As the New York Times reports:

Afghan women who work for Marie Stopes [International, a sexual and reproductive health NGO], distributing birth control door to door in the country's capital, have also noticed an interest. An overwhelming majority of people are still skeptical of their motives. (Foreign spies! Christian missionaries who want to reduce the Muslim population!) But a growing number are open to the idea.

"Sometimes they are kind of surprised that this kind of thing exists," said one of the workers, a woman named Aziza.

In 2009 alone, the sale of birth control pills nearly doubled to 11,000 in September from 6,000 packages in January, according to Marie Stopes figures.

One woman was so happy to have birth control pills that she hugged and kissed Aziza, ripped open a package and swallowed a pill with a gulp of water.

"She said she didn't want to wait until evening," Aziza said, laughing at the memory. The total number of the woman's children: 17. Three dead, 14 living.

The most difficult families are ones headed by mullahs. Aziza and her colleagues tread carefully in those households. Mahmouda, another worker, recalled walking into one such house and finding the mullah's wife washing clothes and trying to calm a baby. She signaled silently that Mahmouda should talk in a low voice.

"‘If my husband finds out, he'll punish me,' " Mahmouda recalled the woman saying. " ‘I'm pregnant now. I really need those pills.' "

Taking birth control in secret is not unusual, the women said. Even Aziza's own husband opposes her using it.

"He said, ‘We are Muslims and God gives us babies,' " she said.

Hence the focus on getting the Mullahs to co-sign the pill policy. Matthew Yglesias, writing for Think Progress, questions if focusing on the men is a solid strategy:

The underlying idea that lowering Afghanistan's fertility rate would help it develop economically makes a lot of sense. Especially in an overwhelmingly rural country, the tendency is for a rapid increase in population to lead to falling living standards.

That said, the specific method of trying to do this by talking to male religious leaders about birth control seems to me to be at odds with most of what we know about this subject. As a recent Economist story on fertility trends emphasized, women in the developing world generally have more children than they want to. When we see falling fertility rates, it's normally a result of women being empowered to make more decisions about their own lives.

I agree with this in principle - empowering women should not be the sole provenance of men. However, I think that Yglesias discounts the influence of religion over the lives of women. Even in the United States, there are women who voluntarily forgo birth control and sexual education (for themselves and their offspring) because they believe their religion does not condone controlling their own reproduction. In addition, the outsider dynamic must also be considered. Though Marie Stopes International employs Afghan women to distribute contraception and engage the community, there is still a significant amount of distrust. As the NYT explains:

Those who oppose [birth control] sometimes get violent. Aziza recalled people running her out of a neighborhood in Kabul after she introduced birth control there. They accused her of being on the payroll of the Americans, taking dollars to weaken the country.

" ‘They want to capture Afghanistan,' " she recalled that they said. " ‘If the Muslims are many, they won't be able to.' "

In addition, many women - particularly women of color - have cause to be skeptical of organizations promoting birth control and abortion. Stopes, like her American counterpart Margaret Sanger, embraced eugenics which has often been used as a justification to reduce the number of people of color, poor children, and people with disabilities through selective breeding. While there is no easily traceable evidence that Sanger or Stopes supported forced eugenics, a la the Nazi party (indeed, Sanger wrote often against such a thing, arguing that change must come from within a community), the idea of birth control as unwanted population control still resonates to this day.

Looking specifically at the current situation of women in Afghanistan, however, allowing women to choose their own reproductive destiny will be an important tool in helping the country to rebound. And the participation of Mullahs may increase the chances of success - if only to help persuade some God-fearing women that adopting a different way may actually be in their best interest.

Broaching Birth Control With Afghan Mullahs [New York Times]
Birth Control In Afghanistan [Think Progress]
Marie Stopes: Feminist, Eroticist, Eugenicist [Google Books]

