Tuesday, July 07, 2015
Monday, July 06, 2015
The Surest Way to Reduce Abortions: Long-Acting Birth Control
Conservatives have been bitching about abortions for decades, doing everything they could to eliminate them. In some states they've passed laws to require waiting periods before abortions. They've taken away doctors' freedom of speech, forcing them to follow a state-mandated script. They've forced women to undergo expensive and invasive vaginal probes.
Six years ago one state decided to do something real: starting in 2009 Colorado gave girls and young women free long-acting birth control. The result?
This proves that simple and straightforward contraceptive programs will prevent more abortions than all the abstinence programs and restrictive legislation put together.
It also shows why private companies who want to opt out of paying for employees' birth control are so completely wrong: preventing unwanted pregnancies reduces the number of abortions, saves the health care system billions of dollars in unwanted pregnancies, helps keep young women and their unwanted children off the government dole, increases the graduation rate allowing more young women to get the education that is very much needed to be competitive in today's job market.
And, quite blatantly, it's better for business: women who don't get pregnant accidentally make better employees. Women with IUDs and implanted contraceptives are much less likely to get pregnant unexpectedly. Their absences can be better planned and aligned with business needs. Everybody wins.
It's now clear that the only reason a business wouldn't pay for their employees' birth control is to register their unbridled and childish annoyance at the health care law that has been designated the primary achievement of the first African American president of the United States.
The fact that it works and is better for everyone all around just makes conservatives that much angrier.
Six years ago one state decided to do something real: starting in 2009 Colorado gave girls and young women free long-acting birth control. The result?
The birthrate for teenagers across the state plunged by 40 percent from 2009 to 2013, while their rate of abortions fell by 42 percent, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. There was a similar decline in births for another group particularly vulnerable to unplanned pregnancies: unmarried women under 25 who have not finished high school.Colorado's program was funded by the Buffett Foundation, named for Warren Buffett's late wife.
This proves that simple and straightforward contraceptive programs will prevent more abortions than all the abstinence programs and restrictive legislation put together.
It also shows why private companies who want to opt out of paying for employees' birth control are so completely wrong: preventing unwanted pregnancies reduces the number of abortions, saves the health care system billions of dollars in unwanted pregnancies, helps keep young women and their unwanted children off the government dole, increases the graduation rate allowing more young women to get the education that is very much needed to be competitive in today's job market.
And, quite blatantly, it's better for business: women who don't get pregnant accidentally make better employees. Women with IUDs and implanted contraceptives are much less likely to get pregnant unexpectedly. Their absences can be better planned and aligned with business needs. Everybody wins.
It's now clear that the only reason a business wouldn't pay for their employees' birth control is to register their unbridled and childish annoyance at the health care law that has been designated the primary achievement of the first African American president of the United States.
The fact that it works and is better for everyone all around just makes conservatives that much angrier.
Sunday, July 05, 2015
What Happens When You Allow Open Carry...
2 dead after shootout at downtown Austin Omni Hotel
This morning, a man with a loaded rifle walked into an Omni Hotel in Austin, causing customers to cry, yell and call 911. Texas law allows the open carry of long guns, but does not require background checks on guns purchased from unlicensed sellers. An Omni Hotels manager said today that the hotel "follows state and local laws," meaning it allows people to open carry long guns inside its hotels.
"Police say they received a 911 call from a patron at 4:48 a.m. saying there was a man in the lobby of the Omni Hotel who was walking around with a gun. Two minutes later, the caller said the man had shot someone."
A profoundly sad example of how we can't really tell the good guys from the bad guys now can we?
This morning, a man with a loaded rifle walked into an Omni Hotel in Austin, causing customers to cry, yell and call 911. Texas law allows the open carry of long guns, but does not require background checks on guns purchased from unlicensed sellers. An Omni Hotels manager said today that the hotel "follows state and local laws," meaning it allows people to open carry long guns inside its hotels.
