Study: Abortions more common (and dangerous) when outlawed

This is a year old, but still relevant as ever. A joint study by the Guttmacher Institute (Planned Parenthood’s research arm) and the World Health Organization reaffirms the obvious: Not only do anti-abortion regulations do nothing to reduce the number of women who terminate unwanted pregnancies anyway, but it actually results in more abortions taking place around the world when more women become pregnant due to a lack of access to birth control:

Abortion rates are highest where the procedure is illegal, according to a new study. The study also found nearly half of all abortions worldwide are unsafe, with the vast majority of unsafe abortions occurring in developing countries.

As for the overall global abortion rate, it remained virtually unchanged from 2003 to 2008, at about 28 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15 to 4 - a total of about 43.8 million abortions - the study found. The rate had previously been dropping since 1995.

The new global abortion study - that's published in the Jan. 19 issue of The Lancet - is from the U.S.-based Guttmacher Institute and the World Health Organization. Researchers found a link between higher abortion rates and regions with more restrictive legislation, such as in Latin America and Africa. They also found that 95 to 97 percent of abortions in those regions were unsafe.

Experts couldn't say whether more liberal laws led to fewer procedures, but said good access to birth control in those countries resulted in fewer unwanted pregnancies.

Unsafe abortions are responsible for about 47,000 needless deaths every year, according to 2008 estimates. But of course, that’s not something the “pro-life” camp really worries about, given how its opposition to reproductive freedom is primarily (if not entirely) rooted in controlling and punishing women for possessing sexual agency.

That’s why anti-abortion arguments inevitably fall apart under a minimum of scrutiny. If they actually cared about either women or their fetishized fetuses, their first priority would be to crack down on unwanted pregnancies – which is done by providing easier access to birth control. Y’know, since that’s kinda what contraception’s all about. The fact that they instead fight tooth and nail against birth control is just fundamentally revealing about where their true priorities lie.

(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

Daily Blend: Monday, January 14, 2013

Julie Burchill

Carnival of insanity: Wyoming Republicans push blatantly illegal bill to hypothetically imprison federal agents who try to enforce gun control laws.
(via Joe. My. God.)

Oldie but goody: Economist thoroughly debunks several myths about Canada’s socialized healthcare system. (No, doctors and Canadians don’t think the U.S. system is better.)

Professional asshat Julie Burchill ^[pictured] flames out spectacularly against “vociferous transexual lobby” – aka “bunch of dicks in chicks' clothing” – for criticizing her friend’s transphobic rhetoric. What is it with this pervasive hatred of MtF folk amongst some feminist ranks?
(via @ggreenwald; original Observer article since retracted)

Another debunking of the brazen lie about there supposedly being no global warming for 16 years.

Meanwhile, Vox Day still loves flogging the necrotic equine of confirmation bias and blatant bullshit.

But then, what else to expect from a guy who actually thinks the Canadian government is “preemptively ban[ning] sexbots” – because of feminists’ “pursuit for gender equality”?

Canadian parents are apparently quite fond of quackery.

And finally, church signs are so useful for revealing exactly which attitudes are encouraged:
(via Joe. My. God.)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Friday, January 11, 2013

NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg

The War on (certain people who use certain kinds of) Drugs gets even worse, thanks to NYC Mayor Bloomberg’s ^[pictured] nanny-statist bullshit. Only politicians have ego to think they can dictate medical policy better than actual doctors.

The fact that he actually said something like, “[S]upposing it is really true so you didn’t get enough painkillers and you did have to suffer a little bit. The other side of the coin is people are dying and there’s nothing perfect,” really tells you all you need to know about the man.
(via @radleybalko)

At least some Republicans still haven’t learned to STFU about rape.
(via @BuzzFeedAndrew)

Salon’s Alex Seitz-Wald effectively destroys the Right’s myth that gun-toting commoners somehow prevent militarized takeovers.
(via RT: @mmfa)

And finally, here’s today’s edition of “I want a dog, dammit”:
(via @MelanieKV; RT: @ggreenwald)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

MS governor eager to shut down state’s last abortion clinic

Gov. Phil Bryant (R-MS)

Mississippi women are about to find it that much more difficult to find any kind of reproductive healthcare thanks to the caring and benevolence of their elected representative:

A federal judge last year delayed enforcement of a law that abortion-rights advocates say is designed to be so restrictive that it effectively abolishes abortion in the state. Under the law, Mississippi’s only abortion clinic would need toget “admission privileges” from local hospitals, which have not been willing to cooperate.

