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Bad Answers: Inevitable Result of Mistaken Beliefs

Looking at a story in the news this morning.

Study: Free Birth Control Leads to Fewer Abortions

Free birth control led to dramatically lower rates of abortions and teen births, a large study concludes. The findings were eagerly anticipated and come as a bitterly contested Obama administration policy is poised to offer similar coverage.

The project tracked more than 9,000 women in St. Louis, many of them poor or uninsured. They were given their choice of a range of contraceptive methods at no cost — from birth control pills to goof-proof options like the IUD or a matchstick-sized implant.

When price wasn’t an issue, women flocked to the most effective contraceptives — the implanted options, which typically cost hundreds of dollars up-front to insert. These women experienced far fewer unintended pregnancies as a result, reported Dr. Jeffrey Peipert of Washington University in St. Louis in a study published Thursday.

Let me do something special with this next paragraph: Continue reading “Bad Answers: Inevitable Result of Mistaken Beliefs”

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“They Fucking Hate You”

You REALLY might want to read this: Via Balloon Juice, They Fucking Hate You

They fucking hate you. They want you, and everyone who speaks for you, and every institution that represents your values, whether it be Planned Parenthood or food banks or ACORN – you name it. They want it destroyed.

I just do not understand why more people do not recognize this. The Republicans have declared total war on America, and people are responding like this is politics as usual. It isn’t. It really isn’t. It’s really all or nothing at this point. We put the birchers/tea party/conservatives back in their place and destroy the current GOP, or we deal with this shit for the next forty-sixty years.

Click over and read the whole thing. It’s short, but seriously eye-opening.

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180 Degrees: Pastor Mike

PZ has a post about Pastor Mike’s plan to create a database of “known” atheists, and a really disgusting plan it is.

That someone could come up with such a thing, and then broadcast it into the public sphere, shows a breathtaking unawareness both of history and of the consequences of one’s actions in the real world.

The idea is both incredibly ugly and yet so blithely inept in concept that I imagine we have nothing to fear from it. But we DO have to point out — yet again, to those unaware of history — that nothing of the sort can be permitted. And that even proposing it, however idly, shows a meanness of spirit viciously at odds with civil society. Continue reading “180 Degrees: Pastor Mike”