Watering Hole: Monday, February 27, 2012 – Birth Control All Female Panel

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This speaks for me and for itself.

Some of you may have seen this before.  I wanted to share it again because the birth control issue is NOT going away.

Here’s a link to a good rant on how women really feel about the War on Women.  On April 28, there will be a protest rally/march in all 50 states.  And for the men that love women, we would love to have you join us.   🙂

This is our Open Thread.  Speak Up!

169 thoughts on “Watering Hole: Monday, February 27, 2012 – Birth Control All Female Panel”

    • Ironically, the best rye whiskey in my cupboard is from High West in Utah. I don’t think they’re distilling, just buying stock from other distillers (Seagrams, for one) but bottling and selling from the state. I think the extremely restrictive ceiling on alcohol content in beer has been lifted, at least a little, but at one time beer over 3.2% could only be served in private clubs.

      Liquor control boards in general are schizo because they have two clear missions: increase state revenue from the sales of liquor (directly or by taxes) and discourage the use of alcohol by any means necessary because otherwise we will all be passed out in the streets.

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  5. What a circus. Republicans condemn condoms! Republicans praise children of rape as a gift from God. Republicans legislate forced trans-vaginal probes. Republicans hate women (and men) who want to plan their families. What’s next? Republicans mandate missionary-position only? I hate to admit it, but Newt was right. ‘Cause Newt and all his Republican friends SHOULD set up a moon colony…. AND GO THERE! Then, they could tell each other what to do, and how to live, and who to love…. while leaving the REST of us alone, in peace, here on Earth. Newt, I always KNEW that you were a problem-solver. Unfortunately, you and your Republican friends ARE the problem…

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  6. All this talk about birth control!
    How come nobody has been asking Santorum about his sperm?
    Rick should know that every sperm is sacred.
    Where have yours been going lately Rick?

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  11. GOP hypocrisy on religion:

    “Why would the GOP candidates call the president’s contraception rule an assault on religious liberty but denounce his apology to Afghan Muslims for the U.S. burning of Qurans?
    …
    Nothing angers Gingrich more than liberal “social engineers” who think they can radically reshape America just because some Ivy League professor told them they have big brains. And yet, when asked a public-policy question, Gingrich invariably promises to “dramatically, fundamentally, radically overhaul government policy from the ground up.”

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/02/27/gop-hypocrisy-on-religion-quran-burning-vs-contraception.html

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  12. House – you got your wish. The racing gods knew you had to work. Now you’ll have time to restock the larder before the show:

    The Sprint Cup Series season opener was rescheduled to start at 7 p.m. EST,

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    • Thanks for the notice. We were wondering if the rain would hold long enough to push the start back to late afternoon. I’m in place on the local Fox affiliate watching Charlie Sheen think he’s acting, when he’s really just being Charlie Sheen.

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  13. QOTD:

    “[T]he stimulus was one of the largest single tax cuts in U.S. history. To say the stimulus failed is to make the argument that tax cuts do not stimulate the economy. Ninety-five percent of all Americans got a tax cut under the plan. … The next time a Republican brags about his or her opposition to the failed stimulus, a cynic might respond by asking why they hate tax cuts so much,” – Juan Williams.

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      • Not many lakes but there is the Yellowstone River.
        I’m sure an aircraft carrier would have minimal impact on the trout fishing.

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        • This entire subject about Wyoming and their carrier has intrigued me.

          A Nimitz class carrier (which is being superseded by the similarly sized Ford-class carrier) is 1092 feet long. From waterline to the top of the radar tower is over 200 feet (so hopefully there are no low bridges). The beam (width) is 252 feet, and it draws about 37-41 feet. Max speed is 30 knots (about 35mph).

          The largest lake in Wyoming is Yellowstone Lake. Maximum length is 20 miles and maximum width is 15 miles. So a carrier could go across the long part of the lake in about about 35 minutes. Average dept of the lake is 139 feet, but not sure how close the carrier could get to the shore.

          It would probably be cheaper to just build an air base near the lake, as the planes could easily cover the same area from a ground-based strip as it could from Wyoming’s nuclear super carrier.

          By the way, do we know if Wyoming wants any nuclear subs? Yellowstone lake would be deep enough for a sub to enjoy going up and down. In fact, at some points it’s even deeper than the limits of Ohio-class nuclear submarine.