• The suspects range in age from 15 to 21 and included a 17-year-old boy who turned himself in and a former Richmond High School student. Richmond, California Police Lt. Mark Gagan said, "These suspects are monsters. And, I don't understand how this many people capable of such atrocious behavior could be in one place at one time." • A lawyer for Susan Finkelstein, the Phillies fan accused of offering sex for World Series tickets, said her post on Craigslist saying she'd get "creative" with payment, "was a variation of 'will work for food.' It doesn't mean she was a prostitute.'" Attorney William Brennan denied an undercover police officer's claim that she offered him sex for tickets and added, "You're talking about a 43-year-old woman who was overcome by Phillies fever. All she was looking to do was take her husband to a World Series game. You know that Madonna movie Desperately Seeking Susan? This was Susan Desperately Seeking.'" • Edward Ates of Florida testified in court today that he couldn't have killed his son-in-law because he is too fat to commit the crime. Paul Duncsak, who was in a child custody dispute with Ates daughter, was shot in his home in 2006. Ates says he weighed 285 lbs at the time and wouldn't have had the energy needed to climb and descend the staircase where prosecutors say the killer was perched when he shot Duncsak. • A Utah judge has sentenced 21-year-old Leo Harrison to prison for accepting $150 from a pregnant girl to help her kill her fetus. Harrison was facing 21 years in prison for pleading guilty to second-degree felony attempted murder, but the judge sentenced him on a charge of third-degree "attempted killing of an unborn child" under Utah's anti-abortion statute, which means he could serve up to 20 years in prison.The woman, who gave birth to a healthy baby, pleaded no contest to second-degree felony criminal solicitation to commit murder for paying Harrison to assault her. • Using forceps if a woman is having difficulty during the "pushing" stage of labor has fallen out of favor, but a new study found that trying forceps instead of immediately performing a C-section does not raise the risks to the baby in most cases. A study of 3,200 women who had an unplanned C-section found that when cases in which there was already a problem with the fetal heart rate were excluded, the rate of complications were the same whether forceps were tried before a C-section or not. • While many Indian women are acting as surrogate mothers, more than half a million Indian women die every year due to pregnancy complications, despite government programs guaranteeing free obstetric care. According to Human Rights Watch, India is doing a poor job of monitoring how maternal health programs are implemented. UNICEF estimates that for every maternal death, there are 20 to 30 cases of other complications including obstetric fistulae, uterine prolapse, infertility, vaginal scarring, and sepsis. • A Spanish study of contraceptive use by 11,000 women from 14 European countries found that after condoms, the pill is the most popular contraceptive method. IUDs are the most popular long-acting contraceptive, but only 10% of women surveyed use them and most are over 30 years old. • Scientists at the Institute of Neuroscience in Alicante, Spain say they've figured out the secret behind Mona Lisa's smile. They say the smile depends on what cells in the retina pick up the image. Sometimes the image is transmitted to the brain on one channel and you see the smile and sometimes another channel takes over and you won't see it. • In a session on grieving during The Women's Conference in California, Maria Shriver said she's been telling people she's OK since her mother's death two months ago but, "the real truth is that I'm not fine... The real truth is that my mother's death has brought me to my knees. I had feared this my entire life... She was my hero, my role model, my very best friend. I spoke to her every single day of my life. I tried really hard when I grew up to make her proud of me." • According to a UC Irvine study, 30 percent of Americans have a gene variant that is linked to performing 20 percent worse on a driving test than people without it. Previous studies have found that in people with a BDNF gene variant, which supports communication among brain cells, a smaller portion of the brain is stimulated when doing a task than in people with a normal BDNF gene. • Check out Live Science's guide to everything you always wanted to know about constipation but were afraid to ask here. (Paging Tracie Egan.) • Accused murderer Drew Peterson is suing JP Morgan Chase because he says the company violated truth-in-lending laws by cutting off his home-equity credit line in May. He says he is now unable to post bond and pay his lawyers, and said if his accounts remain frozen he'll ask the court to approve taxpayer money to fund his defense. • Germany's Lutheran Church Margot Kaessman is one of only two women to serve as bishop in Germany's Protestant church. • Indiana University researchers studied workplace politics at an urban elementary school and found that people who are targets of gossip are negatively evaluated during formal work meetings, but gossip can be derailed by changing the subject, targeting someone else for criticism, or by pre-emptive comments that are positive. "When you're sitting in that business meeting, be attentive to when the talk drifts away from the official task at hand to people who aren't present," said sociologist Tim Hallett. "Be aware that what is going on is a form of politics... that can be a weapon to undermine people who aren't present. But it also can be a gift. If people are talking positively it can be a way to enhance someone's reputation." • Sasha and Malia Obama were given the H1N1 vaccine last week after it was made available for D.C. schoolchildren. The President and First Lady still haven't been vaccinated. • Sarah Palin has responded to Levi Johnston's claim on CBS' Early Show that she repeatedly referred to her son Trig as "retarded" saying, "Trig is our 'blessed little angel' who knows it and is lovingly called that every day of his life. Even the thought that anyone would refer to Trig by any disparaging name is sickening and sad... Consider the source of the most recent attention-getting lies — those who would sell their body for money reflect a desperate need for attention and are likely to say and do anything for even more attention." • Rep. Alan Grayson, a Florida Democrat, says it was inappropriate for him to call Federal Reserve advisor Linda Robertson a "K Street whore." "I offer my sincere apology," Grayson said in a statement. "I did not intend to use a term that is often, and correctly, seen as disrespectful of women." • The Australian Sex Party has nominated Marianna Leishman (a.k.a. Zahra Stardust), for a December election to fill a vacant seat in the Australian House of Representatives. Leishman is a feminist writer/pole dance instructor who has worked at the United Nations and has a law degree. She said in a statement, "In an area that claims 50 years of conservative representation from white, heterosexual, able-bodied, suited, male protagonists, the Australian Sex Party is excited to provide a modern, outward looking female candidate." On her agenda is legalizing gay marriage and abortion, examining child sex abuse in religious institutions, and pushing for more sex education in schools. •

