Facebook has thousands of women fiercely angry with them over photos of moms breastfeeding their babies. Everyone knows that breastfeeding is the best way to start a new human off in life and that it’s a perfectly natural thing to do. You’ll see men everywhere saying that. They say that until it’s time to feed that baby and mom isn’t at home. Then it’s “Please use the restroom for that sort of thing.”

Facebook made an arbitrary decisions as to what photos of breastfeeding are breastfeeding and which are pornographic when they removed images and banned some women for posting “obscene content.” Now don’t get me wrong, I think pornography in any venue is inappropriate for children but when did a bare breast become pornographic? Men go bare breasted all the time and nobody flickers an eyelid. That’s how it should be for breastfeeding women too.

If Facebook says the photos are obscene and pornographic, shouldn’t they then turn these women over to the police for investigation of child pornography? I mean if one is guilty of pornography and there is a child involved isn’t that instant lockup?? It gets more bizarre by the moment and it infuriates me.

Nearly 7,000 Facebook moms who are now calling themselves “lactivists” (I love that) have created their own group called “Hey, Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene!”. One of their members noted that while Facebook doesn’t allow breastfeeding photos, they did accept payment for and advertised a dating site with a banner of a bare breasted model. Go figure how they concluded that was ok.

In Australia, any venue that asks a breastfeeding mother to cover up or to go away can be fined up to $40,000. I realize Facebook is a virtual public place but wouldn’t the same laws apply?

Group member, Sally Millwood, from Queensland, Australia, said: “I know from first hand experience breastfeeding can be a tough road to go down and, if you have success at the end of it, it’s an amazingly proud and important achievement to be shared.”

Facebook spokeswoman Meredith Chin said Facebook - which has 31 million users worldwide - did not prevent mothers from uploading photos of themselves breastfeeding their babies, but it did remove content that was reported as violating Facebook’s terms of use.

“Photos containing an exposed breast do violate our Terms and are removed,” she said.

It’s not clear what constitutes an “exposed breast”, which has the lactivists baffled. Facebook did not respond to emails requesting further clarification but several group members have reported that their images were removed despite the fact they contained no nipple.

Where does the feeding stop and the boob begin?? A peek of nipple? Which of these photos is offensive to you?

In addition to removing particular photos from the site, Facebook has permanently revoked the membership of some of the mothers and has said their decision is final and they will not reconsider reactivating deleted accounts for any reason. What is wrong with mothers sharing what should be a very normal part of their lives with their babies.

Shouldn’t we be encouraging this practice instead of making women feel dirty and ashamed of feeding the next generation of human beings? Facebook has been offensive in its reaction to these photographs and should be ashamed of how they treat mothers at a very important time in their lives. They’re the ones really looking like boobs in all of this.

Yep, that’s the word some guy used about the porn for women article I posted. He probably pronounced it “whupped”, don’t you think? Well, it made me think - what’s the female equivalent for being pussy whipped? According to Robin Lakoff in “The Handbook of Language and Gender”, there is NO female equivalent! So I started asking around. I asked a few men at the office what the female equal to pussy whipped was and I was really quite surprised at the answers.

“There is no equal phrase, women are supposed to do what the man in their life says.”

I nearly fell over. Were they brought up by men who carry clubs and drag their women by the hair?

“Gee, I dunno, I never knew a woman who was treated like a guy who was pussy whipped.”

I remained on the floor. All I could think of was we hired these really clever people and how stupid they really were. I looked at the two of them and slowly asked them if they thought women really were second class citizens and should be subservient to men. (I didn’t remind them that I signed their paychecks, but that might have affected their answer.)

“Oh no, they aren’t subservient at all. It’s just what life is. Men are the heads of the household and make the final decision.”

I asked if they knew the meaning of subservient. Sigh.

Well, I think it’s high time we had a term. How many friends of yours do you know who are dick whipped? I have a friend of mine who gets quite nervous every afternoon worrying that the meal she prepares for her husband will be what he wants. I have another friend whose husband does very little work and is a slob around the house and rarely enjoys sex. She works nearly 50 hours a week, does all the cooking, cleaning and laundry and if she wants to go out, she has to go alone because he’s shy. Come to think of it, I’ve got some pretty weird friends.. maybe I should look inward and investigate what draws me to them.

Not all dick whipped women are that way because they live with a controlling bastard. I remembered this email I received a few weeks ago.

My brother is nuts and has this woman pussy whipped but I suppose that’s not the right phrase. He has the sexiest girlfriend who’ll do anything for him. She’s nuts too. He treats her barely OK because she’s not really what he wants in a partner, but he doesn’t have the balls to tell her that. She “drops by” every few days with beer, things she’s cooked especially for him, clothing that she “just happened to see” that would be great on him. Frankly, I think it’s creepy. If he wants sex all he has to do is crook his little finger and she undresses on the way over. Any recommendations?

Yes, I don’t think she’s dick whipped - she’s a stalker.

