Filibustering to Abort the Abortion Bill

When the Texas Senate wanted to pass a new abortion bill that would severely restrict abortion guidelines and ban abortions after 20 weeks, Senator Wendy Davis decided to literally stand up for women's right to make their own reproductive health choices by filibustering the bill for 13 hours in what has quickly become a national sensation that has galvanized liberal support from all corners of the nation.

Of course, conservatives are furious about her stance, and Governor Rick Perry (most likely afraid of losing his own office to her come next election), has decided to attack Davis on a personal level by going after her and her family. In addition, in one of his statements, Perry claimed that "in Texas, we value all life," apparently completely oblivious to the fact that on the very same day, his state had committed its 500th execution...

And just to give you a sense of the double-standards and dirty tricks some conservative opponents tend to use when approaching their core issues, here's what they tried to do with respect to the fact they saw that their bill wasn't going to pass:

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook

And although Davis ended up talking non-stop for about eleven hours, she can also be quite concise:

Read More

Michelle Obama's Speech at the DNC

There are some things about President Obama's first term that we may find infuriating and disappointing, even though his record, though vilified by the opposition, actually shows some amazing improvements that aren't sufficiently touted in the mainstream media. So yeah, there are some disappointments, especially given the promise and the hope that he awoke in us when he first decided to run . That idealism, unfortunately, was on a head-on collision course with the harsh reality of "bipartisan cooperation" (a word that, thanks to Republicans' obsession with not letting a half black man have a second term in the White House, has become an oxymoron) and the reality of having to make difficult ethical, political, strategic and practical choices under pressure from multiple sides.

But as First Lady Michelle Obama reminds us in the following incredible speech, "being president doesn't change who you are, it reveals who you are." And although there are multiple areas for improvement, over the past few years Barack Obama has demonstrated his character, his authenticity, his willingness to work with others (even to the point of frustration for most of us), his compassion for the downtrodden, his undying belief that we should extend opportunities to those who need them, his sympathy for those whose medical bills or college loans would otherwise prevent them from fulfilling their dreams, etc.

What are the odds that for 2016, Barack Obama may become the very first First... what would you call it, First Gentleman? First man? First Sir? First male First Lady? Anyway, look out Hilary! :p

Read More

Todd Akin, Republicans and "Legitimate Rape"

As you may be aware, Congressman Todd Akin has been receiving fire from all directions for his stupid, right-wing ideological, scientifically illiterate and insensitive remarks about how women who are victims of "legitimate rape" have natural physiological mechanisms to prevent pregnancies, implying that women who do get pregnant after being raped were not really raped. Everyone's been jumping on the response bandwagon, and so I can do no better than to summarize what's going on.

First we have the folks from Mr. Deity promoting the "mourning-after pill," for those ladies who may have "enjoyed their forced sexual encounter just a little too much":

And while Republicans are acting all offended by Akin's remarks, one should not forget that Akin's real sin is to make public what these heartless jerks really believe and have actually made their official party platform (and I'm talking even prominent Republicans like Paul Ryan and Mike Huckabee, not just fringe conservative outcasts).

Thankfully, the good folks at The Young Turks don't let these conservatives get away with these Republican bullshit public relations spins:

And if the whole idea that female bodies can prevent pregnancy due to forcible copulation does sound familiar to you, that's probably something you learned in this previous episode about sperm, but it wasn't about women... it was about ducks!

Here's a little more on that, plus some actual footage of the weird duck corkscrew penis...

And let's not lose focus about why conservatives are calling out for Akin's withdrawal from the race. It's not about their concern for women's health and reproductive rights, as if... it's about what will happen to the GOP come election time...

I swear... you cannot make this stuff up... If you care about women and their rights at all, make your voice heard in the elections, and vote these jerks out of office...

But of course, some of the best responses to this story come to us courtesy of The Onion.

