Sunday 30 November 2008

Where did that illicit tape recording come from?

CTV News claims to "have learned" that the NDP and Bloc Quebecois have been holding "secret talks to form a coalition party" - even before Jim Flaherty laid his egg in Parliament last week - from an audio tape that was recorded by an unidentified "Conservative member".

Dimitri Soudas was interviewed by Radio-Canada. He accomplished the feat of sounding shocked yet unctuous as he waxed eloquent about the content of the audio tape, while remaining evasive as to how the recording was obtained.

Shall we take bets on the provenance of this tape? Dirty tricks from rank amateurs, à la Watergate? Or more ominously, was it obtained from a professional employed by the RCMP or CSIS, now moonlighting for the RepubliCons on the side?

Read more about this at
bastard.logic. Stevie is slowly morphing into Tricky Dicky, aka Richard Millhouse Nixon.
More update: Beijing York gives emphasis to the importance for the Progressive Coalition to stay focused and to avoid the bait, since Harper is already cornered.

We Demand. . .

Hot off the wire: Tories relent on public sector ban.

We got 'em on the run, folks.

Tomorrow (this afternoon?), they'll reinstate pay equity.

What do we want next?

Let the demands begin. . .

ETA: I hadda make a cig run. This song popped into my head.

Saturday 29 November 2008

"Every single tool and medium..."

Most of you have read and many have blogged about the content of the e-mail that was 'obtained' by the Globe and Mail, sent from Harper's Chief Player of Staff Guy Giorno to all Con MPs.

In spite of Stevie's claim that his CPC was moving closer to the centre of the Canadian political spectrum, the events of the last few days demonstrate his Second Time Around New™ government has in effect no centre at all which in turns explains its imminent collapse.

As the RepubliCons charge about like chickens with their heads cut off, directed by their leader in a desperate attempt at damage control, we are painfully how dire their circumstances are. And so, as suggested by Guy Giorno, "It is therefore absolutely essential that we use every single tool and medium at our disposal ..." we offer them a few tools and a medium.


And we hope they remember the adage so brilliantly illustrated by Sarah Palin's foray into big time politics: You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.

Take Him Out!

Scott Reid, former communications director for Paul Martin, in the Globe:

First things first: take him out.

After all, Stephen Harper is the most dangerous animal lurking in the jungles of Parliament. He is a threat to the future viability of the Liberals. A blood simple opponent of the NDP and the only serious contemporary challenge to the Bloc Quebecois. Without him, his party is an unlikely combination of Reform Party leftovers, Harris refugees and Red Tory desperates. They don't matter or even exist without Mr. Harper. So before you think a moment longer, opposition leaders, think on that.

And if that's not compelling enough, remember: He doesn't play to win. He plays to conquer. Under his guidance, the public interest is always subjugated to his personal political advancement. And he poisons Parliament with an extreme, bare-fanged breed of partisanship that has no hope of repair until he is banished.

This becomes relevant because suddenly, he is weak. In fact, at this particular moment, he is almost unable to defend himself. Owing to a ridiculously ill-considered act of hubris, he has laid himself vulnerable to his opponents. Their imperative could not be more clear: kill him. Kill him dead. Do not, whatever you do, provide him with an opportunity to extend his hold on power. Because you can be damn certain he will never again be so reckless as to give you a chance to finish him off.


Go read the whole thing.

HARPER'S PERFECT POSITION

Whatever one might have to say about Stephen Harper's character, one would never ever utter the opinion that he's a good sport.

So it's likely that if this recent hoo-haw in Parliament doesn't have the outcome he originally envisioned when he sent Flaherty into the fray with the result that he and his merry band of RepubliCons go belly up, I can imagine his tearful speech, à la Dick Nixon. There will be no more Stevie for the unfriendlies in the media to kick around.

At least we'll always have Paris his voodoo doll to stick pins (or other sharp and/or blunt implements) into.

Friday 28 November 2008

Yes, We Can!

Pale at A Creative Revolution says 'Drop Everything' and email your MP (if in opposition, of course) to support the Lib/NDP/Bloc coalition.

I emailed my MP, Olivia Chow, and got a reply in about 30 minutes. Makes me think she's getting a few such messages.

Then I emailed a bunch of friends to ask them to do the same.

