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tagged w/ Contraception
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Report: Romney Profits from Contraception He Opposes (VIDEO)
Romney’s Goldman Sachs 2002 Exchange Place Fund, valued at over a million dollars in 2010, brought in nearly $600,000 in gains in 2010 and is invested in:
Watson Pharmaceuticals
Johnson & Johnson
Merck
Mylan
Pfizer
http://veracitystew.com/2012/02/09/report-romney-profits-from-contraception-he-opposes-video/Romney’s Goldman Sachs 2002 Exchange Place Fund, valued at over a million... more-
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Women's Rights Round-Up: Church, Contraception and Sonograms
The blow-up from the Christian and Catholic right-wingers shows that the fight over women’s sovereignty is shifting from abortion to contraception, as the anti-choice hardliners try to blur the lines and fortify their campaign for dominance over women’s reproductive rights. But as the recent furor over Susan G. Komen’s attempt to undermine Planned Parenthood proved, women are waking up to this war being waged on their rights, and they’re sick and tired of being the politically expedient whipping post of the regressive morons on the right.
http://veracitystew.com/2012/02/07/womens-rights-round-up-church-contraception-and-sonograms/The blow-up from the Christian and Catholic right-wingers shows that the fight over... more-
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Family Planning as adaptation to climate change
Contraception, for those who want it, can be a helpful tool to deal with resource allocation and population concerns.Contraception, for those who want it, can be a helpful tool to deal with resource... more-
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Get off my Planet: Happy Birthday 7 Billion
To mark the world’s population reaching 7 billion on Halloween 2011, WORLDbytes has launched this hilarious parody of modern day Malthusian thinking. The programme features talented Blood Brothers star and ex-RSC actor James Hirst as the central character, Bill. For Bill the news of 7 billion is a Halloween nightmare. His solutions include: getting rid of ‘thickies’, euthanasia, gelding and paying African women not to have children- a carbon offsetting scheme first proposed by the Optimum Population Trust, now rebranded as Population Matters. Bill is no Daily Mail reader, he gets his over-consumption paranoia from the Guardian and he’s going for the cull. This parody reflects WORLDbytes’ concern to challenge the profoundly anti-human roots of over population ideas.To mark the world’s population reaching 7 billion on Halloween 2011, WORLDbytes... more-
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- 4 months ago
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Buh-Bye, Pizza Guy: Herman Cain's Departure in 3, 2, 1...
I think we can safely start the countdown to Herman Cain’s disappearance from the Republican presidential field after a statement he made to Piers Morgan on CNN. In today’s batshit crazy Republican Party, it’s a career ender, for sure.
http://veracitystew.com/2011/10/21/buh-bye-pizza-guy-herman-cains-departure-in-3-2-1/I think we can safely start the countdown to Herman Cain’s disappearance from... more-
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Science Hates Your Balls: The War on Sperm
Scientists, in laboratories all over the globe, are busy thinking of new and hilarious ways to make mice fucking even more pointless. But don't laugh too hard at blank shooting rodents, because science'll be coming for your testicles next!
Since the invention of the penis approximately 47 billion years ago man has been desperately trying to devise ways to control them. They are godless fornication machines, guided only by impulse and an unyielding quest for personal gain and satisfaction of their unquenchable desires. Hell bent on destroying all those that possess them, whether it be through their devilish creation of distilled, fermented spirits used to bend the will of their symbiotic hosts, or their ingenious invention of the internet which they use to transmit their images around the globe to all of those who would marvel at their grandeur.
At the moment there are only two proven methods of male contraception: prayer and butt sex. And if you ask any homosexual couple trying to have a child, they'll tell you it's nigh impossible to impregnate each other, try as they might, but science still isn't sure if it's the power of the prayers of people who hate other people despite their own god telling them not to hate anyone, or just the simple fact that the homosexual uterus is located just below the left lung, too far for the penis to reach through either of the homosexual's two favorite orifices... try as they might.
Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on the proclivity or selfish laziness of whom you ask, heterosexual procreation is much more easily achievable. Almost anyone can do it. But that seems to be the problem. And rather than continue on as we have for the last fifty years, allowing the ladies to take almost complete responsibility for repelling the seminal onslaught on their innards, science says that gentlemen should have more contraceptive options than simply genital mutilation or specially designed poison coated miniature trash bags.
So armies of spooge hating scientists around the world are experimenting with all sorts ways to keep testicle tadpoles from getting from point A to unfertilized egg B. With experimental "solutions" including stopping and restarting sperm production in mice, bombarding scrotums with ultrasound waves, removing proteins that keep sperm cells from being able to penetrate eggs, and blocking vitamin A. You see, apparently as this article seems to suggests and I'm not interested enough to look for confirmation of, "life wigglies" as I so childishly refer to them, are composed solely of vitamin A. So just know, if you ever take any supplement that contains vitamin A, you're swallowing semen.
In India they're testing an injectable synthetic substance that "sabotages sperm as they leave the testes and lasts for years". I don't even know what that means, or have any idea of what it COULD mean. I didn't realize that a sperm cell had so many moving parts that you could simply loosen a bolt or two and it'd fly apart, slam into your urethral wall and explode in a tiny, tiny fireball.
As for what's already on the market, in addition to the customary permanent snip and latex straight jackets there's also apparently other "hormone gels and implants that can make men temporarily infertile" available in America "for other purposes". I'm going to chalk up the "for other purposes" in their description of these currently available temporary infertility gels and implants as some sort of error in translation from what ever language is native to this jizm hating propagandist, because aside from preventing unintentional impregnation, I'm not entirely sure what other purposes temporary infertility could serve. I can't even think of any ridiculous explanations for a statement as seemingly nonsensical as this one. And when I can't think of a way to properly ridicule the stupid thing that you just said, it makes me angry, and frightened, and then angry again. Because I don't know if you're the smartest person in the world or if you've just invented a new stupid that will surely kill us all.