First, we have the good news headline: Woman relieved to learn her rape was illegitimate.  The victim of a brutal sexual assault last month, Martha Byars confessed that “Being violently coerced into having sex was the worst thing that’s ever happened to me, so I take comfort in knowing it wasn’t actually rape. Thank God for that,” she added. “I’m so relieved to know that my child’s father, the man who muffled my screams as he forcefully penetrated me over and over and left me hemorrhaging to death on the street, is not a rapist.” Hallelujah!

Then, in its story "I Misspoke—What I Meant To Say Is 'I Am Dumb As Dog Shit And I Am A Terrible Human Being'," we learn that this may have all been a misunderstanding based on a poor choice of words by Akin. What he really meant to say is "I am a worthless, moronic sack of shit and an utterly irredeemable human being who needs to shut up and go away forever. I am an evil, fucked-up man who should never have been elected to the United States Congress, and anyone who would vote for me is probably a pretty big fucking dumbshit, too. I am not a competent or respectable politician; I am, essentially, a subhuman monster of a prick, a prick as profoundly insensitive as he is monumentally unintelligent in every respect; somebody should apply dozens of layers of duct tape to my mouth every morning so that words are not able to exit my large, dumb, misogynist, imbecilic mouth at any point; I make the planet worse; I don’t know jack shit about any of the topics I spoke about in that interview, or about any topics at all, really; I should apologize every day to the women of the world, but doing so would most likely be an exercise in futility given my rock-bottom intellect and my complete and utter lack of human decency; I am, in no uncertain terms, not even worth the time it took you to read this."

And of course, while Akin may be an utter dumbshit, that in no way reflects GOP views, since Republicans Condemn Akin's Comments as Blemish on Party's Otherwise Spotless Women's Rights Record...

But even after all this, Akin has not withdrawn from the race, and in fact he's just barely behind his opponent, so before you faint in disbelief, you should be aware that Poll Reveals You Live In Country Where Mentally Ill Man Still Has Good Chance Of Being Senator.

Read More

Melinda Gates - Let's Put Birth Control Back on the Agenda

I'm really busy at the moment (grading finals and term papers), and don't have time to get into a long introduction to the fantastic TEDTalk presentation below, but suffice it to say that in a time in which the politicization of women's issues (whether they should have the right to choose or to have or not have access to medical healthcare) has clouded the real question concerning women's health and choice, Melinda Gates adeptly navigates right past the confusion and the distractions, to the questions that really matter...

Read More

The Battle for the War on Women

When you claim that Mitt Romney's wife, a mother of five children, has never worked a day in her life... that's going to upset virtually any sane and compassionate person. Sure, Ann Romney most likely had all kinds of maids, babysitters, nannies and tutors for her kids, but still... being a mom is going to be tough on anyone.

But here is where things get interesting: Conservatives are outraged at this "war on conservative women," while being completely unaware of, or willfully ignoring and actively denying, the fact that they themselves, through massive and numerous pieces of legislation regarding invasive procedures on women's bodies, against their will and without regard for their privacy, have declared what any reasonable person could conclude is a real declaration of war on ALL women, conservative and liberal alike.

And what do such pieces of legislation seek? Well, among other things, to force women to prove to their employers that their birth control is used for medical reasons (not family planning), criminalizing abortion as murder (I wonder if these pro-lifers are asking for the death penalty in such cases), making the use of those lovely, invasive transvaginal ultrasounds mandatory before abortions can be performed, criminalizing single-parenting as child abuse, and even making domestic abuse legal (thanks, Topeka, Kansas!)... oy vay...

But to get to the good part, first we need a little bit of context:

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Oh, but what have Mitt and Ann Romney been saying lately? Wait for it...

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

But there is no real war on women. Clearly, that's just a liberal exaggeration. The real war is on Christmas!... and Easter, Halloween, fossil fuels, salt, chocolate milk, sugary drinks, and potatoes!

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Well, and now you know where to go if you want to beat your wife... wow...

Read More

Bro-Choice

Whenever pro-lifers want to interfere with a woman's autonomy over her own body, they do it, presumably, because of their moral principles regarding the sanctity of human life, and they think the ethical principle trumps a woman's convenience every time. The question of a woman's liberty is not even very important...

