The Pill at 50: Unhappy Un-Birthday

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The 50th anniversary of The Pill — oral contraceptives were first marketed in May 1960 — has resulted in a good deal of thoughtless journalism. Gail Collins spins a wondrous myth of The Pill as the pharmaceutical sunshine of a sexual-scientific enlightenment.  The Associated Press calls The Pill “America’s favorite birth control method,” which is not true:

Female Sterilization is the method used by 17.8% of American women 15-44. . . . Oral Contraceptives are second at 17.3%.

Well, having cleared up that little misconception about contraception, how about the idea that The Pill, by erasing worries about pregnancy, enhances women’s sexuality? Also not true:

Researchers found a link between using hormonal contraception and female sexual dysfunction, a condition most often caused by a lack of desire.
The findings back up previous anecdotal evidence that the pill reduces libido and also calls into question the long term use of the contraception especially in ever younger women. . . .
The researchers found that the women who took hormonal contraception suffered the most sexual dysfunction . . .
Dr Irwin Goldstein, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Sexual Medicine, said this had huge implications for women at the beginning of their sexual lives.
“The irony is that these women are provided a medication that enables freedom from reproductive worries but these same women are not provided information that there are significant adverse sexual effects that may ensue,” he said.
“Agents that interfere with the hormonal milieu of women may adversely affect their sexual lives.”

To anyone with a basic knowledge of biology, isn’t it just common sense that there would be serious side effects from administering artificial hormones to an otherwise healthy person? And yet the Contraceptive Culture has become so pervasive that this common-sense skepticism is seldom even voiced, let alone taken seriously — until people start dying. Continue reading The Pill at 50: Unhappy Un-Birthday →

‘Figures My Jokes Royally Antagonize’

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by Smitty

The POTUS thinks it’s cool to hammer a State governor trying to do her job in his Press Club routine. Governor Jan brews up a stone cold sober rebuttal:
It is time for Americans to Stand With Arizona.

National Offend A Feminist Week

National Offend a Feminist Week 2010

National Offend a Feminist Week, Day 2: Equal, But Not Identical?

National Offend A Feminist Week: Is She Insensitive?

First They Came For The Ocean

PA-12

Two Words: Freakin’ Huge!

‘Every Campaign Needs to Have a Sicilian Guy in a Fedora’ — Roxeanne De Luca

PA12: ‘That Crazy Blogger Guy’

PA-12: Calling All Tea Party People! Volunteers Needed in Pennsylvania

PA12: Tim Burns Debates Pelosi’s BFF

The Rest Of The Story

Bill Maher: How Do You Speak Around That Foot?

Could This Possibly Be True?

Charlotte’s Pro Amnesty Protest Updated: NYC and LA

Fear & Loathing at 3600 New York Ave.

The Longest Comment Thread in the History of This Blog? Go Ahead, Guess.

VIDEO: Jay Leno Manages Not to Drool While Interviewing Ashley Graham

Good News: Democrats Continue Ripping Each Other Apart in Senate Primaries

Hateful Racist Teabagger from Pakistan?

NYC Bomb Suspect Faisal Shahzad Arrested at JFK; Glenn Beck Still at Large

NYC Times Square Car Bomb: Latest News on ‘One-Off’ ‘Lone Wolf’ Faisal Shahzad

Primaries in 3 States: ‘If Stutzman Wins, DeMint Is Going to Look Like a Genius’

The Bigotry of ‘Progress’

Contessa Brewer’s Very Bad Day, Or Why Couldn’t Faisal Shahzad Be a Methodist?

David Brooks Column Doesn’t Suck; DJIA Loses 225 Points: Coincidence?

Election 2010: Senate Primaries in Indiana, Ohio and North Carolina

Why the Washington Post Sucks

Round Up the Usual Memes!

Lindsay Beyerstein’s Gay Rage

Feminists We’re Not Out To Offend

Marco Rubio: You Can Cool Your Heels In The Senate, But Don’t Stop There

John Boehner, Defender of Life

On Conservative Journalism

Alabama Update: When Will Tim James Send a Dozen Roses to Rachel Maddow?

Bob Belvedere Cancels Peru Trip

Hey, Who’s the Hottie?

‘Something Unseemly’

OMG! Calling Michelle Malkin! Kindergarten Girls Gone Wild?

Wisconsin 7: It Looks Like Duffy Is Packin’ The Gear

Barack Obama: Neo-Confederate?

Bloggiversaries
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Breaking, Like The Wind: AP Reports Methane Gas Triggered Deepwater Horizon Explosion

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by Smitty (via Kiser of 73Wire)

Newsvine carries this AP report:

The deadly blowout of an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico was triggered by a bubble of methane gas that escaped from the well and shot up the drill column, expanding quickly as it burst through several seals and barriers before exploding, according to interviews with rig workers conducted during BP’s internal investigation.

While the cause of the explosion is still under investigation, the sequence of events described in the interviews provides the most detailed account of the April 20 blast that killed 11 workers and touched off the underwater gusher that has poured more than 3 million gallons of crude into the Gulf.

Let us hope that sufficient evidence is discovered for a reasonably conclusive answer. We can face the truly dark possibilities as required, but no one really wants to deal with incompetence, attacks, or conspiracies.

A Video That Could Extract Tears From Chuck Norris

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by Smitty

Chris Cassone breaks out a tear-jerking feel good clip on Mother’s Day. It’s actually about veterans returning home, but there are plenty of moms included.