"Police say they received a 911 call from a patron at 4:48 a.m. saying there was a man in the lobby of the Omni Hotel who was walking around with a gun. Two minutes later, the caller said the man had shot someone."
A profoundly sad example of how we can't really tell the good guys from the bad guys now can we?
Still Crazy in Texas
On the Fourth of July the nutcases in Texas are still convinced that the military's Jade Helm 15 military exercise is a plot to take over the state:
In 2007 the extremely conservative Heritage Foundation wrote a report about the demographics of the military. They found that in 2007 military recruits from the heavily Republican south and mountain west states were represented 20 to 50% . They also found that most of those same southern and western states were much more heavily represented among enlisted personnel than California and northern states. Texas was the most heavily represented state in the military: 11% of all enlistees were from there, more than twice the number of the second largest state, New York. Hispanics, coincidentally, also make up 11% of active duty members.
Did the Texas nitwit hear that 18% of active duty members are African American and would somehow brainwash the other 82% of the military into blindly following illegal orders to attack Texas?
Fact is, the military is dominated by white southerners. The default accent of the military is a smeared Texas to Virginia drawl. Military bases are predominantly in the conservative south and west. That's not because Obama built them there to spy on rednecks. It's because bases were originally built in milder climates to facilitate year-round training, and senators and representatives from those states have fought tooth and nail to keep those bases in their states because of all the cash the federal government pumps in with military spending.
Or is the Texas nitwit afraid that all the white supremacists trying to infiltrate the US military will start following Obama's orders and impose martial law?
Wareham is right to be concerned that there are people who want to start a war in this country: people like Dylann Roof. Although I suppose Wareham thinks that the terrorist murders at that church in North Carolina were a secret FBI false flag attack to rationalize putting North Carolina under martial law.
It seems abundantly clear that these people are just cranking up the paranoia to keep elderly white folks in the South quaking in their boots so they turn out and vote for a rich white southerner in 2016.
Terry Wareham, head of the Bastrop County Tea Party, said she fears that the Obama administration might deliberately instigate violence between soldiers and Texans as a pretext for establishing martial law.Does this nitwit Wareham really believe the US military would ever follow an illegal order to attack Texas? He says he's not against the military, but seems to know nothing about the US military.
“We’re not against the military. This community is very supportive of the military,” Wareham said. “But who’s the commander in chief of the military?”
In 2007 the extremely conservative Heritage Foundation wrote a report about the demographics of the military. They found that in 2007 military recruits from the heavily Republican south and mountain west states were represented 20 to 50% . They also found that most of those same southern and western states were much more heavily represented among enlisted personnel than California and northern states. Texas was the most heavily represented state in the military: 11% of all enlistees were from there, more than twice the number of the second largest state, New York. Hispanics, coincidentally, also make up 11% of active duty members.
Did the Texas nitwit hear that 18% of active duty members are African American and would somehow brainwash the other 82% of the military into blindly following illegal orders to attack Texas?
Fact is, the military is dominated by white southerners. The default accent of the military is a smeared Texas to Virginia drawl. Military bases are predominantly in the conservative south and west. That's not because Obama built them there to spy on rednecks. It's because bases were originally built in milder climates to facilitate year-round training, and senators and representatives from those states have fought tooth and nail to keep those bases in their states because of all the cash the federal government pumps in with military spending.
Or is the Texas nitwit afraid that all the white supremacists trying to infiltrate the US military will start following Obama's orders and impose martial law?
Wareham is right to be concerned that there are people who want to start a war in this country: people like Dylann Roof. Although I suppose Wareham thinks that the terrorist murders at that church in North Carolina were a secret FBI false flag attack to rationalize putting North Carolina under martial law.
It seems abundantly clear that these people are just cranking up the paranoia to keep elderly white folks in the South quaking in their boots so they turn out and vote for a rich white southerner in 2016.