Got this zinging back from one:

'Done that. Yes we can!'

eeek

Parasitic twin, eh? One in every five hundred thousand births. Hmmm, another reason to cut back on the number of births! Don't be gobstopped if some of the fetishists decide that these brainless and sometimes limbless and faceless globs have the "right to life". Obviously, they can't stay where they are, especially if where they are is in the body of a two month old baby. What to do what to do? Will they decide to fund an artificial life support system for this odd conglomeration of cells and tissues? Or will the good ladies in Fred Phelps jolly band offer to be surrogate incubators and take these things to term?

Then they could get an extra pair of those gawdawful little pink feet; these ones would have an ittybitty battery in them so the footsies could move, to signify this life which is so sacred.

BLANCHE wouldn't want to bore anyone, especially this fine cohort , but I have often wondered just which life is sacred. Are the lives of the Iraqi children who are being bombed, shot, starved, and exposed to disease and lack of medical care sacred? If so why isn't this band of bigoted bastards out making a human chain around the white house in WARshington? Why aren't they bombing the recruiting centres the way they're so quick to bomb clinics? Why aren't they supporting the bullies who shoot doctors and nurses and aiming them at the Generals and Colonels?

Well, what comes first to mind is that those targets are apt to shoot back whereas a two year old Iraqi dying of intestinal complications isn't apt to get very shirty with anyone.

BLANCHE is of the opinion if any of the Compulsory Pregnancy folks were to find themselves host to a brainless blob of flesh the parasitic twin wouldn't be the only mindless booby.

But we know about BLANCHE. BLANCHE has two daughters, two daughters-in-law and six grandgrrrrrrrrrrrrls and should any or all of them require the services of an abortion clinic I will accompany them. And Gawd prepare to welcome any wingnut who tries to hinder or harrass them because I am not a nice lady. I no longer have the sword of the Templars but I've got an arbutus cane and I can and will lay about with it with utmost vigour and what the military types call "extreme prejudice".

Fetus in fetu

The most rabid of fetus fetishists maintain that there is never a medically valid reason for abortion -- not even proven lack of brain in the fetus.

I wonder what they would make of this.

An incredible case was recorded in medical practice. A 1-year-old girl is pregnant, while doctors say this is the first such case in modern medicine. Arab media are now considering if abortion would be considered murder in this case.


That story is from Croatia. Truth to tell, I thought this was some kind of very sick joke. The only other source I could find for the story is from Azerbaijan.

Then I consulted Wikipedia.

Fetus in fetu (or fœtus in fœtu) is a developmental abnormality in which a fetus gets enveloped inside its twin and an entire living organ system with torso and limbs can develop inside the host. The abnormality occurs in 1 in 500,000 live births.


Click the link for some verrrry strange examples. Yeesh.

pray prey pray prey

Ohmigawd!! The TV news is full of it! Government might fall. Vote of no confidence expected. Budget rejected. Coalition a possibility.

Well, some guys just never learn, y'know. There's the Harpocons with a minority government still trying to act as if they had a landslide majority, playing "chicken" with the other three parties, threatening they'll go down in flames, if need be, and plunge us into another multi-million dollar waste of time if they don't get their own way. And there are the other three parties posturing like bantam cocks showing their stuff to a flock of absolutely disinterested hens. Cock a doodle dooo-dooo.

The budget which was handed down and subsequently rejected did nothing at all to in any way respond to the world-wide economic melt-down.

Well, quite inadvertantly, I'm sure, the Con(victs I wish) might, for perhaps the first time since they came on scene, be telling the truth. It might be they're doing nothing because nothing can really be done!

The Excited States is pouring trillions of dollars into a bail-out plan which looks to be rewarding the nabobs who made the mess while leaving the people facing foreclosure shit-outta-luck. Tax money diverted to bail out the five major banks? Oh, I rather think not, thank you.

Those five major banks have been ripping it off our backs in great bleeding strips for too many years. Service charges on this , on that, and on the next thing. Tax breaks for them which aren't available for the rest of us. Declared profits year after year which leave a person feeling stunned and helpless.

And now they've outsmarted themselves and they want more of our munny? BLANCHE says stuff that idea right up your basic fundaments and let's get serious here. Instead of bailing out banks and mortgage companies , instead of pouring money into the rat hole that is the stock market, simply guarantee that the country will guarantee the mortgages on peoples' homes. Give the security to the workies, not to the brain trust which has been so swift it has met itself coming back.

