If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have paradise in a few years.
– Bertrand Russell
I am a 42-year-old happily married mother of two elementary-schoolers. My husband and I both work, and like many couples, we’re starved for time together. One Thursday evening this past March, we managed to snag some rare couple time and, in a sudden rush of passion, I failed to insert my diaphragm.
The next morning, after getting my kids off to school, I called my ob/gyn to get a prescription for Plan B, the emergency contraceptive pill that can prevent a pregnancy — but only if taken within 72 hours of intercourse. As we’re both in our forties, my husband and I had considered our family complete, and we weren’t planning to have another child, which is why, as a rule, we use contraception. I wanted to make sure that our momentary lapse didn’t result in a pregnancy.
The receptionist, however, informed me that my doctor did not prescribe Plan B. No reason given. Neither did my internist. The midwifery practice I had used could prescribe it, but not over the phone, and there were no more open appointments for the day. The weekend — and the end of the 72-hour window — was approaching….
…Weeks later, the two drugstore pregnancy tests I took told a different story. Positive. I couldn’t believe it.
And she knows who is responsible:
…It was a decision I am sorry I had to make. It was awful, painful, sickening. But I feel that this administration gave me practically no choice but to have an unwanted abortion because the way it has politicized religion made it well-nigh impossible for me to get emergency contraception that would have prevented the pregnancy in the first place.
Here in Washington there’s been a flap over a decision by the Pharmacy Board that effectively says that pharmacists can refuse to dispense prescriptions because of individual conscience. The trolls on one of the local political boards have been having a field day with this. One of the most common threads was that in a country with 230,000 pharmacists (or however many there are, according to the troll) you should be able to get your prescription filled somewhere.
Well, I guess this puts a new slant on the issue.
Oh, and to her credit Governor Gregoire is gently hinting that the board might want to revisit this decision, and that their terms of office are coming up in January, and she’s the one who appoints the board. The state Senate Majority leader (I think, I don’t have the article in front of me) has also promised to address this in the next session of the legislature.
After years of ardent support for the Iraq war, Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman could become that conflict’s first big political casualty in a Democratic primary race fueled by rising anti-war anger.
Lieberman, the party’s vice presidential nominee in 2000, faces a growing challenge from a political neophyte who has rallied Democrats angered by the senator’s enthusiastic backing of the war and willingness to support Republican
President George W. Bush on other issues.
And all the other war-supporting suck-up politicians better take note.
The beauty of this is that it can easily become a self-reinforcing meme, a self-fulfilling prophecy: Few, even among those who share his views, will want to volunteer to work on the campaign of a loser.
Airports are being used by people smugglers to hold “slave auctions” of women being sold into prostitution, said the Crown Prosecution Service.
The CPS said traffickers were trading sex workers as soon as they arrived in the UK from countries, including states in eastern Europe.
“Brothel keepers are bidding for women destined for prostitution,” it said.
Meanwhile the Sunday Telegraph reported hundreds of children as young as six are brought to the UK yearly as slaves.
A CPS conference on Monday is to discuss airport crime, and its director in west London, Nazir Afzal, said: “Criminal activity at the UK’s airports is on the increase.
“We are now seeing ‘slave auctions’ being held in public places at airports where brothel keepers are bidding for women destined for prostitution.”
One auction had taken place outside a coffee shop in the arrivals hall at Gatwick Airport, the CPS said. Others were believed to have been staged at Heathrow, Stansted and other UK airports, it added.
[I’m going to be out of town Wednesday thru Sunday, so here’s an extra helping of science to hold you over – and someone still needs to step up to do the Jazz Jam this week, LOL.]
Scientists have identified a previously unrecognized link between higher latitude climate dynamics and tropical African climate, the latter leading to exceptionally high burial of organic carbon in the deep tropical Atlantic. After periodic bursts of global warming caused by changes in earth’s orbit over millions of years, there is a 5000 year period when excess carbon is transported into the deep ocean by increased rains in mid-southern latitudes, after removal from the atmosphere by plants. Climate change models will need to be modified to account for this effect, and also for this: The ability of atmospheric aerosol particles to seed the formation of the droplets that collect into climate-influencing clouds depends primarily on the particles’ size, not their chemical compositions. This finding suddenly makes studying aerosol particles’ effects on climate much easier.
