Mourners honored the 26 victims of the Newtown Shootings. In an article that's an insult to pretty much everyone affected by the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, last week, author Charlotte Allen writes that the mass shooting might have been prevented if there hadn't been so many women at the school.
Related: What Led to the Newtown Shootings?
Published Wednesday in the National Review, the conservative anti-feminist author points out (incorrectly) that "There was not a single adult male on the school premises when the shooting occurred" and theorizes (also incorrectly) that "a sizable number" of the students at the K-4 school "were undoubtedly 11- and 12-year-old boys" who would have been able to take down the shooter if they hadn't been sissified by the school's entirely female staff.
Related: Sister of Slain Sand Hook School Teacher Speaks Out
"In general, a feminized setting is a setting in which helpless passivity is the norm," she writes. "Male aggression can be a good thing, as in
Blog Posts by Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine
National Review: Newtown Shootings Could Have Been Stopped If There Weren't so Many Women Around
By Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine | Parenting – Wed, Dec 19, 2012 8:00 PM ESTDancing Cop Tony Lepore Brings Cheer While Directing Traffic
By Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine | Work + Money – Wed, Dec 19, 2012 1:55 PM ESTOfficer Tony Lepore is a holiday tradition in downtown Providence, Rhode Island. The police veteran comes out of retirement every year for one reason and one reason only: To direct traffic. While dancing.
"He is a Rhode Island landmark, more or less. He's an icon, he's like a little mini celebrity," Michelle Peterson, an emergency medical technician who lives in Warwick, Rhode Island, told The Associated Press. "It feels good to see him out here; it definitely brings the holiday spirit." We took a look at some of his moves and we have to admit, we'd risk a jaywalking ticket to get a closer look. -- By Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine.
Read More »from Dancing Cop Tony Lepore Brings Cheer While Directing TrafficMom Makes Son Hold Sign As Public Punishment For Being Disrespectful
By Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine | Parenting – Wed, Dec 19, 2012 12:37 PM EST
Lisette Lopez of Oakland Park, Florida, was furious when her 12-year-old son, Erol Faustin, was suspended from school for disobeying and cursing in class. So she designed a punishment that would be as public and as humiliating for him as his behavior had been for his teacher: He had to stand in front of Rickards Middle School every morning and afternoon for the three days he was suspended, holding a sign apologizing for his actions.
Related: Parents Punish Teen by Posting Goofy Photos on Her Facebook Page
"My kids know not to disrespect people, and he's not a bad kid," Lopez told the Associated Press while her son bit his lip and looked away from the camera. "He plays around in class like most all kids do. But he has to know that when you're in school you're there to learn you're not there to play."
Related: To Punish Daughter, Dad Destroys her Laptop. Tough Love or Too Much?
He's been in trouble before, Lopez told told WSVN News7, and has been acting like the class clown this Read More »from Mom Makes Son Hold Sign As Public Punishment For Being DisrespectfulThe 10 Most Controverisal Shine Stories of 2012
By Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine | Parenting – Tue, Dec 18, 2012 5:13 PM ESTOffensive T-shirts. Outrageous news stories. Ridiculous parenting decisions (Hello, Baby Hashtag!). Here's a look at the some of the most-controversial stories we ran on Shine in 2012 -- and how readers reacted to them. -- By Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine.
Read More »from The 10 Most Controverisal Shine Stories of 2012Newtown School Mass Shootings: Who or What is to Blame?
By Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine | Healthy Living – Tue, Dec 18, 2012 10:03 AM EST
Read More »from Newtown School Mass Shootings: Who or What is to Blame?
New York City Iron Workers Local 40 raise a banner supporting victims of the Newtown, Conn., school shooting. (Photo: D Dipasupil/WireImage)As the country tried to find comfort and make sense of Friday's mass shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, the focus began to shift from horror to sympathy for the families of the 26 victims and to outrage over how such a tragedy could have happened in the first place.
Related: Are School Shootings Parents' Newest Worst Nightmare?
What's to blame for this and other recent mass shootings in the United States? There are no easy answers, but Americans are pointing their fingers at several possibilities.
Too many guns. Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a conservative member of the National Rifle Association who posed with a rifle and promised to protect the Second Amendment in his election campaign videos, said on Monday that it's time to reconsider our nation's gun laws.
Related: Indiana Man with 47 Guns Arrested After Threatening School
"I'm a proud outdoors-man and huntsman, like many Americans, and I like shooting, but this doesn't make sense," he said on MSNBC's "MorningGender-Neutral Easy-Bake Oven? Hasbro Responds to 13-year-old Petitioner with New Design
By Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine | Team Mom – Mon, Dec 17, 2012 9:42 PM EST
Read More »from Gender-Neutral Easy-Bake Oven? Hasbro Responds to 13-year-old Petitioner with New Design
A teen's petition for a gender-neutral Easy-Bake Oven gained more than 40,000 signatures -- and prompted Hasbro to come up with a new design. (Photo: Hasbro)After meeting with 13-year-old McKenna Pope, whose petition asking for a gender-neutral Easy-Bake Oven for her little brother garnered more than 40,000 signatures and was backed by celebrity chefs, Hasbro on Monday announced that they would make a black-and-silver version to appeal to both boys and girls.
