Month: April 2005

Not My Moral Values

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by hilzoy

From the Denver Post, via Bitch, Ph.D.:

“The protocol of six Catholic hospitals run by Centura calls for rape victims to undergo an ovulation test.

If they have not ovulated, said Centura corporate spokeswoman Dana Berry, doctors tell the victims about emergency contraception and write prescriptions for it if the patient asks.

If, however, the urine test suggests that a rape victim has ovulated, Berry continued, doctors at Centura’s Catholic hospitals are not to mention emergency contraception. That means the victim can end up pregnant by her rapist.”

Or, in short: if a rape victim doesn’t need emergency contraception, the hospitals’ doctors will tell her about it; but if there’s a significant chance that she might actually get pregnant as a result of her rape, and therefore does need it, they won’t say a word.

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Why We Separate Church And State In One Easy Lesson

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From the Richmond Times-Dispatch, via Pandagon, comes an article with the delightful title ‘ACLU files petition on behalf of witch’: “The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia has filed a petition on behalf of Cynthia Simpson, a witch of the Wiccan faith, seeking to reverse a ruling that upheld Chesterfield County’s decision to bar her … Read more

Illegal, Unconstitutional, and Cruel

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A 13-year-old ward of the state of Florida has had her planned abortion blocked by a state court injunction asked for by Florida’s department of children and families: A pregnant 13-year-old girl in Florida has been told she cannot have an abortion because she lacks the maturity to make such a decision. A state court … Read more

Pack your Bags Pumpkins, The Honeymoon is OVER

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The day it became apparent that GWB would be our president for another four years, I made a pledge to give him the benefit of doubt for 100 days into his new term. Like it or not, he was the president. I’m quite sure there are folks who think I broke that pledge, that I’ve been overly critical of the President since that day, that I’ve not given him the benefit of doubt in his actions. To those folks all I can say is "Wait for it." By comparison, you’ll see how much I held back. The honeymoon was a chance for him to prove my misgivings unfounded. He has failed.

Day 100 of the second term of George W. Bush we find an administration resistant to learning from its mistakes, an administration with three central and tragic flaws. I’ll cover two today (the third is larger and requires more cites…I’m working on it):

  1. An allergy to accountability
  2. A priority of perception over reality

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Banning Books in Alabama

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I’ll tolerate just about any kind of crap the right-wing extremists in this country can drudge up with regards to limiting the rights of gay Americans to live openly in this nation, so long as they stay in states I would never entertain living in even if you paid me (most of them Red, yes), … Read more

Ivory-Billed Woodpecker Found!

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I know this is not an ornithology blog, but trust me: this is extraordinary news. Science is reporting that an Ivory-Billed Woodpecker has been found in Arkansas, and has been photographed and videotaped. The photos and video are admittedly blurry and hard to make out (you can see some of them if you download the pdf from the link I gave, and more in the ‘Supporting Materials’.) But together with the sightings, they seem to be conclusive evidence that the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker is not, as we have thought for decades, extinct.

Look at it: isn’t it gorgeous?
Ib

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Karnak Penalty!…no, er, wait, maybe not…

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–Edward Since I began blogging (eons ago, it seems) I’ve been accused of "mindreading" on countless sites. What seemed apparent enough to me to mention was often slammed by opponents as out-of-bounds. And although I’ve learned to appreciate that in this forum, it’s considered best to criticize only what someone has said or done and … Read more

Who Left The Kids In Charge?

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Today, the House passed The Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act (CIANA), a bill making it illegal to transport a minor across state lines to circumvent laws in the state in which the minor lives that require parental notification before an abortion. The Democrats offered several amendments to this bill; one, for instance, exempts cab drivers … Read more

Krens the Great

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–Edward

You may recall that lately I’ve been obsessed with the life of Alexander the Great, reading every biography of him I can lay my hands on. And I’m looking forward to seeing this exhibition at the Onassis Cultural Center. As cold-blooded conquerors go, Alexander was a hottie (see this image of Ghengis Khan for comparison). But his monomaniacal quest for glory saw Alexander lose his way, dragging his increasingly opportunistic and foreign forces around the known world, simply because it was there and he wanted it. None of the Greek idealists who set out with him on his conquest would recognize their leader (let alone his vision) by the end of his life.

I couldn’t help but think of the Macedonian emperor when I read the story in today’s NYTimes about Guggenheim Director Thomas Krens’ imperialist designs. Despite the growing criticism and high-profile resignations, Krens keeps pushing further into exotic territory (with plans for possible Guggenheim satellites in Singapore, Rio de Janeiro, Hong Kong, and Guadalajara) and bringing on board members who share his hunger for expansion:

Today’s board is driven by leading members of New York’s real estate world who share Mr. Krens’s dreams of empire building. Besides [new chairman, William L. Mack, a real estate developer], one of five trustees who joined the board two years ago, they include Stephen M. Ross, founder and chief executive of the Related Companies, and Robert C. Baker, the chairman and chief executive of Purchase, a New York-based national realty and development corporation. [President, Jennifer Stockman] is president of Stockman & Associates, consultants specializing in technology.

Just like Alexander though, whose empire collapsed with a stunning expediency after his passing because he had too few true believers in key positions and had spread them too far apart, Krens is possibly building a global network of museums no one will be interested in defending after they’re constructed (no true believers in Peggy’s original vision, anyway).

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