Another look at the role of biodiversity in stabilizing ecosystems, here.
The mystery of why we often feel sleepy after eating a big meal may finally have been resolved. Researchers have discovered that high blood glucose levels, similar to those after eating a big meal, can switch off the brain cells that normally keep us awake and alert.
Beaver dams create healthy downstream ecosystems: Researchers have found that ponds created by beaver dams raised downstream groundwater levels in the Colorado River valley, keeping soil water levels high and providing moisture to plants in the otherwise dry valley bottom.
China Vows to Synchronize Environmental Protection with Development
BEIJING, China, June 5, 2006 (ENS) – China is about to change “from emphasizing economic growth but ignoring environmental protection to emphasizing both environmental protection and economic growth,” the government said today in a policy paper covering the next five years.
Released by the Information Office of the State Council, China’s central government, the paper says that government is “fully aware” that the situation of environmental protection in the country is “grave.”
At a press conference releasing releasing the paper in Beijing today, Zhu Guangyao, deputy director of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), said the increased emphasis on environmental protection will affect the approval process for large construction projects.
There will be stricter assessment of the environmental impacts of projects and and projects will be canceled if they either overdevelop land resources or may affect the surrounding environment negatively, he said.
The huge fund that’s meant to preserve Norway’s oil wealth for future generations is pulling out of shares that don’t meet the government’s ethical standards. Among them is the Wal-Mart discount store chain.
Norwegian Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen revealed Tuesday that two new stocks will be banned from the country’s so-called “oil fund,” which now is called the Norwegian Government Pension Fund – Global and currently is worth about USD 250 billion. It ranks as one of the biggest pension funds in the world.The ministry reported that it’s excluding Wal-Mart Stores Inc, Wal-Mart de Mexico and Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc from the fund “in line with recommendations from the Council on Ethics for the Fund.” Halvorsen’s finance ministry officials cited “serious” and “systematic violations of human rights and labour rights” as its reason for pulling out of its Wal-Mart investments.
(snip)
Halvorsen was quoted in a government statement as saying that the exclusions “reflect our refusal to contribute to serious, systematic or gross violations of ethical norms in these areas through our investments in the Government Pension Fund – Global.”
Investing in either Wal-Mart or Freeport, Halvorsen claimed, “entails an unacceptable risk that the Fund may be complicit in serious… violations of norms.”
Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen has dropped seven companies from the investments list of the State Pension Fund, severing ties between the Petroleum Fund and Boeing.
From Jan. 1 the State Pension Fund was established as a superstructure including the massive state petroleum fund and the social security fund. This new fund is divided into two parts, foreign investments previously made via the Petroleum Fund, and domestic investments previously called the Social Security Fund.
At an Oslo press conference on Thursday Halvorsen presented the list of companies that will be dropped by the State Pension Fund: BAE Systems Plc, Boeing Co., Finmeccanica Sp.A., Honeywell International Inc., Northrop Grumman Corp., Safran SA and United Technologies Corp.
The companies have been excluded because they either develop or contribute to the production of nuclear arms. The decision comes after advice from the Petroleum Fund’s Advisory Council on Ethics.
Governor Kathleen Blanco said today that she’ll sign a near-total ban on abortion — without exceptions for rape or incest victims — that is nearing final legislative passage.
The Louisiana House and Senate have approved the measure by Senator Ben Nevers, of Bogalusa, but it awaits one final approval from the Senate of House changes before it reaches Blanco’s desk. The bill only would allow abortions in cases where the woman’s life is in danger or when childbirth would permanently harm her health.
