Wednesday, February 16, 2011

[Peckers_Pics] Muscle Wars, PICS; Feb 17, 2011/Safe PICS For All Ages



Muscle Wars, PICS; Feb 17, 2011
Safe PICS For All Ages, Rated G / We Support Keith Olbermann

Updates on slain gay activist - David Kato of Uganda @ ObamaBiden2008

Updates on Keith Olberman @ ObamaBiden2008

Boycott: Chick-fil-a as they are against gay marriage and donate to anti-gay causes. 

Consider joining:

Diet & Fitness:

  • Reminder: Did you complete your Diet Journal today?
  • Did you do any physical activity?  If not, make a point of it by tomorrow! 
  • Perhaps our male fitness photos shall inspire you to get Fit!
Health - Wellness - Exercise - Reflections:
Balding Early? Prostate Cancer Risk Could Be Higher

Huffington Post - Reuters / Feb 16, 2011

A study showing that men who start to go bald at 20 may be more likely to develop prostate cancer in later life suggests they might benefit from early screening or preventative therapy, scientists said on Tuesday.

French researchers compared 388 men being treated for prostate cancer with 281 healthy men and found that those with the disease were twice as likely as the healthy men to have started losing their hair when they were 20.

If the men only started going bald when they were 30 or 40, there was no difference in their risk of developing prostate cancer compared to the healthy group.

"At present there is no hard evidence to show any benefit from screening the general population for prostate cancer. We need a way of identifying those men who are at high risk," said Philippe Giraud of Paris Descartes University, who led the study.

"Balding at the age of 20 may be one of these easily identifiable risk factors and more work needs to be done now to confirm this," he said in a statement.

Giraud, whose findings were published in the cancer journal Annals of Oncology, said men identified as at higher risk of prostate cancer could be selected for earlier screening, or for chemo-prevention therapy using so-called anti-androgenic drugs like Merck's Proscar, or finasteride.

Finasteride is used to treat both prostate enlargement symptoms and baldness. It blocks the conversion of testosterone to an androgen hormone called dihydrotestosterone, which is thought to cause hair loss.

GlaxoSmithKline has a drug in the same class called Avodart, or dutasteride, and is currently seeking approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a license for use in men at higher risk of developing prostate cancer. But an FDA panel advised last month that GSK's application should be rejected.

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men after lung cancer and kills an estimated 255,000 men each year.

Androgenic alopecia, also known as male pattern baldness, affects around 50 percent of men in their lifetime.

Previous studies have established a link between baldness and androgenic hormones, and androgens also play a role in the development and growth of prostate cancer.

Giraud and Michael Yassa of the University of Montreal in Canada, who also worked on the study, asked men to fill in a questionnaire about their history of prostate cancer, if any, and to indicate any hair loss they had at ages 20, 30 and 40 using pictures graded from stage I (no hair loss), to stage IV (receding hairline and balding from the top of the head).

The men's doctors also provided patients' medical histories, including any diagnosis of prostate cancer, age at diagnosis, stage of the disease and treatment. The study ran for 28 months.

"The data revealed that any balding at stages II-IV was associated with double the risk of prostate cancer later in life. This trend was lost at ages 30 and 40," said Yassa.

"Further work should be done, both at the molecular level and with larger groups of men, to find the missing link between androgens, early balding and prostate cancer."
Take Action:

And Now, Our War of the Fittest!

This group is called "Peckers Pics."  The English -  slang definition of "pecker" is to pluck at the truth. Therefore, we peck at items such as Gay Men's Health, Male Fitness, Gay (LGBT) Politics & Issues.  In this section you may peck at each photo in order to decide the winner of the "war of the fittest!"  Whereas, you should select the guy that may inspire you to exercise and "get fit!"   Warning: This may stoke you!
 
Your participation in discussion of health / news articles - appearing in this message is greatly appreciated.
1
 
2
 
3
 
4
Martin
 
4a
 
4b
 
4c
 
4d
 
5
 
6
 
7
 
8
 
9
 
10
 
11
Chris B
 
11a
 
11b
 
11c
 
11d
 
12
 
13
Mico
 
13a
 
14
Jay
 
14a
 
14b
 
15
 
16
 
17
 
18
 
19
 
20
 
20a
 
20b
 
20c
 
21
 
22
 
23
 
24
 
You Decide!
Jeff @ Cupid's Undie Run. Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington,
DC. /  Feb 12, 2011
Stoked?
People exercising by the Capitol during Cupid's Undie Run. Washington, DC /
Feb 12, 2011
Super Stoked?
Folks running at the start of Cupid's Undie Run. Pennsylvania Ave SE, Washington, DC/
Feb 12, 2011
California Supreme Court jumps back into gay marriage fray
By Howard Mintz / Mercury News / Feb 16,2011

The California Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to decide whether backers of Proposition 8 have a legal right to defend the voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage when the state's top elected officials refuse to do so.

In their weekly closed-door conference, the Supreme Court granted a request from a federal appeals court to review the issue, which has clouded the legal battle over Proposition 8. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in an order last month, asked California's high court to tackle whether proponents of the ballot measure have a legal right to appeal a federal judge's order last summer declaring the state's ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional.

The issue has arisen because both former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and then-Attorney General Jerry Brown refused to defend the law, agreeing with Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker's conclusion that Proposition 8 tramples on the rights of gay and lesbian couples. Brown, now governor, and new Attorney General Kamala Harris likewise refuse to appeal Walker's decision, leaving backers of the measure on their own to defend the law.