But when was the last time any government actually did something to benefit the people whose jobs are evaporating in the heat of this flaming mess?

Oh, they talk a good line. How often do they do what they promised, how ofen do they back up their hot air with real action.

No, Harpo and his happy men are going to "economize". Their idea of doing that is to further cut social programmes.

That's going to be a big help. Dearie me, yes, just what we need, more cuts to programmes which aid and assist women, children, the sick, and the poor. That'll fix the whole mess. Continue to put money into the military machine. Keep their noses firmly affixed to the butt crack of Dubya and his minions. Yep, that'll do'er.

BLANCHE has long felt that the true welfare programme in this nation is the House Of Commons. We seem to pick the biggest dolts available and ship'em off to Ottawa to circlejerk and fuckfest to no good avail.

Oh well, I guess it keeps them off our streets and out of our hair back home. Too useless to actually contribute? Send'em off to Ottawa!

HARPER VOODOO DOLL - do it yourself!

The time has come for Canadians to adapt a scathingly brilliant idea that has become a cult favourite in France: The Stephen Harper Do-It-Yourself Voodoo Doll.


In a recent court decision, a French judge ruled that the Nicolas Sarkozy Voodoo Manual which includes a stuffed fabric doll, pins and instructions was allowed to remain on sale.

Thus, in honour of BUY NOTHING DAY and the latest electoral scam that Stevie and his Harpocrites are attempting to foist upon Parliament, DAMMIT JANET! suggests that you make your own prime ministerial doll by downloading and printing any of the thousands of photographs of himself on the internet - the more fatuous, the better - and attach it to an old ragdoll or sock puppet.

In a pinch, you can just affix his picture to a dart board.

Write-In Poll: You Know You're NOT a Feminist When. . .

Here at Dammit Janet! we enjoy a good kerfuffle. (I just looked that up. It's a real word! In the Canadian Oxford Dictionary!)

JJ has said repeatedly that she's totally cool with being booted from the Canadian Blog Awards' Feminist category.

But we are still amused.

So, we're proposing a write-in poll called "You know you're NOT a feminist when. . ."

Here a few samples to get you started:

A person with a background in Women's Studies says so.
You get booted from the Feminist category of the CBA because more than 50% of your posts deal with subjects like human rights, religious bigotry, and lying liars, rather than the required majority of posts on tampons.
You find it screechingly funny to be booted from the CBA Feminist category along with Small Dead Brains, Five Feet of Fuckwittedness, and Blob Blogging Wingnut.

Carry on in the comments. Winner (as judged by a panel of people with backgrounds in Women's Lives) to be nominated for a Canadian Blog Award in whatever category they might as well call "The Little Bloggers' Room" next year.

Thursday 27 November 2008

BUY NOTHING DAY

Hey you! Do not purchase anything tomorrow. Nothing at all.

You! Yes, you.

You! You're not addicted to shopping are you? Prove it then. Buy nothing.

You! What's the balance on your credit card? Does that scare you? Buy nothing.

You! Look in your cupboards. Look in your closets. Look around you. Do you use all that stuff?

If you said no, you can spend part of tomorrow, BUY NOTHING DAY, gathering up the good clothing and books and other fine items that you do not use and bring them to a local charity that will recycle them by selling or giving away the stuff that you bought but you don't use.

This year, November 28 is BUY NOTHING DAY. 17 years old and the appropriate response to the economic meltdown. It was started by Adbusters. Go read.

And tomorrow remember to BUY NOTHING.

The Duh Report: Who's Sicker?

Today, Dammit Janet! launches the first in an intermittent series we're calling 'The Duh Reports'.

Via the CBC, news of a report by the Canadian Institute for Health Information:

Poorest Canadians more likely to enter hospital: report

Poorer Canadians are more likely to enter hospital for health problems such as child asthma, mental illness and diabetes, including potentially preventable conditions, according to a report released Monday.

. . .

The gaps are important partly because it is often costlier to the public-health system to treat people in hospital than in the community.

. . .

