One step closer to re-criminalizing birth control and abortion

The Bush Administration is pandering to the Religious Right wingnuts by proposing to redefine the most popular and accessible means of birth control, the Pill, as abortion.
They're pretending that the regulation is an innocuous human rights protection -- just a way to help all those poor beleaguered doctors and pharmacists who are now being forced by mean state governments to do their jobs against their moral code, you know.
But actually what will happen, of course, is that anti-abortion activists will now have a new focus for their activism -- they will launch intensive pressure campaigns against local doctors and pharmacists and hospitals to stop prescribing birth control pills and the morning after pill altogether, and to stop insurance companies from covering the costs.
Even the Wall Street Journal grasps the larger implications:

With its expansive definitions, the draft bolsters a key goal of the religious right: to give single-cell fertilized eggs full rights by defining them as legal people -- or, as some activists put it, "the tiniest boys and girls."
As long as Roe v. Wade remains in effect and abortion remains legal, that goal can't be fully realized. But in recent years, abortion opponents have scored notable successes. For instance: Several states now define a fertilized egg as a legal person -- an "unborn child" -- for purposes of fetal homicide laws, which allow criminal prosecution when a woman miscarries as a result of an assault . . .
Even if the draft is never implemented, activists on both sides consider it a potential momentum shift.
"You keep striking away and framing the issue the way you want to frame it," said David DeWolf, a law professor at Gonzaga University who has advised anti-abortion groups. "That's the political strategy."

Gee, sorta reminds me of the debate around our very own proposal for an Unborn Victims of Crime Act -- which, we are assured, has absolutely nothing to do with trying to re-criminalize abortion and birth control, no, of course not ...

What a dolt

Well, this just made trips to the bookstore a little easier.
I will never want to read anything by Orson Scott Card ever again.

These precious days

Lance Mannion has been blogging about his family vacation.
He's obviously been enjoying himself, and doing so consciously, too.
"Consciously"? Here's what I mean:
One perfect fall Sunday several years ago, when both my children were still living at home and my husband and I were getting Sunday dinner ready, I said to myself, remember this! Remember this day and how everyone you love is here and with you, and they are happy and you are happy too!
Because there will be days to come when one or more of the people you love will be away or gone or unhappy or ill. There will be a time when you will need a happy memory to look back on. So make this day that memory.
So I have consciously held that precious happy day in a bell jar in my memory ever since.

They made him

Chet at The Vanity Press provides some fine coverage of the Knoxville church shootings:

American conservatism is not merely, or even primarily, a set of principles; it's a culture, and at the grassroots one of its main rhetorical and motivating features is a carefully cultivated hatred -- a seething, white-hot hatred -- of the shadowy Other that it labels "liberals." It has cultivated this aspect of itself through talk radio, blogs, speeches, all sorts of communications media, and it has done so for decades . . . . The same loathing of "liberals" that has raised cash and gotten out the vote for Republicans, the same feelings of inchoate anger that have convinced millions to vote against their own interests in the name of screwing some nameless Other that they hate and blame, are what moved this man to walk into a liberal church and start gunning people down. His actions were a straightforward fulfillment of some of the conservative movement's most powerful words, and of the feelings of impotence and rage that those words continually evoke.
Until and unless American conservatism actually expunges the anti-"liberal" hatred from its rhetoric and motivations, I see no reason to let the movement disown this guy who shares and is clearly motivated by that same hatred. They made him, whether they like it or not.

Purple-shirted flatulence

I have been following the blog of Times religion reporter Ruth Gledhill and the StandFirm website for news about the Lambeth Conference -- where the bishops of the Anglican Church are trying to figure out how appease their homophobic and misogynistic right-wingers.
Of course, as they are discovering, it can't be done.
First they tried to float some kind of "compromise" on ordination of women so that churches could somehow avoid having to deal with a woman bishop. Of course, this was a silly idea that was rightfully voted down.
Now they have come up with another plan, called a Pastoral Forum, which they think will somehow force Canadian Anglican churches to stop blessing same-sex marriages, and will force US episcopal bishop Gene Robinson, who is openly gay, to resign, while also tossing a bone to the librulls by stopping conservative African bishops from poaching US and Canadian congregations.
One commenter called this idea "purple-shirted flatulence".
And it ain't gonna work -- the conservative Anglican churches have already set up their own organization and they won't be stopped in their march backward.