The state Supreme Court must now determine if California's ballot initiative process provides so-called "standing" for backers of such measures to press forward in the courts when the governor and attorney general will not defend a state law.

The outcome may be critical to how the legal battle over Proposition 8 unfolds.

If the Supreme Court finds that Proposition 8 supporters do not have such a right, the 9th Circuit has indicated that it is likely unable to decide the central question in the case whether the same-sex marriage ban violates federal equal protection rights. As a result, Walker's ruling would stand, enabling gay marriages to resume in California, but the case would be confined to only resolving the issue in California.

However, if the Supreme Court rules that Proposition 8 backers can defend the law on their own, the case would return to the 9th Circuit, where the judges have also signalled they would then be in a position to resolve the legality of Proposition 8. That decision would then tee up the gay marriage issue for the U.S. Supreme Court, giving the case national implications.

Either way, it is likely to be months or longer before the state Supreme Court rules on the standing issue, delaying the outcome in the long legal battle over gay marriage in California. The court asked the case to be fully briefed by May, but it could be later before they schedule arguments.

Legal experts have been divided over whether Proposition 8 supporters have a right to press the appeal. But during legal arguments in December, the three 9th Circuit judges hearing the case expressed serious concerns about the governor and attorney general being able to effectively trump a voter-approved ballot measure by refusing to defend it in court.

In the order asking the Supreme Court to review the issue, the 9th Circuit wrote: "Although the governor has chosen not to defend Proposition 8 in these proceedings, it is not clear whether he may, consistent with the California constitution, achieve through a refusal to litigate what he may not do directly: effectively veto the initiative by refusing to defend or appeal a judgment invalidating it."

Proposition 8 supporters urged the state Supreme Court in a recent letter to tackle the question. Lawyers for same-sex couples argued that the court should not take up the legal matter, saying there simply is no right under state or federal law for ballot measure sponsors to defend a state law on their own.

This will be the fourth time since 2004 that the state Supreme Court has been thrust into the state's gay marriage battleground. The first time, the court voided thousands of same-sex marriages issued by the city of San Francisco. The court in 2008 struck down California's previous laws banning same-sex marriage, but then upheld Proposition 8 the following year, finding it could not invalidate a voter-approved amendment to the state constitution.
_____________________________________
 
Hawaii Same-Sex Civil Unions Bill Approved By State Legislature
Feb 16, 2011 / Huffington Post / AP

HONOLULU -- The Hawaii Legislature approved a bill on Wednesday allowing civil unions for same-sex couples, sending the measure to the governor, who has said he will sign it into law.

Democratic Gov. Neil Abercrombie's office said he intends to sign the bill within 10 days, and civil unions would begin Jan. 1, 2012.

"I have always believed that civil unions respect our diversity, protect people's privacy, and reinforce our core values of equality and aloha," Abercrombie said in a statement released minutes after Wednesday's vote. "For me, this bill represents equal rights for all the people of Hawai'i."

The Senate's 18-5 vote came after years of thousands-strong rallies, election battles and passionate public testimony on an issue that has divided the Rainbow State for nearly two decades.

The measure grants gay and lesbian couples the same rights and benefits the state provides to married couples.

Hawaii would become the seventh state to grant essentially the same rights of marriage to same-sex couples without authorizing marriage itself.

Five states and the District of Columbia permit same-sex marriage.

The anxiously awaited civil unions vote came immediately after the Senate confirmed the state's first openly gay Supreme Court justice, Sabrina McKenna.

Gay rights advocates praised the vote as a victory for equal rights in a state known for its diversity and tolerance.

Opponents of the measure, many of them Christians, said civil unions erode the concept of the traditional family and could lead to same-sex marriage.

The Hawaii Legislature also passed a similar civil unions bill last year, but it was vetoed by then-Gov. Linda Lingle, a Republican. She was term-limited from running for election again in November.

Abercrombie said Wednesday that the Legislature's approval marked an end to an "emotional process" for the state, which has been a battleground in the gay rights movement since a 1993 state Supreme Court decision that nearly legalized gay marriage.

The ruling would have made Hawaii the first state to allow same-sex couples to wed, but it didn't take effect while voters were given a chance to decide.

They responded five years later by overwhelmingly passing the nation's first "defense of marriage" constitutional amendment, approved by 69 percent of voters who gave the Legislature the power to reserve marriage to opposite-sex couples.

The amendment resulted in a law banning gay marriage in Hawaii but left the door open for civil unions.

Since then, 29 other states also have enacted defense of marriage amendments.
"Every gay and lesbian person who has been lucky enough to survive the turmoil of growing up is a survivor. Survivors always have an obligation to those who will face the same challenges."
....Jake
 
Bearhug Submission  - NEW: Roommates: Ben vs. Ryan & then meet the guys at Sean's. (Episode 115 ) (Wrestling fiction) (Your Yahoo Profile must include Age, Gender, Location (checked - to the public) before you apply for membership!): http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BearhugSubmission_/join
 



__._,_.___


All members of "Peckers PICS" are requested to join our "Obama Biden 2008" group as it runs in conjunction to this group.  Both groups shall not repeat articles from one group to another.  However, to gain full knowledge of Gay rights, members must belong to the Obama group as well as this group.  Therefore, please accept your invitation to join. 

To join the Obama group please click (or copy and paste the link into your browser) @  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ObamaBiden2008/join

Thank you!
 

"Every gay and lesbian person who has been lucky enough to survive the turmoil of growing up is a survivor. Survivors always have an obligation to those who will face the same challenges."

...Jake (Moderator)



Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully Featured
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe

__,_._,___
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)