This is quite old and maybe you’ve seen it before, but it’s still right on to me. It’s an article by Esquire on seventy-three things a man should know about women. Here’s a taste:

Women can tell if a man is the kind of man who likes women.

Women like a man who likes women who like to eat.

An unsolicited kiss is to a woman as free playoff tickets are to a man.

Even better: flowers on days that aren’t Valentine’s Day, anniversaries, or birthdays.

Speaking of flowers, they are most effective when delivered to her workplace.

Getting back to kissing: more lip.

Less tongue.

The small of the back, the nape of the neck, behind the knees.

While the occasional quick love bite is, in context, welcome, that incessant animal-in-a-leg-trap gnawing: no.

As a rule, even if she wears a thong the first time you see her unclothed, she prefers white cotton panties.

As a rule, women don’t like heels.

Should she decide to wear heels anyway, have the confidence to support her decision, even if they make her taller than you.

Click to visit the Esquire article and get the next 61 things a man should know about women.

Have you ever been with a group of friends and they start talking about something you’re clueless about? You think and think and think and just can’t get a handle on what they’re talking about. It happened to me yesterday. Martha and Sharon decided they’d been working too hard lately and needed a leisurely Friday lunch together and I was asked to come along. Nobody needed a break more than I did so happily off I went.

During lunch Sharon announces she’s having “a bit of luck with the anal bleaching.”

That’s the bit I was clueless about.

I just nodded like I had a fucking clue. Martha, always the one in the know in our group of friends, starts telling about her trip to the dermatologist recently and she got some great cream to take home to use once the “office treatment” stopped doing its job. OK, now if you’re at all like me, my asshole isn’t a public place and I couldn’t imagine cheerfully going to a doctor to expose my backside unless I was in dire need of medical attention. Not so for my pal Martha. She explained that her doctor has a special chair to drape herself over so it opens her ass cheeks to the proper degree to allow inspection and application of lightening cream.

I sort of nodded again and then my mouth opened and started speaking without any thought beforehand, I swear.

“Why is it so important to have a pink bottom when you’re over 50 and you’ve been married for more than 20 years?” my mouth said. Right there I admitted to them both I was an outsider in this conversation.

They both looked at me and then at each other as if to say, “she doesn’t *know*, does she?” Well, they’re right, I didn’t know.

With all the trouble people are having with their mortgages, young men and women dying in Iraq, AIDS crises in most countries, terrorism alerts everywhere, floods and droughts, wars and starvation - why is it important to have no dark brown staining on your butt? I mean if you are a porn star, forgive me because the thought of having thousands of people looking at your butt might make you self conscious.

“It’s the next thing after Brazillian waxing!” Martha exlaimed and Sharon nodded.

So here I was sitting in our favorite restaurant thinking about two of my best friends with bald pussies and REALLY light assholes. Then I wondered out loud if having no hair at all and a really pink butt gave them better sex or more frequent sex or more satisfying sex.

It turns out that the answer is yes. They both agreed that they felt cleaner all the time and every time they moved in their clothing they felt their panties against their skin and found it to be a turnon. I asked how often they were having sex just to see what I was missing out on. It turns out that Martha has sex once a week and Sharon says her average is 1 1/2 times a week. Big Whoop! I get more than that and I don’t have to do a thing other than keep the kitty trimmed.

I was still curious about anal bleaching so as soon as I got home I did some googling and this is a big thing with a lot of women and some men too. You can buy creams online or at many stores that will lighten the skin around your anus. I wondered if I should ask for some do-it-myself cream for my birthday or go all out and ask for a day of total rectal beautification. Problem is, he might never notice! Why spend that sort of cash for something nobody would see. Geez.. give me diamonds any day!

In addition to anal bleaching and Brazillian waxing you can also visit your favorite plastic surgeon for vaginal rejuvenation. You can have your labia made more beautiful or your hymen reinserted. Hymenoplasty - now that’s a good one. Initially requested by more Muslim women, more Americans are requesting the procedure as a “gift” to their husbands or partners. I mean get a life people!!! Do you have to play all shy and coy all over again? Will it hurt when you bleed on the sheets?

If they can lift and tuck and tweak and move, why not attach my whole sex apparatus to my elbow for instant sexual pleasure without having to undress at all! Then when I get my little rosebud lightened I can show it off when I drive through traffic and let everyone know that I have more money than sense!

According to the New York Times, the local police have found a new way to bust prostitutes but not the men who visit them. A news story from September 4th is about eight women who were tracked down via craigslist.com. The eight women visited Long Island this summer along with vacationing families and other business travelers, staying in hotels and motels in commercial strips in middle-class suburbs like East Garden City, Hicksville and Woodbury. Their ages ranged from 20 to 32.

Three had come all the way from the San Francisco Bay area, one from Miami. Two lived less than 60 miles away, in Newark and Elizabeth, N.J. and two even closer, in Brooklyn.

All eight were arrested on prostitution charges here, snared in a new sting operation by the Nassau County police that focuses on Craigslist.org, the ubiquitous Web site best known for its employment and for-sale advertisements but which law enforcement officials say is increasingly also used to trade sex for money.

