What We're Reading: Things we LOVE edition

Written by: Linsey P on Feb 19, 2012 8:16 AM EST

This week’s What We’re Reading: Things we LOVE edition takes a different perspective on love by showing you the issues, organizations, and FCC regulations that DFA staff enjoy whole heartedly.    

Mia Moore, Chief of Staff
Pick of the Week:

“My husband's uncle shared this great article on the history of Planned Parenthood and the battle for women's health rights and I've found it very helpful in understanding the context in which we are working right now. Plus, I'm a nerdy fan of all kinds of historical trivia, no matter how obscure so I'm gobbling this all up this week.”

Birthright
By Jill Lepore

“Aside from its proximity to the site of the United States’ first birth-control clinic—opened in Brooklyn in 1916—the place is a typical Planned Parenthood clinic. Last year, seventeen thousand patients received medical care here. Two-thirds were insured by Medicaid, or paid reduced rates, or received free treatment. They were tested for S.T.I.s and U.T.I.s; they were prescribed birth-control pills and antibiotics; they were fitted for diaphragms and I.U.D.s and cervical caps; they learned how to check their breasts for lumps. They had pregnancy tests and Pap smears and abortions.”

Julielyn Gibbons,  Training Director
Pick of the Week:

“This is a great sign for us ladies in the world.  We can be smart and find satisfying, long-lasting relationships!  Watch out world - here we come!”

The M.R.S. and the Ph.D.
By Stephanie Coontz

“Is this really the fate facing educated heterosexual women: either no marriage at all or a marriage with more housework and less sex?  Nonsense.  That may have been the case in the past, but no longer.  For a woman seeking a satisfying relationship as well as a secure economic future, there has never been a better time to be or become highly educated.”

Monique Teal, Campaign Academy Organizer 
Pick of the Week:

“I think it’s really interesting how longstanding communities are using new technology to advance grassroots campaigns and one of our DFA members helped run the campaign!”

Breaking through a storied political culture
By Dane Strother

“The race to head the Cherokee Nation isn’t typically a contest favorable to the use of more traditional campaign techniques—new media, direct mail and phones. So the question for our team upon deciding to take on the challenge of unseating a 12-year incumbent this past year was whether modern campaign tactics could work in a storied and somewhat closed political culture...The short answer is yes.  But it meant breaking 30 years of tight control from an insular group, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars, and nine month of focus on a project undertaken on a whim.”

Levana Layendecker, Communications Director 
Pick of the Week: 

“I’m tracking some of the big fights happening this year - this seems like one of the largest.”

Whose Wisconsin recall is it?
By Josh Eidelson

“Last winter, the three-week occupation of Wisconsin’s capitol brought into sharp relief what would become two of the year’s defining forces: Emboldened far-right state governments and emergent left populist movements.  After Walker successfully pushed through his “budget repair” bill to cripple public workers’ collective bargaining rights, much of the energy of the capitol occupation shifted to efforts to recall the bill’s midwives in the Senate.  Though they took place in Republican-leaning districts, last summer’s recall campaigns against six GOP senators were marked by fierce populism rather than cautious moderation.”

Emma Interlandi, Operations Manager
Pick of the Week: 

“Cable news channels have focused almost entirely on the religious and political aspects of contraception... how is this complete coverage?”

300 Reasons Why Contraception Is Not Being Discussed As A Women’s Health Issue
By Zachary Pleat, Leslie Rosenberg, & Kevin Zieber

“While ovarian cancer remains hard to detect despite being one of the "deadliest of cancers that affect the female reproductive system," contraception use is correlated with reduced risk of the disease. The American Cancer Society has estimated that "30,000 cases of ovarian cancer worldwide could be prevented each year" through contraception use alone.”

Sam Stelfox, Tech Department
Pick of the Week: 

“This is great news! If you want to receive annoying robocalls from telemarketers you will have to opt in. Federal Communications Commission rules now require that telemarketers get your consent before dialing your number. Telemarketers will also have to obtain consent even if they had previously 'done business with' the consumer on the receiving end of a call."

FCC Cracks Down on Robocalls
By Maya Jackson Randall

“The rules require telemarketers to obtain written consent before placing so-called robocalls, and telemarketers will no longer be able to make robocalls simply because a person previously had done business with that telemarketer.”

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