So, guess what happened when a bill was introduced to outlaw the waste of any semen (because after all, it is human life, which means that every sperm is sacred, as Monty Python famously parodied), and a man's inalienable right to masturbate was at stake!: of course, all of a sudden pro-life conservatives, completely oblivious to the irony and the double standard, started coming up with the most hilarious and twisted arguments you could ever imagine.. Al Madrigal reports:

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Of course, philosophers mostly agree that the question of personhood is actually kind of irrelevant. Mainly, it's just an emotional distraction that does no ethical explanatory work, only emotional work...

And in case you're not following the Monty Python reference, here you go:

Read More

Rush Limbaugh will do anything with his mouth for some money

I seriously can't understand any legitimate reason why issues concerning women's reproductive health are tearing this country apart (unless this is just a red herring to distract us from other issues). Are we really so insecure that the notion that women should have control over their own bodies frighten us to the point of lunacy?

But it's not just the misogyny, it's also the double standards: while no men complain that Viagra (which is used exclusively for boning) is covered under most insurance plans, we get our panties in a bunch the moment someone even suggests that women should get access to contraceptives (which have multiple legitimate medical reasons besides pure birth control).

As you may have heard, Mr. Potato Head Rush Limbaugh went out of his way to characterize Sandra Fluke, a law student who testified before Congress on the need for women's access to contraceptives, as a giant slut. Jon Stewart has a few things to say about that:

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

And so does Stephen Colbert:

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Read More

Bill Moyers - Freedom Of and From Religion

As we've seen before, the Obama administration mandate that tax-exempt and government-funded religious institutions make contraceptives available to their employees, should the latter choose to use them, has resulted in outcries of religious persecution on the part of churches and political conservatives hoping to score political points.

In moments like these, it's always a good idea to pay attention to what cooler and reasonable heads make of the situation, and what more fair-minded person can one think of than Bill Moyers?

In the following short essay, Moyers makes the right case: the first Amendment to the Bill of Rights, or what Jefferson referred to as the wall of separation between church and state, guarantees both freedom of religion, as well as freedom from religion. No one can impose their beliefs on you, but by exactly the same reasoning, neither should you be allowed to impose your beliefs on the rest of us.

RAmen!

Read More

The Vagina Ideologues

When the Obama administration mandated that churches and faith-based employers (just like every other employer in America) include birth control and other reproductive health services for their employees, churches all over the country went ape-shit complaining of religious persecution and violations of conscience. Inevitably, the Hitler references soon followed. That's a particularly bad strategy, given that when Hitler started his persecution of Jews, it was precisely the Catholic Church that not only stayed silent but actually endorsed his authority. Where was their conscience then? Oh, maybe conscience only exists when you live in a liberal democracy that respects people's freedom of expression and conscience :)

Of course, the healthcare mandate didn't say that individuals will be forced, against their will, to use birth control, only that it should be made available to them (by tax-exempt and government subsidized institutions) if they needed it. To claim that the Obama administration is violating religious conscience is an instance of what logicians call the fallacy of composition: taking the fact that individuals have a conscience to conclude that the institutions that those people comprise also have a conscience. But unless you really buy the claim that institutions and corporations are people, you can probably see right through the fallacy in such a comparison.

To further exploit this idea of religious persecution, Faux News decided to bring in a panel of experts on female reproductive health, which, true to Faux News form, was a total sausage fest. Fortunately, Jon Stewart brings his comedic genius to clarify the situation.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

And of course, this wouldn't be complete without Stephen Colbert's two cents:

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Read More

Sex: An Unnatural History - The Revolution

When you think about the sexual revolution, your mind probably focuses on the last half a century, starting with the fact that the development of the contraceptive pill gave couples all over the world, and especially women, unprecedented freedom regarding their own bodies and sexual choices. Ever since then, and with other revolutions in mind (like the civil rights movement, the rise of feminism, etc.), sex has been more about gratification than procreation? Or has it? And did it only start fifty years ago, or does a larger sexual revolution go back for millions of years?

