion, Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy finally just sat back in his chair and stopped barking out orders.He walked into the huddle during a timeout early in the first half Thursday night, and his assistants started bombarding him with the usual play-calling suggestions. Van Gundy could only laugh.”I’m looking at them like, `We’re not going to run a play. He’s going to foul him,” Van Gundy said. “What are we going to bother with diagraming a play? Make the free throw, play some defense.”That about summed up this historic night.Howard broke Wilt Chamberlain’s nearly 50-year-old NBA record for most free throw attempts in a game, making 21 of 39 in the Orlando Magic’s 117-109 victory over the Golden State Warriors.The Warriors hacked Howard intentionally throughout, sending the notoriously poor shooter to the line early and often. Chamberlain, who Howard idolized growing up and used to have a photo clipping of the center in his Orlando locker, shot 34 for the Philadelphia Warriors against St. Louis on Feb. 22, 1962.Howard finished with 45 points and 23 rebounds, and Hedo Turkoglu scored 20 points to propel the Magic to their third straight victory. It also marked the first time a player had at least 40 points and 20 rebounds since Shaquille O’Neal — another poor free throw shooter — had 48 points and 20 rebounds against the Celtics on March 1, 2003, according to STATS LLC.”I just tried to be aggressive and get to the line. I didn’t care if I missed 30,” Howard said. “I was still going to go up there and shoot the next one with confidence.”Monta Ellis had 30 points and 11 assists, and David Lee added 26 points and 12 rebounds for the short-handed Warriors, playing without injured starters Stephen Curry and Dorell Wright and backup center Kwame Brown.All that combined to take the Hack-a-Howard routine to a whole new level.Howard had never shot more than 24 free throws in a game — which he had four times previously — and fouled so early. Certainly, nothing compared to the Warriors’ ways.Howard eclipsed his old mark with 2:09 remaining in the third quarter, getting hacked and held intentionally at the end of each quarter with mixed results. If nothing else, Golden State rookie coach Mark Jackson’s strategy slowed down the pace and refused to let the Magic’s potent shooters find their rhythm.Howard tied Chamberlain’s record when Andris Biedrins fouled him — and fouled out — with 7:17 remaining in the fourth quarter, making 1 of 2 to give the Magic a 93-92 lead. Howard has shot just below 60 percent at the line for his career and entered the game at just 42 percent this season.”It’s amazing that he made 21,” Magic guard J.J. Redick joked.Golden State almost managed an upset behind the tactic.Klay Thompson put the Warriors ahead 107-106 on a 3-pointer with a little less than 3 minutes remaining, only to see Howard respond on the other end quickly. Howard floated a hook shot and then made a free throw to put the Magic back in front by two.After Ellis made a runner to even the score, Howard grabbed an offensive rebound on the next possession and finished strong at the rim while getting fouled by Lee — who also fouled out on the play. Howard made the free throw to complete a three-point conversion.Von Wafer finally sealed Orlando’s victory with a 3-point with 36.9 seconds to play that stretched the Magic’s lead to six, blowing a kiss to the crowd afterward. Jackson could only shake his head.”I can understand people thinking, `Why?’ But don’t get caught up in the free throws,” Jackson said. “Think about when we didn’t foul him. It was dunks, hooks, at the rim. He’s a great player. And he’s a bad free throw shooter. Giving ourselves the best chance possible, we tried to mess up their rhythm, take their 3-point shooters out of it, which we did. They made plays.”The undersized Warriors sent double-teams and traps at Howard and frustrated the All-Star center with fouls from the start.Jeremy Tyler intentionally fouled Howard with 8.1 seconds remaining in the first quarter, a tactic some teams utilize late in games with the center’s well-documented struggles at the stripe, but rarely seen so early. Howard made 1 of 2.After scoring the first nine points of the game, Golden State relied on the cushion for most of the first half. Nate Robinson’s running layup pushed the Warriors ahead 44-3, relying on a surprisingly strong defensive effort.And fouls.”A suggestion from one of my assistants was that we do it to Biedrins when he was in the game,” Van Gundy said, breaking into his usual sarcastic remarks. “We weren’t in the penalty. That could have been fun. We could’ve just walked up and down for a few minutes and see who makes the first free throw. But we could’ve just saved everybody and said, `Let’s let them shoot it at the same basket.”That might’ve only prolonged the game, which was 2 hours, 39 minutes.Three more times in the second quarter, Jackson called for his players to intentional hack Howard as soon as he crossed half court. Howard was 5 of 6 from the line during that stretch.Orlando closed the half with a flurry of free throws and layups, part of an 18-9 run that sliced Golden State’s lead to only four at the break. Howard shot 9 for 18 from the line in the first half.”We took a chance and said that we want Dwight to beat us,” Lee said. “And he beat us.”Game notes Magic G Jason Richardson left with 8:46 remaining in the third quarter with a sprained left knee, the team said. He is day to day. … Magic F Quentin Richardson sat out with a sprained left ankle. He remained hopeful to return Monday when the Magic play at the New York Knicks. … Warriors owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber watched the game from courtside seats.—Follow Antonio Gonzalez at: www.twitter.com/agonzalezAP
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I am a liar. I lie daily to my children, if not two or three times a day. Some of these lies are mere bluffs. Imagine my lovely four-year-old refusing to brush her teeth before

When Enrique first joined our family, we agreed to one hour of television per night. He was 13 and had been used to non-stop TV, so this was a big change. He didn’t resist, but I realize now that to him, one hour was a shocking restriction. Spanish was still his dominant language, and he chose his then-favorite nightly telenovela, Sin senos no hay

Nakedness. Everywhere. All the time.
Running Juicy Pink Box, I look at women in various stages of undress all day long, every day. I think the nudity issue is one thing about my job that really fascinates