From Slate

No one much noticed, but thousands of family-planning clinics across the country went into a tailspin last month. They were reacting to a drastic price increase by Ortho-McNeil, a major supplier of birth-control pills and maker of the popular contraceptive patch. The company used to charge publicly funded clinics as little as a penny a pack for the pills. Then, as of July 1, the price of some pills jumped to more than $18 a pack. Ortho's move was apparently legal under federal pricing rules. But it's anybody's guess as to why the company chose to do this now, without giving the clinics any real notice.

As a result of the price hike, publicly funded clinics from Maine to New Mexico are running short on popular contraception products, scrambling to find reasonably priced generics, and scaling back on the choices they offer low-income women. Chronically underfunded, the clinics are in no shape to absorb this blow, especially now.

From Forbes

Forbes.com published a story Aug. 22 by editor Michael Noer on two-career relationships that provoked a heated response from both outside and inside our building. Elizabeth Corcoran, a member of our Silicon Valley bureau sent in this rebuttal.

Studies aside, modern marriage is a two way street. Men should own up to their responsibilities, too.

Girlfriends: A word of advice. Ask your man the following question: When was the last time you learned something useful, either at home or work?

From LA Times

In their introduction to "Bitchfest: Ten Years of Cultural Criticism From the Pages of Bitch Magazine," editors Lisa Jervis and Andi Zeisler explain the seemingly pejorative name of both their magazine and this book-length collection of its greatest hits. "If being an outspoken woman means being a bitch," they write, "we'll take that as a compliment, thanks. And if we do, the word loses its power to hurt us '[B]itch' is efficiently multipurpose — it not only describes who we are when we speak up, it describes the very act of making ourselves heard."

Featuring more than 50 essays, "Bitchfest" is a smorgasbord of feminist thought, outrage and exploration. From the erotics of pedagogy to the faux-feminism of Jane magazine to a piece about a female rabbinical student wearing tzitzit (ritual fringes that are usually worn by men), the anthology is eclectic and engaged. Ultimately, this suggests a third, unspoken reading of its title — reminding us of the many ways that being a woman is a bitch.

From Feministing

Standup comic diva Margaret Cho has been working the burlesque scene since April in her show “The Sensuous Woman.” It plays the third Wednesday of every month in Los Angeles at El Cid, and monthly in San Francisco at The Plush Room. She hopes to take it monthly to New York City starting in October, and is working on booking a Minnesota show with local burlesque troupe Foxy Tann and the Wham Bam Thank You Ma'ams for December 8th.

How did you first get started in burlesque? And what made you want to start?

Just watching other shows. I think it’s so cool. I always felt really fat, weird, and not comfortable with my body. And I just thought it was amazing going to these burlesque shows and seeing women whose bodies are very similar to mine, at least, and who were not totally skinny or whatever. And they were so great and comfortable with themselves. I was just really amazed by that. And I fell really in love with that.

From Media Girl

The FDA has shocked me. After stonewalling their own doctors and scientists, the politicians in the agency have decided to act rationally, perhaps as a ploy to help the Republicans you've seen frothing at the mouth over the past two years whenever they talk about sex to seem more reasonable.