Our first entry is Texas Republicans Send Women Back to the Dark Ages. Ah yes, I remember medieval Europe well, constant Viking invasions and all abortion clinics needed admitting privileges at local hospitals. Wait until they find out that places that do LASIK have the same requirement. I can see the headline now. "Texas Republicans Send People With Glasses Back to the Dark Ages".

And they "rammed" it through the Texas House with at 98-49 vote. With a margin that big, isn't that just called a vote? I mean, it's a 2-1 margin, that's a supermajority. It's like saying that DOMA was "rammed" through the Senate on an 85–14 vote. Hmm . . .

I think I like Mark Shea's alternative title to the bill better. He calls it the "Make Abortion Charnelhouses Adhere to Minimum Standards of Post-Gosnell Health Code Levels" bill, which seems about right. Also, Simcha Fisher, who is, you know, a woman and all, found an interesting term for men who are up in arms about the bill. Bro-choicers. I guess she hates women too.

Labels: politics, prolife

Because it's lame now, only from 11 am to 7 pm. Still my favorite holiday though.

Labels: food, fun, public service announcement

Give him some! He writes many awesome things, and also apologizes when he does something wrong, which is more than I can say.

Labels: catholic, metablogging, public service announcement

The fullness of femininity can only be revealed and understood by the total aggregate of every individual woman's experience. All are valid and all are feminine. The femininity springs from the nature of the female person. If the ideals of femininity within a culture do not conform to the personality of a particular woman, this invalidates the ideal, not the woman. Her femininity is primary, the cultural image is only its dim and imperfect reflection.

Labels: feminism, religion

I was just thinking about this idea, and then Mark Shea goes and writes an article about it. Action, action, always.

What interests me here is the fact that not only believers commit the fallacy of "I don't understand X, so X must conform to my strongly held a priori beliefs." Atheists can do it too. Case in point, the Shroud of Turin. Only True Believers in the Atheism of the Gaps buy the claim that the image on the right above "reproduces" the image on the left. Anyone with two eyes in their head can see that it doesn't. In fact, nobody has ever reproduced the image. Nobody knows how it was made. And nobody has explained why a medieval forger would happen to have a 13 century old 14 foot cloth full of pollen from the Holy Land laying around and think, "I know! I will use this to make a one-of-a-kind photo negative image that nobody 8 centuries from now will know how to reproduce--just this one time. Oh! And I'll be sure to place the wounds in the wrists and not the hands in contravention to all medieval art, not to mention including details of Nazirite hair styles from the first century and anatomically correct details of Roman flagellation."

Labels: atheism, religion

Wendy Davis opposed a bill that gives women seeking abortions the same level of safety as women seeking LASIK on a Friday afternoon. Should I have feel empowered as a Texas woman that I can currently get a D&E for an unplanned pregnancy at a place with lower standards than where I could get a endoscopy for an acid reflux diagnosis? What is so “pro-woman” about lower health and safety standards for abortions?

From ATL.

Labels: politics, prolife

There is a side-effect mentioned in the novel as a negative. When these nanobots are introduced into a population the “problem” is that chemical contraception stops working. Vasectomies are healed as would other forms of surgical sterilization. Abortion also becomes much harder as the child heals faster than they can kill it. This is remarked rather off-handily in the novel and is really not part of the plot.

I need to sync my reading list with The Curt Jester's.

Labels: contraception, science, technology

I've only been there for 14 of them, but that's not so bad.

Labels: public service announcement

Perhaps even skipping out for good. Not sure why I'd want to use a Blink-based browser short on features, especially the very features that are the reason that I use Opera. And do people really not bookmark websites? How do they find them again?

Labels: technology

I hardly liked thee, but had little choice if I wanted to continue to use FeedDemon. Now I am free to move on to less Googly pastures.

Labels: technology