For example, after factoring out age in all cases:

* Children from low socio-economic groups had 56 per cent higher hospitalization rates for asthma than children from high socio-economic groups (233 per 100,000 people in the low group compared with 149 per 100,000 in the high group).
* People from lower-income groups were 2.4 times more likely to be hospitalized for diabetes than those in wealthiest group (102 per 100,000 in the low socio-economic group compared with 43 per 100,000 in the high socio-economic group).
* Among people with mental illness, hospitalization rates were 2.3 times higher for those in the low-socioeconomic group compared with the high group (596 per 100,000 people compared with 256 per 100,000).

. . .

Neudorf was joined by colleagues from other Canadian cities on Monday at the Chronic Disease Prevention Alliance of Canada's national conference in Ottawa. The alliance's members called on governments to recognize the problems and search for solutions that not only improve medical care but also combat poverty and reduce social and economic inequality.

Programs such as low-cost daycare and subsidized social housing help lift people into the labour force and out of poverty, with a ripple effect of improving health, said Dr. Richard Lessard, director of public health for the city of Montreal.
Gee, just because some people are spending way too much dough on housing, not eating well, forgoing prescriptions, dental care, and fitness-club memberships, working -- often at shitty, unsafe jobs -- all hours gord gives them, and living in crappy, dangerous neighbourhoods, they are hospitalized more often than better-off folk?

Who woulda thunk?

Wednesday 26 November 2008

Canadian Cynic: It's because I'm an evil prick, that's why.

Canadian Cynic: It's because I'm an evil prick, that's why.:

"'Julie Morand' terrorism charges Sleeper 'Julie Morand'
'Cover blown' 'Julie Morand'
'Julie Morand' thwarted
'Julie Morand's Al Quaeda cell'"

There. DAMMIT JANET! linked to the CC post. Let's go check how that worked.

La Sainte Catherine!

I am being unfaithful to my francophone roots (which reminds me, à propos de rien, that I need to make an appointment to get my hair cut next week).

Yesterday November 25th, was La Sainte Catherine (the canonized person not the notorious Montréal street) which is somehow associated to unattached aka single women. Is it a celebration of the fact that unmarried women are happier, less stressed and more likely to live longer? Sadly no.

There are two sainted Catherines - Catherine of Alexandria and Catherine of Sienna, both canonized virgins.

Alright. I just read the Wikipedia entry about Catherine of Sienna and while the bit about her
"Mystical Marriage" with Jesus in which she had a vision that Christ presented her with a wedding ring made from his shriveled foreskin
is intriguing to say the least, somehow I don't think she'd be the one the good nuns would want celebrated on November 25th.


Here we go. This must be the one. Catherine of Alexandria was a martyr.
Historians such as Harold Thayler Davis believe that Catherine ('the pure one') may not have existed and that she was more an ideal exemplary figure than a historical one. She did certainly form an exemplary counterpart to the pagan philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria in the medieval mindset; and it has been suggested that she was invented specifically for that purpose. Like Hypatia, she is said to have been highly learned (in philosophy and theology), very beautiful, sexually pure, and to have been brutally murdered for publicly stating her beliefs.

Speaking of iconic unmarried females, we find out from mattt at bastard.logic that Ann Coulter's jaw has been wired shut. Oddly enough, even bloggers on the right seem downright unsympathetic.

There. I feel safer already.

Creekside(: More no-fly list nonsense) reports on more 'no-fly nonsense'.

Canadian Cynic(: It's because I'm an evil prick, that's why) suggests action.

We comply.

Julie Morand. Terrorist. Al Qaeda.


Just doing our bit for national security.

Polls, Schmolls: Show Us the Data

Antonia Zerbisias reports on the latest exercise in futility annual poll on 'Canadian Attitudes Toward Abortion Issues', commissioned by Life Canada.

She comments on the usual spin given the numbers by LifeShite, then wonders if we'll ever see the actual questions and data.

Back at Birth Pangs, we covered these polls a few times, here in light of Ken Epp's private member's bill C-484, aka Kicking Abortion's Ass Bill, and here in more detail.

That second post includes a dandy table tracking various attitudes from 2002 to 2007. It shows rather conclusively that support for the more extreme definitions of 'when life begins' is actually declining.

You can download a pdf of the 2007 poll here.

But I agree with Antonia. If the 2008 poll continues the trend seen since 2002 -- that is, increasing support for choice -- we likely never will see the data. Just spin spin spin.

