Thursday, February 17, 2011

Bits and Pieces - February 17, 2011

A gain for our side in the War Against Women. South Dakota's "Kill an Abortion Doctor" bill has been pulled. Meanwhile, broadcasters are considering pulling female journalists out of harm's way, a throwback to the idea that we delicate females must be protected out of interesting jobs. Texas is protecting its young women from contraception and therefore ranks among the highest in the nation in teen pregnancies. And is it true that male novelists have their books promoted more vigorously than female novelists? No, of couse not; it's just that their books are better. Mnh-hmnh.

I feel like I walked into a time warp and have emerged somewhere in the 1960s.

Steve Benen and Chris Rock both think that the Republicans are overplaying their hand, and the craziness will end soon. I sincerely hope so.

In that respect, the protests in Madison, Wisconsin, are a hopeful sign. The Republican governor wants to severely cut state employees' compensation packages. The union and its allies are responding. And the protests may spread.

Meanwhile, protests are spreading across the Arab world. The autocratic governments have watched Tunisia and Egypt and are learning some things. Gene Sharp and Serbian dissidents have been teaching the Arab dissidents. It's nice to know that we have a president who was looking ahead last August at the possibility of something breaking loose in the Arab world.

We now have some evidence that the extreme storms we've had for the past few years are related to human-caused global warming.

Buying nail polish remover while Muslim will get you surveilled.

And another bit of good news: all the NPT nuclear weapons powers (US, Russia, China, Britain, and France) will be getting together, probably in June to talk about decreasing their arsenals. As the US and Russian numbers of nukes go down, it's essential to bring in the other nuclear weapon states.

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