Lots of Reflection
My question on Quora, How exactly are Christians under attack in the United States?, has now received nearly 20,000 views. There have really been some great answers and the top one has this great line in it.
In essence, for the first time in living memory Christians are being called out on the ways they've accrued, maintained, and abused privilege in this country. The vast majority are taking this in a remarkably Christ-like way, but the ones making this claim (oh no! we're being persecuted!) are still fighting to restore their dominance.
Right. It's not that they are being persecuted. It's that they are not allowed to be bigoted assholes anymore and that pisses them off. In fact, this comment can be extended to all of conservative land. It's not that the media is liberal. It's that they are telling the truth about conservative BS. It's not that fact checkers are biased. They are calling conservatives on their bullshit and people are finally listening.
Check out this answer.
The comment thread is most illuminating. Here is my favorite.
Your sect may claim that Jesus had something to do with the harsh rules of the Old Testament, but you seem to cherry-pick which rules to keep and which to throw away. You have no evidence that your interpretation of the Bible is accurate or that any deity actually exists. You are not stating the truth. You are preaching the doctrines of your sect, doctrines that are without supporting evidence. Other Christian denominations reject what you teach.
Yep.
Zoinks! Another "fake" Christian!!! Seems like this is becoming a trend. Gee, I wonder why...:)
In essence, for the first time in living memory Christians are being called out on the ways they've accrued, maintained, and abused privilege in this country. The vast majority are taking this in a remarkably Christ-like way, but the ones making this claim (oh no! we're being persecuted!) are still fighting to restore their dominance.
Right. It's not that they are being persecuted. It's that they are not allowed to be bigoted assholes anymore and that pisses them off. In fact, this comment can be extended to all of conservative land. It's not that the media is liberal. It's that they are telling the truth about conservative BS. It's not that fact checkers are biased. They are calling conservatives on their bullshit and people are finally listening.
Check out this answer.
The comment thread is most illuminating. Here is my favorite.
Your sect may claim that Jesus had something to do with the harsh rules of the Old Testament, but you seem to cherry-pick which rules to keep and which to throw away. You have no evidence that your interpretation of the Bible is accurate or that any deity actually exists. You are not stating the truth. You are preaching the doctrines of your sect, doctrines that are without supporting evidence. Other Christian denominations reject what you teach.
Yep.
Zoinks! Another "fake" Christian!!! Seems like this is becoming a trend. Gee, I wonder why...:)
Saturday, July 04, 2015
A People's Contest
This is essentially a people's contest. On the side of the Union it is a struggle for maintaining in the world that form and substance of government whose leading object is to elevate the condition of men; to lift artificial weights from all shoulders; to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all; to afford all an unfettered start and a fair chance in the race of life. Yielding to partial and temporary departures, from necessity, this is the leading object of the Government for whose existence we contend.
--President Abraham Lincoln, in a letter to Congress, July 4, 1961.
--President Abraham Lincoln, in a letter to Congress, July 4, 1961.
Friday, July 03, 2015
Thursday, July 02, 2015
God Distances Self From Christian Right
God Distances Self From Christian Right
“Many people hear my name in connection with the Christian Right and start to assume we are aligned in some capacity, and I’m here to say, for the record, that we are not,” God continued. “So let me just be clear: I don’t want women to get raped—not ever. I don’t think their resulting pregnancies are my divine will. And if a woman is raped, then she has the right to get an abortion, period. I do not agree with Mourdock. I do not agree with the Christian Right. End of story.”
God then went on to cite several incidents—ranging from the Westboro Baptist Church’s “God Hates Fags” campaign to Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin’s remark this year that victims of “legitimate rape” rarely get pregnant—as examples of what He described as “an unmistakable and disturbing trend toward intolerance that I do not support.”
Man, I love God...:)
“Many people hear my name in connection with the Christian Right and start to assume we are aligned in some capacity, and I’m here to say, for the record, that we are not,” God continued. “So let me just be clear: I don’t want women to get raped—not ever. I don’t think their resulting pregnancies are my divine will. And if a woman is raped, then she has the right to get an abortion, period. I do not agree with Mourdock. I do not agree with the Christian Right. End of story.”