Tuesday 25 November 2008

Canadian Blog Awards Is a Joke

Further to recent musings about boycotts and grrrlcotts, this morning there's this kick in the pants.

(The background: CBA last year declined to have a Feminist Category. This year, outtatheblue, it has one. But it got freeped by the mouth-breathers who nominated a bunch of anti-feminist bloggers. Ha. Ha. So, CBA got an 'expert' on the case to decide which were Real feminist blogs. This person has a background in Women's Studies, so like, well real qualified, eh? The expert got rid of the anti-feminists, but also unaccountably booted JJ.)

OK. So JJ says she doesn't care that her blog was not deemed sufficiently feminist for the Canadian Blog Awards Feminist Category.

But doncha think it's a bit rich, considering that her blog won in two categories (Best Individual and Best Humour) in the first-ever Canadian F-Word Awards, organized and hosted by those fab gals at ACR?

Well, hey, what did the readers and bloggers who voted in that know? I mean, I bet hardly any of them have backgrounds in Women's Studies. Mainly the people who judged JJ best in two categories of the F-Word Awards have backgrounds in Women's Lives.

The CBA again proves that it's a joke. I will not be participating in round 2. I wish to hell I'd noticed JJ's absence before I voted in round 1. I guess I was just too girlishly grateful that the racists and haters had been tossed.

Sunday 23 November 2008

Just when you think you've heard it all . . .

Over my lifetime of feminazism and my recent couple of years of blogging about reproductive and women's rights, I thought I had heard every batshit reason the so-conned put forward for why we feminazis and fellow/sister travellers lurve ourselves some abortion.

You know, because we belong to the Culture of Death. Because we hate baybees. Because we suffer from fetalphobia. Und so weiter.

So, over at Freak Dominion, one of the resident geniuses posed this question:
Why do Canadians love abortion so much?

And here’s the answer that made my jaw drop. (I’ll save you a click and quote it in its entirety.)

‘Most elitists have mistresses (or are mistresses) and this is why they like abortion -- gets rid of the evidence.’

Saturday 22 November 2008

Never Again! unless the Catholic Church has its way ....

The above political cartoon was first borrowed to illustrate a blog about meddling bishops posted at Birth Pangs. It comes from a short opinion piece that was written in 2007 but it remains relevant, given the political activism of the Roman Catholic Church clergy during the 2008 Canadian federal election (no, the RepubliCons' Opus Dei candidate did not win) and especially during the US presidential elections where Cardinals spewed ideological diatribes against the Democrats because of their pro-choice position.


We are sad that Bloc Québecois Raymond Gravel was not a candidate for re-election. He received a letter from Vatican officials that told him to withdraw from politics or he would no longer be allowed to perform sacraments. The Le Devoir article above is much more critical than this mild report from the CBC.

In spite of claims to the contrary, it would seem that the spirit and practice of the Inquisition is still alive and kicking at the Vatican.

Friday 21 November 2008

Scathingly Wrong Rightwingnutz Award of the Week

As you may have noticed, our webpage moniker is a nod to our sacred duty to identify, expose and generally hold up to ridicule Scathingly Wrong Rightwingnutz.

By way of Red Tory, here's this week's award winner, among a field of stunningly and arrogantly stupid rightwingers: Marilyn Musgrave. A number of organizations in Colorado believed she was toxic for the environment, women and gay rights; they rallied together to campaign against her re-election.

Two years ago she was named one of Rolling Stones 10 Worst Congressmen. (After reading about her reign of bigotry, we won't quibble that they call her a man.)
The Denver Daily said: Newsweek’s “The Dignity Index” gave Musgrave a pathetic 78 ranking — just a few short of “utterly shameless.” Flashing the headline “Nobody Likes a Sore Loser,” the magazine said the ousted congresswoman displayed “dubious behavior” for never congratulating Democratic rival Betsy Markey on her 4th Congressional District win. In fact, Musgrave is yet to concede the race. And a column that appeared at Politico.com on Tuesday implied that Musgrave has shamefully taken to hiding after her “brutal loss.”
Hey Marilyn, you can show your face in public again. DAMMIT JANET thinks that you're a big winner.

Boycotts and Grrrlcotts

Do boycotts work? You betcha!

Last year around this time, we feminazis staged a Grrrlcott against the Canadian Blog Awards because the administrators cravenly caved to objections 'from some' to a feminist category.