The judge’s order is set to expire on Friday and state officials have said that they will make an unannounced visit to the clinic in Jackson to determine if it was able to comply.

“My goal of course is to shut it down,” [Gov. Phil] Bryant told a group of pastors in video captured by WJTV on Thursday.

Maybe Gov. Bryant is just proud that his state has the highest unplanned pregnancy rate in the nation. It would certainly explain his desire to ensure that the aggrieved or vulnerable women in his state go without the medical care and counseling they need.

(via @BuzzFeedAndrew)

Daily Blend: Thursday, January 10, 2013

Rev. Louie Giglio

Tulsa, Oklahoma Planned Parenthood clinic forced to shut down due to slashed funding.

Anti-gay Christianist asshat Rev. Louie Giglio ^[pictured] voluntarily backs out from President Obama’s inauguration. Spokeswoman claims the Administration wasn’t aware of his history of bigotry.

U.K. Met Office blog kicks the Daily Mail’s ass over its latest garbage-packed global-warming-denying article.
(via @BadAstronomer)

Jebus: Cops barge into home without warrant or probable cause, shoot sleepy man 16 times (somehow without killing him) when he reaches for a flashlight. But of course, this “perceived risk” meant their actions were “justified”.
(via @radleybalko)

And finally, some good news: We won’t get smashed into Earthling purée in 2036 after all!

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

New Congress set to uphold legacy of bigotry and failure

As the 112^th Congress is finally shown to the door with the notable track record of being one of the least productive and most hated in U.S. history, one would think its successor would aim for more substantive legislation and less meaningless posturing. With that in mind, what are some of the very first actions of the nation’s brand-new legislative body?

Well, for starters, House Republicans are already planning to sink even more taxpayer money into their perennial defense of institutionalized anti-gay discrimination:

House Republicans may have complained loudly during the "fiscal cliff" debate about the need to rein in government spending, but that didn't stop them from agreeing Wednesday night to sink even more money into defending the federal ban on recognizing gay marriage.

A GOP source told The Huffington Post that, during a closed-door meeting of the House Republican Conference, lawmakers gave a green light to including language in the 113th Congress rules package that authorizes the House legal team, known as the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG), to keep paying outside counsel to defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court. The proposed House rules package also states that BLAG continues to "speak for" the House in its defense of DOMA.

Meanwhile, tragically-not-ousted Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) continues her endlessly futile crusade to undo President Obama’s efforts to overhaul the U.S.’s shambled healthcare system:

The 112th Congress gaveled to a close on Thursday afternoon without passing a relief package for victims of Hurricane Sandy or reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, but Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) isn’t too concerned about finishing what Republicans had left undone. Instead, at 12:00 PM she introduced the very first piece of legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which states are now busily implementing.

House Republicans have unsuccessfully voted 33 times in the last two years to eliminate health care reform and wasted at least 88 hours and $50 million, while failing to pass a single piece of job creation legislation in the last session of Congress.

Because when you’re renowned for setting the standard in gross incompetence, the next course of action is obviously to continue down the exact same failed path.

Promising, isn’t it?

(via Joe. My. God.)

Life expectancy: Monaco #1, Canada #12, USA … #51

Today in Why Americans Want to Move to Canada, courtesy of the CIA’s World Factbook:

And now, scrolling down … down … down …

I’m sure Bosnia, Guam and Bahrain all have the “best healthcare system in the world”, too.

(via Joe. My. God.)

Daily Blend: Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Pat Robertson

Fundamentalist coot Pat Robertson ^[pictured] denounces gays Evolution … Young-Earth Creationism? (Don’t worry, his sanity was only temporary.)

For some reason, Irish Catholic bishops seem to think anyone else gives the slightest shit about their benighted views on morality in medicine after the death of Savita Halappanavar.
(via Pharyngula)

And finally, Morgan Freeman still has some unanswered questions:
(via Bad Astronomy)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Wednesday, November 21, 2012

John Fairfax

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists declares that birth control should be available over the counter. Not that such a sensible and provably effective measure has any chance of becoming reality in the foreseeable future, of course.

