Leave it to my home state of New Hampshire to take a comical controversial topic and make it absurd. Enter New Hampshire's Representative Jeanine Notter (R-Merrimack). Rep. Notter sits on the State-Federal Relations and Veterans Affairs Committee, which heard public testimony yesterday on late-entry House Resolution 29, urging the United States Department of Health and Human Services to rescind … Read More
Fun Fact Of The Day
Number of women testifying at Republican Darryl Issa's congressional investigation into the contraception-coverage-vs-religious-freedom issue: Zero. [Note: Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), who sits on Issa's committee, asked a sensible question under the circumstances: "Where are the women? When I look at this panel, I don't see one, single woman representing the tens of millions of women across the country who want and … Read More
The Attack On Women Is Getting Obscene
What is it with the right wing and women's va-jay-jays? Both on the federal and state level, legislatures — predominantly white men — seem to be insisting that their values govern what women do with their bodies. We see it in the current controversy involving contraception coverage for women — who do you see speaking out against it? Men. White conservative … Read More
Liz Trotta Deserves This
What an assinine thing to say — that women who serve in the military should expect to be raped because they are in close quarters with men. I mean, it's just plain dumb. Jon Stewart does the honors: The Daily ShowGet More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook
White House To Cave On The Contraception Thing
It's an election year, and Obama doesn't want a culture war… even if he IS on the winning side of it, and most people support him on it. The White House will announce some sort of compromise later today. Wooses. And by the way, don't expect the "compromise" to satisfy the right. UPDATE — per a fact sheet being … Read More
The Controversy That’s Not
Culture wars again? There seems to be a LOT of misinformation about this latest so-called "controversy" involving the Obama administration and the Catholic Church and birth control. To hear some people talk about it, you would think that the Obama administration is forcing Catholic institutions to go out and purchase birth control against their will. Let's be clear: the Obama administration … Read More
Timing Is Everything
As if Komen isn't in enough trouble, there is a documentary that was due to open this week, called Pink Ribbons, Inc. Check out the trailer: How stupid is the Komen Foundation? They must have known this movie is coming out this week, and yet they choose the same week to do something stupid like defund Planned Parenthood.
The Komen Response & The Woman Behind Komen’s Decision
You know, the video is labelled "Straight Talk from Ambassador Nancy G. Brinker, Founder and CEO of Susan G. Komen", but there's not much straight about it (other than her jawline and Spock-like eyebrows). Brinker skirts around the issue — curiously never specifically mantioning "Planned Parenthood" by name (one wonders why not, since that's clearly the reason why she made this … Read More
“The Pink Badge Of Cowardice”
Via Tbogg, we come across this sad bit of weak knees coming from the Susan G Koman Foundation: Susan G Komen For the Cure has announced that it will stop funneling money to Planned Parenthood, ending a years-long partnership between the two organizations that provided mammograms and related services to low income women. But what accounts for the Komen Foundation's … Read More
What’s Good For The Goose…
This is pretty badass and hilarious. The Virginia legislature is trying to pass a bill that would require women to undergo an ultrasound for having an abortion. According to CBS: The legislation would require all women seeking abortions to have an ultrasound image taken to determine the gestational age of the fetus. It says each patient must be given the opportunity … Read More
$50,000 To Victims Of North Carolina Eugenics Program
That's right. North Carolina had an eugenics program which sterilized an estimated 7,600 people between 1929 and 1974, many of them against their will. It was carried out by individuals, nonprofit organizations and the state government that felt that human reproduction should be controlled. Social workers and the like could petition for the court-ordered sterilization of people who had epilepsy, sickness, “feeblemindedness” and other … Read More
What’s Wrong With This Picture?
The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board probably thought it was "doing good" when it started airing and publishing ads like this: The text reads: She didn’t want to do it, but she couldn’t say no. When your friends drink, they can end up making bad decisions, like going home with someone they don’t know very well. Decisions like that leave them … Read More
I’m Opposed To Aborting Jesus, Too
The anti-abortion activists have a new protest tactic for Christmas — empty manger Christmas caroling! Here, for example, is a schedule of upcoming events from a Pro-Life Wisconsin website: Last year's Empty Manger Christmas Caroling effort was so popular, we're doing it again this year, and in more cities to boot! What better way to bring the joy of Christmas … Read More
“Doesn’t Exist” Is The Scariest Response
It's a bit disconcerting to see some of the responses from the Cain supporters this morning, following the sexual harrassment/assault allegations of Sharon Bialek directed at Cain. It's one thing to disbelieve Bialek. In a he said/she said situation, people are going to line up that way. But what's happening in some quarters of the right is stomach-turning: some rightwing columnists … Read More
Personhood and Semantics
Tomorrow, Mississippians will vote on whether to amend their state constitution to declare that embryos are persons. The ballot measure, known as Proposition 26, asks: “Should the term 'person' be defined to include every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning, or the equivalent thereof?” Organizers and supporters of the measure are pushing similar amendments in other states. This wouldn't overturn … Read More