Related: Top Chefs Join Call for Gender-Neutral Easy-Bake Oven
"I was a little nervous, because I really wasn't sure what to expect going in," McKenna told Yahoo! Shine in an email. "However, once they began showing me around and I had the opportunity to really understand them more as a company, and also express my opinions on their prototype, my nervousness sort of melted away."
The new Easy-Bake Oven should be available in stores in 2013, Hasbro executives told Yahoo! Shine. They said that they spent about 18 months working on the prototype.
Related: 6-year-old asks Hasbro why "Guess Who?" Doesn't Have More Girls
"We value input from our consumers and given the widespreadCelebrating the New Year with Your Kids
By Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine | Parenting – Mon, Dec 17, 2012 4:58 PM EST
Read More »from Celebrating the New Year with Your Kids
Five easy ways to celebrate the New Year with your kids. (Photo: Thinkstock)Staying up until midnight or partying the night away sounds like a great way to celebrate the New Year -- if you're an adult. But once you have kids at home, welcoming in the New Year takes a decidedly different tone. Here are a few easy ways to celebrate with your kids.
Related: Kissing at Midnight -- The History of the New Years' Eve Kiss
Make a day of it. When it's midnight in Mumbai it's just 1:30 p.m. in New York. Start your celebration at noon instead of midnight, and look at pictures from other countries as 2013 dawns in each time zone.
Have a family party before the grown-up party. You can still have friends over (or go out) to celebrate, but why not throw a party for your kids beforehand? Dress up, drink sparkling juice or cider out of pretty cups, and eat a celebratory dinner made up entirely of appetizers and finger foods (yes, you can still make it a well-balanced meal!). Ring in the New Year around your toddler's bedtime (midnight in London is 7 p.m. on the East Coast) andKTBS Crime Reporter Chris Redford Also Fired for Defending Himself Online
By Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine | Work + Money – Fri, Dec 14, 2012 3:53 PM EST
Read More »from KTBS Crime Reporter Chris Redford Also Fired for Defending Himself Online
Crime reporter Chris Redford was also fired from KTBS-TV on the same day as meteorologist Rhonda Lee. (Photo: KTBS-TV)A second KTBS-TV employee was fired the same day as meteorologist Rhonda Lee. But while the TV station says that, like Lee, longtime crime reporter Chris Redford lost his job for violating the station's social media policy, one source with ties to the station tells Yahoo! Shine that Redford was fired without warning for responding to a personal attack on his own Facebook page.
Related: 5 Job Mistakes That Went Viral
"He is an openly homosexual man that denounced gay slurs left on same KTBS site," the source, who requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation, wrote in an email to Yahoo! Shine. "The only difference is he did not write on the KTBS Facebook page, he responded on his own PERSONAL FB page and was given NO prior warning."
Related: How Common is Workplace Sexual Harassment?
Redford, whose twin brother is a New York City police officer, was defending a straight coworker who was being harassed online, the source wrote. KTBS station manager George Sirven told Yahoo! Shine inSanta Survival Guide: What Do You Say when Your Kids Ask If Santa is Real?
By Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine | Parenting – Fri, Dec 14, 2012 11:32 AM EST
Read More »from Santa Survival Guide: What Do You Say when Your Kids Ask If Santa is Real?
What do you say when your kids ask you if Santa is real? (Photo: Thinkstock)When I was 7 years old, I was a True Believer in Santa Claus. One of my closest friends wasn't, though, and when he insisted that the Jolly Old Elf was a lie, I was shaken -- so much so that, when my parents reassured me that my friend was wrong, I didn't quite believe them.
Related: Kids-with-Santa Photos Gone Wrong
On Christmas Eve, we were invited to a party at that friend's house. I stuck close to my dad for the entire day (and bossed my younger brother into following my mom around the house), and we made sure that there was absolutely nothing under the tree when we left for the party. Once at my friend's house, I continued to shadow my parents, to see whether they left the party for any reason. They didn't.
Yet when we came home late that night, the presents were there. And my faith was restored. It wasn't until years later my dad confessed that, when he "ran back inside because he forgot the bottle of wine," he had frantically thrown gifts under the tree and returned to the carMeteorologist Rhonda Lee: Was She Fired for Defending Her Hair? UPDATED
By Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine | Secrets to Your Success – Thu, Dec 13, 2012 3:04 PM EST
Read More »from Meteorologist Rhonda Lee: Was She Fired for Defending Her Hair? UPDATED
This isn't the first time meteorologist Rhonda Lee's short hair has affected her job, she says. (Photo: Facebook)When a viewer took meteorologist Rhonda A. Lee to task online for having short hair, rather than for any job-related issues, she defended herself. But instead of supporting Lee or even deleting the offensive Facebook post, Shreveport, Louisiana television station KTBS fired her, saying she had violated the company's unofficial social media policy.
UPDATE: Second KTBS Employee Fired for Defending Himself Online
Now, her fans are furious. Nearly 1,000 people have signed a petition at causes.com asking that KTBS-TV rehire Lee, saying she was victimized twice, once by the viewer who wrote the insensitive remarks "and again by KTBS-TV."
"Rhonda Lee deserves to have her job back," the petition reads. "Her eloquent response to the bigoted and sexist remarks of viewer Emmitt Vascocu were warranted. Employers such as KTBS-TV should stand by their on-air talent when they are verbally attacked based on their looks, values or merit."
"I would never have dreamed in a million years that I would