Me, I'm a traditionalist. I don't need any fancy doodads and rigmarole to make sure I don't end up a with a miniature version of myself that only seems to take pleasure in shitting on me. I personally employ the time tested "paint the naval" technique of birth control, which, in doing actual research on the subject I have found when done properly has almost the same effectiveness as any other form of over the counter birth control. Of course, when done incorrectly the failure rate sextuples, but I just have a hard time understanding how the "thorax frosting" method could be done incorrectly. Maybe I've lived a sheltered life, but I've never been surprised by the culmination of my own pelvic efforts. At no point in my life have I ever suddenly, and without substantial forewarning experienced an eruption of mount baldy that's caught me completely unawares... But I guess I just understand how my personal workings and doings present themselves, and apparently that makes me special.
So science: leave my gonads alone! Let the ladies handle the parenthood prevention, because left in the hands of those completely ruled by their more powerful apendage, contraception will be less than pointless. I can't be trusted to not to forget to put my watch on before leaving for wok, you think I'm going to remember to spray my groin with vitamin A killing lasers every morning?
Besides, what me and my seed do is nobody's business but mine and who or what ever I decide to shellac with it.
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For all of your rickety, windowless, primered comedy needs, visit:
vanfullofcandy.comScientists, in laboratories all over the globe, are busy thinking of new and hilarious... more-
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Indonesia's birth control pill for men
BANGKOK, Thailand — On the remote Indonesian island of Papua, tribesmen have long noticed the curious effect of a shrub called “gandarusa.”
If you chew its leaves often enough, men say, your wife won’t get pregnant.
Indonesian scientists, who have transferred this folk method from the jungle to the lab, claim they can extract the shrub’s active ingredient and mass produce it as an over-the-counter pill.
If they’re right, they will accomplish what Western pharmaceutical giants have researched but failed to deliver for decades: a birth control pill for men.
“With luck, it could be released late this year, but it will probably be sold in stores early next year,” said Sugiri Syarief, the head of Indonesia’s state-run National Family Planning Coordination Board.
Researchers began analyzing gandarusa in 1988, Sugiri said. Animal and human trials began in the 1990s and the plant’s effective compound was patented in 2007.
According to a government report on the drug, it prevents pregnancy by slowing down the activity of certain enzymes in the sperm that help them wriggle into a female’s ovum.
Researchers have tested the pill on two waves of male volunteers: first 36 men, then 120 men. This year, they’ll conduct a 350-man study to reinforce their findings so far: that trial volunteers’ sperm remains healthy but unable to penetrate a woman’s egg.
Men taking the gandarusa pills typically regain the ability to impregnate after 72 days, Sugiri said. “There are no side effects,” he said, though his study notes that some men experienced a boosted sex drive.
How did a far-less developed nation beat the Western world to this breakthrough? And for only $226,000, the amount Sugiri estimates his agency has spent on the project?
Bio-diversity deserves some credit. Indonesia is a lush and fertile archipelago, home to the world’s fourth-largest population and an estimated 7,000 medicinal plants. Potential benefits derived from this diverse range of flora are constantly undergoing study.
But the larger impasse to male birth control pills has been pharmaceutical giants, said Elaine Lissner, director of the non-profit Male Contraception Information Project in San Francisco.
Global demand for male birth control appears high, with a 2005 German survey revealing that 60 percent of men in Spain, Germany, Mexico and Brazil are willing to use a new male contraceptive.
But pouring millions into developing a birth control pill for guys still isn’t attractive as a business decision, Lissner said.
A recent study by the U.S. government’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicated that more than 80 percent of women who’ve ever had sex with a man used birth control pills at some point. A male birth control pill could eat into this massive market. And because other options already exist — condoms and vasectomies — the male birth control pill would need to sell for a relatively cheap price.
German pharmaceutical firm Schering dropped male birth control research projects five years ago. Many other drug companies have done the same. A report authored by Lissner notes that, for decades, pundits have promised a male hormonal birth control method will arrive “in five to 10 years.”
“It’s a nightmare from the ‘for-profit’ standpoint,” Lissner said. “We have to accept that the needs of for-profit entities and the needs of the public don’t always perfectly match.”
Research into the gandarusa pill, however, is backed by a different motive: population control.
Though Indonesia’s population of 237 million is only increasing by about 1.3 percent annually, according to the state’s family planning agency, the nation’s poor do most of the procreating. Roughly half of Indonesians live off $2 a day.
Stabilizing Indonesia’s population is now a major government priority, Sugiri said. His family planning agency’s budget was doubled last year to $271 million.
“Everybody has to understand that if we do nothing, the population explosion will be too much,” he said. “We can’t just give men two choices: vasectomy or condoms.”
But Indonesia isn’t the only Asian nation pouring research into male birth control. In China, researchers have tested a hormone-altering pill that proved 95 percent effective.
Indian scientists have developed a polymer that, when injected into vas deferens tubes, kills almost all the sperm before ejaculation. When the polymer is flushed out with a doctor’s assistance, the man is again able to father children.
“A lot of the most exciting work is coming out the developing world,” Lissner said. “When you have incredible brainpower that now has access to good equipment, you start getting some pretty good science.”
But U.S. regulations are likely to prevent American men from accessing these recent developments anytime soon.
Before authorizing a pill’s U.S. release, the federal Food and Drug Administration would likely want scientists to repeat many studies conducted abroad, though some of the data could “potentially be re-used in an application,” Lissner said. The entire process, she estimated, could take five to 10 years.
If Indonesia’s government fulfills its promise, and releases the world’s first cheap, safe, mass-produced birth control pill for men, it will likely require an endorsement from influential religious figures.
