To hell with Hyde!

Community

Sunday July 03, 2016 · 6:45 AM PDT

2016/07/03 · 06:45

The Burger Court issued their decision on Harris v. McRae on June 30, 1980

While reproductive justice activists across the nation celebrate last week’s 5-3 Supreme Court decision on the Texas abortion laws case, we should not forget the June 30 anniversary of the ugly 5-4 decision in Harris v. McRae (and the Maher v. Roe case that preceded it) that locked in the Hyde Amendment. It remains in force until this day.

Here’s some background on the Hyde Amendment:

In 1973, when abortion became legal across the country, the federal Medicaid program covered abortion as a part of standard medical care. In the first years of legalized abortion, federal Medicaid paid for over one-third of all abortions performed in the U.S. It became clear that Medicaid coverage of abortion is essential for low-income women to build the lives they want.

In 1976, Congress passed the Hyde Amendment, which banned federal Medicaid coverage of abortion. The law went into effect in 1977, and in 1980 the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Hyde Amendment did not violate the constitutional rights of women on Medicaid. The intent of the Hyde Amendment is to make it more difficult for low-income women to get the abortions they need.

Here are the words of Henry Hyde, the Republican Congressman from Illinois who sponsored the bill, making its intent perfectly clear.

‘“I certainly would like to prevent, if I could legally, anybody having an abortion, a rich woman, a middle-class woman, or a poor woman,” he said. “Unfortunately, the only vehicle available is the … Medicaid bill.”

Many of those middle- and upper-class women have always been able to evade draconian laws restricting abortion. Access to needed medical procedures has been an airplane ride away for those who live in states with restrictive laws. That’s no so for their poorer sisters.

This year, the Democratic Party platform is taking a strong stance on reproductive rights:

Reproductive Rights: The platform goes further than previous Democratic platforms on women’s reproductive rights. It champions Planned Parenthood health centers and commits to push back on all Republican efforts to defund it. The platform also vows to oppose, and seek to overturn, all federal and state laws that impede a woman’s access to abortion, including by repealing the Hyde Amendment. It also strongly supports the repeal of harmful restrictions that obstruct women’s access to healthcare around the world, including the Global Gag Rule and the Helms Amendment, which bars US assistance to other countries that provide safe, legal, abortion. have waited a long time to see these words “repealing the Hyde Amendment.”

Many of us have waited a very long time to finally see the possibility of sending Hyde back to the hell of forced birtherism that spawned it. Today, we stand at the crossroads of justice. We have within our grasp the ability to shift the Supreme Court for decades to come, and to gift future generations of women the right to their own bodies.

Krotor

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday May 12, 2016 · 2:55 PM PDT

2016/05/12 · 14:55

This is a "modified" (with electrical tape) pedestrian crossing sign, one of the infamous MIT Hacks. Creative Commons license, https://www.flickr.com/photos/jparise/214330120 — Today is the day you will cross over to the nerdy side

So it's time. Today is the day your life will change forever. Yesterday, you were just a regular guy or gal, who had followed the crowd over the years from XP to Vista to Windows 7. Then Windows 8 came out and you recoiled, bewildered that Microsoft would force you to learn a whole new, and unintuitive, way of working with your computer. For the first time, you wondered if maybe, just maybe, Linux might be the right way to go after all. Windows 10 appeared and you were somewhat mollified but still the question is always in the back of your mind: will it happen again?

You read my first Linux article, An Introductory Look at Linux, and you realize that it's not so mysterious after all, that Linux can offer you a computing environment that feels comfortable and familiar while still letting you do things your own way and style up your desktop however you like.

You read my second article, How to Give Linux a Test Drive, Free, and Without Changing Your Computer or Windows. There you learned how to create a live demo on a USB stick and you've test driven Linux Mint and really liked it.

So now you're ready to walk on the wild side. You know it's time.

Today you will install Mint on your computer. From this day forward, you will forever be a Linux nerd.

Poll

178 votes Show Results

In regard to installing Linux,

178 votes Vote Now!

In regard to installing Linux,

Yay, I managed to do it succesfully. Now I'm a Linux nerd!

8 votes

I already had Linux installed so my nerd credentials are well established

126 votes

I want to but I'm still scared to try after reading this article

17 votes

Nope, not going to do it

19 votes

I thought about, got started on it, but then pie was calling my name and I forgot about it

8 votes

How to give Linux a test drive, free, and without changing your computer or Windows

Krotor

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday May 12, 2016 · 2:54 PM PDT

2016/05/12 · 14:54

Tux, the Linux penguin, sleeping. Free to use, courtesy of Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/en/penguin-linux-sleeping-animal-159784/ — Tux, the Linux mascot, taking a nap after test driving Linux distros all day

Boy, was I ever disappointed the first time I tried out Linux. Under Windows, I downloaded the appropriate file, burned it to a CD (the live installers were smaller back then), left the disc in the drive, and rebooted. I was pumped up, anticipating this huge change in my tech life.

And up came Windows.

Okay, it wasn't really Windows, it was Ubuntu. But it seemed an awful lot like Windows. It had a taskbar (at the top of the screen), icons on the desktop, and a main menu for finding the installed programs. Double-clicking an icon activated the designated program. Right-clicking an icon gave me a mini-menu of choices like in Windows, even if they were phrased a bit differently. I opened the word processor, the music player, the web browser, the video player, and more. The differences between them and the equivalent Windows programs that I used were no greater than between my preferred Windows programs and other Windows programs which I had tried out at times.

