Tag Archives: Planned Parenthood

The Good, The Bad, and The Silly

Posted on by
Reply

The Good

Did you all see how one of the Wisconsin Republican state senators up for recall has been outed by his wife as living with his mistress? Family values! And his wife is signing the recall petition.

Here’s a great, short video of young people standing up for Planned Parenthood. You can hide your head in the sand, America, but young folks have sex, so you might as well teach them to do it safely.

The Bad

Our thoughts are all with the earthquake and tsunami victims in Japan, and I do hope the nuclear power plants are out of crisis soon. If you’re looking for an organization to donate money to, Doctors Without Borders is doing important work.

There was a lot of coverage this week in the feminist blogs about the New York Times‘ reporting on the November 2010 gang rape of an 11-year-old girl in a small Texas town. The NYT eventually issued a sort-of apology. But I’m most interested in Akiba Solomon’s two pieces on the issue, which delve into the complexities of race and community involved.

Charlie Sheen’s public breakdown may be funny, but his frequent history of domestic violence is anything but. Anna Holmes suggests that maybe Sheen’s exes aren’t “nice” enough for the general public to care about their abuse.

Michigan! Cut it out. Allowing a governor to take over entire towns at his whim is not good policy.

Wondering where we’re supposed to get the money to keep NPR, Planned Parenthood, and the like? Here’s a great graphic representation of just how many tax breaks large corporations get that could be applied to essential public programs instead, and fix the budget in one fell swoop.

The battle in Wisconsin is still going strong, and Abe Sauer at The Awl is doing a terrific job reporting on not just the immediate events, but the full backstory of the main players and what’s at stake. I recommend these highly, but be warned, you will be upset after reading them, because damn people do some shady things.

The Silly

Jane Austen Drinking Game! The video is funny, too. Do I hear “Saturday night fun times”?

http://jackdean.posterous.com/must-see-chart-this-is-what-class-war-looks-lSo

The Good, The Bad, and The Silly

Posted on by
Reply

The Good

This moving, and sometimes funny, and very insightful piece by Dolores P., an abortion provider in training, is worth reading in its entirety. A great conversation starter for any of your more undecided or conservative friends, too.

It seems to be all too easy for the general public to forget that prisoners are people too, so it’s good to see these Georgia prison guards arrested for their vicious beating of an inmate in retaliation for the December prisoners’ strike.

Rinku Sen explains why it’s important to support Planned Parenthood despite founder Margaret Sanger’s disgusting views on eugenics (hint: it’s a vital health care source for millions of women and men).

I didn’t know where the phrase “women of color” or “people of color” came from, but here’s a wonderful explanation from Loretta Ross, a reproductive rights activist who was there at the term’s origination. Her reminder that this was people of color naming themselves, and not being categorized once again by white people, is a vital one.

Tuesday was International Women’s Day, and there were a lot of great pieces written all over the world from the occasion, some of which can be found here and here.

It’s funny because it’s true.

The Bad

Rep. Peter King is starting his own McCarthy hearings, this time focusing on blaming Muslims for all the terrorist acts in this country, providing no statistics to back him up, and ignoring completely other domestic terrorist groups like the KKK, Operation Rescue, and skinhead groups. Guess which groups are actually killing Americans year after year? Arturo Garcia has some great questions and answers about the hearings here.

As you probably read, Wisconsin (probably illegally) passed their bill denying collective bargaining rights to its public workers, when the Democrats who were supposed to be necessary to hold a vote at all were still hundreds of miles away. One Republican state senator did vote no because it went against his conscience and the will of his constituents. A site has already been set up to recall the state senators who rammed through the vote. Instead of doing anything to balance the budget or help the workers of the state, Walker and his friends have just ensured that Wisconsin will be mired in expensive and lengthy legal proceedings for possibly years to come, as the lawsuits come out in full force. Badly done, and shame on them.

JPMorgan is the largest processor of food stamps in the country. That’s right, the same company that contributed to our country’s economic disaster and thousands and thousands of layoffs, that’s the company that is making money by processing the food stamps of the previously employed.

The Republicans’ plan to save money by cutting the budget will likely increase unemployment and slow economic growth, according to studies done by, um, Republicans. Time to change plans, guys.

Ohio has passed its own anti-union bill, and also slipped in there, apropos of nothing, a clause stating that the state shall never acknowledge any kind of same-sex union. They banned gay marriage in 2004, but lest people try a workaround like civil unions or domestic partnerships, the Ohio legislature is heading them off at the pass.

Yesterday was National Abortion Provider Appreciation Day, and here are some numbers on just how dangerous it is to work in this field. Also, an interview with a doctor who has been providing abortions since they were legalized in the US.

The Silly

“James Franco’s dissertation is not a ‘contribution to the field.’ It *is* the field.” And other fun facts about James Franco’s foray into grad studies at Yale.

The Good, The Bad, and The Silly

Posted on by
Reply

The Good

Revolution is everywhere! Governor Walker of Wisconsin has said that the Democrat walk-out will only delay the inevitable passage of his bill that strips unions of their right to be unions, but I say it ain’t over til it’s over. Kudos to all the Wisconsin citizens and public employees who are protesting in the hundreds of thousands this week. (And I sure hope radio host Vicki McKenna gets fired for straight-up lying that liberals want to assassinate Walker.) Check out these funny–and biting–protest signs at the state capitol. Courage and success to you, Wisconsin workers!