Birth control has been depicted as Western “poison” by fundamentalist Islamic groups in Indonesia. Hizb ut-Tahrir, a global movement to establish an Islamic caliphate, has held conferences to sway Muslim youth from using condoms and birth control pills.
According to the Jakarta Post, speakers at a 2009 gathering announced that birth control is “clearly an attempt at genocide that has been planned carefully by the West.”
It is unclear how Islamic hardliners would react to a homegrown pill. The Iranian government has successfully relied on the Quran to promote birth control by highlighting verses that encourage family planning.
Indonesia’s president and other key politicians are ready to publicly support the gandarusa pill, Sugiri said. “The results look really good,” he said. “If everything goes OK, then we’ll want to start promoting this to other countries.”
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/asia-pacific/indonesia/110224/indonesia-birth-control-pill-papua-men?page=fullBANGKOK, Thailand — On the remote Indonesian island of Papua, tribesmen have... more-
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Weekly Pulse: Vermont Poised to Pass Single-Payer
By Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium blogger
Vermont is poised to abolish most forms of private health insurance, Lauren Else reports for In These Times. The state’s newly inaugurated Democratic governor, Peter Shumlin, unveiled his health insurance plan in early February. If the state legislature passes the bill, Vermont will become the first state to ban most forms of private health insurance.
The bill is getting support from some unlikely quarters:
On February 24, the Republican Mayor Christopher Louras, of Rutland, urged the state to adopt the single-payer legislation, noting that more than a third of the city’s $7 million annual payroll is consumed by healthcare costs. “The only way to fix the problem is to blow it up and start over,” Louras said.
A very bad doctor
In the Texas Observer, Saul Elbein tells the bizarre story of small-town huckster Dr. Rolando Arafiles and the nurses who exposed him as a quack and paid with their jobs.
Arafiles came to work at Winkler County Memorial Hospital in 2008. Nurses Anne Mitchell and Vickilyn Galle noticed that patients were walking out of his office with mysterious liquids. Arafiles was selling untested dietary supplements.
Sometimes, he even took patients off their real medicine and directed them to buy his cure-alls, which he sold online, and promoted in seminars at the local Pizza Hut. He prescribed powerful thyroid-stimulating drugs to patients with normal thyroid levels, a potentially lethal practice. He was also performing “unconventional” surgeries, even though he wasn’t a surgeon.
The hospital ignored the nurses’ complaints, so they reported Arafiles to the Texas Medical Board. After the board informed Arafiles that he was under investigation, Arafiles got his golf buddy, the local sheriff, to issue a warrant to search the nurses’ computers. The hospital fired the nurses. The local prosecutor indicted them for “misuse of official information” but these charges fizzled out. In 2010, the two women were awarded $750,000 in compensation from the county, but they still haven’t found new nursing jobs.
What are they doing out there?
Lon Newman is the executive director of Family Planning Health Services, a Wisconsin health clinic that offers birth control and other reproductive health care, but doesn’t provide abortions, or even abortion referrals. Anti-choice protesters picket the clinic anyway, Newman reports at RH Reality Check. They carry signs with misleading slogans like “The Pill Kills” and “Stop Chemical Abortion.”
Newman wonders why, given all the pressing problems in Wisconsin, the nation, and the world, some people make it a priority to hang out at Family Planning Health Services and badmouth birth control:
There are so many struggles for freedom, social justice, and disaster relief right now, that I do not think it is justifiable to be blocking access to health care for our uninsured neighbors who want to delay childbearing so they can finish school or take a new job or even wait to have children until they can afford them.
South Dakota institutes 72-hour abortion waiting period
The governor of South Dakota signed legislation this week that will force women seeking abortions in the state to observe a 72-hour waiting period. As Scott Lemieux argues in TAPPED, mandatory waiting period legislation is based on inherently sexist assumptions. By instituting a waiting period, the state is institutionalizing the stereotype that women seeking abortions are acting irrationally and must be coerced into waiting.
Body positive
Body hatred hasn’t been this popular since the days of the hair shirt. Hundreds of millions of women, and no shortage of men, spend billions of hours and billions of dollars despising their bodies. A new movement is afoot to find the political in this very personal issue, Sarah Seltzer reports in AlterNet. This year, the Women’s Therapy Center Institute will hold a series of summits in New York, London, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, and Melbourne. In keeping with the theme of “Loved Bodies, Big Ideas” participants are discussing a range of ideas for helping to improve body image, including a so-called “reality stamp,” a seal of approval that would indicate that a photograph hasn’t been digitally altered beyond the bounds of reason. Come to think of it, a “reality stamp” could be useful for all kinds of politics.
This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about health care by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Pulse for a complete list of articles on health care reform, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, environment, health care and immigration issues, check out The Audit, The Mulch, and The Diaspora. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.By Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium blogger Vermont is poised to abolish most... more-
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Weekly Pulse: Japan’s Nuclear Crisis Deepens
By Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium blogger
A second reactor unit at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan may have ruptured, authorities announced on Wednesday. This is on top of their earlier revelation that the containment vessel of a separate reactor unit had cracked.
As of Tuesday, four nuclear reactors in Japan seem to be in partial meltdown in the wake of an earthquake and tsunami, according to Christian Parenti of the Nation:
One of them, reactor No. 2, seems to have ruptured. The situation is spinning out of control as radiation levels spike. The US Navy has pulled back its aircraft carrier, the USS Ronald Reagan, after seventeen of its crew were exposed to radiation while flying sixty miles off the Japanese coast.
But despite three major explosions—at reactor No. 1, then No. 3, then No. 2—the Fukushima containment vessels seem to be holding. (Chernobyl lacked that precaution, having only a flimsy cement containment shell that collapsed, allowing the massive release of radioactive material.)