Today's New York Times examines the situation, starting off with a grim portrait of the lengths women will go through to abort:

Gina Judilla already had three children the first time she tried to terminate a pregnancy. "I jumped down the stairs, hoping that would cause a miscarriage," she said. The fetus survived and is now an 8-year-old boy.

Three years later, pregnant again, she drank an herbal concoction that was supposed to induce abortion. That, too, failed.

Three years ago, in another unsuccessful attempt to end a pregnancy, she took Cytotec, a drug to treat gastric ulcers that is widely known in the Philippines as an "abortion pill."

The article reveals that abortion in the Philippines is illegal, and, though reproductive health services are available through a private medical system, as much as 70% of the population is too poor to access birth control methods and information. While the state-run health care system does provide for some of these services, it is implemented by local authorities, many of whom promptly banned birth control citing religious reasons.

More recently, however, family planning advocates have been making headway in their campaign to change that. Legislation before the Philippine Congress, called the Reproductive Health and Population Development Act, would require governments down to the local level to provide free or low-cost reproductive health services, including condoms, birth control pills, tubal ligations and vasectomies. It would also mandate sex education in all schools, public and private, from fifth grade through high school.

Supporters of the bill cite urgent public health needs. A 2006 government survey, which interviewed 46,000 women, found that between 2000 and 2006, only half of Filipino women of reproductive age used birth control of any kind. According to the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit organization based in the United States that researches reproductive health policy, 54 percent of the 3.4 million pregnancies in the Philippines in 2008 were unintended.

Most of those unintended pregnancies - 92 percent - resulted from not using birth control, the institute said, and the rest from birth control that failed. Those unintended pregnancies, the institute says, contributed to an estimated half-million abortions that year, despite a ban on the procedure. Most of the abortions are done clandestinely and in unsanitary conditions. Many women resort to crude methods like those Ms. Judilla tried.

Opponents of the bill are finding their support in churches, saying:

The Rev. Melvin Castro of the Episcopal Commission on Family and Life, an arm of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, said the Catholic Church and the laity would fight the bill, if passed into law, up to the Supreme Court.

"The Constitution is very clear that the state should protect life from conception up to its natural end," Father Castro said."Regardless of their religion, Filipinos are God-fearing and family-loving. This bill will change that culture."

Interestingly, both sides are arguing that they are working in the best interests of women. The opposition explains they want to "to protect [women's] wombs from those who want to take away life." They do not provide a reason why women like Judilla have to suffer to protect their ideology.

(Image Credit: Luis Liwanag for The New York Times)

Bill to Increase Access To Contraception Is Dividing Filipinos [NY Times]

MSNBC summarizes the study:

Women who have their hormone levels smoothed out by the Pill tend to seek men who look like good long-term prospects, says the new report's lead author, Alexandra Alvergne, an evolutionary anthropologist at the University of Sheffield. On the contrary, a woman on a normal menstrual cycle will have a burst of hormones around the time of ovulation that will drive her to lust after the hottest, sexiest guy in the room. [...]

Even the men were impacted by a woman's cycle. Studies show that women who don't take the Pill actually look different and peak in their sex appeal in the days leading up to ovulation. Their voices become deeper, their faces take on a more symmetrical appearance and they dress more provocatively. Thus, they are more attractive to men when they are their most fertile.

Damn it! No one told me taking the Pill was going to squelch my natural morphing powers! I probably could have been Mystique by now if I hadn't gotten on the Pill early.