So, this year, there is a feminist category. (But, oy, look who/what has been nominated. Feminazis are waiting to see what the wise administrators decide about these nominations before declaring another grrrrlcott.)

Here, from RH Reality Check, is another 'success' story about a combined boycott/protest campaign by fetus fetishists against a couple of hotels in New Jersey.

It happened quietly and quickly. And now, no one's allowed to talk about it.

The story comes out of New Jersey. There, the Cherry Hill Women's Center provides reproductive and gynecological health services, including abortions. It was established in the 1970s, and is a member of the National Abortion Federation and the National Coalition of Abortion Providers.

As part of the center's support services, it developed a partnership with a local hotel, the Clarion Hotel & Conference Center, to offer out-of-town abortion patients a discounted rate on a room.

On October 20, LifeNews, an online anti-abortion publication, published an article that reported on this partnership, drawing on information it received from New Jersey Right to Life.

"The Clarion Hotel in Cherry Hill offers a reduced rate of $59 for a room originally priced at $109 to women staying there from out of town to get an abortion. Women need only show a receipt from the abortion business saying an overnight stay is necessary," according to the article.

It also indicated that the Quality Inn in Maple Shade, NJ, had a similar arrangement with the same women's center.

LifeNews described how anti-abortion groups were beginning to boycott the hotels, and urged its readership to further protest a policy that it said was aiding those who want to skirt parental notification laws in other states (New Jersey itself doesn't have a parental notification law; attempts to ban interstate travel of teens seeking abortion have never become law). LifeNews offered contact information for the hotels so readers could address them directly, and, presumably, articulate their distress at the policy.

Within just a couple days, other anti-abortion groups picked up the story, and passed it to their own email lists and membership bases. The Family Research Council, in an email blast, wrote alarmingly of how the hotels are "profiting" off of abortion by offering the discounted rates. It is unclear why the FRC believes that renting rooms at less than cost to certain guests brings the hotel a profit.

. . .

Their members did just that. By October 24, Family Research Council passed on another e-newsletter to its base, this time celebrating that the email/telephone protest against the policy that spread across the larger anti-abortion community worked. The Clarion Hotel had decided to cease offering discounted rates to patients of the Cherry Hill Women's Center.


Not content with throwing up legislative and regulatory barriers (parental notification, mandatory ultra-sounds, mandatory waiting periods, etc.), fetus fetishists use the power of the boycott to further restrict abortion access with economic barriers.

(Read the whole article. It ends on a positive note about compassionate volunteers stepping up, like the National Network of Abortion Funds, which raises $3 million a year to help 20,000 women with abortion costs.)

Well, you know, sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander and all that. . .

In California, where the loathsome Proposition 8 stripped gays and lesbians of the right to marry, the power of the boycott and grrrlcott is being conjured again.

The Huffington Post's Fred Karger reports on a number of boycotts justice-minded people can participate in.

Californians Against Hate has a list of them.

As the recent US election (and, marginally, the Canadian election) demonstrated, there are more of us than there are of them.

Go forth. And boy/grrrl-cott.

Thursday 20 November 2008

The Persecution of Dr. Tiller: Part Umpty-Two

Back at Birth Pangs, we filed several reports on the persecution of Dr George Tiller, one of the only remaining late-term abortion providers in the US, very unfortunately located in Kansas.

This has been going on for years. Tiller is the obsession of arch-fetus-fetishist Phill Kline, former Attorney General of the state and now a county prosecutor, and his successor as AG Paul Morrison, who had a teensy sex scandal problem to boot.

Tiller's lawyers are in court this week arguing that 19 misdemeanor charges should be dropped.

They contend the charges are based on evidence obtained by Kline and his officers through false pretenses and abuses of power.

The hearing is also making public for the first time details of a secret investigation conducted for three years by the state's top prosecutor against Kansas abortion providers.


One of the central charges against Tiller is that he did not report sexual abuse against minors for whom he performed abortions. Kline believes that ALL underage sex is at least abuse if not rape, even if between minors of similar ages.

One case in particular, that of a 10-year-old having a late-term abortion, focused Kline's wrath. Kline claimed that Tiller did not report the case and on that basis demanded all Tiller's patient records so he could root out other cases of Tiller's egregious flouting of the law.