So, the good news is that only one out of four of the reactors is teetering on the brink of a full meltdown, and engineers might still be able to stave off disaster. The bad news, Parenti explains, is that spent fuel rods on the reactor sites could pose grave health hazards even if the threat of meltdown is averted. Even so-called “spent” rods remain highly radioactive.
The big question is whether the facilities that house this waste survived the earthquake, the tsunami, and any subsequent massive explosions at the nearby reactor. Given the magnitude of the destruction, and the relatively flimsy facilities used to house the spent rods, it seems unlikely that all the containment pools emerged unscathed. Parenti explains:
Unlike the reactors, spent fuel pools are not—repeat not—housed in any sort of hardened or sealed containment structures. Rather, the fuel rods are packed tightly together in pools of water that are often several stories above ground.
A pond at the Fukushima Daiichi plant is overheating, but radiation levels were so high that the Japanese military has postponed a helicopter mission to douse the pond with water.
Journalist and environmental activist Harvey Wasserman tells the Real News Network that the housing the spent rods (a.k.a. nuclear waste) is a chronic problem for the global nuclear industry.
Wasserman told GRITtv that the west coast of the United States has reactors that could suffer a similar fate in the event of a sufficiently large earthquake.
“If I were in Japan, I would at least get the children away from the reactor, because their bodies are growing faster and their cells are more susceptible to radiation damage. I would go out to 50 kilometers and at least get the children away from those reactors,” nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen told DemocracyNow! on Tuesday. At the time he said this, 70,000 residents had already been forced to evacuate their homes, and another 140,000 were ordered to stay indoors.
Mainstreaming anti-contraception
Kirsten Powers, Fox News’ resident self-proclaimed liberal, took to the pages of the Daily Beast recently to make the bizarre case that Planned Parenthood should be de-funded because the 100-year-old organization doesn’t really prevent the half-million abortions that it claims to prevent by supplying millions of clients with reliable birth control. (Powers was forced to concede that a gross statistical error rendered her entire piece invalid.) At RH Reality Check, Amanda Marcotte describes how Powers attempted to repackage fringe anti-contraception arguments for a mainstream audience. At TAPPED, I explain why Planned Parenthood’s abortion-prevention claim is rock solid.
Diet quackery
Unscrupulous doctors are cashing in on the latest diet fad: hormone injections derived from the urine of pregnant women, Kristina Chew notes for Care2.com. Patients pay $1,000 for consultations, a supply human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), and a 500-calorie-a-day diet plan. There is no evidence that hCG increases weight loss more than a starvation diet alone. But paying $1,000 to inject yourself in the butt every day does evidently work up a hell of a placebo effect.
This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about health care by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Pulse for a complete list of articles on health care reform, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, environment, health care and immigration issues, check out The Audit, The Mulch, and The Diaspora. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.By Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium blogger A second reactor unit at the... more-
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Intrauterine Guard to the Rescue!
Why think for yourself when we can do it for you?-
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Weekly Pulse: The Republicans’ War On Women
By Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium blogger
The entire federal government might shut down over birth control. Yes, birth control. This special edition of the Pulse is about the ongoing war against women being waged in Congress and in state legislatures nationwide.
Cutting birth control
Last Friday, the House voted to amend the continuing resolution to fund the federal government to defund the $317 million Title X Family Planning Program, a major beneficiary of which is Planned Parenthood. None of this money funds abortions. Instead, it goes to birth control, cancer screenings, and other reproductive health services for 5 million low-income Americans.
This kind of preventive care is highly cost-effective. Every federal family planning dollar saves an estimated $4 tax dollars on unintended pregnancy costs alone. Saving money by de-funding contraception is like “saving money” by not paying your rent. It’s not savings if you end up staying in a hotel that costs even more.
As Nick Baumann reports for Mother Jones, Senate Democrats are confident that they can defeat the measure. However, if that happens and the House Republicans won’t pass an acceptable alternative, the federal government will run out of money and shut down until the impasse is resolved.
Julianne Hing, blogging at TAPPED, wrote of last Friday’s House vote to de-fund Planned Parenthood:
I find it difficult to summon the energy to be angered or even shocked by the news anymore. I wouldn’t describe my reaction on Friday as either of those two. It felt like something much deeper — like an attack on women and women’s access to health care. I took it personally.
The vote was just the latest assault on women’s health care by House Republicans. H.R. 3 initially proposed to redefine rape as “forcible rape.” That provision was withdrawn amid public outcry, but the bill would still effectively eliminate private health insurance coverage for abortion. H.R. 358 would give hospitals a loophole to not refer women for abortion, even if their lives are in danger.
The miscarriage mafia
Georgia state Rep. Bobbie Franklin (R) has introduced a bill that would investigate unsupervised miscarriages as potential murders, Robin Marty reports for Care2.
Here’s the relevant text of the bill, H.B.1:
When a spontaneous fetal death required to be reported by this Code section occurs without medical attendance at or immediately after the delivery or when inquiry is required by Article 2 of Chapter 16 of Title 45, the ‘Georgia Death Investigation Act,’ the proper investigating official shall investigate the cause of fetal death and shall prepare and file the report within 30 days[.]
The bill opens with the familiar anti-choice tactic of defining a fetus as a person and declaring abortion to be murder. Even fervent anti-choicers may regard this as something of an overreach on Franklin’s part. Historically, anti-choicers have sought to pass discrete “personhood amendments” while maintaining the polite fiction that these laws have nothing to do with restricting abortion. Franklin is not a fan of the incremental approach. He is seeking to redefine a fetus as a person and abortion as murder in a single piece of legislation.