Of course there are concerns about the military taking charge in Egypt now that Mubarak is out, but their refusal to gun down their fellow citizens despite an order from the then-president is an encouraging sign for how a military can truly be for the protection, rather than the oppression, of the people.

I’m putting this one in “The Good” because action is being taken — over 4,000 rape kits remain untested in Illinois. But we now have a law requiring them all to be tested and not remain languishing in evidence rooms, and the state plans to have them all tested by 2015. This will go far in bringing rape victims justice in Illinois.

The Bad

The assault on women’s bodies and lives continues apace: The Ohio “Heartbeat” Bill (which, by the way, a heartbeat does not indicate viability, if we’re slicing fine lines here) is expected to pass both the state house and senate. I like Melissa McEwan’s response, which boils down to: don’t pretend the anti-choice movement isn’t inherently violent, because it is.

Congress is voting possibly this weekend on defunding all Title X programs, which would render Planned Parenthood  bankrupt and take away the only source of health care for millions of American women. (Keep in mind that Title X programs include many non-PP community health centers.) Check out this fantastic resource from the Guttmacher Institute, which allows you to click on individual states and see how Title X funding is spent in those states. It illuminates just how devastating this defunding would be. Note that the restrictions on federal funding for abortions are already so tight that NO Planned Parenthood can use federal funds to provide abortions, so this bill would take away other essential health services just because abortions are sometimes performed in the same building. Incidentally, this NYT article on the bill makes a huge journalistic mistake in reporting that “[Title X funding to PP] opponents say only frees up funds for abortions” and not clarifying just how the money is spent. Saying what opponents argue without backing it up with facts is poor journalism. But the rest of the article does an okay job laying out the fight. TAKE ACTION: Call your representative TODAY at (202) 224-3121 and urge them to vote NO on the Title X provision of the budget bill.

UPDATE: The House just voted to remove all Title X funding for Planned Parenthood. Sign this letter right now and call your senator to demand that it stop in the Senate.

Texas Governor Rick Perry has declared emergency legislation. Oh it’s pretty serious business, all right — now pre-abortion sonograms are required statewide. So if you want to have an abortion, you have to look at a picture of the embryo or fetus first. Just so you’re sure.

Just because they pulled the proposed legislation doesn’t mean Arizona lawmakers don’t have a lot to answer for, proposing that hospitals be required to check if patients are undocumented immigrants before providing care.

Speaking of shelved legislation, South Dakota isn’t going to bring up the Legalize Murder bill just yet, but you can bet it’s coming back in the next couple years. (Oh my bad, the actual title of the bill is “An Act to expand the definition of justifiable homicide to provide for the protection of certain unborn children.” Same thing.) See McEwan’s post above about how terrifyingly violent the “pro-life” movement is, and why so many health care providers are scared just to go to their jobs.

If you liked the HR 3 Ten mentioned in Tuesday’s post, check out the full list here.

The Silly

Are you an English nerd? Do you also like old-school video games? Check out The Great Gatsby Game. (Thanks to Mlle. O’Leary for the link.)

The Good, The Bad, and The Silly

Posted on by
Reply

The Good

Governor Quinn has signed civil unions into law for the state of Illinois. It’s not marriage (or for that matter, allowing tax breaks and family rights based not on marriage at all, but that’s another fight), but it ain’t nothin’!

This is how you show you actually care about young people and their health (oh and save your country millions of dollars in the bargain).

The Bad

It isn’t enough that you can’t get abortions through publicly funded insurance plans; the Pennsylvania Senate wants to pass a law prohibiting abortion coverage in private insurance plans. Please contact the PA Senate to let them know how reprehensible this is.

The Idaho Board of Pharmacy said the pharmacist who refused to fill a prescription for a Planned Parenthood nurse until they knew if the woman who needed it was having an abortion did not do anything wrong, since the prescription was eventually filled at another pharmacy. Even though the pharmacist refused to give a referral. And the medicine was to stop bleeding, which seems pretty time sensitive.

Oh and speaking of Planned Parenthood, that despicable organization Live Action is still working to get them de-funded and de-licensed. PP has even asked that the FBI investigate in order to protect their employees and the organization.

The always brilliant Maria Bustillos writes about just how easy it is for Amazon to delete books off your Kindle without ever telling you, and even access/delete the personal files you store on it. Did you know they actually went through and deleted copies of 1984 because of copyright concerns? I’m going to go ahead and call irony on that one.

The Silly

Here’s a map of the US that shows which states correspond to which countries in terms of GDP and also population. Texas has the same GDP as Russia? We already knew they thought they were an empire…

One of my friend’s coworkers has started a blog in which she posts a reused/repurposed item every day. She has an Etsy store too, in case you like her style. I wish she had some instructions on how to make some of the stuff, because I have a hard time going from concept to execution in crafts (I usually just end up covered in glue), but it’s still a neat look at making beauty out of the ordinary every day.