With the Pill to smooth out peaks in hormones, researchers found that women weren't ever drawn to the macho man, says Alvergne. And the fallout from that little hormonal tweak could be very significant, she says. What if the man a woman chooses when she's on the Pill isn't the one she'd like to be with when she goes off of it - to make babies, for example?

Scientists have playfully named the two female mating strategies as a choice between the "cad" or the "dad," says Helen Fisher, a biological anthropologist at Rutgers University and author of "Why Him? Why Her?"

So, in essence, the Pill may keep you from selecting a sexy stranger to get nasty with, but it only has your best reproductive interests at heart. WTF, is Ortho Tri-Cyclen my mom?

Also of interest, in a previous (but related study):

"One rather titillating study looked the impact of menstrual cycle on the income lap dancers bring in. Sure enough, women made the most money when they were most fertile."

The current study notes that our chemical tampering might throw a wrench into your natural biological urges:

The pill may throw a spanner in the works. It stops this cyclical release of oestrogen and progesterone, and so may interfere with women's natural choice of partner. Some studies have suggested that while women usually prefer the scent of men with immune profiles dissimilar to their own, those on the pill preferred men with similar immune profiles.

Apparently, due to the high risks of inbreeding among our smaller social tribes, this was a serious consideration. However, the research commentators ultimately conclude that the pill works well for the way we live now - as long as your life involves settling down, being responsible...and not humping the first hot thing that walks by every third week of the month.

The Pill makes women pick ‘dad' over the ‘cad' [MSNBC]
Has the pill changed the rules of sexual attraction? [New Scientist]

Part of Speidi's problem is that Heidi wants children now, and Spencer doesn't. He's afraid she'll be "one of those women" who pokes a hole in the condom with a pin, to trap him.


"That's why reality is so big. It's real." - Heidi Montag, 2009


Babs hates their schtick.


Heidi's ideas on creationism and evolution test Barbara's patience.

According to Natasha Singer of the New York Times, Yaz, the most popular birth control pill in the country, and its sister brand, Yasmin, are currently facing 74 lawsuits filed in connection with the drugs by those who claim the pills "put women at higher risk for blood clots, strokes and other health problems than some other birth control pills do."

This is not the first time Yaz has run into trouble; in 2008, the FDA ordered Bayer to stop running Yaz ads that claimed the pill was a cure for PMS and acne, leading to a series of "corrective" ads on Bayer's part that attempted to make up for the misleading campaign whilst still pushing Yaz as a sassy alternative to old school birth control. But the misleading campaign fiasco is now the least of the brand's troubles—earlier this month, Bayer was reprimanded once again by the FDA after several batches of drospirenone, an ingredient used in Yaz, failed inspection after being shipped to the US by Bayer from a German manufacturing plant. And now, with several lawsuits on their hands, Bayer is faced with the challenge of keeping their money-maker afloat despite criticisms from former users.

Anne Marie Eakins, a former Yaz user, tells Singer that the pills caused her to develop blood clots in her lungs, and that she "lost partial use of her right lung" as a result. "I didn't think it was going to be worse than any other pill," Eakins admits, noting that she'd used several other birth control pills for a good ten years before switching to Yaz. Bayer, however, claims that the risks of Yaz are no greater than the risks of other leading birth control pills, despite the reports of blood clot troubles and even deaths associated with the drugs, and as the rare side effects are listed in the information provided with the medication, Singer notes, the plaintiffs may have a difficult time in court.

Perhaps the most frightening aspect of all of this is the general lack of information that seems to be given out along side birth control pills; they're advertised like lip gloss or mascara, a fun little accessory to throw in your purse, as opposed to a medication that does carry many risks and should be treated as such. This is a problem that extends to all ads for medication; the consumer is told to go to the doctor and demand a certain brand name, without even knowing, exactly, what the medication really does to the body. Someone always does a voice over about diarrhea and blood clots and death, but all the audience seems to pick up on are the scenes of horses frolicking or women laughing or couples holding hands in the sun.

This is not to say that we should scare the hell out of women when it comes to promoting birth control, but one hopes that the FDA will push to ensure higher standards and safer medications, and that when women do consider birth control pills, they are given all of the information necessary to make an informed choice—from a real doctor, not some actress who just plays one on television.

What do you think, commenters? Do you worry about the side effects of your birth control pills? Or do the benefits outweigh the risks?