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          • Only a few eesny weensy problems. One, Wyoming is not noted for it’s shipyards. Two, there is no waterway that could handle almost any warship of size in the entire state. Three, there aren’t enough people in Wyoming to foot the bill unless they maybe all gave their entire earnings and worth to fund the project.

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            • Good point. The cost of a Ford-class carrier is about $9-billion. Wyoming has 568,158 residents. So each one needs to cough up $15,840.66 to pay for their carrier. Of course, that doesn’t include any of the infrastructure needed to maintain a nuclear vessel, and the ongoing operational costs.

              And I don’t imagine it includes the cost of the actual aircraft to go on said carrier.

            • Wyoming is Dick Cheney’s home and I suspect that if Dick Cheney wants an aircraft carrier, the military (Halliburton) will dredge the Yellowstone to get that aircraft carrier into his backyard so he can get a stiffy.

              Whitewater rapids in an aircraft carrier.
              Who would have ever imagined that?

              At the risk of being captain obvious, I think Dick Cheney wants an aircraft carrier named after him.

  22. “Religious Freedom” and the Conservative Quest for Absolute Truth

    As Randall Balmer, a leading scholar of evangelical Christianity, has explained it evangelicals are less concerned about specific issues than they are about feeling assured of one kind of structure in particular: “an unambiguous morality in an age of moral and ethical uncertainty”—an age that spurs evangelicals to an endless quest for obvious, immutable, and absolute contrasts between good and evil.

    If “absolute truth” is a wagon load of lies, that’s perfectly fine. As long as they feel safe.

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  25. Looking around the various polls. President Obama’s approval ratings are creeping up, congressional approval ratings are still in the abyss, and Rantorum continues to lead Mittens. I am forced to conclude that the polls about Obama and Congress are reaching sane people while the GOP polls are not. I’m certainly not a fan of Mittens but he’s the only one of the bunch who even has a passing acquaintance with sanity so, of course, the GOP base can’t stand him.

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    • Mittens … has a passing acquaintance with sanity …

      Yep. When Seamus got the shits in the airtight kennel on the roof of the family wagon, Mitt stopped and hosed everything down. Including Seamus.

      Also describes his job-creation philosophy in a nutshell. As you noted, “a passing acquaintance with sanity.”

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      • On second thought, even that may be too kind. I’ve read much of the Book of Mormon and anyone who buys that crap, literally in the case of Mittens who has given millions of dollars to the LDS church, just ain’t right in the head. Still, I find him the least unpalatable of the field.

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  28. Catholic Church still whining about women’s health care

    Despite the pope’s message for this year’s Lent, calling on Catholics to “Let us be concerned for each other, to stir a response in love and good works,” it seems the Church hierarchy in the United States has a different take: screw you, in the name of the Lord.

    Still outraged—outraged!—that the majority of Americans support insurance coverage of contraception, used by almost all sexually active women, including Catholics, the bishops and cardinals aren’t shying away from its absurd rhetoric and threats.

    Via Joe My God, Cardinal Francis George of the Archdiocese of Chicago, has penned a lengthy column suggesting that Church-affiliated hospitals should shut down and cease providing health care services altogether, rather than be forced to … uh … exist in a country in which women have access to birth control:

    What will happen if the HHS regulations are not rescinded? A Catholic institution, so far as I can see right now, will have one of four choices: 1) secularize itself, breaking its connection to the church, her moral and social teachings and the oversight of its ministry by the local bishop. This is a form of theft. It means the church will not be permitted to have an institutional voice in public life. 2) Pay exorbitant annual fines to avoid paying for insurance policies that cover abortifacient drugs, artificial contraception and sterilization. This is not economically sustainable. 3) Sell the institution to a non-Catholic group or to a local government. 4) Close down.

    [snip]

    I have to wonder if the Cards and Bbishops would have a change of heart if ten year old altar boys could get pregnant after oral sex with a priest.

    What a bunch of disgusting buggers those dudes are.

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  29. My employer has started it’s own Facebook-style social networking site. It’s for employees only and we’re being encouraged to participate. (By encouraged, I mean we get reminders from people who’s job it is to monitor the site, to make sure we’ve filled out our profile and uploaded a photo of ourselves; I want that job. It sounds easy.)