As Marty notes, one third of all pregnancies end in miscarriages. In early miscarriages, the woman may never even know she was pregnant. So, Franklin essentially wants to criminalize unauthorized vaginal bleeding in Georgia. Setting aside the basic human rights of women, as Franklin is only too happy to do, his miscarriage bill is about as practical as his bid to make Georgians pay their state taxes in gold and silver coins.
State legislatures all over the country are weighing ever more draconian restrictions on abortion. Republican lawmakers in Ohio have proposed legislation to ban abortion of any fetus with a heartbeat, Daniel Tencer of Raw Story reports. South Dakota Republicans were forced to back off a proposed law that appeared to legalize the murder of abortion providers.
Scott Walker’s anti-abortion crusade
You probably know Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker as the Tea Party favorite who wants to take collective bargaining rights away from the state’s public employees. You may not know that Walker is also a longtime anti-abortion crusader. Andy Kroll of Mother Jones reports that Walker, a former president of his college’s chapter of Students for Life, has a long history of campaigning against abortion, contraception, and sex ed. As a gubernatorial candidate, Walker won the endorsement of the hardline Pro-Life Wisconsin, which even opposes abortion to save the life of the woman.
As I reported in RH Reality Check, Walker’s anti-union “budget repair” bill also contains an all-out attack on a popular and successful Medicaid program to provide birth control to Wisconsinites whose incomes would qualify them for Medicaid if they became pregnant. The program saves Wisconsin an estimated $45 million a year in maternal and infant health costs alone and brings in 9 federal dollars for every on dollar spent by the state.
The Republicans swept to power with promises of limited government and fiscal conservatism. Now that they’re in office, their true agenda appears to be restricting women’s freedom at taxpayers’ expense.
This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about health care by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Pulse for a complete list of articles on health care reform, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, environment, health care and immigration issues, check out The Audit, The Mulch, and The Diaspora. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.By Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium blogger The entire federal government might... more-
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The Weekly Pulse: Michael Pollan’s Rules for Thanksgiving, Plus Whole Foods’ Healthcare Lies
Editor’s Note: Happy Thanksgiving from the Media Consortium! This week, we aren’t stopping The Audit, The Pulse, The Diaspora, or The Mulch, but we are taking a bit of a break. Expect shorter blog posts, and The Diaspora and The Mulch will be posted on Wednesday afternoon, instead of their usual Thursday and Friday postings. We’ll return to our normal schedule next week.
by Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium blogger
Wednesday is the heaviest travel day of the year in the United States, as millions of Americans head home to celebrate Thanksgiving. Some of you are probably reading this dispatch on PDAs as you wait in an interminable line at airport security. Here’s some food for thought.
At Grist, food writer Michael Pollan officially declares himself a Rules Guy. Don’t worry, that doesn’t mean he won’t accept a Friday dinner invitation offered after noon on Wednesday. Pollan thinks that our healthy eating skills are passed down to us as part of food culture. In this era of drive-through windows and meal replacement bars, a lot of the old wisdom is falling by the wayside and Americans are finding themselves adrift in a sea of calories. On the eve of Thanksgiving, Pollan provides some helpful guidelines for avoiding the food coma:
[M]any ethnic traditions have their own memorable expressions for what amounts to the same recommendation. Many cultures, for examples, have grappled with the problem of food abundance and come up with different ways of proposing we stop eating before we’re completely full: the Japanese say “hara hachi bu” (“Eat until you are 4/5 full”); Germans advise eaters to “tie off the sack before it’s full.” And the prophet Mohammed recommended that a full belly should contain one-third food, one-third drink, and one-third air. My own Russian-Jewish grandfather used to say at the end of every meal, “I always like to leave the table a little bit hungry.”
But wait, there’s more!
* Unions representing airline pilots and flight attendants are advising their members to avoid the the TSA’s new backscatter x-ray scans because of concerns about the long-term health effects of x-ray radiation. Crew members who refused scans have been subjected to new “enhanced” pat-down searches. This week, the TSA granted an exception to pilots, but not to flight attendants. As I reported for Working In These Times, all crew members go through the same FBI background check and fingerprinting process. “Don’t touch my junk!” has become a rallying cry for passengers, particularly white men, who are not accustomed to being asked to give up any part of their body’s autonomy for the greater good. Is it a coincidence that 95% of pilots are men and three-quarters of flight attendants are women? [Update: The TSA has relented. The agency announced Tuesday that flight attendants will now get the same exemption as pilots.]
* Adam Serwer argues in The American Prospect that it’s easy to demand tough security measures when the presumed targets are faceless Muslims in a distant country. When air travelers are asked to compromise their own privacy in the name of security, the tradeoff suddenly seems very different.
* Employee health insurance deductibles are skyrocketing at Whole Foods and CEO John Mackey is trying to blame the increase on health care reform. “This is very important for everyone to understand: 100% of the increases in deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums in 2011 compared to 2010 are due to new federal mandates and regulations,” Mackey wrote in a corporate memo. In fact, as Josh Harkinson reports in Mother Jones, Mackey’s memo is pure, organic BS. The provisions in the Affordable Care Act that might increase costs won’t go into effect until 2014, so it’s hard to figure out how federal policies could be responsible. Health insurance costs were rising by about 5% per year, year after year, before the Affordable Care Act passed. The truth is that health insurance is getting more expensive because health care is getting more expensive. As Harkinson points out, one of the reasons that health care is getting more expensive is because corporations like Whole Foods are pushing more of their employees into part-time work to avoid covering them. Of course, when those workers get sick, someone has to pick up the cost of their care. So those who have insurance, including some of Whole Foods’ own employees, have to pay more to make up the difference.