FDA Warns Bayer Over German Manufacturing Plant [NYTimes]
Bayer Running Ads To Clarify Benefits Of Birth Control [NYTimes]
Health Concerns Over Popular Contraceptives [NYTimes]
Bayer Contraceptive Probed Over Possible Death Link [Reuters]

Over at Broadsheet, Amy Benfer talks about disparities in contraception options for men and women:

Let's pretend you are a straight couple, in a monogamous long-term relationship, and you don't want a kid. Consider your options: A woman can choose from 11 forms of contraception - including barrier methods like the diaphragm, permanent sterilization, and that holy grail of the sexual revolution, the pill, and its more recent and even more foolproof sisters in hormonal birth control, the ring and injectibles. A man can choose two: condoms or a vasectomy.

Benfer was inspired by this article in Science Progress, which talks about how this creates different kinds of burdens for each gender in a heterosexual couple:

Men typically do not have to dedicate time and energy to contraceptive care, pay out of pocket for the usually expensive and sometimes frequent (often monthly, or at least four times a year) supply of contraceptives, acquire the knowledge about contraception and reproduction needed to effectively contracept, deal with the medicalization of one's reproductive health, endure the bodily invasion of contraception, suffer the health-related side effects and the mental stress of being responsible for contraception, and face the social repercussions of their contraceptive decisions (such as whether to use a particular contraceptive or to switch contraceptives), and the moral reproach for contraceptive failures. Women who contracept have to devote and sacrifice many aspects of themselves and what they value: their body, health (physical and mental), time, money, etc. These contraceptive burdens and sacrifices limit people's freedoms.

Researchers offer up some reasons (or excuses) for why male contraception research falls so far behind. They fear that men will view contraception as a loss of masculinity, that men won't want to deal with side effects, and that "ejaculate coming forward is a significant part of a man's sexuality" and men might reject any method that might alter that in any way.

The problem now is that the only options for men are temporary contraception (condoms) and more-or-less permanent contraception (vasectomy). Men don't have the equivalent of the birth control pill. Weirdly enough, the Science Progress article reports that America has much higher rates of women tying their tubes versus men getting vasectomies than the Netherlands and Britain, where the rates are pretty much the same.

Some research is starting to go into developing birth control for men, but there's far more emphasis on finding new kinds of birth control for women than there is for men. As recently as the 1990s, about 60 percent of research dollars were going to high-tech contraception for women while only 7 percent went to research on contraception for men. There seems to be a disproportionate motivation for researchers to look to contraception for men. Now, because of the way birth control works practically, cultural customs place the emphasis and burden of contraception on women and not on men. Would that change if men had more options for birth control?

Screwed by science [Broadsheet]
Autonomous Contraception [Science Progress]

In a letter to the editors - in which I am surprised she did not write "I want my country back!" - Kristen Atkinson writes things that make me snicker.

Dear Wonkette editors,

I posted a very serious article recently in Townhall.com about witchcraft in the White House, and later realized that your website had made a farce out of it.

"Very serious article" and "Townhall" are not two things that go together. That is like Cheetos and spaghetti noodles.

I saw that your staff and readers made a lot of extremely cruel comments about me and my story. Why are you people so rude? Does anybody take anything seriously anymore?

You haven't been on the internet long, have you?

Do you really, truly, seriously think it is OK for a president to use a forged birth certificate?

B...

Do you actually believe it is appropriate for a man who was raised a Muslim to pretend he is a Christian and go to a church for 20 years with an anti-American preacher?

I, N...

Do you really want a president who was brainwashed by communists since he was a child, up through university, to hate America to be our president?

G, O!! BINGO! I need a fresh score card! Oh wait, she's not done?

Do you think that it is fine if a family member of the president defiles the White House with voodoo?

I'm sure far worse has gone down in the Lincoln bedroom.

Don't you know what fate could befall our nation as a result of allowing Satanic forces to gather over the White House?

Umm...we join their side to ask for protection against Lord Voldemort? I'll trade that devil we don't know for the devil we do...

After 8 years of a president sent by God to lead the American people

Hmm...I'm not really religious but I do recall something about false idols? Did the golden calf thing have big ears?

and rescue us from the horrors of 911 and Islamo-fascists,

So we can resume screaming about a woman bearing her legs in shorts.

it now boils down to this? How incredibly tragic. You folks don't really seem to understand the extreme peril that our nation confronts.

Obviously, we're residing on different nations. Different planets even!

Stop making fun of me.

Or I'm telling my mom! GAWD!

Take off your blinders! Wake up!

Nah, I think you need to stop mixing up your red pills and blue pills.

I need a political detox, so I've decided to have a sing-along. Today's selection will be "Santeria," by Sublime:

(Wait a minute? Deebo's in this video?)