It recalls my own childhood poignantly, down in San Diego, California, waiting for dad or some other relative to come in from deployment. Only there wasn’t much surprise in my case. A big grey hunk of steel laboriously pushed about by tugs, while we waved at the crew in their dress uniforms, trying to spot the loved one.

Chuck DeVore Responds To Sarah’s Endorsement Of Carly

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by Smitty

Dan Riehl was grim on the topic:

. . .on the heels of her misguided Rand Paul endorsement, now Palin backs Fiorina in California. Chuck DeVore is the conservative in the race. That’s two endorsements she shouldn’t have made, as they hurt her brand, as much as they may help the candidate. I suspect she’s now lost a large part of her original base. And she doesn’t get a pass on this one because of John McCain.

Clifton at Another Black Conservative noted Sarah’s follow-up:

Carly is the only conservative in the race who can beat Barbara Boxer. That’s no RINO. That’s a winner.

For heaven’s sake, Sarah: if RINO Johnny had won in ’08, would he have been less a RINO?
Uncoverage picks up Chuck DeVore’s classy response (emphasis mine). An exerpt:

I call [Carly] a “John McCain Republican” – she talks the talk from time to time and says she’s a conservative but she has a “never with us when it counts” record just like McCain.
Don’t get me wrong, if a liberal Republican like Tom Campbell or a moderate Republican like Carly Fiorina win the primary instead of me, I will support them against Barbara Boxer.
But there’s no need to make a compromise like that.
This is not a primary election where electability needs to be a factor.
Again, let me offer the cold hard facts.
Here’s the most recent polling numbers from the independent Rasmussen poll.
Fiorina 38% – Boxer 42%
DeVore 39% – Boxer 42%
Campbell 41% – Boxer 43%
The margin of error in the poll was 4.5%.
That means Fiornia is statistically tied with Boxer.
So am I (actually one point better than Fiorina).

Remember, Carly supported McCain in 2008 rather heavily, and is clearly calling in a marker through John McCain.

On the one hand, as Reagan said at CPAC you “dance with the one that brung ya.”

On the other hand, Sarah is looking all too cozy with the insider crowd. One hopes she can find a way to recover.

I enthusiastically hope that both DeVore and Hayworth win the Republican primaries in their states. Recovering the country is going to involve load-shedding as many of the old-schoolers who have been party to the creation of the problem as possible. Whatever experience value is added by the old war horses is outweighed by their Beltway worldview.

Sorry, Carly, it’s time for Charlie.

If either or both of DeVore and Hayworth do win their primaries, will Sarah eat crow and endorse them?

Update: HotAir has quotes of the day on this topic.

Progressive Feminist Amanda Marcotte Is OK With Female Genital Mutilation

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You can’t make this stuff up:

Wow, I rarely find myself disagreeing with PZ, Melissa, and Samhita, but I have to say that I don’t really see the problem with the American Academy of Pediatrics advising doctors to offer a “ritual nick” in lieu of the more serious forms of female circumcision that are often on offer in some other parts of the world. The practice is something that is done in modern places that want to have a link to tradition without actually doing any real harm to little girls, from what I understand. All they do is prick your genitals, or make a small cut that heals over, but nothing is removed. You’re basically scratching the girl. It’s not awesome . . . but comparing it to more severe forms of female circumcision troubles me.

In guessing why Marcotte doesn’t object to the “ritual nick,” I postulate either:

  • A. She’s got that whole blame-America/white-guilt mindset going on, where she can’t object to even the most barbaric practice, so long as it is practiced by America’s enemies;

OR . . .

  • B. She has enough gential piercings herself that she sets off metal detectors at the airport.

Quite possibly both. Anyway, hat-tip to Dennis the Peasant.

Barack Obama: Neo-Confederate?

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The one element of the Confederate Constitution that is generally praised by historians was its provision of the line-item veto, a power that our progressive POTUS now craves:

President Obama, in his latest effort to signal fiscal responsibility against the rising debt, plans this month to ask Congress to give him and future presidents greater power to try to delete individual items from spending bills.
In doing so, Mr. Obama will join a long line of his predecessors who have sought either line-item veto power or, after the Supreme Court in 1998 ruled such a veto unconstitutional, some other rescission authority that passes muster. Congress once again is unlikely to be receptive, though growing antidebt sentiment could give the proposal life. . . .

Of course, the damned Yankees at the New York Times would never acknowledge the historical precedent. But add the president’s advocacy of the line-item veto to his Marlboro habit on the (very short) list of Things I Like About Obama.

Wisconsin 7: It Looks Like Duffy Is Packin’ The Gear

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by Smitty

Kathryn Jean Lopez notes:

Rachel Campos-Duffy was a cast member on MTV’s The Real World. She actually brought Paul Ryan and Empower America to The Real World, believe it or not. But her starring role right now is as a young mom of six and wife of Sean Duffy

Follow to the NRO link to get to a full interview of Rachel. Mom of six? What do we know about this Sean Duffy? The answer comes from a No Quarter post:

It looks like the candidate for Wisconsin 7 is packin’ the gear.
TrogloPundit has neither confirmed nor denied rumors that the motive for Duffy’s campaign was Rachels’ insistence that Sean get her away from the stench of Trog’s swamp, STAT!