[In case it needs to be said: I don't agree with every word of everything I link to. --L.]
- Pentagon Spends $4.4 Million to Test Troops’ Gaydar
- [FiveThirtyEight]
…Thus, this entire portion of the questionnaire is fairly useless: it more measures the relationship between gossip and unit morale than anything having to do with homosexuality per se. Although this might be modestly interesting as a sociological experiment, any conclusions that it purports to come to about the impact of DADT on morale should be ignored.
- Mel Gibson vs. Christian Bale
- [Cynical-C Blog]
[TRIGGER WARNING: I have not watched this video, but it probably contains a disturbing mixture of more-or-less violent rage and racist, sexist language. -L]
- Act Now: Tell Kathleen Sebelius to Ensure Access to Abortions at Religiously Affiliated Hospitals
- [ACLU Blog]
Earlier this month, the ACLU asked the federal government to ensure that religiously affiliated hospitals provide emergency reproductive health care… Our letter was prompted by a situation in Phoenix, Arizona, where St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, a Catholic-owned hospital, provided a life-saving abortion to a young mother of four who was dying from pulmonary hypertension.
[The Catholic heirarchy] subsequently issued statements denouncing the emergency abortion, and making clear that abortion can essentially never be performed at a Catholic hospital. This means that the next woman who enters a Catholic hospital in need of an emergency abortion could die…
We are now asking you to chime in too. Please send a letter to Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, asking her to investigate hospitals that refuse to provide emergency abortion care, and issue a bulletin making clear that refusing to provide this care violates federal law.
- Wordless Wednesday – Suffrage Cartoon
- [About.com Women's History]
- Paramount Pictures Has a Gender (and Race) Problem
- [Women & Hollywood]
The folks at Racebending who advocate for just and equal opportunities in film and TV, have been tracking race issues related to the recently released film The Last Airbender. While doing their research they have revealed some disturbing trends at Paramount Studios, the studio which released the film.
Here’s what they discovered about gender…
- Security contractor: BP fired me for taking photos of dispersants [Edit 19 Jul 2010: debunked?]
- In America, winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.
- [Hullabaloo - Digby]
…the party in power is expected to do what’s necessary to pass its agenda. If it can’t, it is held responsible for the failure, not those who stopped them from doing it…
And there is another dimension to this which especially applies to the Obama administration. Since he ran explicitly on the promise to end the bickering, change Washington and create a post-partisan consensus, people see the failure of those things to materialize as a measure of his failure to deliver on his promise…
…they need to come up with something other than “the Republicans won’t let us do our jobs.” Americans don’t want to hear excuses, even when they are justified. For better or worse, it’s just who we are.
Update: Chris Bowers has an interesting post today that runs along a related track. It turns out that the non-ideological among us <s>-</s> the vaunted independents <s>-</s> vote their personal pocket books. So blaming it on Republican obstructionism <s>-</s> or appealing to “moderation” for that matter, isn’t going to do the Democrats any good with those folks:
[redacted - go read it. -L]
- History Repeating Itself
- [Echidne of the Snakes]
The Know-Nothing movement of the 1840s and 1850s had this platform…
[Haha. ha. ha. -L]
- Will the CDP Endorse Prop 19?
- [Calitics]
The polls are pretty clear: California Democrats back Prop 19. Last week’s Field Poll showed that registered Democrats support it 53-38, and other recent polls have found similar numbers.
California Democrats understand that Prop 19, which would legalize and tax cannabis within a sensible regulatory structure similar to how alcohol is treated, is an initiative worth supporting this November. The question is, will their party agree?
- Mansplaining: Just What Twilight Needed!
- [Shakesville]
What is it that makes Stephanie Meyer a “total genius” in Mr. Macho’s estimation? The ability of the reader to put herself in Bella’s place, as Bella’s character is so underdeveloped. I only have one thing to say about his amazing discovery: Holy crap, you figured that out all alone on your yacht with no help whatsoever?
- Nobody Understands The Liquidity Trap
- [Paul Krugman]
It’s depressing to realize that two years into liquidity trap economics, the WSJ still doesn’t seem to understand the basic point of why the zero bound is a problem.
[Note to self: come back to this article with a dictionary. -L]
- Bastille Day & The French Constitution
- [Constitutional Law Prof Blog]
Today is Bastille Day, the national holiday of France. The French Constitution (known as the Constitution of the Fifth Republic) begins:
[redacted]
The “secular” aspect of the French Republic has been the subject of much debate in the last decade, centering on government regulations of women and girls wearing Muslim dress…
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