Sing with me!

[Michelle's Momma] Don't Practice Santeria
She Ain't Got No Crystal Ball
[Obama planned] a [trillion] dollars, but I
I'd spend it all
If I could find some [health care]...

Alright, y'all finish this up, I'm going to grab a Scotch.

What a week.

Is Barack Obama's Mother-In-Law A Black Witch? [Wonkette]
After 8 years of a president sent by God to lead the American people and rescue us from the horrors of 911 and Islamo-fascists, it now boils down to this?' [Wonkette]
Redpill [Wikipedia]
Santeria [Youtube]

Earlier:

They Think They're Mad About Healthcare?
Sarah Palin Calls Out Death Eaters to Deal With Fake Death Panels
Michelle Obama Seen Wearing Shorts - Newsreel at 10

In a two part series for Esquire, writer John H. Richardson goes where few of us dare to tread - deep into the stronghold of the birthers, that group of people who are convinced that Hawaii is a foreign country and that Barack Obama is an illegitimate president. (Where these people were when Bush 43 was installed, I have no idea...)

But more frightening than their fractured logic is the not-quite-hidden undertone of the movement. As Richardson writes:

By focusing on the "news hook" about our president's birth certificate, we are ignoring the broader mixture of paranoid apocalyptic fantasies that feed this troubling - and growing, perhaps into the tens of millions - group of people. People who told me they're not just looking for the president's birth certificate. They're looking for his death certificate.

Richardson provides a list of scary events leading up to these events, including this now-notorious gem:

4. Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota said she wanted her constituents "armed and dangerous" because Obama was planning "re-education camps for young people." She also said that "Thomas Jefferson told us having a revolution every now and then is a good thing.

These are the words of an elected official.

And of course, there's our buddy Glenn Beck, Mr. Healthcare-is-Secretly-Reparations:

But nobody vibrated with the new sense of alarm more vividly than Fox's new talk-show host, Glenn Beck. "The year is 2014. All the banks have been nationalized," he began one show. "Unemployment is about between 12 percent and 20 percent. Dow is trading at 2,800. The real-estate market has collapsed. Government and unions control most of business, and America's credit rating has been downgraded."

In another, he sounded exactly like a militia member from the backwoods of Montana: "They'll take away guns, they'll take way our sovereignty, they'll take away our currency, our money. They're already starting to put all the global framework in with this bullcrap called global warming. This is an effort to globalize, to tie together everybody on the planet!"

So, in review - suddenly, the banks are nationalized instead of pissing away money, unemployment for the nation is on par with unemployment for the black community, global warming is "bullcrap" even though I'm wondering why LA was colder than DC when I visited last week; and the fact that most of our goods come from other areas around the globe and most of the internet is a multi-national space is not tying people together. No, it's all a commie plot!

Glenn, it's time to stop watching Falling Down on repeat in your 1984-era VCR (which is made in the US, dammit!).

Richardson also peers into the under currents of racism that ebb and flow around the movement:

In the first open tent, I heard an air-gun salesman named Sam Kravets selling toy monkeys that reminded him of the president. "They even sound like him," he said, urging his customers to give them a squeeze.

"Everyone who voted for him ought to leave the country," a customer said.

Because nothing's more patriotic than racism and stifling dissent!

But even worse is the blatant celebration of racist tropes:

An hour later, I found the "birther" booth behind the cafeteria. A big sign loomed above it:

URGENT: CALLING ALL PATRIOTS
Barry Soetoro AKA Barack Obama is SHREDDING THE CONSTITUTION

Behind the table, a man named Carl Swensson passed out flyers that were still warm from running through the photocopier. "If you agree with this," he called out, "we need you to sign up."

"String him up," said a man passing by.

I'm waiting for someone to try to play this off as a joke, as they did with all those noose incidents in 2007.

"Do you know his mother did pornography?" said a woman sitting on the bleachers.

Okay, I'm going to break this one down. Now, on the surface, this seems like a strange comment to make. What would make someone think Obama's mother did porn? Regular Crappy Hour readers might remember one chat where I told Megan we had some heightened white supremacist activity on Racialicious in reference to the pictures we posted of Gisele Bunchden posing with ripped black models.

Many of the comments there asked how Gisele would "lower" or "defile" herself by placing herself in a sexual position with a black man. In white supremacist thinking, there is nothing worse than a white woman who would lay with a black man. She is the lowest of the low, asking to be disrespected, a whore. The same references to being a whore or acting in pornography were aimed at Gisele by these people based on the view of some photos done for her modeling portfolio. Imagine what they think of Dr. Stanley Ann Dunham Soetoro, for having the nerve to sire children with a black man!

