Pigasus Awards!

Some people get excited about the Academy Awards. Not me. I prefer the Pigasus Awards. Here's the man Randi himself announcing the winners:

Read Full Post

PAS?

Anti-choicers have long claimed that abortion causes PAS - Post Abortion Syndrome. They claim that women suffer anxiety, depression, substance abuse, etc, etc, after having an abortion. This is a highly contentious claim. The anti-choicers justify this claim by referencing the anecdotal stories of women who are unhappy with the choice they made, and regret it (I wonder who made them feel bad? Could it be all the idiots insisting that they are cold hearted if they don't regret their decision? Could it be all the zealots calling them murderers? As I've discussed before, the anti-choicers might be partially to blame in this).

But now the Dakota Voice (a right wing news source) is reporting on a new study has been released claiming a correlation between abortion and various anxiety and substance abuse issues. While I can't actually get into the study itself, and hence can't assess its worth, it's being published in what I take to be a decent peer-reviewed journal. Of course, given the other studies which deny this claim (linked to from the Voice article), and given the fact that statistical science is the least reliable of the sciences, it's still not clear that PAS actually exists.

And honestly, I wish the anti-choice crowd would stop pushing this. It's just another indication that they are completely devoid of any understanding of basic critical thinking skills. Even if abortion carried with it the risk of PAS, that does not make it any less a legal right. Children of religious nuts might vary well suffer psychological damage, but that doesn't mean we should make it illegal to teach your children that they are inherently worthless and evil and are headed for fire and brimstone. Many women suffer post-partum depression, but that's no reason to make having children illegal. Many of the choices we make carry with them risks to our persons - both physical and mental - but that doesn't necessarily mean that those choices should be made illegal. You've got to make an argument for that.

But that's just the thing. The anti-choice crowd lacks any reasonable argument for their position. They rely on religious dogma and emotional appeals to convince people. And that's what they are doing with PAS - attempting to use it to frighten women away from making a choice that might actually be best for them in their situation.

Read Full Post

I'm on Amazon!

My one and only "publication" (and those quotes are really important) is up on Amazon.com. Of course, it's unavailable at the moment, and they don't know when it'll be in stock. Probably never. Who would want that?

Read Full Post

God Trumps!

These are great. Collectible religion cards. Awesome. I have to say, though, I wish there were more in the set. The wiccans, spiritualists and Mormons all really deserve a spot.

Read Full Post

That Didn't Take Long

The election was just a few weeks ago, but the Democrats have already ticked me off. They've allowed Joe Lieberman to retain his chair of the Homeland Security and Government Oversight Committee.

There were a lot of voices from the left calling for Lieberman to be punished for being a turncoat this past election cycle. That's not why I think Lieberman should have lost his chair. I've no desire for revenge on Lieberman for supporting John McCain and saying what he undoubtedly really thinks about Barack Obama. Lieberman is a zionist and a warmonger who happens to be liberal on social issues. Of course he supported John McCain. What I have a problem with is allowing a warmonger who supported the "war on terror" tactics of the Bush administration to continue to chair a committee on homeland security. What I have a problem with is allowing a man who failed to look into the governmental failure in handling Hurricane Katrina to continue to chair a committee on government oversight. Lieberman is very likely to lose his seat in 2012, so I really don't care about punishing him. The people fo Connecticutt will deal with him as they see fit. What I care about is having someone whose not crazy and incompetent running important committees.

Read Full Post

Lame Duck on a Rampage

Think you're finally done with Dubya's idiotic run of our country? Think Dubya can do no more damage? Think again.

In the spirit of so many leaving administrations, the Bush Administration is quickly instituting - via executive order - things that might take us years to be rid of. Here's a few of the sampling the Houston Chronicle reported on:

A proposed Justice Department regulation would allow local and state law enforcement to collect and share sensitive information on citizens even when they are not suspected of involvement in criminal activity. The Americans with Disabilities Act would be weakened by permitting state and local governments to make only a fraction of their facilities accessible to the handicapped.

A Department of Health and Human Services rule change would deny federal funds to family planning organizations and clinics that refuse to hire staffers who will not provide birth control to patients upon request. The regulation would also define forms of birth control as abortion, allowing physicians and others a legal basis for declining to provide family planning counseling that includes birth control techniques.

That's right, Bushie boy, take your last few days to make life worse for the handicapped, damage our civil liberties even more, force employers to hire people who refuse to do their job and enshrine legally your unscientific, medically inaccurate, religious boogaboo definitions of birth control, pregnancy and abortion. That'll do wonders for your legacy.

We're not done with Dubya yet. I just hope he doesn't do too much damage that can't be undone.

Read Full Post

Did I Say The Word?

That question was asked by Joe Scarborough a few moments after he accidentally dropped the F-bomb this morning, live on MSNBC. (Video below for the morbidly curious)

He apologized for the slip after realizing (or being informed by co-hosts) about his mistake, and the cute question from his wife via email was apparently "How big's the fine?"

The sad thing is that we may not be far off from a place where there is actually a rather hefty answer to Mrs. Scarborough's question. The Supreme Court just recently heard arguments over the possibility of penalizing "fleeting expletives", that is, dirty words that slip out on live T.V. - words that the FCC doesn't like.

I personally believe the FCC does way too much regulating already, but I can understand why we would want to keep things that are offensive to many and probably shouldn't be heard by young ears off primetime, shared airwaves. (the shared bit is important - cable, etc, shouldn't be regulated since there are unlimited resources there - broadcast tv and radio are limited resources, owned by the public). But honestly, do we really think it would be fair to fine poor Morning Joe for his slip of the tongue? To use Scalia's word, I think that's gollywaddles.


For those with a philosophical bent - does it matter that it's only a mention?

Read Full Post