This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about health care by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Pulse for a complete list of articles on health care reform, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, environment, health care and immigration issues, check out The Audit, The Mulch, and The Diaspora. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.Editor’s Note: Happy Thanksgiving from the Media Consortium! This week, we... more-
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Buy Your Own Damn Pills! More ObamaCare Shenanigans
WASHINGTON – Fifty years after the pill, another birth control revolution may be on the horizon: free contraception for women in the U.S., thanks to the new health care law.
That could start a shift toward more reliable — and expensive — forms of birth control that are gaining acceptance in other developed countries.
But first, look for a fight over social mores.
A panel of experts advising the government meets in November to begin considering what kind of preventive care for women should be covered at no cost to the patient, as required under President Barack Obama's overhaul.
Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., author of the women's health amendment, says the clear intent was to include family planning.
But U.S. Catholic bishops say pregnancy is a healthy condition, not an illness. In comments filed with the Department of Health and Human Services, the bishops say they oppose any requirement to cover contraceptives or sterilization as preventive care.
"We don't consider it to be health care, but a lifestyle choice," said John Haas, president of the National Catholic Bioethics Center, a Philadelphia think tank whose work reflects church teachings. "We think there are other ways to avoid having children than by ingesting chemicals paid for by health insurance."
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2010/11/01/contraception-free-health-care-law/WASHINGTON – Fifty years after the pill, another birth control revolution may... more-
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The Pope, Pills, and Pop
So the Pope has been and gone, leaving behind him the opportunity for The Prime Minister to overuse the word "Faith", and attempt to paint himself in a golden light, using the darkness of the previous ruling party as a contrast. Utter twaddle, in my opinion.
(Continues...)
http://talkingskull.com/column/kingdom-united/pope-pills-and-popSo the Pope has been and gone, leaving behind him the opportunity for The Prime... more-
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FDA OKs new, 5-day emergency contraceptive
U.S. health officials on Friday approved a new, longer-lasting "morning-after" pill to prevent pregnancy after unprotected sex.
The prescription drug, called ella, is made by French company HRA Pharma and will be sold in the United States by Watson Pharmaceuticals.
It is the first emergency contraceptive approved since a five-year battle under the Bush administration ended with limited over-the-counter sales and age checks by pharmacists for a rival pill.
Ella has been shown to prevent pregnancy for up to five days after unprotected sex.
The Food and Drug Administration said it cleared ella based on two clinical trials that showed the drug was safe and effective. The drug "is not intended for routine use as a contraceptive," the FDA said in a statement.
Watson said it planned to launch ella in the fourth quarter of 2010. The company has not announced a price.
The drug will compete with Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd's Plan B, which works for up to three days after intercourse. Plan B is available without a prescription for those aged 17 and older, but ella will require a prescription for all ages.
Plan B, first cleared as a prescription drug in 1999, saw dozens of medical and other groups push for over-the-counter use starting in 2001. The Bush administration approved limited "behind-the-counter" sales in 2006.
While morning-after pills have not been huge money-makers, they have generated controversy, especially in the United States.
Sex, birth control and abortion are perennial political hotbeds even though emergency birth control drugs had been available for decades.
Conservatives, Republicans and other critics have said making another morning-after pill available -- one that works even longer after sex -- will further promote promiscuity. They also question ella's safety and say the drug is more akin to an abortion pill than birth control.
Women's groups, Democrats and other advocates say the pills offer women much-needed options to plan their families and provide a safety net when other birth control methods fail or women are raped.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38697798/ns/health-sexual_health/U.S. health officials on Friday approved a new, longer-lasting... more-
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Weekly Pulse: The Religious Right vs. Birth Control
by Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium blogger
Does health care reform’s promise of preventive care extend to free birth control? Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services have 18 months to decide whether to require insurers to provide oral contraceptives, IUDs, and other prescription birth control with no co-pay. With pro-choice Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at the helm, HHS is expected to say yes. [Update: The Wall Street Journal is reporting that birth control will not be on the White House's preliminary list of free preventive services, to be issued today. However, as Miriam Perez of feministing explains, HHS will ultimately have the final word. Observers, including Dana Goldstein who covers reproductive rights for the Daily Beast, are optimistic that the pro-choice side will carry the day at HHS.]
At this point in the process, social conservatives are shut out in the cold, quaking with impotent rage. Now that the reform bill is law, HHS has to interpret the rules—and the Obama administration officials at HHS can’t be swayed as easily as elected officials.
Religious right on the warpath
Predictably, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), the National Abstinence Education Association, and the Heritage Foundation are up in arms. They’ve picked a deeply unpopular battle. Abortion remains controversial in some circles, but birth control is as American as baseball. The vast majority of sexually active women in the U.S. tell pollsters that they are not trying to become pregnant, and 89% of them are using some form of birth control.
“Seriously,” writes Monica Potts of TAPPED, “a battle over contraceptives?” Over 15 million Americans currently use hormonal contraception. Studies show that the vast majority of Americans are morally comfortable with birth control.
Expanding access to birth control is smart policy because it reduces health care costs, as Suzi Khimm notes in Mother Jones. Birth control is a lot cheaper for insurers than pregnancy and childbirth. Free birth control could change women’s lives for the better. In this economy, $30-$50 a month for hormonal birth control can be a major obstacle for many. As Michelle Chen notes in ColorLines, women of color are among those hardest hit by out-of-pocket costs.
Birth control as common ground?
Many centrists hope that contraception will be a source of “common ground” between the pro-choice and anti-abortion camps. The premise sounds reasonable. If anti-choicers oppose abortion, surely they will support measures proven to reduce the abortion rate, like expanded access to contraception. Political scientist Scott Lemieux argues in TAPPED that conservative opposition to birth control coverage is further proof that the common ground hypothesis is wishful thinking:
The problem with this line of reasoning is that it ignores the broader set of assumptions about women and sexuality on which actual opposition to abortion is based. Consider anti-choice Republicans, who consistently opposed expanding contraceptive use: Given the choice between reducing abortion rates and controlling female sexuality, they will always choose the latter. Thus the idea that contraception can be a means of achieving a ceasefire in the culture wars has always been a fantasy. Liberals and conservatives aren’t just divided by abortion but by broader questions of female equality and sexual freedom.