Well, looky here:

As the former Kansas attorney general and, more recently, as Johnson County district attorney, Phill Kline has justified his aggressive prosecutions of abortion providers by noting that judges have found probable cause to proceed with the cases.

If judges look at the evidence and decide there is reason to believe a crime has been commited, the case must be good, right?

Only if the prosecutor presents the evidence in an objective and truthful manner. Testimony in a hearing in Wichita this week raises serious questions about whether Kline did so. . .

Documents produced by [Tiller's] lawyer Dan Monnat showed:

The girl came with her mother from another state, carrying a letter from their local prosecutor's office. The letter said the girl needed "an immediate medical procedure that (could) only be done" at Tiller's Women's Health Care Services clinic.

The relative who raped her had already been charged.


Tiller did in fact report this case to the appropriate authorities in Kansas, though why they needed to know seems to be a case of total busybodiness, but the investigator claimed that that 'wasn't clear' to him.

Wow! Fetus fetishists in positions of enormous power lying?!?!

The hearing continues. We'll be on it.

Eat your broccoli and then ...

Some of my best friends are smokers. My mother smoked pretty much up to the day she died from septicemia (her immune system was compromised by leukemia). So recent research that demonstrates that the biological action of isothiocyanates (phytochemicals that are abundant in cruciferous vegetables) works at the molecular level to help prevent the proliferation of cancer cells that are specific to certain types of lung cancer is good news.
And if you're hungry for a double order of healthy with a side dish of prevention, check out the recipes here.

fern hill, in response to your comment:

Fetus Fetishists' Nightmare

Obama chooses head of Health and Human Services: Tom Daschle.

Hee. The Catlicks call him a nightmare.

So, that means Merkin pro-choicers are dancing in the streets, right?

Not necessarily.

Daschle's record on reproductive and sexual health and rights is a mixed one. NARAL Pro-Choice America rated him 50% for his support for the (non-medically termed) Partial Birth Abortion Ban, and for the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, a bill that makes it a crime to prosecute a perpetrator for two crimes in a violent crime against a pregnant woman. Daschle, also, however, opposes the ban on abortion procedures in military hospitals and supports expanding funding embryonic stem cell research.


*sigh* Six of one, half-dozen of the other. Looks like women's rights are subject to 'bipartisanship' again, aka 'we'll-get-around-to-you-uppity-bitches-eventually-ship'.

Fetus Fetishists' Wet Dream

Go read Dr. Prole at ACR.

Here's a taste:

Nobody expects the Brazilian Inquisition! In a frightening invasion of privacy, up to 1,000 women and their partners are expected to be prosecuted and publicly denounced for having illegal abortions at a Brazilian clinic. The penalty is one to three years in jail.

Wednesday 19 November 2008

Malignant and malicious Bush legacy.

When Bill Clinton completed his second term as president and then vacated the West Wing for his successor and his team, the Republicans reported various acts of 'outrageous' vandalism, such as the letter "W" missing in action, since claiming it had been pried off most of the keyboards in all the offices.

When George "Dubya" Bush leaves, his malignant and malicious legacy will be of a completely different order.

A last-minute Bush administration plan to grant sweeping new protections to health care providers who oppose abortion and other procedures on religious or moral grounds has provoked a torrent of objections, including a strenuous protest from the government agency that enforces job-discrimination laws. ...

It would also prevent hospitals, clinics, doctors' offices and drugstores from requiring employees with religious or moral objections to "assist in the performance of any part of a health service program or research activity" financed by the Department of Health and Human Services.

But three officials from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, including its legal counsel, whom President George W. Bush appointed, said the proposal would overturn 40 years of civil rights law prohibiting job discrimination based on religion.

The counsel, Reed Russell, and two Democratic members of the commission, Stuart Ishimaru and Christine Griffin, also said that the rule was unnecessary for the protection of employees and potentially confusing to employers.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 already prohibits employment discrimination based on religion, Russell said, and the courts have defined "religion" broadly to include "moral or ethical beliefs as to what is right and wrong, which are sincerely held with the strength of traditional
religious views."


Grand merci to TD for alerting us to this recent development.

Mutton Monitor

Before Dammit Janet! goes all big-time with a feed to Progressive Bloggers and all, I thought I'd indulge in a few blog-posts I've been thinking about that didn't fall under my former homebase's purview.