Great line of the day

Dr. Dawg writes about that new poll showing 35 per cent of Canadians are mad about something but aren't doing anything about it:

... the realization that more than a third of my fellow citizens might be in the "quiet person who kept himself to himself before opening fire on a bus" category has me concerned, but only, I'll admit, to a certain extent. Thank goodness we're taught good manners in this country. The very thought of cleaning up afterwards is probably enough of a deterrent for most.

Word!

Laying the trap

The cynicism of this is beyond belief.
The Globe is reporting that the United States has made a "key offer" in World Trade Organization talks that to allow more foreign professionals to work in the States:

“When it comes to temporary entry of business professionals we signalled that we are ready to have that conversation in the context of the Doha round,” U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab told reporters.
“But obviously it has to be in conjunction with our consultations with Congress,” she said after a session on services at the World Trade Organization.
The issue of granting temporary business visas to skilled foreign workers is controversial as many politicians consider it an immigration issue that should not be included in trade pacts.

Yeah. So after seven years of fruitless talks, stymied because of disputes about agricultural subsidies, now -- in an election year -- the Bush administration says it wants to move ahead? And so it is going to ask Obama and the Democrats in Congress to approve allowing more foreign workers to come into the US? Yeah, that'll happen, I'm sure.
Pardon me for suspecting that Obama and the Democrats are being set up to be blamed when these WTO talks collapse.

AECL Employee of the Month

Power plant kept in the dark about missing reactor part

Waving American flags?

link
As my son pointed out, "They were waving American flags? In Germany?"
The average American may not realize -- or may not want to realize -- how amazing Obama 's trip has been, particularly in regard to rehabilitating America's reputation in the world.
Meanwhile, the best McCain can do is Ich Bin Ein Piggly-Wigglyer. The contrast is painfully pathetic.
The bloggers were saying last week what a bad week McCain had had. Now they're saying it again this week.

Love

I love this video -- four million people have watched it on YouTube. The full story is here: Christian, the lion who lived in my London living room

Roger DeBris lives!

Reading about the right wing reaction to Obama's speech -- Conservatives Project Their Fascist Fantasies Onto Obama in Berlin -- reminded me of one of my favorite lines:

Did you know, I never knew that the Third Reich meant Germany. I mean it's just drenched with historical goodies like that... But we've got to do something about that third act - they're losing the war! Its too depressing!"

I couldn't find this clip on YouTube, but here's another great one:

What Digby says

about banning tasers:

I've written many times about tasers. I honestly don't understand why people are so complacent about the fact that we are allowing the police to torture citizens into compliance, completely based on their own judgment and with no threat of sanction. Even if you kill someone with one, the authorities defend you.
This is a barbaric practice that should be ended. I know they can be a useful tool if used correctly. But they've been out there for years, there has been ample evidence of abuse and torture with them, and nothing gets done. At this point the police have lost the benefit of the doubt --- they refuse to adhere to strict guidelines and always rush to defend the psychos who happen to get caught using them for no good reason. They've left no choice but to ban them.

Simple answers to simple questions

Christie Blatchford asks In the end, will the price we pay in Afghanistan be worth it?
No.
This has been another edition of simple answers to simple questions.

Eat what you want

I agree with this article -- Go ahead, kids, eat your cake first.
My husband and I came from the usual post-depression era food nazi families, and we have dealt with being overweight our entire adult lives.
For my kids, I decided to serve them healthy meals and a daily multivitamin, and let them decide what and how much they wanted to eat -- no pressure, no pestering, no "you have to try it" rules, no cajoling, we didn't focus on their food intake at all, and we never adopted the "your mother worked hard to cook this meal so you'd better eat it" attitude. We adopted the philosophy that their bodies were their own, to eat as they wished. And if they wanted something to eat before dinner, sure -- have some carrot sticks or a cracker or whatever. If they didn't like what I cooked, fine, have a sandwich instead.
Neither of my kids had allergies, so we didn't have to worry about monitoring food intake due to this -- though I think my son may have had a dairy sensitivity, but he stopped drinking milk when he was a toddler so he grew out of it I think.
They each went through food phases -- at one point my daughter wanted kraft dinner all the time; my son called himself a "meat-atarian" when he was a teenager -- but today they are both normal weight, they keep in shape, they both love salads and don't particularly like desserts, and they can both cook.
So, the kids are alright. And as a side benefit, this approach also saved my husband and I a lot of needless stress -- parents already have a long list of things we must argue about with our children, so why add food to the list?