God then went on to cite several incidents—ranging from the Westboro Baptist Church’s “God Hates Fags” campaign to Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin’s remark this year that victims of “legitimate rape” rarely get pregnant—as examples of what He described as “an unmistakable and disturbing trend toward intolerance that I do not support.”
Man, I love God...:)
Death by Measles
Two days ago Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill that eliminated religious and personal-belief exemptions for vaccinations of California schoolchildren. This was in response to an outbreak of measles in Disneyland last December that infected at least 150 people.
The whining started immediately. Jim Carrey ranted on Twitter, "California Gov says yes to poisoning more children with mercury and aluminum in manditory [sic] vaccines. This corporate fascist must be stopped."
The thing is, thimerosal has long been removed from most childhood vaccines:
There are, however, people who really do need exemptions to mandatory vaccination laws: people allergic to vaccine components and those with compromised immune systems.
One such person was a woman in rural Washington who recently died from the measles. This was the first such death in the United States in 12 years. A measles epidemic from 1989-1991 killed 123 children. One of the outbreaks was in Philadelphia where two church groups had religious objections to vaccines. Six children there died, mostly because parents refused medical care.
If everyone who can be vaccinated is vaccinated, society develops "herd immunity." Isolated cases of measles (usually from international travelers) are stopped cold because no one else can be infected. But when lots of people aren't vaccinated, measles spreads like wildfire and can kill vulnerable individuals. To make it worse, not all victims of measles develop the most common symptom: the woman who died never had a rash. She died from pneumonia, a common consequence of the disease, and the measles infection wasn't discovered until after she died.
Anyway, when Jim Carrey divorced Jenny McCarthy why didn't he dump her silly ideas too? He should go back to ranting about Fox News and mocking Charlton Heston.
The whining started immediately. Jim Carrey ranted on Twitter, "California Gov says yes to poisoning more children with mercury and aluminum in manditory [sic] vaccines. This corporate fascist must be stopped."
The thing is, thimerosal has long been removed from most childhood vaccines:
By 2001, Thimerosal was removed from most vaccines in North America and Europe. It was gradually replaced by other non mercury compounds, and some vaccines have been formulated so they don't need preservatives.But the number of autism cases continues to rise, a trend discovered as early as 2008. Why? Probably because other environmental toxins, such as a neuro-toxic pesticides, still abound, and parents are waiting longer to have children: there's a link between parental age and autism: "autism rates were 66 percent higher among children born to dads over 50 years of age than among those born to dads in their 20s. Autism rates were 28 percent higher when dads were in their 40s versus 20s."
There are, however, people who really do need exemptions to mandatory vaccination laws: people allergic to vaccine components and those with compromised immune systems.
One such person was a woman in rural Washington who recently died from the measles. This was the first such death in the United States in 12 years. A measles epidemic from 1989-1991 killed 123 children. One of the outbreaks was in Philadelphia where two church groups had religious objections to vaccines. Six children there died, mostly because parents refused medical care.
If everyone who can be vaccinated is vaccinated, society develops "herd immunity." Isolated cases of measles (usually from international travelers) are stopped cold because no one else can be infected. But when lots of people aren't vaccinated, measles spreads like wildfire and can kill vulnerable individuals. To make it worse, not all victims of measles develop the most common symptom: the woman who died never had a rash. She died from pneumonia, a common consequence of the disease, and the measles infection wasn't discovered until after she died.
Anyway, when Jim Carrey divorced Jenny McCarthy why didn't he dump her silly ideas too? He should go back to ranting about Fox News and mocking Charlton Heston.
Wednesday, July 01, 2015
The New Ronald Reagan
Messina mentioned huge shifts in public opinion on major issues including LGBT rights, immigration, income inequality and climate change that make the 270 electoral votes necessary to secure the White House simply out of reach for Republicans.