In the first episode of this six-part series, and accompanied by cool historical footage, some clever animation, and some provocative dramatizations, Julia Zemiro sits down and discusses the nature and history of human sex with anthropologists, feminists, nudists, philosophers, biologists, historians, linguists, journalists and others.

Oh, and this may count as NSFW, but that might just mean your job sucks and you need to do something better with your life... think about it.

Stay tuned for more episodes soon!

Read More

Stephen Colbert Occupies Occupy Wall Street

Inspired by Dick Armey and how he co-opted the Tea Party and gave their fringe beliefs a national platform, Comrade Che Colbert wants his Super PAC to capitalize on the growing Occupy Wall Street movement.

So, he met with two young idealists whose democratic, political and social awareness, while admittedly quirky, demonstrate a level of intellectual sophistication you just don't see among tea-baggers.

In the process, Colbert managed to produce a hilarious interview showing his off-the-cuff comedic genius:

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

And here's the dramatic conclusion

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Hilarious :)

Read More

Debate - Is Islam a Religion of Peace?

The question of whether Islam is a religion of peace is, as any intelligent person realizes, extremely complex. When debating any issue, philosophers are fond of trying to define their terms so that the conversation is focused and everyone understands what everyone else is talking about.

In that spirit, for instance, one could try to make a distinction between the religion of Islam itself and what some individuals do in its name. The fact that some extremists do extreme things in the name of their religion doesn't necessarily mean the religion itself is to blame. Just think of lunatics in your own religion: do they speak for your religion?

We should also be weary of creating hasty generalizations from what a vociferous and militant minority may do to what most followers of a particular religion do. Sure, it's the few nutcases that make the news, so we should always ask ourselves how representative of the larger population the nutcases really are. As a minority (assuming they are a minority), the extremists could not, by definition, represent Muslims generally.

On the other hand, if we look at the religion itself (its scriptures, history, cultural practices, etc.), one could make the argument that those we call 'extremists' are actually simply taking their scriptures, respected figures and cultural traditions more seriously than the vast majority of nice, well-meaning moderates. In that case, the fundamentalists would be the right representatives of their religion, since they take its commandments to be categorical and not merely suggestive. This, of course, would apply to all religions.

Finally, we can't arbitrarily pick and choose only passages of scripture that confirm our initial position and ignore those that contradict our intuitions. That's both lazy and irresponsible.

As such, my view (if you care at all) is that Islam is neither a religion of peace nor a religion of war: because its messages are so self-contradictory, logically inconsistent and convoluted, my verdict would be that Islam is a religion of schizophrenia... and ditto for Judaism, Christianity and virtually every other religion out there. As such, I do tend to see them all as dangerous to the mental and psychological health of their followers. And if you don't believe me, just look at what happened to G.W. Bush :)

Anyway, here is the debate between Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Douglas Murray vs. Zeba Khan and Maajid Nawaz.

Did you ever imagine that a debate about Islam would include two cuties? :)

Check out other important and stimulating debates.
.

Read More

Ada Lovelace - The Enchantress of Numbers

Historically, women haven't always had access to formal education because we men are dicks, and we've rationalized our repression of women with the wildest and most inexcusable of excuses. But in those rare cases when individual women have had the fortune of receiving an education, they've certainly known how to leave their mark.

I don't know who my favorite female intellectual is (probably Émilie du Châtelet), but one who ranks in the top 10 would have to be Ada Lovelace (daughter of Lord Byron), and that's because the woman and her vision are simply remarkable.

For instance, she wrote the very first computer program... two hundred years before there were computers :)

Anyway, if you're interested in her personal life, you can listen to the lovely Stuff You Missed in History Class ladies:

If you want to get more into the programming and Babbage's analytical engine, perhaps the guys at Tech Stuff are more to your liking:

And for the more scholarly treatment, check out In Our Time, with Melvin Bragg.
.

Read More