But back to the birthers.

Another man stopped to look over the flyer. "What are you demanding?"

"We're just looking for his birth certificate."

"Or his death certificate," said a third man.

"The media's not going to report it."

"That's why you got to listen to Rush Limbaugh."

Swensson chuckled. "If you cut off the head of the snake, the rest of the serpent is pretty much gon' die."

The thinly veiled death threats take on a more sinister tone when you consider that there were two people outside of the town halls yesterday packing heat. Richardson agrees:

Let me be clear: I have no problem with guns (that's me with the M-4), and I love blowing stuff up - as long as we agree to keep the guns out of the hands of criminals and crazies. And Jesus is just fine with me - as long as you keep the Morality Police out of my bedroom.

But that night, back at my motel, the TV news was all about a man named Richard Poplawski, a gun collector who had just killed three police officers because he believed that the cops were no longer able to protect society as a result of the economic collapse. Later it came out that he was also a regular visitor to the Stormfront white-power site, where he posted a clip of Glenn Beck raving about the "FEMA camps" that Obama was supposedly building to lock up patriots come the revolution.

This drove home a scary truth: Ideas can have a body count.

Ideas can and do have body counts. That's why we may mock those calls for revolution from pampered folks who can afford their own healthcare, but we should not lose sight of the fact that many of these people are not necessarily rational. Check out this exchange, when the Birthers (led by Orly Taitz, grand poobah of cray-cray) decide to confront the state attorney general about opening an investigation.

Finally Wilding held up a hand. "Let me just stop you right there. What applies to Kentucky?"

One of the citizens starts showing him documents. "This is clearly his school record that shows that he was a citizen of Indonesia..."

"I don't understand what that has to do with the Kentucky attorney general's office," Wilding repeated.

"He was on the ballot here in Kentucky," Taitz said.

"That was a federal election. There are federal-election laws. The FBI investigates those. So I believe that your best venue and jurisdiction lies with the U.S. district court and the FBI."

That's when Taitz lost it. "I can see that you are hell-bent on doing absolutely nothing," she said, eyes flaring. "You want to pass the buck."

"No ma'am. I'm trying to follow the law."

"I'm going to the FBI and not only reporting Obama, I'm going to report you for refusing to investigate crimes. You have a duty to investigate those crimes! Why are people paying salary for this whole office of attorney general of Kentucky? To do nothing?"

"I think we're finished," Foster said.

I think we're all finished with Birther shenanigans.

But as Richardson's articles report, the fanatical fringe is out in full effect. As they are being stoked by the Republicans looking for political relevancy, and cultural bombasts like Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly, it is up to us to make sure their declarations of hatred and intolerence don't turn deadly.

When Did Americans Turn Into A Bunch Of Raving Lunatics? [Esquire]
What Really Happens When You Demand The President Produce His Birth Certificate? [Esquire]

Related: The Destruction Of The Black Middle Class [Barbara's Blog]
Falling Down [Wikipedia]
Nooses Are Racial Threats, Not Pranks [Racialicious]Gisele Bündchen's Photo Shoot Is A Study In Interpreting Racially Charged Images [Racialicious]
Man Arrested Outside Obama Event Had Loaded Gun [Raw Story]

Earlier:
They Think They're Mad About Healthcare?

The generic, made by Watson Pharmaceuticals and called Next Choice, will be prescription only and aimed at women 17 and younger until August 24, when Duramed Pharmaceuticals's exclusive contract to market over-the-counter plan Plan B. At that time, the generic will be available over-the-counter, a fact that will most likely be a boon to women who find the cost of brand-name Plan B prohibitive.

While the FDA's decision to allow the over-the-counter sale of Plan B to girls 17 and younger has improved access, not everyone can buy the drug. A Missouri law, for instance, allows pharmacies to refuse to sell Plan B. Similar laws exist in Idaho, Illinois, and Washington. Military women, too, have difficulty accessing the drug, as it is not on the list of medications that must be stocked at military pharmacies. As Nancy Northup of RHRealityCheck points out, this means that women who are assaulted during their military service (there were 2,668 assaults reported in 2007) may have no way of getting emergency contraception, especially if they are stationed at a base overseas.

In a moving editorial after over-the-counter sales were extended to girls under 17, Elizabeth Garber-Paul wrote,

My first trip for a Plan B pill was a cold, dreary bus ride up Lake Shore Drive to the Planned Parenthood in downtown Chicago. I remember looking out over the frozen lake, wondering what would happen if I couldn't get the pill that afternoon. I was 15, and not ready to deal with making the decision between pregnancy and abortion. (At 22, I can confidently say that I'm still not.)

Luckily, as a teen I was informed enough to know what to do. It took me two attempts to make it to the center when it was open-closed every other Sunday-and the longer I waited, the less effective I knew the pills would be. I can't imagine how much terror would have been avoided had I been able to stop into the 24 hour Walgreens with my boyfriend immediately after the condom broke.

The availability of a generic option, when it becomes over the counter, should make emergency contraception easier. However, it's still not available to everyone. Garber-Paul writes, "a lonely bus is no place for a scared girl." Nor is a pharmacy a place for ideology.

FDA Approves Generic Version Of Plan B [Wall Street Journal]
EC Still Inaccessible For Military Women [RHRealityCheck]
Watson Gets FDA Approval For Generic Plan B [AP]
Missouri House OKs Amendment To Let Pharmacies Refuse Contraception Pills [Missourian]
Planned Parenthood Applauds FDA On Plan B [Planned Parenthood]
Washington Pharmacists Can Refuse To Dispense Plan B Contraception [Wall Street Journal]
Plan B: Trouble In Illinois [Broadsheet]

• Robert Bork gives an interview about Sonia Sotomayor, declares his favorite Justice is Clarence Thomas and basically acts like such a huge douchebag that he makes Scalia look cuddly. • The Supreme Court ruled today that Valerie Plame and her husband, former Ambassador Joe Wilson, can sue the whole government for outing her secret spy life, but not the individuals that actually did so. • Elsewhere in the government, women are joining the FBI and making their way up its ranks in ever-greater numbers. • Khadijah Williams spent most of her childhood homeless or nearly-homeless, but worked her ass off in school and is going to Harvard. • U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice recalls her own days as a female athlete and encourages women to send in their athletic pictures in celebration of Title IX's anniversary tomorrow. • Wired imagines that some day we'll be able to inhale our birth control, and not in a scary "the atmosphere is filled with poisonous chemicals" kind of way. • There's a consumer survey in which the characters from Mad Men ask you questions. No one cares what the survey is about. • Sometimes, women are sexually assaulted on cruise ships and there's not much that anybody does about it. • China is finally admitting that it has both an HIV problem and a number of sex workers, so they're trying to educate the latter about the former. • If you pay the site ManBabies $10, they'll swap a baby's face with a man's face and you'll get to be icked out. • It turns out that the most popular ways of measuring BMI actually overestimate the BMI of African-Americans, since it was designed around white people. It's like the SATs, only after you take this test, everyone calls you "fat." • Old married people who still really love each other show brain activity just like young people who just fell in love. As though you couldn't just look at an elderly couple holding hands and tell that. •

ACCESS, an Oakland-based women's health organization, says 72% of women who call want information about abortion, up from 60% last year. Most of these women aren't the stereotypical single girls who need to get back to their carefree lives, but rather women with families who "are really having to make thoughtful decisions whether now is the right time to get pregnant or not," says ACCESS executive director Destiny Lopez. She also says, "we are seeing women who have children, who in another economy would probably have their second or third child, but now can't because they feel so insecure about maintaining their job or losing a job."

Women are also turning to other options besides abortion. A Chicago adoption agency has seen a 30 percent rise in pregnant women asking about adoption. "We've seen a dramatic increase in girls calling us from the hospital," concurs Joseph Sica, of a Florida-based adoption group. And one in five women is more conscientious about birth control now, with many seeking longer-term methods like IUDs.

The saddest part of this news, though, is the stories of women who are forced by economic concerns to consider abortion — and then can't even afford that. Lopez describes a woman who sought an abortion in her first trimester, but found her insurance wouldn't cover it. She tried to enroll in Medi-Cal, California's insurance program for the poor, but the program made her wait five weeks, at which point "she felt it was too late to personally go through with it." Lopez has helped the woman file a complaint with Medi-Cal about the delay. She says, "This is a really good example of the barriers that are put in front of women who are trying to make responsible decisions early on. It's not like women are making these decisions at the drop of a hat. They are considering their life situations." Better health insurance for everyone would improve these life situations — and lessen the need for such heart-wrenching decisions.

Women's Clinics See Rise In Calls And Visits [LA Times]
Inquiries About Adoption, Abortion OnRise [UPI.com]