Mere Concern?
Fires at black churches raise concern
Mere "concern?" Really?!!?
“In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Mere "concern?" Really?!!?
“In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Gay Marriage, the Full Faith and Credit Clause, and Guns
Since the Supreme Court struck down gay marriage bans some conservatives have been talking as if the Apocalypse had come. They're crying about judicial activism and states rights. But from a Constitutional and practical standpoint, it's impossible for the states to have different marriage laws.
States rights sounds like a good idea. Texas can have a speed limit of 90 mph, and New York can limit it to 70 mph. They have different environments and requirements: Texas is a big, empty, flat, arid wasteland with cities hundreds of miles apart. New York is crowded, hilly, and covered with trees that limit sight lines
But when you're in a state you must abide by that state's laws. Texans can't drive 90 mph when they're in New York, right?
So why should a gay couple from New York moving to Texas expect to stay married? Why can't Texas split them up and take away their kids if Texans can't stand the idea of two men or two women being married?
Because the Constitution says so. The Full Faith and Credit Clause (Article IV, Section 1) requires that each state recognize the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state. Texas must recognize companies incorporated in New York, as well as New York marriages, divorces, adoptions, etc.
Furthermore, the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees equal protection under the law. That means that in states where gay marriage is legal, gay couples must be granted the same rights and privileges as heterosexual couples. That means every couple must have all the same rights of inheritance, tax laws, child custody, and so on.
These two clauses come into play because Americans move all the time. Every year about 12% of Americans move. About 2% of Americans move between states. In 2013 that was 7 million people.
And that's where the idea of states having different definitions of marriage falls apart. If a gay couple moves to Texas they have to be treated the same as a heterosexual couple who made the same move. Texas must treat both couples equally -- they can't take away the gay couple's children or deny gay spouses inheritance or hospital visitation rights. It must be this way, because people move so frequently it would total chaos if states had veto power over other states' marriages and court decisions.
For example, the marriage age with either parental and/or court consent for girls in Georgia, Hawaii, Missouri, Mississippi is 15. In New York, Pennsylvania and Texas it's 14, in New Hampshire it's 13, in Massachusetts it's 12, and in California there's no minimum (eww!). If states didn't have to recognize the marriage laws of other states, an 18-year-old Texas man could be arrested for statutory rape if he had sex with his 14-year-old wife in most other states in the Union.
Furthermore, if states had total autonomy over marriage law, Louisiana could outlaw divorce, then charge divorcees from other states with bigamy if they remarried in Louisiana.
If conservatives want their marriages and divorces to be recognized in other states (and conservatives get divorced a lot), then gay marriages have to be recognized in all other states.
And if gay marriage is legal in any state, then it has to be recognized in all states. And since it was already here to stay in most states, it must be legal in all states.
Conservatives are all for states rights, except when they're against them: at the same time conservative states were refusing to recognize gay marriages from other states, their members of Congress were trying to pass a law that would force states to recognize concealed-carry gun permits from other states.
In fact, some conservatives are already citing last week's gay marriage ruling to claim that they have a Constitutional right to carry a gun in public. It's a bogus argument.
But it's creepy that some gun nuts are so wedded to their guns that they actually think they're wedded to their guns.
States rights sounds like a good idea. Texas can have a speed limit of 90 mph, and New York can limit it to 70 mph. They have different environments and requirements: Texas is a big, empty, flat, arid wasteland with cities hundreds of miles apart. New York is crowded, hilly, and covered with trees that limit sight lines
But when you're in a state you must abide by that state's laws. Texans can't drive 90 mph when they're in New York, right?
So why should a gay couple from New York moving to Texas expect to stay married? Why can't Texas split them up and take away their kids if Texans can't stand the idea of two men or two women being married?