Nevada City proposes ordinance to make it illegal for homeless people to sleep outside without a permit.
(via @radleybalko)

New report: Only three developed countries (Mexico, Chile and Turkey) have a higher child poverty rate than the United States, and other disillusioning statistics.
(via @BuzzFeedAndrew)

Best obituary ever: “At 9, he settled a dispute with a pistol. At 13, he lit out for the Amazon jungle. At 20, he attempted suicide-by-jaguar. Afterward he was apprenticed to a pirate. To please his mother, who did not take kindly to his being a pirate, he briefly managed a mink farm […]” ^[pictured]
(via The Agitator)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Savita Halappanavar

Irish woman ^[pictured] has a miscarriage. Catholic hospital refuses to abort the dead fetus. Woman suffers and dies. To keep in mind for the next time some anti-choice asshat claims abortion doesn’t save lives.

Meanwhile, an ongoing study publishes preliminary findings: Women who have an abortion don’t fare any worse than those who are denied.
(via Wonkette)

Ed Brayton nails it: The Republican Party did everything in their power to bring about its latest crushing defeat, and they should absolutely be ridiculed for it.

Radley Balko at his most optimistic: Americans seem to be leaning away from punishment and towards reason and rehabilitation on drugs and crime.
(via The Agitator)

And finally, outsiders shouldn’t have any say in Illinois’s East Aurora School District’s handling of trans anti-discrimination policies, says group of hate-mongering outsiders.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Wednesday, November 07, 2012 – The Re-linkening

Consider this a continuation of my previous “wrap-up” post as the dust continues to settle. There’s plenty of good and a smidgeon of bad, so hold onto your butts:

The good —

LGBT: Last night was a major win for equality with same-sex marriage passing by popular vote in three states (and a constitutional ban failing in a fourth), the election of the first-ever openly lesbian senator, and the fall of anti-gay candidates everywhere like flies.

Meanwhile, in the schadenfreude department, Sen. Scott “racist” Brown (R-MA) and Rep. Joe “deadbeat dad” Walsh (R-IL) are both kicked out.

Oh, and Troy, Michigan’s notoriously homophobic mayor, Janice Daniels, is also out on her bigoted ass.
(via Joe. My. God.)

New Hampshire: I wonder how many men feel discomfited now that both state senators, both representatives, and the governor are all women?

Florida: The Sunshine State did particularly well, with voters turning down abortion restrictions, killing a ban on Obamacare’s health insurance mandate, and preventing taxpayer money from going to churches and religious schools. Upholding abortion rights, healthcare reform and secularism all in one – not to shabby for a state renowned for its zaniness.

More good Floridian news: Rep. Allen West (R) will soon be Rep. no longer, possibly as a result of all that crazy shit he’s always spewing.

Atheism: While the only openly atheist Congressperson, Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA), lost his seat after decades of serving the progressive community, candidate Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), rumored to be both an atheist and bisexual, is winning, though her opponent isn’t conceding yet.

Drug Laws: Massachusetts approves medicinal marijuana, though a similar initiative fails in Arkansas.

So, all in all, I guess this means those polls weren’t skewed against Republicans after all.
(via Joe. My. God.)

And finally, we can safely say that yes, FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver is (probably) a witch. (Or just very good with statistical analysis. Either way.)

Another reason to avoid religious hospitals whenever possible

Is anyone really surprised that medical institutions headed by pious administrators would willfully compromise their quality of care depending on how a given patient’s situation meshes with their religious views? This is a reality faced by, among others, women with ectopic pregnancies, where the zygote is stuck in a fallopian tube (or elsewhere that isn’t the uterus) and poses a grave danger if it isn’t detected and removed before it grows large enough to tear the woman’s reproductive organs apart, usually with fatal consequences. Thankfully, modern medicine makes ectopic pregnancy casualties very rare, as responsible physicians understand that such embryos have virtually no chance of ever reaching viability and are usually quick to terminate the pregnancy before the would-be mother pays the price.

But not everyone in the field of medicine is a responsible practitioner. This is especially true if they believe that the supposed sanctity of life makes any and all forms of abortion unacceptable, even if there is absolutely no chance that the fetus will survive if the pregnancy is allowed to continue, the grown woman’s own well-being be damned. Enter Catholic hospitals:

[S]ome Catholic ethicists argue that the catholic “Directives” preclude physicians at Catholic hospitals from managing ectopic pregnancies in a way that involves direct action on the embryo. So a woman can have her whole tube removed (an unnecessary procedure that could reduce her future fertility), but she can not have the pregnancy plucked out (as is done with the standard therapy, a salpingostomy, where a small incision is made in the tube and the pregnancy removed) and she most certainly could not have the methotrexate [specialized drug that kills ectopic embryos].

