Some thoughts on Steubenville
A new Congress has been officially sworn in, but given that the very first bill proposed was Michelle Bachmann’s latest attempt to repeal Obamacare, it is understandably hard to be optimistic that the 113th Congress will be all that much better than the 112th. With a Democrat-dominated Senate and a conservative-controlled House, it seems that gridlock and partisan divisions may, unfortunately, continue to be defining features of the (in)actions of this session of Congress. There are, however, some promising signs. If nothing else, it is no longer an election year, so legislators should have more time to actually legislate. John Avlon of The Daily Beast also argues that the era of Tea Party obstructionism might be over, as whereas the 2010 Congress “was elected by a narrow but intense slice of the electorate—the anti-Obama, recession-fueled rage of the 2010 midterm election landslide,” this session was elected by a broader, more …
If you’re reading this, then it seems that the world has not yet come to an end. Just as the world did not come to an end on Y2K, or when we turned on the Large Hadron Collider, or when Pat Robertson predicted that Armageddon would occur in 1982, then later on the oddly specific date of April 29, 2007. And, of course, those examples are just the tip of the iceberg. It seems that people have been predicting the end of the world since. . . well, since there have been people, really. An Assyrian tablet from circa 2800 BCE reads, The Earth is degenerating today. Bribery and corruption abound. Children no longer obey their parents, every man wants to write a book, and it is evident that the end of the world is fast approaching.” I’m not sure why every man wanting to write a book was considered …
The Tragedy of Savita Halappanavar is Far From Unique
Apparently, America’s defining traits are the handiwork of none other than the Devil himself. At least, that’s what Rick Perry was arguing when he said that the Prince of Darkness was the source of the separation of church and state enshrined in our Constitution. In a conference call with other evangelicals last weekend, the Governor of Texas said, “Satan runs across the world with his doubt and with his untruths and what have you and one of the untruths out there that is driven is that people of faith should not be involved in the public arena.” He also made the historically dubious claim that the separation of religion and government only started as the result of a “narrative” that began in the 1960s. First off, Mr. Perry, your self-victimization is showing. No one is saying that “people of faith should not be involved in the public arena.” That’s a transparent strawman argument. That does not, …
Unless you’re on Mars with the Curiosity Rover, then by now you’ve probably heard about the baffling scientific ignorance and incredible disrespect toward rape victims that Missouri Representative Todd Akin showed when he claimed that “legitimate” rapes can’t result in pregnancy, as “the female body has ways to shut that whole thing down.” Better writers than I have explored how wrong Todd Akin’s comment was on just about every level, so instead of beating a dead horse I am going to talk about everyone but Todd Akin. Well, everyone who shares the same ideas that Akin espoused, which unfortunately is a whole lot of people. The baseless idea that rape can never result in conception is unfortunately not that uncommon among the right, especially in the anti-abortion movement. Take, for example, what Representative Henry Alridge (R-N.C.) said during a House debate on whether to eliminate a state abortion fund for …