Yes.

Yes.

I had that same argument every year until the year my daughter was 2.5 and then someone had to budge. Sigh. She was fairly excited to see if Santa ate the cookies she left for him, couldn't have cared less who the presents came from as long as they were sitting there under the tree. And apparently I've been…

I didn't have a bridal party - we had a Jewish wedding and I didn't see the point of adding in random non-Jewish traditions. My friends did throw me a lovely surprise bachelorette dinner party at someone's apartment that very few people had to travel to get to or spend any money on. No showers, no fuss, just a…

I don't think most people have a good grasp on either the wide range of practices that can make up what we think of as female circumcision OR the wide range of practices that constitute male circumcision around the world. Here in the U.S. we practice a fairly non-invasive version of male circumcision and we think of…

Yep, police brutality against people who have not yet been charged with, much less convicted of a crime is definitely what we should be encouraging in our criminal justice system.

Well sure, I think we all agree about that!

Of course, the point I think some of us were making was that there's a tendency for well educated, professional women to scoff at the idea of marrying someone you met young as though you can't possibly be mature enough to know what kind of relationship you want, and you're holding yourself back by "settling down"…

Agreed, I married the guy I started dating at 17 and in our 14 years together we've managed to accumulate two B.A.s, a J.D., an M.D., and an MPH between us, and each find the kind of careers one attends all those Ivy League schools to get. Marrying someone you meet young isn't necessarily a death knell for your life…

Same here. As a practicing Jew and believer in human rights and bodily autonomy I just did not want to have to face this issue. I escaped it with mini me #1, and am now facing the music with #2. No clue how I'm going to resolve this (I assume I'm going to resolve it by doing it, but not clear how I'm going to get…

This conversation is so apropos of what I read this morning: http://blog.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/2014/02/female…. The only reason we don't compare it to FGM is that we don't acknowledge the wide variety of practices that make up both FGM and male circumcision, and the fact that on many points of the spectrum they…

Excellent, seems much cheaper when you buy it from the middle eastern market than from a beauty store!

It's just rose water. Nothing added. Is there something added to the beauty version to make it more for your skin?

Dumb question — is there a difference between the rosewater one uses for beauty purposes and the kind one uses for cooking? (Clearly I need to spend slightly less time in the kitchen and more time learning how to take care of my skin)

Same. Exact. Boat.

But you also may want fiance to get some vaccines before you have said kids . . . particularly given the resurgence of so many diseases thanks to the anti-vaxx movement. when my 1st was born there was a huge outbreak of whooping cough where my family lives, and they all went out and got boosters before visiting us on…

I mean, it doesn't matter, but she says she's starting her fifth month, meaning will be four months pregnant on Valentine's Day not that she'll BE five months pregnant. if she's due in mid-July (which would make sense if she's counting her months from mid-month) she's about 17 weeks now, which isn't quite four…

Um, it doesn't really matter, but since this photo makes my *actually* 5 month pregnant (and definitely showing) self feel bad, I will say if she's due in July and starting her 5th month on Valentine's day (aka will be 4 months pregnant on Valentine's day) then right now she's not even quite 4 months pregnant. So . .…

I don't know offhand what the sentencing ranges are for those crimes - certainly I think the range goes higher than 14 years, but he wasn't convicted under those statutes - he pled guilty and agreed with prosecutors on a recommended sentence that went to the judge.

Just to be clear, because everyone here seems to be operating under completely different sets of facts (reading the news articles before making random statements about the case would help):