The USCCB clearly understands that birth control is broadly popular. Its lobbyists aren’t even trying to argue that birth control shouldn’t be covered because it’s sinful. Instead, they are playing semantic games about what constitutes preventative health care. According to the USCCB, birth control shouldn’t count because fertility isn’t a disease. Be that as it may, pregnancy is a life-altering health condition that can kill you. As a matter of fact, the Catholic Church is on the record as saying that pregnant women must sacrifice their own lives for their fetuses. Ergo, pregnancy prevention is preventive health care.
Approving free birth control would go a long way towards restoring the trust between the Obama administration and its pro-choice base, at low political cost. It seems unlikely that the USCCB and its allies have the power to fuel a national backlash on this one. After all, three quarters of U.S. Catholics disagree with their own church’s teachings on birth control.
Conscience concerns
Speaking of the Department of Health and Human Services, Megan Carpentier at RH Reality Check wonders what happened to President Barack Obama’s early promise to repeal the so-called “conscience clause” rule that allows health care workers to opt out of providing reproductive health care that conflicts with their anti-choice principles. The rule is still on the books, over a year after Obama pledged to repeal it.
FEMA Foul
Finally, how did some BP oil spill cleanup workers end up living in formaldehyde-laced FEMA trailers ruled unfit for human habitation? As I report for Working In These Times, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, wants answers from FEMA and the General Services Administration about how these trailers found their way back onto the market.
This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about health care by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Pulse for a complete list of articles on health care reform, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, environment, health care and immigration issues, check out The Audit, The Mulch, and The Diaspora. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.by Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium blogger Does health care reform’s... more-
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Weekly Pulse: Dr. George Tiller’s Assassin Was No Lone Wolf
by Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium blogger
When Scott Roeder shot Dr. George Tiller in church last year, media accounts described him as a lone wolf. Roeder acted alone on the day of the assassination, but he was part of a community of career anti-choice terrorists, as Amanda Robb reports in Ms. Magazine.
A community of radical, anti-abortion activists
Over the course of 6 months, Robb interviewed Roeder over a dozen times. She met with his allies at the court house. She even got permission to sit in on phone calls between Roeder and his friends. Robb’s exhaustive investigation revealed that Roeder had for years been enmeshed in a community of radical, anti-abortion activists, many of whom have committed acts of terrorism ranging from clinic arson to butyric acid attacks to murder.
Roeder was not a card-carrying member of any mainstream anti-abortion organization, but he drove to the scene of the crime with the number of Operation Rescue’s senior policy adviser on his dashboard.
Robb’s intensive reporting was supported by the investigative fund of the Nation Institute.
The enemy in your pants
Sexually transmitted infections (STI) are one of the oldest security threats in the history of warfare. During the Second World War, the U.S. military launched a PR offensive to teach recruits how to avoid venereal disease. Syphilis was a special concern because penicillin didn’t become available until after the war. Elizabeth Gettelman and Mark Murrmann of Mother Jones present an entertaining slide show of classic military sex ed posters, including the image you see above.
And now for something completely different
The board of directors of the National Association of Evangelicals (NEA), which represents more than 40 denominations with millions of members, unanimously approved a resolution that listed increased access to contraception as one acceptable strategy for lowering the abortion ration.
Robin Marty of RH Reality Check suggests that contraception might be a wedge issue within the anti-choice community. The NEA is already getting pushback from more conservative forces within the movement and the Catholic Church remains unshakably opposed to contraception.
What about the workers?
The seemingly unstoppable oil geyser in the Gulf of Mexico has captivated national attention. But, as Mike Lillis of the Washington Independent reports, the lives of oil workers are being forgotten in the face of the ongoing ecological disaster. Eleven people died in the blast that set the spill in motion and dozens more were injured. Oil rigs are among the most dangerous places to work, but nobody is listening:
“The worker safety issue has been completely lost in this story,” said Tom O’Connor, executive director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, an advocacy group. “It’s one of the biggest industrial disasters in recent history, and yet Congress [views it] the same as the public: They’re not seeing it as a worker safety issue.”
The rig workers aren’t the only ones at risk. As I report for Working In These Times, oil spill cleanup workers are complaining that BP isn’t giving them the personal protective equipment they need to work with oil and dispersant. Some say they’re already getting sick.
Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-La) whose coastal district one of the closest to the rig, is lobbying Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to set up mobile clinics for rescue workers and volunteers. Care2 has more information on the exchanges between Sebelius and BP regarding workers’ health.
In AlterNet, Amanda Terkel reports that cleanup worker John Wunstell, Jr. filed an injunction against BP after his oil-soaked clothes were confiscated when sought treatment at a local clinic. Wuntsell wants BP to stop “altering, testing, or destroying” any evidence from workers who become ill.
This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about health care by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Pulse for a complete list of articles on health care reform, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, environment, health care and immigration issues, check out The Audit, The Mulch, and The Diaspora. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.by Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium blogger When Scott Roeder shot Dr. George... more-
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Pompadours, slurpees, condoms, and some FAILs that I don't think are FAILs (#15)
So, some people like to call things FAILs, when they aren’t FAILs at all. I try to look for the glimmer of goodness in everything, so this is another edition of some FAILs that I don’t think are really FAILs.
Most structures need mortar and steel to stand. This man has constructed a fully functioning Pompadour with no more than hairspray and elbow grease.
C'mon this isn't a FAIL. They say that unemployment rates are surging amongst youth. Clearly this young man is rolling in dough. Don't knock this young entrepreneur.