    You’re free to post about anything, and a lot of the posts are from our own PR departments telling us how we look great in the news, or about upcoming legislation that affects our business. (I’m already seeing a right-leaning slant in that information; no surprise there, corporations are Republicans.)

    But it’s this post that caught my eye. I give the person credit for getting into the spirit of the thing by trying to start a new discussion on the site about common interests.

    AMCs “The Walking Dead.”
    “This is like my favorite show on AMC. Any other fans????”

    The phrase “this is like my favorite show” is just fingernails on the chalkboard to me. If this is like the author’s favorite show, I wonder what their favorite show actually is?

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  30. This is going to be wild. The first ever prime time Daytona 500! They called it Monday Might Football at 200 miles an hour! 😀

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  31. That was a short green flag. One lap and 600 feet. She got some left rear quarter damage but she’s still rolling, at least. Five time champion Jimmie Johnson started the wrecking.

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    • I don’t object to Danica getting a lot of attention because she is, indeed, a knockout. I do object to the implication that she’s anything other than a rookie without major accomplishments. Plus; drivers who have had more success in open-wheel racing have flopped when they move over to the bumping of NASCAR.

      I don’t want to sound like a Reichwhiner whining about “political correctness” but let’s be real. She wouldn’t get much attention at all if she wasn’t pretty. She might go on to a long and successful career but she’s accomplished nothing to deserve all the hype.

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      • There’s the particular driver of a stock car, with nearly as many stickers, who races up and down my section of highway. She always gets my attention, in that I pull off to the side.

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      • “She wouldn’t get much attention at all if she wasn’t pretty. She might go on to a long and successful career but she’s accomplished nothing to deserve all the hype.”

        I think we all know who else this describes.

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      • Danica has accomplished nothing?

        > Qualified and finished fourth in her first Indy 500 (2005)
        >Three Indycar poles in her rookie season (2005)
        >Rookie of the Year 2005 Indy 500 and Indycar 2005 Rookie of the Year
        >12th in Indycar points (2005)
        >9th in Indycar points (2006) Team switched from G-Force to Dallara chassis after the 5th of 14 races
        >7th in Indycar points (2007) in first season with Andretti (Previously with Rahal-Letterman)
        >6th in Indycar points (2008) Highest points finish of the US drivers in the series. >Won race at Twin Ring-Motegi (2008)
        >5th in Indycar points (2009) Finished third in Indy 500. Highest in points of non Penske or Ganassi drivers. Highest on Team Andretti. Highest American driver.
        >10th in Indycar points (2010) Finished 6th in Indy 500. Second place finishes at Texas and Homestead. Set Indycar record for consecutive finishes without a DNF at 33.
        2011 was a down year for Andretti Autosport, and she finished 10th in points, having trouble on road courses but running well on ovals. Penske driver Helio Castroneves, three time Indy 500 winner, finished 11th in points.

        In a brief time in Nascar, running part time, she has three top tens and one pole.

        Maybe you’d think Indycar isn’t much compared to Nascar? Indycars pull more Gs in acceleration, cornering, and braking than stock cars. The physical ability to drive them is at least as difficult, and they are technically more advanced, although this year Nascar is finally using fuel injection.

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  32. No problem, dycker. I don’t “do” women who are married and/or gay. Still, I know one woman who would make a sex change operation an attractive prospect if I was assured that it would result in a whole bunch of cuddling. Sigh…

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    • Now how can you get that assurance? 😯

      The Subaru is a great car. I can’t drive it too much because it just makes me want to be a rally driver.

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      • There is no assurance. That’s why the sex change was never a viable option. 🙂

        At the risk of being silly: Subarus should be called “Superus”. One needs to go with a “true” sports car to find anything more fun to drive. I had the opportunity to take a WRI out on the back roads and really enjoyed myself pushing the performance envelope. It was more fun than my old Camaro but a little too big and heavy to surpass my beloved Triumph Spitfire.

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        • I have never really pushed the performance of any car. I would love to get rally driving instruction one day just for the experience. Our subaru is just so great to drive. Lots of zip, hugs the corner 0 to 60 faster than my wife appreciates… and my right foot develops lead foot syndrome that has cost me one ticket too many.

