The plain fact is that circumcision is an elective procedure that offers a handful of possible benefits, while causing newborn boys proven pain and exposing them to a host of unnecessary risks. Part of Jewish and Muslim tradition, circumcision was uncommon in the United States until health care practitioners of the Victorian era, infected with the anti-sexual fervor of their time, began to advocate male and female circumcision as a way to cure both boys and girls of the evil and dangerous habit of “onanism,” i.e., masturbation.]]> Though most of us have heard that drinking pre-bottled water is wasteful of resources, few of us understand just how harmful pre-bottled water — and the business of bottling water — is for our little blue planet..]]> In October, it will have been 20 years since I wrote my first Uncensored column. The subject of that column was sexual assault, a topic that I’ve covered again and again. The column was written in response to a series of ignorant letters to the editor written about rape by men from the Boulder community.]]> Jennifer Braun’s day in Soroti, Uganda, starts early. Roosters apparently don’t know they’re only supposed to crow after dawn. And when it comes to being born, babies have never respected working hours.]]> On Feb. 20, Rush Limbaugh said there was no such voting block as “birth control moms,” suburban married mothers for whom contraception is a key issue. I wonder what he thinks now that 98 advertisers and Hawaiian and Massachusetts radio stations have dropped his show.]]> Lori Schafer, a junior and editor of the Overland Scout, the school paper, wrote an article on March 8 about the death of a fellow student, Leibert Phillips, who died on Jan. 1 of a blood clot related to a fractured ankle he suffered during a school-sponsored wrestling tournament.]]> On April 5, the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) set off an uproar when it announced the findings of a new study linking a common pesticide with colony collapse disorder (CCD), which has been killing honey bees by the millions since it was identified in 2006.]]> Dharun Ravi got to college to find out his roommate, Tyler Clementi, 18, was gay and quickly shared that fact with the Twitterverse. Clearly, he felt that Clementi%uFFFDs sexuality was a significant enough issue to merit posting online. And he didn%uFFFDt stop there.]]> For decades, the question in the checkout lane has been, “Paper or plastic?” A great many people are hoping the Boulder City Council’s answer will be, “Tax ’em!” ]]> The Canadian cop who uttered those words unleashed a shit storm, and not just because he found himself subject to a professional standards inquiry. He so outraged women in Toronto that they decided to take back the word 'slut' and to confront this anti-woman bias straight on.]]> That's the reasoning behind House Bill 1250, which would ban the sale of edible forms of medical marijuana. The bill's sponsor, Rep. Cindy Acree, R-Aurora, claims she became aware that pot brownies, beverages and candy were accidentally being ingested by kids and landing them in the emergency room.]]> If you haven’t watched the BBC series The Edwardian Farm, I highly recommend it. A series that ended this past January, the program features historian Ruth Goodman and archaeologists Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn, who attempt to show what daily life was like during the Edwardian period on a farm at Morwellham Quay, a historic quay in Devon in southwest England.]]> Gates announced earlier this month that she intends to focus the wealth and might of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on making the development and availability of reliable contraception a global priority. Her goal is simple and noble: improving the lives and the health of women around the world.]]> It was so Orwellian it was laughable — three governors touring a factory where connective tissue from cattle carcasses is transformed into a food product the meat industry wants to call “finely textured beef,” but which one USDA scientist dubbed “pink slime.”]]> Last December, I asked romance readers who follow my blog to put together a donation to International Midwife Assistance (IMA), a local nonprofit that provides free comprehensive care to women and their children in Soroti, Uganda.]]> Back in 1981, the Reagan administration set about creating a budget for fiscal year 1982 that would include $27 billion in cuts to so-called entitlements. The school lunch program, which provides meals to kids from low-income families, was cut by $1 billion.]]>