Laurie Essig looks at a disturbing trend: Plastic surgery without anesthesia.

Cosmetic surgery is not well regulated. Any medical doctor can perform it, trained or not. A recent study in California found that 40 percent of those performing liposuction had no training whatsoever before entering the field. So clearly we need more state regulation of cosmetic surgery and commercial medicine generally. But that doesn’t really answer the question of why anyone would submit to what can only be described as torture?

In the wake of the Tucson shootings, Jonathan Metzl wants to stop the scapegoating of the mentally ill:

Only in the 1960s and 1970s did we begin to consider schizophrenia as a violent disorder; suddenly, psychiatric journals were replete with case studies of angry, violent schizophrenic men. In research done at the University of Michigan, we've shown that the emergence of stigmatizing fears about violent schizophrenia in the 1960s and 1970s resulted not from the actions of people with mental illness, but from changes in the definition of mental illness itself. As but one example, we've analyzed how the second edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, published in 1968, redefined schizophrenia as a condition of "hostility" and "aggression" in ways that erroneously encouraged psychiatrists to link the disorder to violent acts.

Peter Hessler writes for the New Yorker News Desk blog about Sargent Shriver's relationship with John F. Kennedy, and draws on a story from When the World Calls, about how he sidestepped Kennedy's advisors in urging the presidential candidate to call the wife of Martin Luther King Jr. while King was in jail:

Realizing that the candidate’s advisors would oppose any gesture of support, he kept silent until Kenneth O’Donnell, one of the top aides, went to the bathroom. “Why don’t you telephone Mrs. King and give her your sympathy?” Shriver said, when he was alone with Kennedy. “Negroes don’t expect everything will change tomorrow, no matter who’s elected. But they do want to know whether you care. If you telephone Mrs. King, they will know you understand and will help. You will reach their hearts and give support to a pregnant woman who is afraid her husband will be killed.”

Elan Magazine posts a Q&A with Shelina Janmohamed about Love in a Headscarf and arranged marriage:

Finding love and companionship are very challenging things, and my advice is to take all the help and support you can get! Families are on the whole very well-tuned to identifying who will make a good match for you as they’ve known you better than anyone else. They also have your interest at heart. However, you should always remember that it is you who has the final decision, and when you’re married and that front door shuts, you are the one alone with that person. So take advice, choose wisely, but remember that it’s your choice and non-one should pressure you into something you’re uncomfortable with - whether it’s to accept or reject.