Clueless Fertilized Egg/Zygote/Embryo/Fetus Worshippers

The always immensely amusing Sister Toldjah on Virginia State Sen. Janet Howell’s attempt to attach an amendment to a forced ultrasound bill in that state:

Janet Howell Is My New Hero(ine)

Janet Howell is a state senator in Virginia’s legislature, and today she attached an amendment to a forced ultrasound bill for women seeking abortions that would make a rectal exam and a cardiac stress test mandatory for men before they could get a prescription for erectile dysfunction medication.

Needless to say, Howell’s amendment was defeated and the bill went on to pass Virginia’s legislature with the ultrasound requirement intact — but it was still a gutsy move on Howell’s part.

Humor Itself Thanks You, Mr. Brooks

It’s gotten so that I look forward to Fridays because that’s the day David Brooks’ column comes out, and I can go straight to the hilarious blogger responses, like this one by Charles Pierce, titled “Our Mr. Brooks Climbs the Romney Family Tree“:

The Hypocritical Politics of Moralizing

The New York Times has a superb editorial today about how Republican politicians destroy their own campaigns when their constant pious moralizing at the American public meets up with their own personal behavior. The prime example of that in this campaign is, of course, Newt Gingrich, who continues to insist on imposing a code of morality on the entire country that he refuses to adhere to, himself.

Some New Hampshire News

“Romney at his most tone-deaf.”

Poison Hatred

This is hate, folks. It’s not religious faith. It’s hatred rooted in ignorance and fanaticism. It’s no different from the hatred of Jews that motivated 2,000 years of persecution and pogroms. It’s no different from the hatred based on skin color that motivated white Americans who lynched, burned, beat up, and subjugated black Americans for centuries — long before black Americans were considered Americans.

Imagine feeling this way toward an entire class of human beings, every single day of your life. It must be like what a really bad case of food poisoning feels like.

 

 

 

Research and Fact-Checking…

… two concepts unknown to conservative bloggers:

Christopher Hitchens: An Un-Hagiographic Roundup

So, I have now made my way through much of the hundreds of thousands of words that have been written about Christopher Hitchens in the 10 days since he died of esophageal cancer at age 62, and I have a couple of thoughts. One, much if not most of what has been written about him since his death is uncritical hagiography. I am not speaking here of the brief items written immediately after the news of his death broke, many of which (mine included) followed the “I disagreed with him, but he was a great writer” template. I do believe it’s only decent to wait at least a day after someone dies (especially in the terrible, painful way that Hitchens did) before saying that he was a drunk, a bully, a misogynist, and a warmonger — and although certainly an accomplished, talented essayist, probably much more brilliant in his own opinion than he objectively deserved.

Cruelty

Pres. Barack Obama told Barbara Walters in an interview scheduled to air tomorrow that “the trait he truly most dislikes in others is cruelty. ‘I can’t stand cruel people,’ he said.” Okay. What about cruel policies? Or like this one? Or this? Or this? Or this?

Scott Walker Sacrifices Cancer Screenings to His Anti-Abortion Ideology

Susie Madrak reports at Crooks and Liars that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is ending the state’s contract with Planned Parenthood at the end of this month — thus leaving thousands of women who don’t have health insurance with nowhere to go for preventive cancer screenings: