Happy Inauguration Day! If anyone out there is having celebratory drinks, please have one for me.
- The Godless Girl is real! – “A child prodigy and the daughter of famed socialist activist Grace Vern Silver, founder of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), Queen Silver was the subject of Cecil B. De Mille’s film The Godless Girl.” Here’s a more detailed article about Queen Silver. Thank you so much, Emory, for sharing this.
- Morals without religion – Take a look at the ad that the American Humanist Association has placed in today’s Washington Post.
- Anti-choice nurse removes IUD “accidentally” - I’m so mad about this I can’t even form a coherent sentence about it. Go read, then come back and fume with me.
- Free donuts at Krispy Kreme today – But pro-lifers are throwing a fit. Krispy Kreme is offering “a free doughnut of choice to every customer on this historic day.” And anything involving the word choice means it supports baby killing!
- Diamond orgasms are a girl’s best friend – Say it with me, “Correlation is not causation!”
I just don’t understand why it’s so damn difficult for all these nurses and pharmacists (and science teachers too, for that matter) to understand what their jobs are, and realize that if they’re not down with that, they need to FIND A DIFFERENT JOB. I hope that woman sues that nurse to hell and back.
Regarding the IUD tugging — For the first time in my life I finally understand the cringing reaction guys have to stories involving being hit in the junk or other junk-related accidents.
I cannot even process the outrageousness of this news item because I have not gotten past the horror. Gentle tug?!
This makes me so angry, I haven’t even got words for it. This woman should certainly not be a nurse. She is violating her patients’ rights, and has a pretty sad understanding of birth control, to boot.
If you cannot do your job because of your religious beliefs, you should not have gone into that line of work.
This is exactly the type of thing that I was worried about (and that Bush was probably hoping for) with the enactment of that 11th hour “medical protection” b.s. rule. I hope Obama makes the reversal of that a priority.
I’m guessing that nurse won’t be be making a donut run to Krispy Kreme this morning.
That is just NUTS.
Hey, I know… Maybe I’ll get ordained as a minister but then preach from the books of Richard Dawkins and Carl Sagan instead.
When asked about it: I personally do not like religious texts. I feel they are a type of brainwashing. I don’t know how you feel about brainwashing, but I am against it. What the Bible does is take the fertile mind and corrupts it with fairy tales presented as truth.
Good article about Queen Silver. However it doesn’t answer the primary question: did she or did she not high-hat the monkey?
How DARE she do that to her patient(s)?!?!
Absolutely sickening. I hope that nurse loses her license over this. The woman in question should sue and, if approporate, press charges.
If I were her malpractice insurer or her employer, I’d drop her like a hot potato. Talk about increasing possible exposure to lawsuits!
@Eliza: Yes, exactly!
It’s not like getting an IUD inserted is a pain-free procedure. And that “nurse” not only inflicted pain on the patient when removing the IUD against her will, the woman will have to go through another insertion to have it replaced.
If the nurse is going to be so fucking Biblical, maybe she’d like an “eye for an eye” retaliation and get a couple punches to her cervix.
UGHH that nurse!! What a bitch! She better get punished! And the krispy kreme- PLEASE!
It’s a shame how some people still believe these fallacies and how they still want to control women like that and make up shit.
I’m not sure about the whole Obama-not-being-religious thing- didn’t he end up going to crazy Rev. Wright services for years?
It’s pissing me off how they’re still making him swear on a bible and making him go to a mass before he’s sworn in…
@Amanda: Their kind of “Biblical” only covers what they do to those they disagree with. They’ll be the first ones to quote “Turn the other cheek” to you when it’s their turn for justice.
I think taking her license and malpractice insurance to make sure she can never touch a patient again is a good punishment. Maybe Wal-Mart will hire her a a greeter or something.
@CobaltG: Obama does have the right not to swear on the Bible or go to Mass. It may not be politically wise to do so, however. Why hand his already too-numerous enemies another issue to exploit? He’ss going to need all the political “capital” he can muster for the next four years. Beleive me, this is only the beginning. I expect the far-Right to do their best to keep him from enacting anything, so they can call him a “failure” befor the next election cycle.
I can’t explain his presence at Rev. Wright’s church. That’s the Obama’s business.
Does anyone else see the similarities between Pandagon and the DI? Science paper that doesn’t fit in with their already formed opinions = screeching & whining mixed in with apologetics.
I don’t know how anyone who calls themselves a skeptic can read anything by Marcotte as serious.
Somehow she turns “wealthy people have more & better sex” into “not proven at all, but asserted by someone with a title, so I can badger my girlfriend and women at parties with ‘proof’ that they suck, and enjoy watching them quietly take it by utter submission or feeble defenses that are constrained by their social conditioning to be peacemakers”.
Those must be some awesome drugs she’s on.
@mxracer652: I don’t think we read the same article.
I actually first read about the IUD thing at sf_drama @ livejournal, actually, and holy crap it still pisses me off. WHY IS SHE STILL EMPLOYED?
This is ridiculous. And of course, oops! She can do that because of her faith! OOPS!
*(&#%!
@QuestionAuthority: I’d consider it assault and would have pressed charges, but I’m mean like that. No idea if it would legally stick, but if it did, it would be an awesome precedent.
@marilove:
Yes, call the police and file a criminal complaint.
Then call the best lawyer you can and sue the nurse and her employer for as much as you can posibly get. She has a pattern of doing this and needs to lose her license the doctor who employes her needs to lose his/her license also. The pattern of behavior is the key.
@Gabrielbrawley: “Oops I just got up off the table and accidently beat the crap out of you. It was an accident I was gently getting off the table when I accidently picked up a lamp and accidently beat you with it.”
So … the fetus fetishists don’t even believe in free choice in donuts?
They’re hopeless.
@mxracer652:
As far as this instance is concerned, no. Questioning the quality of the science done in one particular study, as well as questioning the sensationalized language used to report it, does not in any way equal the wholescale denialism and religious bias the Discovery Institute regularly engages in. I agree with Amanda – I think you missed some points.
“The next time you stare down a conveyor belt of slow-moving, hot, sugary glazed donuts at your local Krispy Kreme you just might be supporting President-elect Barack Obama’s radical support for abortion on demand.”
This kind of thing could put The Onion out of business… maybe that’s the real intent of the American Life League?
When I saw the Humanists ad, I immediately thought of how a doddering old fool started off column Saturday in my local broadsheet: “If God does not exist, then all things are permitted, observes Ivan in Dostoevsky’s novel The Brothers Karamazov. For me, that always summed up atheism attractively — you get to do anything you want with a clear conscience.”
Of course I realize some people are beyond teaching.
The godless girl has no religion, no morals, had her IUD removed, but gets a free doughnut and only wants diamond enhanced orgasms.
Interesting bunch of newsy tidbits this morning !
@marilove: And yes, WHY is she still employed ??
At Salon.com (and mentioned at Pharyngula), there’s an awesome calling out of Ben Stein, this time for his economic prognostications:
http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/?last_story=/tech/htww/2009/01/20/ben_stein_and_history/
As a health care practitioner I’m absolutely disgusted thata nurse willingly violated their patient. She has violated the mandate of her regulatory body and criminally violated another human being. She should lose her liscebce, pay through the nose, and go to jail.
It’s finally over, Bush is no longer president. Finally.
“Diamond orgasms are a girl’s best friend”
For this article does anyone have the real study? All I see is 1 media outlet ranting about the article on another media outlet, and not about any real science. It is reminding me of the fruit fly study being reported as making a patch to cure homosexuality.
I can see orgasm intensity being tied to a woman’s comfort level in a relationship and that being arbitrarily linked to the man (or woman) she is with status or her own status if she is the “breadwinner”, to use the archaic terms.
Give me a break. Obama, not religious? LOL. I think this is a case where man is making god in his own image again…
Obama just pledged to return science to its rightful place. Let’s keep him to that promise.
Well, to put it mildly, I can’t say that I’ll miss George W. Bush and company. No more presidents from that family plz.
“and non-believers”
“return science to its rightful place”
Oh, I see you already put that up. I’m feeling pretty good.
I counted 4 gods, what did you guys get? Not to bad.
I’m waiting to hear Obama use the word “banana” during this speech . According to a Swedish gambling website the odds on him saying that word are 1,000 to 1. The odds of him saying “change” are 1.03 to 1.
The live video feed I was watching was skipping so bad that now I’m 10 minutes behind the live footage. I don’t think he said banana though. :(
@Gabrielbrawley: I know right. It’s over, it’s beginning, lets hope he lives up to his promises.
Sorry guys, no “Banana”…
I’m going to hop on the WTF boat regarding that fucking “nurse”..One of the comments from the article put it nicely – they said it would be like being a Quaker, joining the Army for the uniform, and then getting in a tizzy about the whole guns/possibility of killing people thing.
Seriously…or did she become a nurse just so that she could repeatedly (and, by the sound of it, Sadistically….jesus, Ouch!) remove birth control? I can *kind of, if I try REALLY hard* understand someone being against abortion (I said understand, not agree), but contraception? Have they not been to a major city? Do they really think that we need as many people to be made as possible?
ugh.
I was in a conference room on the army base where I work, watching the Inauguration. Obama’s Inauguration and Speech both got major applause.
Must be a lot more closet Democrats and Independents than I thought here… :-D
Correlation is not causation — but it’s probably easier to relax and have fun if you’re not worried where your next meal is coming from or whether you have the money to care for your child’s health.
I do love my husband and I am in a monogamous marriage, but you know — it would be interesting to see what would happen if I found someone that wanted to shower me in diamonds.
Re: diamond-orgasm story, is no one going to dare say anything about pearl necklaces?
Obama does currently portray himself as a religious person, and he agreed to the benediction/invocation/prayer/Bible oath stuff for his inauguration, but I think there is a benefit to having a president who seems to understand that religion is a private matter and you shouldn’t force yours onto anyone.
Kudos for his inclusion of “unbelievers” in his speech, whether it was an afterthought or not.
Finally, I want a Choice Donut!! Why are there no Krispy Kremes in NY anymore! Waaahh!!
“Happy Inauguration Day! If anyone out there is having celebratory drinks, please have one for me.”
One for you, one for the new president, one for the old president, and then a few more, just for me.
I agree that the HHS Rule needs to go away. However this is a business were talking about, and the best way to make changes in business is to take that business away. There is no law against getting information about a business before you use it. To that end a nationwide phone campaign asking Doctors offices about their and their staffs position on this would be appropriate. Possibly a website showing Offices prefrences.
Birth Control is after all a huge money maker in this country.
I, for one, will CHOOSE to sacrifice my waistline (soul? Hah!) and will gladly eat their free Krispy Creme donuts in their stead! :-D
What is the most appropriate drink with which to drink a toast to this historic day?
That IUD article reminds me why I there are so many people I can’t stand. If anybody needs a clue by four upside the head it’s her.
@Elexina: The tears of wingnuts.
Update:
Obama Mama cocktail recipe
1 oz dark rum
1 oz light rum
2 oz Bailey’s® Irish cream
whipped cream
Shake rums and Baileys in iced shaker, pour into politically correct glass, and top with whipped cream
Also notable entry:
Fuzzy Logic cocktail recipe
3 shots vodka
2 shots triple sec
2 shots DeKuyper® Peachtree schnapps
10 oz orange juice
Pour all of it into a shaker with ice, shake and pour.
And a morbid farewell to the outgoing president (where “dead” just means “gone,” maybe?):
Dead President shooter
4-6 oz Coca-Cola®
1/2 oz Southern Comfort® peach liqueur
1/2 oz Jack Daniel’s® Tennessee whiskey
Drop shot glass of Jack Daniels and Southern Comfort into cola, proceed to chug.
(thanks to http://www.drinksmixer.com/)
p.s. I don’t know if the intent of the drink is racist. Not as racist as the “Barack Obama On Fire” shot, anyway. Regardless, I want to try it, in a way that embraces people of all faiths, and unfaiths.
How has that nurse not been kicked out of the medical profession? She is surely violating the ethical code. That article made me cringe in my special place. Yuk!
It kind of weirds me out that people still use IUDs though. In Australia we have little plastic implants that go in your arm and last for three years. Super convenient and effective contraception but I don’t think they’ve been approved in the US yet.
Happy Inauguration Day American Friends. I am going to go to my local Krispy Kreme here in Canberra and politely demand my choice donut.
@Skipdot: I think we do. Isn’t that Implanon? Some people use that, but I know a number of people who have had bad reactions to Norplant, I’m not sure how Implanon is different.
I’m sure this nurse would love to “accidentally” remove these, as well, if she could.
If only I had sex with a very rich man over Christmas… then I could go get my free delicious abortion donut: extra strawberry jam filling.
In other news, after checking the account balance this morning, I know what I’m not having tonight.
@skipdot:
We have Norplant here, it’s a 5 year arm implant.
The IUD is a longer-term solution (up to 10 years) and is a hormone-free BC option (though you can get it with hormones as well).
Now I want to get a medical job and then join an organization that only believes in healing through prayer. I’ll keep making a nice income while doing nothing but praying for people and maybe accidentally removing their IV drip once in awhile when I tug gently on it. Or the plug on their various medical apparatuses when I gently pull on the cord.
@Elyse: And the ones with hormones are progesterone only, and the progesterone stays localized in the uterus rather than being systemic.
To be TMI, I recently got a Mirena (progesterone, plastic IUD, good for 5 years) and I lurve mine. And I would sue the pants off anyone who took it out of me “accidentally.”
That nurse belongs in prison. period. performing a medical procedure on someone without their consent isn’t just malpractice, it’s battery, as in “assault and.”
Refusing to perform a procedure is reprehensible, but performing a procedure that is not asked for or expected is not only dangerous, it’s criminal.
On the subject of TMI, I wonder if there isn’t a malpractice suit in this somewhere for me. I know I wouldn’t have been born if it weren’t for an IUD failure, can I sue for expenses incurred from being born? ’cause there’s a lot of ’em. More every day.
(all quite true, and curious too, as my parents are catholic)
The Pandagon article twice asserts that evolutionary psychology is a media-created science:
“I’m compelled to ponder the power of a media that can create a “science†almost strictly by its lonesome….evo psych evolved to meet the need of the media to have a constant influx of stories justifying sexism through “scienceâ€.”
Well, no. Ridiculously no. Yes, evolutionary psychology is quite controversial and gets a lot of often-unbalanced media attention. But the claim that the science is almost totally media-driven is just _way_ over the top.
mxracer652’s comparing Pandagon to the Discovery Institute is a low blow. That’s because comparing _anything_ to the Discovery Institute is a low blow. Nonetheless, consider the following:
1.) Knuckle-dragging Social Darwinists supported their brutish beliefs by citing Darwin. Therefore Darwin is bad.
2.) Knuckle-dragging male chauvinists support their brutish beliefs by citing evolutionary psychology. Therefore evolutionary psychology is bad.
In both (1) and (2), the opening statement is true, but the closing statement does not logically follow. The author of the Pandagon article seems blind to this problem. Just because jerks can twist your research doesn’t necessarily mean you’re doing bad research.
Similarly, just because the popular press over-simplifies, hypes, and mangles some research doesn’t mean that the research itself is necessarily bad. The Pandagon article blurs this distinction badly.
Next, there’s this gem: “‘Women are born whores,’ is quite possibly the favorite sacred belief of evolutionary psychology.” Oh, please. What an absurd straw man. Some evolutionary psychologists are doing very solid research. Some evolutionary psychologists are guilty of lazy “naive adaptationist” arguments – The “Just-so stories” that Gould railed against. Sorting the good from the bad is a difficult task. When you write about women-as-whores being a sacred belief of an entire branch of science, that tells me you’re not interested in tackling this difficult task of scientific evaluation, you’re just indulging in unhelpful venting.
One of the article’s few non-rant objections is that wealth correlates with health. So, the author strongly hints that the scientists probably did something _really_ stupid: Failed to realize that higher sexual satisfaction would result from the improved health of the wealthy.
I looked up the free abstract of the paper on ScienceDirect. The abstract clearly states that they _controlled for health as a likely confound_. (You can then pay $31 to read exactly how they controlled for this confound.) So, I don’t believe that the Pandagon author even bothered to read the free abstract, much less the full paper. That’s just plain lazy.
Yeah, _some_ lazy evolutionary psychologists tell laughably simplistic adaptationist Just-So Stories. But some lazy critics of evolutionary psychology are just as laughably simplistic. Yes, mouth-breathing chauvinists eagerly lap up confused popular-press misreporting from stereotype-pandering incompetent journalists. But, if you conflate these problems with questions about the quality of peer-reviewed journal articles, stirring it all up into a confused stew that blurs the separate issues of science vs. dumb reporting vs. dumber misreading… not helpful.
@Merkuto:
Like “wrongful life” as opposed to “wrongful death”?
@Elyse: Exactly! I guess it’s a bit of a weak case, though, as life IS pretty cool. Especially all the wiggly bits. I’m also fond of shiny things.
@Merkuto:
You know, having a weak “wrongful life” case is probably one of the best problems you can have in a lawsuit. Don’t you think?
@ekimbrough: See, yours is a reasoned discussion of the merits of the article rather than a rude ad hom attack on the author.
I can’t say that I disagree with Amanda that most evo psych is a vast wasteland of vitriolic chauvinism. Or that the media sensationalizes these stories to the point of ridiculousness.
But there are good, well-researched, reasonable evo psych studies out there. They’re the diamonds in a mountain of shit.
@skipdot: Not everyone can use those … everyone is different and some women react better to the IUD, that and it lasts longer (5-10 years depending on the kind, if I remember correctly). Getting it in, apparently, is a big pain (lol) but after a while it’s no big deal (for most women).
Hey, I just checked out the orgasm study, and it is based on a self-reported Chinese study. Can I get some volunteers for a double-blind placebo controlled trial?
Sure Protesilaus, where do I sign up?
Why is it so wrong to take a responsible stance towards having children? I have an IUD, and my number one reason for having it is that I happen to feel that bringing life into the world is a huge responsibility, and its one that I’m not ready for. Babies and children are about as close to sacred as it gets for me.
I forgot for a second that I’m completely wrong. Apparently valueing life is in fact following god’s will to pop out as many children as is physically possible. Silly me.
It’s a shame how such a large institution such as the horrid Catholic church can encourage such irresponsibility. I went to catholic school for a year in 5th grade and when I would go over to my “friends” house they would usually have a tiny house overrun with kids, and they would be poor as hell because of all these kids along with paying for the Catholic school. Their quality of life was greatly diminished.
You forget, your only duty in life is to procreate ad nauseatum (pun intended) and an IUD or any form of birth control interferes with God’s will. How dare you try to have control over whether you start a family or not?!
(I am, of course, being wholly sarcastic)