NWS Video segment of Penn and Teller on Abstinence Only Education
NWS = Not Work Safe
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Tag Archives: politics
Core values
27 JulQuoth velvetpage at this entry:
So, Liberals of my friends list – what are your values? What do you believe in, passionately, that sets you apart from people further right, especially the Religious Right?
She requested sound-bite style phrases. I decided to try to come up with my list, and here it is, in no particular order:
- Total separation of church and state – Build the wall higher and stronger.
- Equal access to health care for all.
- Fair taxation – richer citizens should actually pay proportional to their wealth.
- Protection of the earth for the sake of our grandchildren’s grandchildren.
- Freedom from government intrusion in matters of personal conscience – including reproductive and religious choice.
- Never another preemptive war. No more support for any nation that engages in preemptive war.
- Of the people, by the people, for the people – All of the people, not some narrow subset.
- We are a nation of immigrants, and should always offer that opportunity to any who would come.
- We are American, but we are, first and foremost, citizens of the Earth. All are our brethren. We do not stand alone.
Edit to add:
- Highest quality public education is an absolute necessity for the maintenance of a democracy.
- The rights conferred by the current definition of marriage should be available to all.
So now, here’s the challenge. You do the same. What are your values? How do your core values set you apart from others? Let’s see your sound bites. And if you aren’t self-identified as a liberal, I still want to know what your values are.
With thanks to lasarina, who helped in articulating several of mine.
Abstinence only group gets no bid grant from CDC
26 JulIn April, the so-called Medical Institute for Sexual Health (MISH) made headlines after the federal government announced that the group would receive a $200,000 grant to establish a sexual health curriculum for medical students. Sexual health experts affiliated with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were taken aback.
Why the outrage? Despite what its legitimate-sounding name might suggest, MISH is really nothing more than a thinly veiled ideological interest group that manipulates science to advance its mission.
Follow the link to read the rest of the Planned Parenthood article. For more details on the grant, and MISH in general, see Chastity, M.D. at Slate.
x-posted to
What must Bush be thinking now?
25 JulEven the Republican controlled Senate seems to be turning against him.
Sen. Specter Readies Bill to Sue Bush
By LAURIE KELLMAN
Associated Press Writer
A powerful Republican committee chairman who has led the fight against President Bush’s signing statements said Monday he would have a bill ready by the end of the week allowing Congress to sue him in federal court.
“We will submit legislation to the United States Senate which will…authorize the Congress to undertake judicial review of those signing statements with the view to having the president’s acts declared unconstitutional,” Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said on the Senate floor.
The GOP and San Franciscophobia
17 JulWith Ineptitude on Full Display, the Party’s Over for Republicans
by Garrison Keillor
Leonard Pitts latest – King George?
15 JulCourt ruling a blow to pride of King George
With apologies to the makers of the 1994 film, it’s never been ”the madness of King George” that troubled me.
No, it was the arrogance, a hubris so awesome and awful you tended to forget George is not, in fact, a king but a president. One might have been forgiven for forgetting, since President George W. Bush has governed pretty much as a King George would have: by fiat and decree.
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When Iraqis are texting from Baghdad to see if you’re OK, you know it’s not good.
15 JulFear and Shopping in Beirut
Annia Ciezadlo in The Nation
The first warplanes sheared through the sky at about 3:30 am Friday, just as the call to prayer wavered out from the mosque, the faint, pre-recorded voice of the muezzin drowned in the rising growl of their engines. The bombings began soon after, and the anti-aircraft guns kicked in at about 4 am; we didn’t get to sleep until dawn. I woke up at 9, when a text message bleeped into my cell phone. It was from a friend in Baghdad, who wrote “I hope U R OK and fine. We all here in Iraq feel worried about U.” I was glad to hear from him, but it his message didn’t make me feel any better: When Iraqis are texting from Baghdad to see if you’re OK, you know it’s not good.
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Tom Delay forced to remain on TX-22 ballot
15 JulChained to the Ballot
NY Times Editorial
The former House majority leader Tom DeLay, master practitioner of tooth-and-claw politics, finds himself in a predicament. He’s been cast adrift somewhere between Texas and Virginia after a court struck down his parting Congressional gambit.
Immigration – why are Hispanic immigrants so demonized?
11 JulImmigration and the Curse of the Black Legend
by Tony Horwitz
(NY Times Op-Ed piece, registration required, bugmenot)
Very interesting piece examining the current “immigration problem” in light of the history of Anglos in North America. Anyone remember which Europeans actually settled first in North America? Click for the answer.
End Social Decay?
11 JulLegitimacy, Good Faith and Citizenship
To “end social delay, build trust”. Link courtesy of, and quote from, velvetpage. Fascinating take on altruism and government, and the link between the two.
An Aging Trans Woman 