The revolution may not be televised. But in some parts of the world, it won't be webcast either.
- More from the insanity of H.R.3, the latest embodiment of the Republican War on Women:
Rape is only really rape if it involves force. So says the new House Republican majority as it now moves to change abortion law.
For years, federal laws restricting the use of government funds to pay for abortions have included exemptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest. (Another exemption covers pregnancies that could endanger the life of the woman.) But the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act," a bill with 173 mostly Republican co-sponsors that House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has dubbed a top priority in the new Congress, contains a provision that would rewrite the rules to limit drastically the definition of rape and incest in these cases.
With this legislation, which was introduced last week by Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), Republicans propose that the rape exemption be limited to "forcible rape." This would rule out federal assistance for abortions in many rape cases, including instances of statutory rape, many of which are non-forcible. For example: If a 13-year-old girl is impregnated by a 24-year-old adult, she would no longer qualify to have Medicaid pay for an abortion. (Smith's spokesman did not respond to a call and an email requesting comment.)
It's the type of thing that really makes you wonder what's wrong with people. Is it any wonder that women tend to vote for Democrats? The GOP thinks that unless you were hogtied or had a knife brandished at you, you deserve whatever you get. Why not just put women in a burqa, assign them a male relative as an escort, and be done with it? Then the transition to American Taliban can be complete.
- Last night I was in the studio audience of Real Time with Bill Maher. He made a very interesting point about the Super Bowl: that unlike what happens with baseball, small-market teams routinely get the opportunity to succeed because of the NFL's "socialist" revenue-sharing structure. This can be contrasted to Major League Baseball, where the wealthy teams are nearly always the ones that win--and where Yankees President Randy Levine recently told the Texas Rangers to "get off welfare." And you thought it was always the Texans telling the New Yorkers to get off welfare.
- Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) has settled olive-pit-gate.
- The Equal Rights Amendment, which will finally guarantee constitutional equality for women if it survives the Constitutional Amendment process, is working its way through the Virginia Senate.
- Via Balloon Juice, it looks like anti-government Tea Party objectivist hero Ayn Rand was actually a welfare queen:
An interview with Evva Pryror, a social worker and consultant to Miss Rand's law firm of Ernst, Cane, Gitlin and Winick verified that on Miss Rand's behalf she secured Rand's Social Security and Medicare payments which Ayn received under the name of Ann O'Connor (husband Frank O'Connor).
As Pryor said, "Doctors cost a lot more money than books earn and she could be totally wiped out" without the aid of these two government programs. Ayn took the bail out even though Ayn "despised government interference and felt that people should and could live independently... She didn't feel that an individual should take help."
But alas she did and said it was wrong for everyone else to do so.
But, you know, she deserved it--just like all those anti-government people screaming to make sure that government keeps its hands off their Medicare.