The bill could only go into effect if the U-S Supreme Court’s Roe versus Wade decision is overturned.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Blanco says she anticipates signing the bill. She says she believes an exception for rape and incest victims to get an abortion, a proposal rejected by both the House and Senate, would have “been reasonable,” but she said she wouldn’t reject the bill for that reason.
Under the measure, doctors found guilty of performing abortions would face up to ten years in prison and fines of 100-thousand dollars.
The bill is similar to a South Dakota law passed earlier this year that is expected to land before the Supreme Court.
Remember the women raped in the aftermath of Katrina, Governor? During the criminal non-response that you were in part responsible for? You think that it’s just dandy to force women who become pregnant under such circumstances to give birth?
I have no words–at least none that involve more than four letters.
Well, they certainly are getting everything lined up for when Alito, Roberts, et al. get their chance to overturn Roe v Wade. And isn’t good of the anti-choice Dems to help them along?
how can you respect someone that says a rape exception would have been reasonable but they will sign the bill without one? That’s absurd.
The fact that there is no exception is ‘unreasonable’ by the logic of Blanco. Is it not? Doesn’t her own words suggest that? I know the opposite of reasonable is not necessarily unreasonable, but seriously, how can she listen to herself talk?
LAUER: On the 9-11 widows, an in particular a group that had been critical of the administration:
“These self-obsessed women seem genuinely unaware that 9-11 was an attack on our nation and acted like as if the terrorist attack only happened to them. They believe the entire country was required to marinate in their exquisite personal agony. Apparently, denouncing bush was part of the closure process.” And this part is the part I really need to talk to you about: “These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by griefparrazies. I have never seen people enjoying their husband’s death so much.” Because they dare to speak out?
This woman found out. WashPo
And she knows who is responsible:
Bingo.
How nice to see the WaPo get a story right for a change!
Shocking, isn’t it? Obviously, she won’t become a regular contributor…
Here in Washington there’s been a flap over a decision by the Pharmacy Board that effectively says that pharmacists can refuse to dispense prescriptions because of individual conscience. The trolls on one of the local political boards have been having a field day with this. One of the most common threads was that in a country with 230,000 pharmacists (or however many there are, according to the troll) you should be able to get your prescription filled somewhere.
Well, I guess this puts a new slant on the issue.
Oh, and to her credit Governor Gregoire is gently hinting that the board might want to revisit this decision, and that their terms of office are coming up in January, and she’s the one who appoints the board. The state Senate Majority leader (I think, I don’t have the article in front of me) has also promised to address this in the next session of the legislature.
Even Reuters has noticed: Reuters/Yahoo
And all the other war-supporting suck-up politicians better take note.
The beauty of this is that it can easily become a self-reinforcing meme, a self-fulfilling prophecy: Few, even among those who share his views, will want to volunteer to work on the campaign of a loser.
voting Democrats “mean”. Oh God, please, who the fuck do you people think you are?
Full Article
God how horrible!
At the same time our airports are stuffed with anti-terrorist police, they don’t have the staff to stop a slave auction on a public concourse!!!????
I’m sure we are not getting the whole story, and I bet when we do I won’t like it.
[I’m going to be out of town Wednesday thru Sunday, so here’s an extra helping of science to hold you over – and someone still needs to step up to do the Jazz Jam this week, LOL.]
Astronomers announced Monday they have discovered a possible link between a symbol on an ancient rock carving outside Phoenix, AZ, and a supernova that occurred 1,000 years ago.
Scientists have identified a previously unrecognized link between higher latitude climate dynamics and tropical African climate, the latter leading to exceptionally high burial of organic carbon in the deep tropical Atlantic. After periodic bursts of global warming caused by changes in earth’s orbit over millions of years, there is a 5000 year period when excess carbon is transported into the deep ocean by increased rains in mid-southern latitudes, after removal from the atmosphere by plants. Climate change models will need to be modified to account for this effect, and also for this: The ability of atmospheric aerosol particles to seed the formation of the droplets that collect into climate-influencing clouds depends primarily on the particles’ size, not their chemical compositions. This finding suddenly makes studying aerosol particles’ effects on climate much easier.