Nassau County has made more than 70 arrests since it began focusing on Craigslist last year, one of numerous crackdowns by vice squads from Hawaii to New Hampshire that have lately been monitoring the Web site closely, sometimes placing decoy ads to catch would-be customers.

“Craigslist has become the high-tech 42nd Street, where much of the solicitation takes place now,” said Richard McGuire, Nassau’s assistant chief of detectives. “Technology has worked its way into every profession, including the oldest.”

Augmenting traditional surveillance of street walkers, massage parlors, brothels and escort services, investigators are now hunching over computer screens to scroll through provocative cyber-ads in search of solicitors.

In July raids, the sheriff of Cook County, Ill., rounded up 43 women working on the streets — and 60 who advertised on Craigslist. In Seattle, a covert police ad on Craigslist in November resulted in the arrests of 71 men, including a bank officer, a construction worker and a surgeon.

And in Jacksonville, Fla., a single ad the police posted for three days in August netted 33 men, among them a teacher and a firefighter. “We got hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hits” in phone calls and e-mail messages, said John P. Hartley, the assistant chief sheriff there.

Sex and the Internet have been intertwined almost since the first Web site, but the authorities say that prostitution is flourishing online as never before. And while prostitutes also advertise on other sites, the police here and across the country say Craigslist is by far the favorite. On one recent day, for example, some 9,000 listings were added to the site’s “Erotic Services” category in the New York region alone: Most offered massage and escorts, often hinting at more.

Law enforcement officials have accused Craigslist of enabling prostitution. But the company’s president, Jim Buckmaster, said its 24-member staff cannot patrol the multitude of constantly changing listings — some 20 million per month — and counts on viewers to flag objectionable ads, which are promptly removed.

“We do not want illegal activity on the site,” he said. Asked whether the company supported the police’s placing decoy ads on Craigslist, Mr. Buckmaster said: “We don’t comment on the specifics” of law enforcement.

The police have also occasionally turned to Craigslist to trace stolen goods offered for sale or make drug arrests. In June, in Nassau, spotting code words like “snow” or “skiing” to refer to cocaine, they set up a sting with an undercover officer to arrest a man who advertised cocaine for sex.

While Mr. Buckmaster said Craigslist was no different from old-media publications that have long carried sex-oriented ads, law enforcement officials say its scope and format are especially useful to the sex industry. With listings for some 450 cities around the world, Craigslist claims to have 25 million users and 8 billion page views a month. Posting advertisements, except those in the employment and some housing categories, is free, as is responding to them by e-mail. “The Internet has allowed people to make contact in a way not possible before,” said Ronald Weitzer, a sociology professor at George Washington University and a researcher on prostitution. “Ten years ago this was not happening at all.”

As Nassau’s district attorney, Kathleen Rice, said of Craigslist: “It’s as easy as it gets.”

Tracy Quan, a member of the advocacy group Prostitutes of New York and author of the autobiographical novel “Diary of a Married Call Girl” (Harper Perennial, 2006), acknowledged that “the Internet became a virtual street for people in the sex industry,” but said that “the police are as inventive and as wily as sex workers are.” She said that the stings amounted to entrapment of consenting adults, and that “it seems like an enormous waste of time resources by authoritarian busybodies.”

The police say that Craigslist has changed prostitution’s patterns, with people roaming the country, setting up shop for a week or two in hotels — often near airports — where they use laptop computers and cellphones to arrange encounters for hundreds of dollars, then moving on to their next location.

“They like to move around, that’s for sure,” said Assistant Chief McGuire. “They’re flying in from out of state because there is money here” on Long Island.

In Westchester County this spring, the police in Greenburgh, Rye, Rye Brook and Elmsford formed a joint task force to investigate ads on Craigslist, resulting in 30 arrests. Some of those arrested were out-of-town prostitutes who booked numerous dates in advance, then whisked in for a busy couple of days, the police said.

Amid the police crackdown, in a game of electronic cat-and-mouse, the authorities say that Web site users who get wind of enforcement sometimes post warnings to thwart investigators. The Craigslist modus operandi provides mobility, helping prostitutes keep a few steps ahead of the law, law enforcement officials say. It also affords a degree of anonymity — if they are caught, being away from home makes an arrest less embarrassing.

Law enforcement officials ask why Craigslist even includes Erotic Services among its 191 categories. Mr. Buckmaster, the company president, said the site created that category “at the request of our users” for legitimate massage, escorts and exotic dancers. In an e-mail interview, he said that the police had praised the company’s cooperation, though he did not give examples. Despite police complaints that Craigslist facilitates prostitution, some experts say the Web site also aids enforcement.

“Craigslist is a very open site, and it leaves digital footprints,” said Leslie A. Harris, president of the nonprofit Center for Democracy and Technology. “It makes it easier for the police.”

My Opinion - It just seems to me that it’s time the government got out of the way between two consenting adults unless there are drugs or guns involved. To target the provider but not the customer is only creating a an oppressed group where one needn’t exist.