And exactly how common is this habit of denying life-saving medical care? Someone actually looked at the numbers:

According to a study from 2011 by Foster e. al., (Womens Health Issues, 2011) some Catholic hospitals refuse to offer methotrexate (three in this study of 16 hospitals). The lack of methotrexate resulted in changes in therapy, transferring patients to other facilities, and even administering it surreptitiously. All of these expose women to unnecessary risks, expense and are, quite frankly, wrong.

Three out of sixteen hospitals may not sound like much, but when one adjusts that for the total number of Catholic-run medical establishments in the United States, it’s easy to imagine how there may be hundreds of women being rejected in their time of dire need every year, if not more. It’s unknown how many are unable to find any other avenues of care and end up suffering or dead as a result.

And still, that’s just a tiny little hint at what the future might hold if state or federal lawmakers enact any of the countless “personhood” amendments pushed by rabid anti-choicers to ban any termination of pregnancy, even when it would certainly result in the death of both mother and fetus, on the grotesque assumption that a parasitic blob of cells deserves the legal rights and protections afforded to grown human beings.

But then, that’s just a logical consequence of putting doctrine before humanity.

(via Pharyngula)

Poll: Americans (and Catholics) oppose religious restrictions on birth control

Pity your local janitor, for the Christian-Right is likely to suffer from another round of exploding heads as a new joint poll from the ACLU and Catholics for Choice reveals that the vast majority of Americans, including Catholics, are all for reproductive rights and don’t want any religious institutions or employers using faith as an excuse to restrict access to birth control:

Key findings include:

• The great majority of Americans (81 percent) says, “The law should not allow companies or other institutions to use religious beliefs to decide whether to offer a service to some people and not others.”

• Sixty-nine percent of Americans think it is wrong for a university to deny birth control coverage. An equal number of Catholics (68 percent) objects, although much of the opposition to this healthcare provision came from Catholic leaders. Seventy-seven percent of Americans, and an equal proportion of Catholics, object to pharmacies refusing to fill birth control prescriptions.

• Eighty-seven percent of Americans (and a similar percentage of Catholics), say that a doctor should not be allowed to withhold information about fetal defects for fear a woman might consider an abortion. Sixty-eight percent of Americans, and 66 percent of Catholics, say it is wrong for a doctor to refuse to refer for an abortion.

• Sixty-two percent of Americans and 59 percent of Catholics oppose allowing a Catholic hospital to decline to perform an abortion that is medically necessary to protect a woman’s health.

• Eighty-eight percent of Americans and 86 percent of Catholics believe voters don’t have an obligation to follow a Catholic bishop’s recommendation on how to vote. Seventy-nine percent of Americans and 75 percent of Catholics believe Catholic politicians don’t have an obligation to follow the hierarchy’s directives.

Wait, you mean all that talk about the decimation of religious liberty is just impotent squawking from rapacious ideologues who are actually woefully out of touch with what the general people actually wants, which is for overzealous God-botherers to leave their freedom of choice and right to bodily autonomy alone? Why, color me shocked.

(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

Rep. Joe Walsh: Abortion is never needed to save women’s lives

Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL)

Former deadbeat dad and current jackass Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) has apparently yet to learn to just keep his gormless mouth shut:

Asked by reporters after the debate if he was saying that it’s never medically necessary to conduct an abortion to save the life of a mother, Walsh responded, “Absolutely.”

“With modern technology and science, you can't find one instance,” he said. “... There is no such exception as life of the mother, and as far as health of the mother, same thing.”

Isn’t it fun – by which I mean sickening – how so many of these cranks are perfectly willing to risk the needless deaths of countless women out of sheer cluelessness? I mean, it’s not like women still died from bad pregnancies all the time or that anyone’s out there talking about how abortion saved their life or anything, right?

At least this one isn’t on any governmental science committee.

Northern Irish protestors don’t want no life-saving abortions

Northern Ireland has some of the toughest restrictions on abortion rights around, with women only being allowed to terminate if doctors certify that their pregnancies pose a serious threat to their lives or their physical or mental health. (Rape victims apparently need not apply. And perish the thought of a woman deciding to abort her pregnancy out of some silly ideal about family planning or bodily autonomy or whatnot.)

To provide for the few women who are eligible under Northern Irish law, the Marie Stopes clinic, the first private establishment of its kind in the region, opened its doors just today, offering services limited to non-surgical procedures that can only be performed during the first nine weeks of gestation, long before many women even realize they’re pregnant in the first place. Nonetheless, it’s a much-needed recourse for those desperate women whose pregnancies threaten to leave them permanently injured or even dead.