Another look at the role of biodiversity in stabilizing ecosystems, here.
The mystery of why we often feel sleepy after eating a big meal may finally have been resolved. Researchers have discovered that high blood glucose levels, similar to those after eating a big meal, can switch off the brain cells that normally keep us awake and alert.
Beaver dams create healthy downstream ecosystems: Researchers have found that ponds created by beaver dams raised downstream groundwater levels in the Colorado River valley, keeping soil water levels high and providing moisture to plants in the otherwise dry valley bottom.
“Dead zones” of very calm gas may prevent planets from falling into their host stars, researchers say. The work may explain why many exoplanets skirt their host stars at extremely close distances and suggests habitable, Earth-like planets may survive at higher rates than expected.
Acid rain, the environmental consequence of burning fossil fuels, running factories and driving cars, has altered soils and reduced the number of sugar maple trees growing in the Northeast, according to a new study.
Forget our traditional ideas of where a planetary system forms — new research led by a University of Toronto astronomer reveals that planetary nurseries exist not only around stars but also around objects that are themselves not much heftier than Jupiter. It suggests that miniature versions of the solar system may circle objects 100 times less massive than the sun.
Maybe this will force big business to force the government to take action: Lloyd’s of London, the oldest insurance market in the world, yesterday urged its members to start taking global warming more seriously, by increasing prices to avoid being “swept away” in a sea of future financial claims. I guess they haven’t talked to Exxon Mobil, LOL, which is trying to present a kinder, gentler image these days. …And according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, which seemed skeptical, even Rick Santorum is trying to “greenwash” himself.
Link
I was pleased to see this this morning, and now the article is also translated to English.
Norway dumps Wal-Mart stock
The above announcement only 5 weeks after this one:
Halvorsen drops Boeing
I love it – government with a conscience. Where can I get mine?
Our very own Real History Lisa has written about Freeport McMoRan.
For my part, I have a hard time taking anything called McMoRan seriously. It sounds like the mass produce low quality morons.
Are you taking funny vitamins?
Well…
My post in the News Bucket yesterday:
Immigrant children should go first
Truth though, is that Norway has it’s fair share of bigots like most other places.
This time it’s Kathleen Blanco:
The Louisiana House and Senate have approved the measure by Senator Ben Nevers, of Bogalusa, but it awaits one final approval from the Senate of House changes before it reaches Blanco’s desk. The bill only would allow abortions in cases where the woman’s life is in danger or when childbirth would permanently harm her health.
The bill could only go into effect if the U-S Supreme Court’s Roe versus Wade decision is overturned.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Blanco says she anticipates signing the bill. She says she believes an exception for rape and incest victims to get an abortion, a proposal rejected by both the House and Senate, would have “been reasonable,” but she said she wouldn’t reject the bill for that reason.
Under the measure, doctors found guilty of performing abortions would face up to ten years in prison and fines of 100-thousand dollars.
The bill is similar to a South Dakota law passed earlier this year that is expected to land before the Supreme Court.
Remember the women raped in the aftermath of Katrina, Governor? During the criminal non-response that you were in part responsible for? You think that it’s just dandy to force women who become pregnant under such circumstances to give birth?
I have no words–at least none that involve more than four letters.
Well, they certainly are getting everything lined up for when Alito, Roberts, et al. get their chance to overturn Roe v Wade. And isn’t good of the anti-choice Dems to help them along?
how can you respect someone that says a rape exception would have been reasonable but they will sign the bill without one? That’s absurd.
The fact that there is no exception is ‘unreasonable’ by the logic of Blanco. Is it not? Doesn’t her own words suggest that? I know the opposite of reasonable is not necessarily unreasonable, but seriously, how can she listen to herself talk?
to describe what an evil bitch Ann Coulter is. Aren’t her 15 minutes up yet?
Crooks and liars video link.
what life is like in Baghdad, Iraq nowadays
I seriously doubt many know this.
take a look at act three….kewl
from David Sirota, very interesting