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To keep the Conversation going, please help me by linking news articles, opinion pieces and other political content in today's Comments section.

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OR here's a link generator. The one I had posted died, then Akhilleus found one, but it too bit the dust. He found yet another, which I've linked here, and as of September 23, 2024, it's working.

OR you can always just block, copy and paste to your comment the URL (Web address) of the page you want to link.

Note for Readers. It is not possible for commenters to "throw" their highlighted links to another window. But you can do that yourself. Right-click on the link and a drop-down box will give you choices as to where you want to open the link: in a new tab, new window or new private window.

Thank you to everyone who has been contributing links to articles & other content in the Comments section of each day's "Conversation." If you're missing the comments, you're missing some vital links.

Marie: Sorry, my countdown clock was unreliable; then it became completely unreliable. I can't keep up with it. Maybe I'll try another one later.

 

Public Service Announcement

Zoë Schlanger in the Atlantic: "Throw out your black plastic spatula. In a world of plastic consumer goods, avoiding the material entirely requires the fervor of a religious conversion. But getting rid of black plastic kitchen utensils is a low-stakes move, and worth it. Cooking with any plastic is a dubious enterprise, because heat encourages potentially harmful plastic compounds to migrate out of the polymers and potentially into the food. But, as Andrew Turner, a biochemist at the University of Plymouth recently told me, black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid." This is a gift link from laura h.

Mashable: "Following the 2024 presidential election results and [Elon] Musk's support for ... Donald Trump, users have been deactivating en masse. And this time, it appears most everyone has settled on one particular X alternative: Bluesky.... Bluesky has gained more than 100,000 new sign ups per day since the U.S. election on Nov. 5. It now has over 15 million users. It's enjoyed a prolonged stay on the very top of Apple's App Store charts as well. Ready to join? Here's how to get started on Bluesky[.]"

Washington Post: "Americans can again order free rapid coronavirus tests by mail, the Biden administration announced Thursday. People can request four free at-home tests per household through covidtests.gov. They will begin shipping Monday. The move comes ahead of an expected winter wave of coronavirus cases. The September revival of the free testing program is in line with the Biden administration’s strategy to respond to the coronavirus as part of a broader public health campaign to protect Americans from respiratory viruses, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), that surge every fall and winter. But free tests were not mailed during the summer wave, which wastewater surveillance data shows is now receding."

NPR lists all of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize winners. Poynter lists the prizes awarded in journalism as well as the finalists in these categories.

Wherein Michael McIntyre explains how Americans adapted English to their needs. With examples:

Beat the Buzzer. Some amazing young athletes:

     ~~~ Here's the WashPo story (March 23).

Back when the Washington Post had an owner/publisher who dared to stand up to a president:

Prime video is carrying the documentary. If you watch it, I suggest watching the Spielberg film "The Post" afterwards. There is currently a free copy (type "the post full movie" in the YouTube search box) on YouTube (or you can rent it on YouTube, on Prime & [I think] on Hulu). Near the end, Daniel Ellsberg (played by Matthew Rhys), says "I was struck in fact by the way President Johnson's reaction to these revelations was [that they were] 'close to treason,' because it reflected to me the sense that what was damaging to the reputation of a particular administration or a particular individual was in itself treason, which is very close to saying, 'I am the state.'" Sound familiar?

Out with the Black. In with the White. New York Times: “Lester Holt, the veteran NBC newscaster and anchor of the 'NBC Nightly News' over the last decade, announced on Monday that he will step down from the flagship evening newscast in the coming months. Mr. Holt told colleagues that he would remain at NBC, expanding his duties at 'Dateline,' where he serves as the show’s anchor.... He said that he would continue anchoring the evening news until 'the start of summer.' The network did not immediately name a successor.” ~~~

~~~ New York Times: “MSNBC said on Monday that Jen Psaki, the former White House press secretary who has become one of the most prominent hosts at the network, would anchor a nightly weekday show in prime time. Ms. Psaki, 46, will host a show at 9 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, replacing Alex Wagner, a longtime political journalist who has anchored that hour since 2022, according to a memo to staff from Rebecca Kutler, MSNBC’s president. Ms. Wagner will remain at MSNBC as an on-air correspondent. Rachel Maddow, MSNBC’s biggest star, has been anchoring the 9 p.m. hour on weeknights for the early days of ... [Donald] Trump’s administration but will return to hosting one night a week at the end of April.”

 

Contact Marie

Email Marie at constantweader@gmail.com

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Thursday
Apr142011

Republicans v. Women

Gail Collins: The Republican attack on Planned Parenthood "is a wide-ranging attack on women’s right to control their reproductive lives that the women themselves would strongly object to if it was stated clearly." It is not, as Republicans pretend, an anti-abortion crusade. And it all "makes sense, as long as you lay off the factual statements." Collins highlights Sen. Jon Kyl's Senate floor speech in which he asserted that "over 90 percent" of Planned Parenthood's services were abortions. The actual percentage is closer to three. Here's a clip from Kyl's floor speech:

A Kyl spokesperson later put out a statement in which he said Kyl's "...remark was not intended to be a factual statement, but rather to illustrate that Planned Parenthood, an organization that receives millions of dollars in taxpayer funding, does subsidize abortions." Here's Don Lemmon of CNN reporting on that:

The New York Times moderators have scrambled out my comment (see Update 2 below), so here it is, and it's probably worth reading:


Let's face it: Jon Kyl is anti-woman. Not only is he unconcerned about women's ability to obtain contraceptive and other reproductive-related services, he doesn't even care if they get proper care AFTER he makes sure they become pregnant if they're going to indulge in sex.

Second only to his fact-free attack on Planned Parenthood last week is his indifference to maternity care. During the healthcare debate, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) said during a committee hearing that insurers should be required to cover basic maternity care. Kyl sneered: "I don't need maternity care. So requiring that on my insurance policy is something that I don't need and will make the policy more expensive." Stabenow replied: "I think your mom probably did." (The amendment went down to defeat anyway.) Here's the videotape:

It isn't just Republican men who so vehemently oppose contraception that they're willing to lie about it. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) asserted on Monday, "The executive director of Planned Parenthood in Illinois said they want to become the LensCrafter of BIG ABORTION in Illinois."

This wasn't the first time she had made such a statement, either. Of course, it wasn't true, but in fact-free Right Wing World, that doesn't matter. As Anderson Cooper of CNN laid out, it turns out that the CEO of Planned Parenthood Illinois said, "I like to think of Planned Parenthood as the LensCrafters of FAMILY PLANNING."

In other words, just as Collins lays out, to Bachmann, "big abortion" and "family planning" are the same thing. And they're both really bad. (Bachmann has promised to quit spreading this disinformation, not because Planned Parenthood complained it was untrue, but because LensCrafters asked her to knock it off!)

The party that claims it wants to "get us our freedoms back" does not include a women's right to personal privacy among those "freedoms." It's hard to imagine any law that is much more intrusive than one that comes between a woman and her health provider. "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"? Not if they in any way involve sex.

Republicans really want to make sure that girls who just wanna have fun -- don't.


Update: Rachel Maddow weighs in:

     ... Maddow's interview of Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood, who is -- you know -- factual, is here.

Update 2: you can find my comment at #235 & Karen Garcia's at #234. The reason we were pushed off the front page? As nearly as I can tell, it's because we both used the word "sex" in our comments. Oh, horrors! And in response to a column about -- sex!

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