Politics, like nature, abhors a vacuum

Over at Corrente, in a comment to Lambert's post about how Obama is already in control, bringiton describes the new reality in American foreign policy:

There has been a vacuum in American foreign policy and international relations for some time now. . . the rest of the world is heartily sick of it and has stopped talking to George and Dick. At the last several international conferences, our President has been shunned publically; there are photo after photo showing him sitting alone staring off while all around him other leaders are engaged with each other in conversation.
That smart-ass simpering cocaine and alcohol addled inarticulate dime store cowboy embarrassment that we’ve all grown to loath is not an act; that is GeeW, right out front and real, and nobody wants to put up with him anymore. Even Maliki, the tenuous prime minister whose status in office, and indeed his very life, depends on the continued support and good will of 150,000 of the most dangerous military troops on Earth who are occupying his country, jumped at the chance to defy and rebuke both Bush and McCain at the first opportunity for a face-to-face sit down with Obama. . . .
Since the outcome of the Democratic primary became clear, Maliki has stood up to Bush on the oil contracts, on the status of forces agreement, on insisting that a “time horizon” be negotiated, and has now embraced Obama’s proposal for a major forces troop exit at 16 months . . . The negotiations for the future of Iraq are now being conducted between the Prime Minister and a US Senator, who is not even his party’s official nominee as a candidate for the presidency.
The same thing with Karzai in Kabul . . . For years Karzai has called for more troops, more reconstruction, more infrastructure advancement, and those calls have been echoed by every military commander in country and every UN and NGO relief organization on the ground. Bush has done nothing but make one mistake after another in Afghanistan, again perhaps deliberately and perhaps not, but the net result is another disaster. Karzai is also now talking directly to and openly negotiating with Obama, another head of state in another critical situation who has abandoned any pretense of wanting to deal any more with the actual President of The United States. . . .
In the longer term . . . it is not a good thing on principle for anyone other than the Chief Executive or his delegate to be making these kinds of agreements – and agreements they are. . . .
In the short term it is beyond horrific that the sitting President has so completely alienated the entire world and all of its leaders . . . Obama has stepped into the void left Bush and Cheney to seize the power representing America in both Afghanistan and Iraq. So far, and I say this with fingers crossed, he has succeeded in negotiating agreements with Maliki and Karzai that conform to what needs doing, get out of Iraq and clean up Afghanistan. Sounds good, but then one never knows what will actually happen once he is in office. Still, it seems to me that having an adult take charge is probably better than simply leaving a void. The Plutocrats handed the remote control for the Imperial Unitary President Monster to Bush, an untreated coke-head alcoholic, and Cheney, a victim of multiple strokes in the last stages of cardiac failure; the boys lost it, big surprise, and now Obama has picked it up.
. . . Just to be sure we have this in perspective; Obama is not the first non-President to assume such a role. Ronald Reagan was conducting secret, unauthorized foreign policy negotiations, in direct contrast to the best interests of America and American citizen hostages, while he was running for the office. Obama, at least, is being open about it and thus far appears to be moving things in the direction any sane person would want. Woodrow Wilson’s second wife, Edith, took on the role of gatekeeper for him after his stroke and kept him isolated from the Vice President and his Cabinet, selecting what issues were presented to him and relaying his decisions to others; or at least her interpretation of his wishes. Obama, at least, is an elected United States Senator.
This isn’t a good deal for anyone, but it isn’t entirely unprecedented either.

The only thing that bringiton missed was that our very own Yo Harper is still BFF with GeeW. Isn't that special?