“pro-life” morality

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Remember those gross pictures of genital warts from sex-ed? Genital warts are caused by human papilloma virus (HPV). HPV can also lead to cervical cancer. The governor of Texas tried to mandate the HPV vaccine, which is most effective before a person is exposed to the virus (in this case, before a person becomes sexually active). But those pro-lifers seem a lot more interested in keeping women from having sex than actually saving lives:

On Monday, 23 April, the Texas Senate voted 30-1 in favor of its version of HB1089, a bill overturning Rick Perry’s February executive order mandating that all girls entering the sixth grade receive the HPV (human papilloma virus) vaccine Gardasil.

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Why do women have second trimester abortions?

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According to this study on women in England, summarized by The F-Word,

1. because they do not realize they are pregnant.
2. because they were unsure about having an abortion.
3. change or breakdown in relationship
4. service delays including waiting for appointments

I imagine these reasons are very similar to why women here have second trimester abortions.

Rick Renzi and the Military Commissions Act

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The Military Commissions Act of 2006 restricts the right of habeas corpus (among other things). This is what it says:

No person may invoke the Geneva Conventions or any protocols thereto in any habeas corpus or other civil action or proceeding to which the United States, or a current or former officer, employee, member of the Armed Forces, or other agent of the United States is a party as a source of rights in any court of the United States or its States or territories.

I wrote to my representative, Rick Renzi, asking him to restore the right of habeas corpus. I’ve copied some of his response below.

As you may be aware, the Military Commissions Act of 2006 was signed into law on October 10, 2006 (P.L. 109-366). Based on the Uniform Code of Military Justice, this law establishes the procedures, rules, and legal framework for trying accused terrorists captured either here in the United States or abroad.

Those eligible for trial under this law are those people found violating the laws of war, committing a hostile act against the United States, or purposefully and materially supporting terrorists engaged in a hostile act against the United States. No American citizen may be tried under the Military Commissions Act.

First of all, why should people who aren’t American citizens be denied the right of habeas corpus? Habeas corpus allows detainees to seek relief from unlawful imprisonment. Citizens of other countries are as entitled to this right as American citizens.

Secondly, Renzi says that no American citizen may be tried under the Military Commissions Act. This isn’t quite true. As David Wu pointed out in a House debate

by so restricting habeas corpus, this bill does not just apply to enemy aliens. It applies to all Americans because, while the provision on page 93 has the word “alien” in it, the provision on page 61 does not have the word “alien” in it.

Let us say that my wife, who is here in the gallery with us tonight, a sixth generation Oregonian, is walking by the friendly, local military base and is picked up as an unlawful enemy combatant. What is her recourse? She says, I am a U.S. citizen. That is a jurisdictional fact under this statute, and she will not have recourse to the courts? She can take it to Donald Rumsfeld, but she cannot take it across the street to an article 3 court.

This bill applies to every American, regardless of citizenship status.

Write a letter to your representative about this.

EDIT:

Not that I should have expected better of him based on his voting record. Most recently,

  • He voted against Implementing the 9/11 Commission Recommendation Act, which establishes a Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board and requires “reports on the implementation of the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations in regard to the detention and treatment of captured terrorists.”
  • He voted for the Intelligence and Law Enforcement Resolution, which allows for government surveillance without a court order, “allows the Attorney General to direct a person to secretly provide the Government with all information and facilities needed to acquire foreign intelligence information,” “prohibits a court from imposing a penalty on any person for an activity relating to an element of the intelligence community between the period of September 11th, 2001 and 60 days after the enactment of this act,” and “prohibits officials from using information gathered with election surveillance for a criminal proceeding unless Attorney General authorizes it in advance.” So, it gives immunity to people in the government who do bad things and allows those bad people in the government to spy on ordinary people.

articles worth reading

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Content analysis of O’Reilly’s rhetoric finds spin to be a ‘factor’

Bill O’Reilly may proclaim at the beginning of his program that viewers are entering the “No Spin Zone,” but a new study by Indiana University media researchers found that the Fox News personality consistently paints certain people and groups as villains and others as victims to present the world, as he sees it, through political rhetoric.The IU researchers found that O’Reilly called a person or a group a derogatory name once every 6.8 seconds, on average, or nearly nine times every minute during the editorials that open his program each night.

Tobias & Bush, Torturing Africa With Abstinence

Back in April 2004, Tobias sparked a controversy by declaring, at the Berlin Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS that “Statistics show that condoms really have not been very effective… It’s been the principal prevention device for the last 20 years, and I think one needs only to look at what’s happening with the infection rates in the world to recognize that has not been working.”

Regardless of whether he actually believes in such ideological positions or not is irrelevant; Randall Tobias has been one of the leaders spearheading a Bush Administration push to shift US international family planning policies towards a “faith based” approach and re-channel US foreign aid away from secular organizations and towards religious groups that, per one major survey, are predominantly Christian. Starting as head of US global AIDS policy and moving up to head USAID, some would go so far as to call Tobias a leader in an international war on woman’s reproductive rights.

Duck and Cover

while the United States demands that other countries end their nuclear programs, the Bush administration is busy planning a new generation of nuclear weapons. Nearly 20 years after the Berlin Wall crumbled, the United States is allocating more funding, on average, to nuclear weapons than during the Cold War. The Bush administration is pumping this money—more than $6 billion this year—into renovating the nuclear weapons complex and designing new nuclear weapons. Such hypocrisy is one of the main obstacles to nuclear arms reductions because it runs the risk of shattering the 1970 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in which the nuclear-armed states pledged to begin the process of disarmament if the non-nuclear states opted not to pursue the deadly technology.

amateur science

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mushroom on the roof

Originally uploaded by hans s

I posted about the extended growing season for mushrooms in the UK a few weeks ago. A cool fact I didn’t know at the time: the discovery was due to a 50 year data collection by Alan Ganges, an amateur mycologist.

Fungus enthusiast Edward Gange amassed 52,000 sightings of mushroom and toadstools during walks around Salisbury over a 50-year period. Analysis by his son Alan, published in the journal Science, shows some fungi have started to fruit twice a year. It is among the first studies to show a biological impact of warming in autumn.

Science takes passion and creativity and you don’t have to dedicate your life to it to contribute or enjoy it.

Via Majikthise.