Ubuntu, version 9.10, in 2009. GNU General Public License, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ubuntu_9.10.png — Ubuntu as it looked way back in 2009

What a ripoff! I had been expecting something dramatic, something that would make me feel dazzled by a breathtaking leap forward in my cyber geekdom, something that would make me believe I had been transported to the science station on the bridge of the starship Enterprise.

If I wasn't dazzled, couldn't I at least be bewildered and challenged? This was Linux, why wasn't I being forced to desperately type out arcane commands like the DOS and CP/M commands I had mastered when Windows was still but a gleam in Bill Gates' eye?

Sure, it looked kind of cool, like Windows' somewhat exotic cousin from some faraway land. But, bottom line, I just pointed and clicked and selected menu actions like I had already been doing for many years.

Prepare yourself to be disappointed. We are about to take a journey to the familiar, where you will be able to put your existing computing skills to use without having to learn everything all over again. Your next stop, the Linux Zone [cue mysterious music].

Poll

82 votes Show Results

About taking Linux for a test drive,

82 votes Vote Now!

About taking Linux for a test drive,

I don't need to, I already have Linux installed on my computer

25 votes

I'm going to use this article to set up a Live Install USB stick and give it a spin

18 votes

I'm going to consider it a while but I just might give it a try someday

25 votes

I'm still not interested at all in trying out Linux or installing it on my computer

0 votes

I already run Linux but I may use this information to try out some other distros on a USB stick

11 votes

I just want to eat some pie, some yummy penguin pie

3 votes

An introductory look at Linux

Krotor

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday May 12, 2016 · 2:54 PM PDT

2016/05/12 · 14:54

Tux, the Linux mascot — Tux, the plucky penguin mascot of Linux

There have been a few diaries and comment threads in recent weeks with discussions of Linux, the computer operating system that offers an alternative to Windows. It seems to me that quite a few people are interested in it but don't know much about it and are a little intimidated by Linux (probably because of ancient history when Linux indeed was strictly for tech geeks).

So as a diversion from the ever entertaining rox/sux primary pie fights, let's take a light look at Linux today. This won't be a technical article or a how-to manual; it will be an overview of Linux and will demonstrate some of its features, benefits, and abilities that go way beyond Windows.

Distributions (“distros”)

I will mostly discuss Linux Mint here, the flavor of Linux I prefer and use, but pretty much all of the concepts and functions I will talk about are found in all versions of Linux. Mint is a distribution, or “distro”, of Linux. Linux is open source, so anyone is free to take the original code, modify it as desired, and repackage it with a new name as a distribution. That is what the Mint team does. They take Ubuntu, a popular distribution which itself is based on Debian (one of the most fundamental distros of Linux), and modify it to their purposes and roll it out in the distro known as Mint.

For you, as an end user, the critical fact is that Linux programs are written for Linux, not for a particular distro. That means that you can install and run just about every Linux program with any distro; if the program requires some extra supporting files to run correctly on your particular distro, Linux will automatically handle that, downloading and installing them for you.

Poll

115 votes Show Results

In regard to Linux

115 votes Vote Now!

In regard to Linux

I already use it

64 votes

I don't use it now but I am interested in it

46 votes

I have tried it before but didn't like it and do not want to try it again

2 votes

I hate Linux so much I want to turn Tux into penguin pie

3 votes

Prince has reportedly died at his home in Minnesota

Jen Hayden

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday May 04, 2016 · 12:12 PM PDT

2016/05/04 · 12:12

US singer and musician Prince (born Prince Rogers Nelson) performs on stage at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, outside Paris, on June 30, 2011. AFP PHOTO BERTRAND GUAY (Photo credit should read BERTRAND GUAY/AFP/Getty Images)

Stunningly sad news being reported out of Minnesota:

#BREAKING Prince DEAD at 57.https://t.co/deNswWDtPp
— TMZ (@TMZ) April 21, 2016

News began trickling out of Minnesota within the last hour:

Still no word who. Prince has been sick recently. RT @jmileskstp: Middle aged man dead at Prince's #PaisleyPark. @KSTP
— Sandra Turner (@wfaasandra) April 21, 2016

The Minneapolis Star Tribune hasn't yet confirmed the death at Paisley Park was Prince:

Authorities said Thursday morning that they are investigating a death at Prince’s Paisley Park in Chanhassen.

“We’re currently conducting a death investigation and there isn’t much I can say,” said Jason Kamerud, chief sheriff’s deputy for Carver County. “We’re withholding information on the identification of the decedent until after we’ve connected with the next of kin. Once that has been done we will issue a press release.”

Asked specifically if Prince had died, Kamerud repeated that he couldn’t confirm the identity of the decedent. “I appreciate that you need to report responsibly. I want to be responsible to the decedent’s next of kin. I think that’s the respectful thing to do.”

brillig for Top Comments

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday April 25, 2016 · 8:38 AM PDT

2016/04/25 · 08:38

As everyone not living under a rock… and most of those folks know too… we lost another of our musical icons yesterday with the death of Prince Rogers Nelson. His music was part of my college years and early adulthood, and learning belatedly of his involvement with a variety of efforts to make the world a better place including Yes We Code makes me even sadder that his life was cut so short. Please don your raspberry beret and follow me through the purple rain and below the ~~dingledoodle~~ Story Break, after a word from our sponsor…

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To hell with Hyde!

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How to give Linux a test drive, free, and without changing your computer or Windows

An introductory look at Linux

Prince has reportedly died at his home in Minnesota

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