Right Wing gets all worked up because Department of Health and Human Services will now offer free birth control to women. Because you know that is just abortion BEFORE conception. Tricky liberals!

Courtesy of the Daily Beast:

Starting in 2013, the Department of Health and Human Services announced Monday, insurance companies will be compelled to cover a wide range of women’s health services, from testing for gestational diabetes to counseling about domestic violence, without requiring a copayment. But it was HHS’ inclusion of free contraception in the slate of services to be classified as preventive care that grabbed all the headlines.

The news comes shortly after the Institute of Medicine issued a report recommending what services should be offered without extra cost to female patients. Even those in the reproductive-health community who have long advocated for free birth control as common-sense policy were surprised at the haste with which HHS announced the adoption of the IOM’s recommendations. The idea of free birth control for all falls in the rarely acknowledged gray area between boring old medical regulations and the promise of unrestrained sexual ecstasies—or at least so I’m told by some of the angrier pundits on Fox News—and the department’s quick turnaround allowed it to sidestep an opposition that was just starting to heat up its arguments. Still, Bill O’Reilly did manage to squeeze in one memorable statement, claiming that free birth-control pills wouldn’t work because women who get pregnant are too drunk to use their birth control when they have sex. (No one on O’Reilly’s show bothered to correct his false assumption that you have to take the pill during sex for it to be effective.)

Apparently O'Reilly does not realize that most women take their birth control pills in the morning, nor does he seem cognizant of the fact that if women did not some times drink until their judgement was impaired that he would likely have NEVER gotten laid. 
  
Personally I think this is long overdue, though I also hope that DHHS continues to stress the importance of using a condom, and to avoid the allure of wine coolers and a damp tent.


And speaking of Bristol, I don't know why the Right Wing is so upset about free contraception since it will undoubtedly only help their numbers grow while diminishing the number of liberals born in the coming years.

I mean let's face it the kind of intelligence it takes to remember to take the damn pill seems to be beyond the capabilities of certain segments of the population.

In other words this new access to birth control will certainly NOT keep any more Palins from being born into the world. As a matter of fact I understand that the newest Palin progeny should be entering the world any day now.

I imagine the Mat-Su school district shudders with anticipation.

Perhaps all is not lost for Texas after all.

Courtesy of the National Center for Science Education:

Pop the champagne corks. The Texas Board of Education has unanimously come down on the side of evolution. In an 8-0 vote, the board today approved scientifically accurate high school biology textbook supplements from established mainstream publishers--and did not approve the creationist-backed supplements from International Databases, LLC.

"This is a huge victory for Texas students and teachers," said Josh Rosenau, NCSE programs and policy director, who testified at the hearings this week. In his testimony, Rosenau urged the board to approve the supplements--recommended by a review panel largely composed of scientists and science educators--without amendments, and to reject International Database's creationist submission. The board did just that, and asked for only minimal changes to the approved supplements.

In hearings yesterday, NCSE members and allies showed up in force. At least four times as many people testified in favor of the supplements as written, versus those opposing the supplements or demanding significant changes.

Ultimately, the board approved the Holt supplement, and directed Commissioner of Education Robert Scott to review the list of supposed errors, and to develop amended language for Holt to incorporate. NCSE and Texas education groups are confident Scott's revisions will reflect the current state of evolutionary biology, and not any creationist alternatives.

Dr. Eugenie Scott, NCSE's Executive Director is celebrating the decision. "These supplements reflect the overwhelming scientific consensus that evolution is the core of modern biology, and is a central and vital concept in any biology class. That these supplements were adopted unanimously reflects a long overdue change in the board. I commend the board for its refusal to politicize science education."

Well I guess this is a glimmer of sanity in a state which still has Rick Perry as it Governor and whose abstinence only sex education program causes it to have the highest teen birth rate in the nation.


Oh well, at least now that Texans understand that evolution is fact they might soon realize that Rick Perry is somewhat further down that evolutionary trail than one might expect for the Governor of their state.

I mean seriously, is this guy even able to use rudimentary stone tools yet?

President Obama talking to a group of bipartisan college students about politics.

A friend sent this to me the other day and I am very glad that they did.

If you listen carefully to what he is saying it essentially explains exactly how he sees his job and why he approaches difficult problems in the measured way in which he does.

I still feel, despite the fact that there are many things still undone (Or not being done fast enough for our liking), that this man may have a real chance to go down in history is one of the greatest Presidents we have ever known.