And that, apparently, is still too much to ask, according to some people:

Up to 40 people are protesting outside the first private clinic to offer abortions to women in Northern Ireland.

[…]

The protesters at the clinic are from a range of religious denominations and are holding up placards with images of aborted foetuses.

An anti-abortion group has called for the clinic to be shut down […]

Just so we’re perfectly clear: There is no “abortion on demand” (as much as I detest that misleading phrasing) going on at this clinic, nor can there be. Its sole purpose for existing is literally to save the lives of women who are medically unable to endure the rest of their pregnancy.

And these protestors want it closed down anyway.

Once again, folks: “Pro-lifers” are absolutely nothing of the sort. They don’t give a damn about the woman’s life, or even the child’s life; doing so would mean being in support of the medical procedure they rail against despite the fact that it demonstrably saves countless lives every year. Their opposition is an entirely emotional reaction driven by mindless dogma and untethered by any concern for the health or well-being of the grown women who actually have to suffer through medically injurious pregnancies. Their chosen moniker is horseshit; they are anti-abortionists and anti-choicers, and nothing more.

(via @BreakingNewsUK)

Daily Blend: Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Scott Van Duzer bear-hugging President Obama

Glenn Greenwald on Democrats’ Gitmo hypocrisy: “In the hierarchy of evil, consigning someone who has been convicted of nothing to a cage year after year after year, until they die, is high up on the list.”

Speaking of government evil, a new Human Rights Watch report reveals that Bush-era torture techniques were even more widespread than was thought, including in helping Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi (you know, who U.S. government all heroically helped topple only a few years later for all of its human rights abuses that the U.S. totally didn’t have any part in whatsoever).

Missouri lawmakers override Governor Nixon’s (D) veto of a bill that would allow employers to eliminate birth control coverage.

Florida Republican pizzeria owner who gave the Secret Service a collective heart attack by bear-hugging President Obama ^[pictured] is now being boycotted – an effort that’s falling hilariously flat.
(via Right Wing Watch & @KyellGold)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Glenn Greenwald • Democratic Party • Democrats • Guantánamo Bay • Gitmo • Barack Obama • Human Rights Watch • George Bush • Bush administration • enhanced interrogation techniques • Libya • Muammar Qaddafi • CIA • birth control • Missouri • Missouri General Assembly • Jan Nixon • Scott Van Duzer • Big Apple Pizza • Yelp • boycotts

Pope says it’s now okay to use condoms to save lives

Pope Benedict XVI

It seems that the Catholic-in-Chief is now willing to open his mind ever so slightly, much like a creaky mousetrap, to the idea that maybe – just maybe – it would be wise to use prophylactic healthcare means that have been proven to work for decades if it would mean having that much less blood on his organization’s hands:

After decades of fierce opposition to the use of all contraception, the Pontiff has ended the Church’s absolute ban on the use of condoms.

He said it was acceptable to use a prophylactic when the sole intention was to “reduce the risk of infection” from Aids.

While he restated the Catholic Church’s staunch objections to contraception because it believes that it interferes with the creation of life, he argued that using a condom to preserve life and avoid death could be a responsible act – even outside marriage.

Asked whether “the Catholic Church is not fundamentally against the use of condoms,” he replied: “It of course does not see it as a real and moral solution. In certain cases, where the intention is to reduce the risk of infection, it can nevertheless be a first step on the way to another, more humane sexuality.”

He stressed that abstinence was the best policy in fighting the disease but in some circumstances it was better for a condom to be used if it protected human life.

How strange that it takes a “historic shift” to concede that using a medical device that has directly saved millions of lives across the globe over the last hundred years may sometimes be “morally justified”. It wouldn’t take many profound rewrites to turn that into a trenchant parody of the mind-bogglingly depraved state of the Pontiff’s moral standing on these issues. And let’s not even get into the naive folly that abstinence, the single most useless and disproven birth control method imaginable, should somehow be preferred over actual and demonstrably effective contraception.

(Note: It’s only after writing this post that I noticed the source article was dated back to 2010. But still, I believe the points discussed still stand.)

(via @todayspolitics)

Tags: Pope Benedict XVI • AIDS • condoms • prophylactics • contraception • birth control • Joseph Ratzinger • Vatican • Catholic Church

Fail Quote: Rep. Kelly compares contraception mandate to 9/11

Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA)

So, this is a thing that was said in Congress recently:

"I know in your mind you can think of the times America was attacked," said Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.), a freshman.

"One is December 7 — that is Pearl Harbor Day. Another was September 11 — that was the day of the terrorist attack.

