Excluded issues and excluded candidates: The charade we call our presidential debates

How the Democrats and Republicans manage to keep excluding third-party and fourth-party candidates from the debates, even after the corporate media has excluded them from the entire campaign? Amy Goodman of Democracy Now discusses this topic with the Green Party's Jill Stein and Rocky Anderson of the Justice Party. These two candidates also offer their own views on the issues, views not considered by Mr. Romney or Mr. Obama. Goodman calls her exploration of this issue "Expanding the Debate."

Continue ReadingExcluded issues and excluded candidates: The charade we call our presidential debates

New study: Free birth control dramatically slashes the number of abortions

All right, you so-called pro-lifers. The facts are now squarely before you. A new study by Washington University in St. Louis indicates that freely available birth control slashes the number of abortions.

A dramatic new study with implications for next month’s presidential election finds that offering women free birth control can reduce unplanned pregnancies -- and send the abortion rate spiraling downward.

When more than 9,000 women ages 14 to 45 in the St. Louis area were given no-cost contraception for three years, abortion rates dropped from two-thirds to three-quarters lower than the national rate, according to a new report by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis researchers.

These are dramatic numbers. Therefore, we now have a tool for minimizing the incidence of abortion: Make birth control freely available. If conservatives were rational and if they really wanted to cut the number of abortions, they now have a relatively easy way to do it. Mandate coverage of birth control by health insurers and otherwise make birth control easily available. In fact, make birth control pills available over-the-counter. But the thing is that this proven method of reducing the number of abortions will not satisfy many conservatives. They will also want to stop women from having access to birth control. They don't like the idea of women having sex for pleasure only. And, BTW, most conservatives are not pro-life--they oppose programs that help young children to be healthy and well-educated. Rather, they are merely pro-birth.

Continue ReadingNew study: Free birth control dramatically slashes the number of abortions

Romney misleads voters 27 times in 38 minutes at the first debate

Romney misleads voters 27 times in 38 minutes at the first debate - Think Progress lays them out. Daily Kos is setting out Romney's many misrepresentations too. Steve Benen has it right. We can't decide who won a debate without considering the extent to which the candidates told the truth:

President Obama, meanwhile, was listless and timid. He stumbled on his words. At times he seemed distracted and unfocused. There were key opportunities for the president to go on the offensive, but for whatever reason, he chose not to engage. For pundits checking boxes -- who gave the appearance of being "in control"? -- Romney excelled. But all of this overlooks an element I like to think it sometimes important: substance. The men on the stage last night aren't actors; they're candidates for the nation's highest office. Delivering lines well is a nice quality, but as the dust settles, it's worth pausing to reflect on whether those lines were true and reflect reality in any meaningful way. Indeed, it seems to me Romney thrived in large part because he abandoned the pretense of honesty. And as it turns out, winning a debate is surprisingly easy when a candidate decides he can say anything and expect to get away with it.

Continue ReadingRomney misleads voters 27 times in 38 minutes at the first debate

The Original ban on blasphemy

At "Bible Funmentionables," Michael Morris points out that Muslims are the only folks that are under orders to to kill blasphemers:

But let’s not get the mistaken notion that punishment for blasphemy is a uniquely Muslim idea. The Bible clearly comes down on the side of freedom FROM blasphemy as opposed to freedom of speech. And he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the Lord, shall be put to death. —Leviticus 24:16
Then Morris raises a basic issue I hadn't considered. Why should religion deserve any special protection from criticism and insults?
No one likes to be insulted, but why is it that only one institution, religion, has its own name for insults hurled against it. I don’t call it blasphemy when someone berates my kid’s soccer team or ridicules the all-time best movie trilogy ever made on planet Earth!

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