I was actually surprised at how recent the bike infrastructure was in downtown Indianapolis so using a scooter to get around would not be bad in downtown at least.
There are also health organizations from many other countries that come to the opposite conclusion and recommend circumcision only when it is medically necessary. The policy seems outdated at the very least and based on misleading conditions at worst.
Benefits include significant reductions in the risk of urinary tract infection in the first year of life and, subsequently, in the risk of heterosexual acquisition of HIV and the transmission of other sexually transmitted infections.
UTI rates can be lowered by teaching parents to properly wash their children.
For HIV, they mention female to male transmission which is something that is extremely rare in the US. The two studies they looked at were in Africa where that actually is an issue but far from being one here in the US. There are also non surgical methods to avoid that: PrEP and/or using a condom.
As for something like HPV, we have a vaccine that prevents the vast majority of forms of HPV.
So for the most part the benefit (when not medically necessary) boils down to a very small increase in penile cancer. But even that has likely changed significantly with the increased usage of the HPV vaccine. I don’t think they would recommend circumcision if they were to update the policy (which is apparently an expired policy and has not been reaffirmed).
No judgement for those who do circumcise their children but I’m personally not a fan of unnecessary surgery.
And for those that don’t know, female circumcision is much more destructive and dangerous than male circumcision (which I’m also against but apparently that’s a touchy subject for some folks).
A note on why it is more destructive: they generally just take off the whole damn clit. Imagine if male circumcision involved removing the whole head of the penis. You’d have a lot fewer dudes being okay with the cultural difference.
And I hear you on male circumcision being a touchy subject. Guys will rant about it being as bad as female circumcision (it’s not) on one side and on the other you have people pointing out the benefits (complications with circumcision happen more often than instances of it being beneficial). Can’t we just leave kids’ genitals alone unless there is an actual issue? It’s so weird to obsess on changing their bits.
Safe does not mean no side effects. Those first things would still absolutely qualify it as safe. Those last two you mention seem to be inconclusive by the way you worded it.
What’s better? Being on a path to a brick wall while going 60mph or being on that path while going 10mph? One gives you a pretty good opportunity to swerve and avoid slamming into the wall.
The job market outside of tech is largely fine (I can very much vouch for how shitty it still is in that sector) and is better than it has historically been. Housing is indeed unaffordable and local efforts clearly are not cutting it. I grew up in a time when insurance companies could simply stop paying for your Healthcare because you reached the lifetime maximum coverage. They could also refuse to give you coverage if you had a pre-existing condition. That forced many people to stay stuck in the same job for fear that a major health issue you or a family member had would make you ineligible for future coverage. We are at the highest level of insurance coverage we have ever had at the moment. It can certainly be better by simply having Medicare for All but that is still some progress at least.
When voting, you vote for the best possible future. Someone from the Green Party has zero chance (Jill Stein also sucks) so you vote for the possible candidate that is closest to a party like that. There are at least starting to be some changes in voting since Maine and Alaska switched to ranked choice voting. My city also just switched to ranked choice. I know progress can seem horribly slow because it is but quick, large changes often lead to large reactionary responses which also often lead to authoritarianism.
I can list you a host of institutional changes that I would love to see happen that will make what you want possible. For instance, we need to at least double the size of the House and states need to implement proportional representation. That would make voting for a third party candidate actually carry some weight. We obviously also need to make the electoral college worthless by more states passing the National Popular Vote so that no candidate with less that does not have the most votes can win. That is only a start of course because we then need to get rid of the electoral college (difficult since it requires an amendment) and have talked choice nationally.
Vote for progressives in the primaries. Voting third party does nothing but help speed toward fascism. Our first past the post elections make voting for third parties cause the person you least want to win.
Around 2 million Muslims enjoying complete freedom of religion inside Israel. While Jews cannot even wear a small head cover in neighboring countries.
Well is Israel not merciful to allow Muslims to pray while they are being starved to death and murdered? Real good Samaritans the people in the Israeli government are.
Thailand’s Election Commission on Tuesday said it will seek the dissolution of the progressive Move Forward party, which won last year’s general election, after a court ruled that the party’s proposal to amend a royal anti-defamation law was unconstitutional.
Fuck their weirdo king.
But the military-installed Senate blocked the party from taking power by refusing to approve then-party leader Pita Limjaroenrat’s nomination as prime minister.
Fuck the Thai military who consistently destroys the country’s democracy.
For all the praise that Rwanda seems to get for its economy, I don’t see how it is at all deserved. It is still one of the past countries in the world and its growth rate over the past decade is not much different than Burundi and Ethiopia. I feel like Rwanda just puts more money into marketing.