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          • Having spent most of my life waaaaaay out in rural Minnesota, I have pushed a lot of cars towards their limits. I was also fortunate that Dad took me out to the middle of a frozen lake to explore the limits of traction.

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          • I thought I wanted a sports car once upon a time, and tried on a Fiat Spider.
            The feeling was that of wearing a neon green zoot suit…

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            • Correction, it was an early vintage, ’68 – ’69, Opel GT.
              Don’t know where Fiat Spider got into my head.
              It was neon green!

            • One of my neighbors had an Opel GT. A true classic. It got run over by a runaway flatbed truck that was loading a bulldozer at the top of the hill. Kinda like a Ford GT40 designed for people without the skill to drive a “real” racing car. It was also the car in the credits for “Get Smart”.

          • Exactly! I could only drive it about 5 months per year, here in Minnesota, and the hubs loosened up when I turned to the left at the limit but it was sooooo much fun. I cried a whole lot when the poplar tree fell on it!

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    • I loooove owls. Back when I lived in the country we had a pair of Great Greys who would teach their brood to hunt in my back yard. They came back for six years and the funny part is that a number of dedicated birders insisted that they had to be Great Horned owls because the greys were supposed to only nest in arctic climes.

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    • Good one. The camouflage is amazing. I’ve spent a few hours this winter watching sculpins in the tide pools. They average 2 inches long, and are very similar in form to the blennies. They come in a variety of colors and patterns, I haven’t figured out if they can change coloration to suit.

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      • Sculpins, whether freshwater or salt, are really incredible.

        FYI. “Scooter Blennies” aren’t really blennies. That’s the common name but they are actually dragonettes. Depending on the source, dragonettes are more closely related to sculpins than the true blennies.

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        • They’re fun to watch. Together with the hermit crabs in their little stone pools, very entertaining. I looked up once to see another beachcomber eying me warily; my head stuck into a hole in the rocks, laughing…

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          • I’m still working on footage of my scooter feeding. He reminds me of a “Horned Toad” gobbling ants. In fact, when i point him out to a visitor, I describe him as “the funny fish that acts like a lizard”.

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      • If I were a better photographer he would always be photogenic. But? I’m learning the new camera and more good images will be forthcoming. I need to get another mated pair, or move on to “mandarin fish”, so that I can capture them in all their glory. Even though the Mandarin fish are more spectacular I’m a bit hesitant because they are more rare and have a reputation for being more delicate. When scooters are in the throws of mating they can compete. They display all kinds of blues and greens. Their beauty is no less even though they are more subtle in their colors.

        Here’s a Mandarin fish. I can live with a Scooter dying but I would be despondent if I allowed a Mandarin to die.

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          • Words don’t describe. I starved one to death back when I first started up with the marine aquariums and I’ve been leery ever since. The scooters are also amazing, (wait till I share images of a new mated pair!), in their own subdued way. They are also easier to keep and much more common. Still, should my current scooter expire before I find a suitable mate, I’ll probably give the mandarin fish another try. Now that I have a mature tank with all kinds of little “pods” (“pods” is the generic term for tiny lifeforms that dragonettes love to eat) I think i would have better success but i don’t want to take any chances with such incredible creatures.

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        • Yup. It’s titled “Does This Sound Sane?” – for this one, I threw together another collection of wild and wacky Santorum quotes. I thought I’d keep this week’s fairly mild, since last week’s was about the Vagina bill and abortion rights.

          Last week I had asked the editor if he thought that the topic was too controversial for a ‘community’ newspaper, and he replied, “Despite the fact that this is a community paper readers, at least in this view, should not be denied exposure to controversial issues. There is way too much pap around these days and that is part of the problem that we face at every level in the society.”

          I’ll keep trying to provide more “not-pap” as much as possible. 😀

          Off to bed! Goodnight!

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  43. i don’t know which adjective to use for tonight’s race. Eventful? Bizarre? Weird?

    I don’t claim to be a big race fan but this was one for the ages. All of that drama and it was ended with a drag race to the checkered flag. It was kinda like a, full contact, basketball game where nothing much matters until the last couple minutes.

    G’night, good people. I got some good video of the aquarium but I’m too tired and drunk to edit it tonight.

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