Recently by Heather Riffel

The big topic this week is how a new study shows that one in four teen girls have an STD. These numbers are staggering and disturbing. One of the most disturbing things about them is that not everyone has an STD so the number of teen girls have sex would be even larger and just means that the number of teen girls that has an STD could continue to rise. This is something that I am not really suprised about at least the sex part more and more teens act like they are adults and it only seems to get worse every year. The STD part is what disturbs me because I know in middle school and high school I saw more than enough pictures of different STDs and none of them looked appealing. I really do not know what would connect with teens and make them understand. I know that I didn't need anything more than the pictures to be convinced. It all comes from the mentality that they are invincible and that mentality seems to be getting stronger and stronger.

The only problem I have with this study is that it includes HPV. Everyone freaks out about HPV when in most cases its not that bad. If we separate the HPV that cause warts and only focus on the one that can cause cancer which is the higher percentage than you will see that HPV is not a super scary thing. When you are diagnosed with HPV they do not give you any kind of medicine they just tell you to live as healthy as possible. Your body does not have a hard time killing the virus. It takes some time but that is all. HPV is also something that you would never know you had unless it was found during a pap smear. That being said if you do not get pap smears very often you could get HPV and your body could get rid of it before you ever know that you had it. It still is important to have safe sex and go to the doctor for check ups but also important to know that not all STDs are the same and the same stigma should not get attached to all of them. This stigma that you are bad or dirty because you get them will make you less likely to go see a doctor. So while this article is disturbing you have to look at it from different angles.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/03/11/teen.std.ap/index.html?iref=werecommend

I ran across an article on cnn.com that was a follow-up to a story that was ran last year. There is a disabled girl in Washington and last year her parents had doctors give her a hysterectomy, breast surgery and drugs to keep the girl forever small. Her type of disablility makes it so she can not walk or talk. She is going to have to be taken care of for the rest of her life so her parents thought it would be best if she remained small and never entered puberty. Today they still believe that this was a good idea and they say that their daughter is healthy and has adjusted fine. This family continues to remain anonymous. As you would expect there was a lot of tension over this decision. What the hospital did was technically illegal because this is suppose to be presented to a board before the procedure can go ahead. The hospital accepts that the law was broken and the doctor that treated this girl has since commited suicide.

My issue is that the parents seem to be playing God and that is not right. Their persistence led the hospital to do some things that it should not have done and unfortunately the doctor paid the ultimate price with his life. I know it is not just the parent's fault but they were the ones who ultimately pushed for it to happen. They did this to make their live's easier. They took the human aspect away from their child. Now she is like a doll since she will never grow any taller or gain weight. This is a hard case because you do not know how much the child really understands with their disability but it just does not seem right.

Here is more infomation about this story: http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/03/12/pillow.angel/index.html

They was a story last week that created quite a buzz. Victoria's Secret CEO Sharen Turney came out and said that the company has become too sexy. She feels that they have lost their focus and have tried to become ultra sexy. She wants the company to refocus and focus on feminity more than sex. She mentioned in the article how the Pink collection has helped bring in the college age consumer. I think this is a good move for Victoria's Secret. This should bring in more customers because I think some women are intimidated to go in there because they do not want super sexy stuff. They just want to be comfortable while looking good. This is also a good move for youth culture because it will create and positive example for young girls. It will become a store that mothers would more likely take their daughters into and not think it was too racy and would give their daughters bad ideas. If this move works for Victoria's Secret than I bet other companies would follow suit. This could be the beginning of a good trend in our culture.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23408799/

I'm sure by now that everyone has heard about the beef recall. If not the USDA recalled 143 million pounds of beef from a southern California slaughterhouse. This beef was sent to fast food restaurants and schools mostly. The other issue is that most of this beef has been consumed already. This slaughterhouse was using cows that were sick and no longer able to walk. There were many people outraged by this which is understandable but that probably did not stop them from buying beef at the grocery store. The reason behind this is that people have a disconnect when it comes to food. Most people don't know where their food comes from and they don't care. When you eat a Burger King do you know where that beef comes from? How about restaurants like Chili's or Applebee's? Food is no longer a focus. We eat it because we have to but we do not really think about it. This is not good because we have no idea what we are eating, where it came from or if it is going to make us sick. Luckily the U.S. has standards that seem to work pretty well because we do not have lots of people getting sick from food. The problem is when people break the rules and we do not know if our food came from there because we do not know where any of our food comes from. This problem speaks to the fact that our culture is so busy and worried about other things that we have forgotten a basic thing we all need which is food.

By now I am sure that most of you have heard that Congress has just passed a bill that will be sending most Americans an extra refund check this spring. This is President Bush's way of helping stop the recession. Basically they are giving us money that we are supposed to go spend and help the economy. I am all for the idea except I do not know if it is going to save the economy. The plan breaks down basically if you make more than $3000 and you are single then you get $600. If you are married you receive $1200. There are also limits if you make too much money. All you have to do to receive this money is file your 2007 taxes its that simple. I think in ways it will help the economy because people are age will most likely spend the money. Older people will be more likely to save the money or pay down some of their credit card debt. The time of the year that the checks come also means that some people may use the money to go on vacation which would be good for the economy. I know I will use the money to help with moving costs since I am moving halfway across the country in June. Whether it ends up helping the economy or not enjoy your extra money.

Here is the link to get more information.

I was inspired to write my thoughts on the shooting generation after the two recent shootings. Last night a man killed five people and injured two more at a city council meeting in Kirkwood, MO. He was then shot and killed by the police. Just a few hours ago a woman killed herself and two other women at a Louisiana college. It makes me wonder how all of these violent acts are going to affect our generation. The majority of this violence started almost 10 years ago with the Columbine shootings. Since then there have been 18 major school shootings and that is not all of them I'm sure. We were in high school when schools started to implement special id's and metal detectors. Now that we are in college we are seeing more shootings at colleges. Now it seems that people are taking violence out of schools and bringing it into public places like the city council meeting or the Omaha mall shooting. What about our generation makes us so violent? I do not understand what goes through these shooters minds. Not only have we lived through school shootings we have also lived through 9/11 and plenty more acts of violence.

It makes me wonder when our generation decided that the way to solve our problems was to shoot innocent people. It also makes me wonder how this is going to affect our generation in the future and the generations to come. It is a scary time to live in this country because you never know when someone is going to start shooting. What are your thoughts on why this is happening or how it can be stopped? I know I can not figure it out.

I'm going to start this entry out by saying that I am a sports fan. I plan on working in sports PR but lately I have a new perspective.

While watching the KU vs. K-state game this week I couldn't help but think this is just a game. Watching all of the the K-state fans pile out onto the court made me woder why they were all excited about one game. I understand the steak but still it really was only one game and KU could have easily won it instead.

This type of celebration should be save for winning championships. I'm not being a bitter KU fan either. I look at this as one game and it won't keep KU from winning the championship. It was probably good for the team to experience loss.

My point is with everything going on in people's personal lives and this country shouldn't we find something bigger to be excited about than one basketball game.

I understand this is American culture but it makes me wonder why people our age would rather focus all their attention on a basketball game instead of making this country better. I also wonder why the youth of America started focusing on sports and stopped focusing on trying to make change happen. In the past young people were always standing up and making change happen. They would protest the Vietnam war, civil rights, and women's rights. Now the youth is more likely to protest if there is a bad call that changes the outcome of a game. In the last fifty years there has been a change in the youth and my perspective is that it has not been a good one.