Because the Constitution says so. The Full Faith and Credit Clause (Article IV, Section 1) requires that each state recognize the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state. Texas must recognize companies incorporated in New York, as well as New York marriages, divorces, adoptions, etc.
Furthermore, the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees equal protection under the law. That means that in states where gay marriage is legal, gay couples must be granted the same rights and privileges as heterosexual couples. That means every couple must have all the same rights of inheritance, tax laws, child custody, and so on.
These two clauses come into play because Americans move all the time. Every year about 12% of Americans move. About 2% of Americans move between states. In 2013 that was 7 million people.
And that's where the idea of states having different definitions of marriage falls apart. If a gay couple moves to Texas they have to be treated the same as a heterosexual couple who made the same move. Texas must treat both couples equally -- they can't take away the gay couple's children or deny gay spouses inheritance or hospital visitation rights. It must be this way, because people move so frequently it would total chaos if states had veto power over other states' marriages and court decisions.
For example, the marriage age with either parental and/or court consent for girls in Georgia, Hawaii, Missouri, Mississippi is 15. In New York, Pennsylvania and Texas it's 14, in New Hampshire it's 13, in Massachusetts it's 12, and in California there's no minimum (eww!). If states didn't have to recognize the marriage laws of other states, an 18-year-old Texas man could be arrested for statutory rape if he had sex with his 14-year-old wife in most other states in the Union.
Furthermore, if states had total autonomy over marriage law, Louisiana could outlaw divorce, then charge divorcees from other states with bigamy if they remarried in Louisiana.
If conservatives want their marriages and divorces to be recognized in other states (and conservatives get divorced a lot), then gay marriages have to be recognized in all other states.
And if gay marriage is legal in any state, then it has to be recognized in all states. And since it was already here to stay in most states, it must be legal in all states.
Conservatives are all for states rights, except when they're against them: at the same time conservative states were refusing to recognize gay marriages from other states, their members of Congress were trying to pass a law that would force states to recognize concealed-carry gun permits from other states.
In fact, some conservatives are already citing last week's gay marriage ruling to claim that they have a Constitutional right to carry a gun in public. It's a bogus argument.
But it's creepy that some gun nuts are so wedded to their guns that they actually think they're wedded to their guns.
#Loserswithguns
Tragedy as boy, 3, dies after shooting himself in the head with loaded pistol he found in a closet
After the death of his son, Brian Holbrook backed the right to bear arms in a Facebook post. He said 'I have nothing wrong with guns, I will still support the Second Amendment [sic]. 'All I ask is that everyone please, please safety first... lock it up and put it out of reach of anyone that has no business being around a gun especially kids. 'Gun safety people! My boy would still be here if it was put away like it should have been.'
But you didn't and he is dead. And YOU should be held accountable. The law should be changed so that every time this happens, the fucking moronic parents are charged with homicide and have to serve a mandatory minimum of 25 years.
These are the #loserswithguns the Gun Cult defends every single day.
After the death of his son, Brian Holbrook backed the right to bear arms in a Facebook post. He said 'I have nothing wrong with guns, I will still support the Second Amendment [sic]. 'All I ask is that everyone please, please safety first... lock it up and put it out of reach of anyone that has no business being around a gun especially kids. 'Gun safety people! My boy would still be here if it was put away like it should have been.'
But you didn't and he is dead. And YOU should be held accountable. The law should be changed so that every time this happens, the fucking moronic parents are charged with homicide and have to serve a mandatory minimum of 25 years.
These are the #loserswithguns the Gun Cult defends every single day.
Monday, June 29, 2015
NBC To Trump: Buh Bye!
NBCUniversal cuts ties with Donald Trump
Man, I love the free market:)
And I believe that Mr. Trump is polling second in the GOP presidential race for 2016. I guess we know now the maturity level of the base!!
Man, I love the free market:)
And I believe that Mr. Trump is polling second in the GOP presidential race for 2016. I guess we know now the maturity level of the base!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)