NOT A FAIL! As the 16th century English poet Christopher Marlowe once wrote: "Tis but an honour, to be granted glorious death from a Slurpee machine."
I know you say that you're "morally opposed" to big box stores, but it's so inconvenient to go downtown just for hookers. This store opened literally around the corner, I think you should really just check it out. I know that you'll really appreciate the discounts.
Do you want your kid to give your kid more air? Have you tested the playpen to make sure he doesn't go whoopsies? Did you double check? If the structure is sound this isn't a FAIL. Next!
UGH! I can't get over the abstinence-only sex education community. Let me make this clear: IF YOU GO ON A PICNIC WITHOUT CONDOMS, YOU WILL COME BACK PREGNANT!
This isn't a FAIL. It's a great example of someone adhering to the values of sustainability. When most people get junk mail, they normally just throw it out. This individual decided to prank-the-f*ck out of her roommate, by filling their Camry with coupons.
This is only a FAIL because you both went through the window. Honey how many times do I have to tell you? We have a door! The only time you should use a window, is in case of fire. And if this were a fire, your laughter would be completely inappropriate.
Catch up on your FAILs that aren’t FAILS.
- Some FAILs that I don’t think are FAILs #14
- SFTIDTAF #13
- SFTIDTAF #12
- SFTIDTAF #11
- More STIDTAF
So, some people like to call things FAILs, when they aren’t FAILs at all. I try... more-
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The great green contraception debate: What kind of car should I drive?
[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Algae powered Prius"][/caption]
Cars cars cars. I used to think you had to be a guy to be into cars. Right up until that moment when I started really caring about my carbon footprint, and then all I could think about was freaking cars. I got obsessed to be true. I looked into veggie cars. That’s cool, but my friends who were doing it were spending hours gathering oil and then creating the fuel in their garages and that didn’t work for me. I checked out biodiesel, and considered getting an old diesel car and converting it. But when I looked at the kind of car I could afford, and added up the amount of repairs that car would also need, that was ironically expensive. Then I looked into converting my car into an electric. One long drive down to LA later I soon realized that that epic procedure was out of the question for me as well.
And then I started looking into newer cars, which led me on a massive hunt to find and understand what went into making a car green, which took me on a epic hunt to learn about new technologies and what actually went into defining a car as green. This entire process has only been two years in the making and has taken hours of scouring listservs and barely managed sites, and frankly, turned out to be a source of torture for this non-autophile. At the end of the day, the process made me want to ride my bike more. But it doesn’t change the issue: I still need a car, and I still want it to be a good one that is using the latest technologies and within my price range.
While embarking on my latest search for a green car I learned something I didn't expect to hear: If you want to reduce your carbon footprint no more making out in the back seat of your car. Wait. I mean, you can make out, just don’t go all of the way. No wait. IF there the back seat of your car is big enough, you can go all of the way, but you have to use a condom. So if you really want to reduce your carbon footprint. Look in your..uhh..wallet, and not at you gas tank. That's what I recently learned while checking out an article reporting on the Frankfurt Auto Show: I should start using condoms to lower my carbon footprint. The facts are coming out, if you want a car that has a small carbon footprint (we'll skip over the argument that you wouldn’t have a car) than you should have a small car. A very small car. The kind of car that would make you get out of it if you wanted to...discuss... the birds and the bees. The kind of car that doesn't need to carry a large family.
That is what The London School of Economics suggests, that condoms and other forms of birth control would be a good first step. A new report, Fewer Emitters, Lower Emissions, Less Cost, suggests that family planning should be seen as a primary method for curbing greenhouse-gas emissions.
John Voelcker, editor in chief of GreenCarReports.com asks the very simple question: "Suppose all the money we're investing in better gas mileage and auto emission controls could be used to cut greenhouse gases more productively? What would we spend it on?
Turns out that family planning services are remarkably cost-effective at cutting carbon emissions. Contraception and family planning can cut 1 ton of carbon for $6.70, the report says, against more conventional low-carbon technologies (including more fuel-efficient cars) at up to $31.70 per ton."
Does this change the fact that reproducing is part of our genetic design, and that I happen to really like small children? Nope. This is beginning to be the heated debate of our time, and the conversation will only get more heated as the temperatures rise (or rather, sporadically changes). Meanwhile, to distract myself, I'll keep fantasizing about getting a better and greener car.
infoMania's Ben Hoffman says, Buy a Prius, Get Laid
Related content:
Can Condoms Curb Climate Change Cheaper Than Low-Carbon Cars?
Frankfurt: Volkswagen's Radical 170-MPG Diesel Two-Seater
Want To Go Even Greener? Power Your Prius on...Algae ?!?!?
[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="300"... more-
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Group fights overpopulation with 100K free ‘endangered species’ condoms for Valentine’s
With 3,000 volunteers in all 50 states, the Center for Biological Diversity will distribute 100,000 free condoms for Valentine’s Day. The group hopes to raise awareness of the devastating effects of human overpopulation on the environment with condoms “endangered species” condoms.
The condom wrappers feature six different endangered species with rhyming slogans: “Wrap with care, save the polar bear,” Wear a jimmy hat, save the big cat,” “Cover your tweedle, save the burying beetle,”“Hump smarter, save the snail darter,” “Use a stopper, save the hopper,” and “Wear a condom now, save the spotted owl.”
“Human overpopulation is destroying wildlife habitat at an unprecedented rate,” said Randy Serraglio, a conservation advocate leading the campaign.
“All of the major threats to the earth’s biodiversity – sprawl, logging, mining, dams, pollution, and climate change – are driven by human overpopulation.”
(Click on the link to read more and to find out where you can get the endangered species condoms.)With 3,000 volunteers in all 50 states, the Center for Biological Diversity will... more-
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