"I want you to remember August 1, 2012 — the attack on our religious freedom. That is a date that will live in infamy, along with those other dates."

Oh, my dear sweet vapors! What a terribly grave injustice whatever Rep. Kelly is worried about must be! What is it? Are Christians being frogmarched into reeducation camps? Are homophobes having electrodes strapped to their balls to cure them of hateful thoughts? What terrible event, I beseech, is underway?

Starting Wednesday, most employers will have to cover contraception in their health plans without a co-pay.

Republicans have denounced the policy as an attack on the religious freedom of people who object to birth control or consider some forms equal to abortion.

… Oh. Right, Obama’s evil ’cause he wants women to stop nearly bankrupting themselves to maintain reproductive control over their bodies. And he did it in a way that would allow women to obtain their insurance from elsewhere than religious employers, thus relieving them of any obligation to provide coverage for medical services that get their undies in a twist. Now I remember.

Yeah, I can definitely see how that’s comparable to acts of war and terrorism that leave thousands dead, that.

(via ThinkProgress)

Tags: Mike Kelly • contraception mandate • birth control mandate • contraception • birth control • Pearl Harbor • 9/11 • September 11 • Obama administration

Daily Blend: Thursday, July 12, 2012

Nancy Grace

Another endless day draws to a close …

Nancy Grace ^[pictured] really is a terrible, wretched excuse for a human being.
(via The Agitator)

Remember that “83% of U.S. doctors might quit over ObamaCare!” poll? Turns out it’s complete bullshit … not that it stops the Right-wing blogosphere from running with it.

Meanwhile, Fox News claims a study shows a “cooling trend”, which is also complete bullshit.

Award-winning military heroes: WWI veterans, WWII veterans, Vietnam veterans, Iraq War veterans, drone war controllers … wait
(via Pharyngula)

Greta Christina explains (through quoting Jezebel) how not to turn victims into the butt of rape jokes.

Ten-prong reality check for complacent, self-absorbed Americans.
(via @notjessewalker/@radleybalko)

National Organization for Marriage’s search for “non-intellectual glamorous celebrity” lands them Kirk Cameron.

Viacom yanks online streaming of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report just to spite DirecTV, practically begging to get pirated by everyone.

Walter White supports LGBT marriage equality.

And finally, Bill Maher’s show presents Mitt Romney, the Least Interesting Man in the World:
(via Political Irony)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Nancy Grace • suicide • Toni Medrano • Vodka Mom • ObamaCare • Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act • PPACA • doctors • healthcare reform • PolitiFact • conservatives • wingnuts • Doctor Patient Medical Association • DPMA • paleoclimatology • climate change • Fox News • Special Report • Orbital forcing of tree-ring data • global cooling • military drones • UAVs • drone pilots • Pentagon • U.S. Military • Greta Christina • Daniel Tosh • Lindy West • Jezebel • rape jokes • comedy • United States • USA • Mark Manson • Americans • National Organization for Marriage • NOM • Kirk Cameron • Bryan Cranston • gay marriage • same-sex marriage • Real Time with Bill Maher • Mitt Romney

Fail Quote (redux): GOP candidate defends stupid cancer claim

Chris Collins

Well, this is redundant: a stupid quote about a previous stupid quote. Just last week, New York Republican Congressional nominee Chris Collins made some waves after declaring that the reason healthcare is so expensive in the U.S. is because it’s gotten so good – to the point where “[p]eople now don’t die from prostate cancer, breast cancer” and others. As some have noted, any point he may’ve thought he had against the need for healthcare reform was rather cleanly annulled by the approximately 68,000 men and women slated to die this year alone from those very diseases.

Well, he’s back, now providing a moronic excuse for his moronic statement:

According to the Batavian, Collins believes it's ridiculous that anyone would take his comments literally.

“Clearly, I’m not a politician," Collins said. "I come out of the private sector. I speak very directly. I actually answer questions. I’m not someone who filters, who is consistently filtering everything you say.”

Yeah, why would anyone be expected to take his words at face value? Just because he’s running for political office? Clearly, the guy’s not one of ’em political buffs with their fancy facts an’ stuff; he speaks from the gut, dang it. And if his gut happens to be full of crap, well, that’s everyone else’s problem for taking what he said seriously.

“Not a politician”, indeed. And with a little luck, he’ll stay that way.

(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

Tags: Chris Collins • Republicans • Republican Party • U.S. Congress • prostate cancer • breast cancer • cancer • healthcare reform • ObamaCare • Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act • PPACA