My days sometimes have themes. As I'm moseying around, I'll be noticing classes or sorts of things -- odd things people are carrying, how few young women can actually walk in high heels, what people put in their recycling bins, that sort of stuff.

A couple of weeks ago, there was a day when it seemed every other person I saw could be classed as 'mutton dressed as lamb'.

I looked the phrase up. This one refers to older people in general, but most definitions are sexist like this one and refer only to older women.

I find that peculiar. Some of the worst offenders are men, at least to my eye. But then, women are much more sensitive to the charge, I guess.

Here's Linda Grant in the Grauniad obsessing about it last December. (She also has an interesting blog called The Thoughtful Dresser.)

She was looking for a leather jacket and found what she thought was the perfect one.

I wore it for a month until I discovered from veteran fashion writer Sarah Mower in the Daily Telegraph that, in buying my leather jacket, I had unwittingly fallen into the saddest fashion category of all: mutton dressed as lamb. "Everyone past the age of 40 needs a 'mutton monitor'," she wrote.


Grant talked to a couple of fashionistas of a certain age. One, Alexandra Shulman, editor of Vogue, who turned 50 in November, said:

The danger is that you have to tread a middle ground between looking boring and a bit tragic.


Well, if that's the choice, it's a no-brainer for me. I'll take boring.

The people -- of all genders -- with the badly dyed hair, the bold bling, the too-tight-too-revealing-too-with-it clothes just look sad to me.

Ah hell, maybe they think they look fabulous.

Me, I don't think I look fabulous. But then I never aspired to fabulous. I think I look pretty good for my age. And I don't cringe when I look in the mirror.

Tuesday 18 November 2008

well....

Unfortunately, they do not seem to have developed a pill for the disease which has "the financial structure" experiencing the most gawd-awful case of shithouse two-step seen in years'n'years.

Now, I must confess to a degree of nasty shadenfreude here. I split a gut laughing at a cartoon my daughter-in-law sent me, a shot of wall street with the caption "jump you fuckers jump". I have no investments, I have no wotzits nor even any hoozits and if every major bank in North America went tits up tomorrow it probably would only be reason for a deal of possibly misdirected mirth.

What does bother me, and bother me hugely, is the list of chain stores going out of business. And not just the ones you've never heard of, anyway. We're talking GAP, for example. They are said to be closing every store in the Excited States. Well, as we know all too well and to our chagrin, if the Excited States burps, so do we. This is going to mean thousands of jobs gone. Thousands of pay cheques gone.

Of course the CEO's and such won't lost pay or sleep. It's the clerks and tellers are going to take this one in the throat. And most of those clerks and tellers are, guess what, women. And often, women with kids.

So once again we are sacrificed in order to placate the god Mammon.

The Women's movement taught me how to explore something and develop an analysis. Ask yourself "is this an accident", then ask yourself "who benefits".

Well, from where I sit in the sunshine with the peak of the ballcap shielding my eyes, I have to say it does not look like an accident to me. Women, particularly women with kids, have always been promised room in the lifeboat only to find they're there for that time when things become so hungry the other passengers become cannibal.

As jobs vanish and pay cheques disappear, as the economy continues to pour into the crapper, women are going to , more than ever, find pregnancy an unwelcome and even impossible burden. More than ever, abortion clinics must be easily available. More than ever we must openly and loudly declare No More Unwanted Children.

So far, the powerful men who dictate policy, have worked to "bail out" the very ones who caused this mess. More and more wealth will wind up in fewer and fewer hands, and , almost exclusively, those hands will be male hands.

I do not accept that. And I do not accept having male hands around the throats of women, throttling our chances for equality and self-determination.

Yes, we'll go back to the barricades. And we'll take our daughters with us this time. Daughters raised in feminist homes, daughters who know only too well what life will be like if we do not go to the barricades.

This economic bullshit is designed by patriarchs who have never been our friends. They want women-dominated jobs to disappear. They know self supporting women are "uppity" and they will not quietly tolerate much of that!

Well, I won't miss the clothing with labels, I won't miss the chance to pay three or four times as much for things which only last half as long. I never did shop in Banana Republic. My jeans and tee shirt will become more and more the uniform of the uppity; all over again!!

Prepare yourselves. They'll aim their myopic sights at the clinics. This time we'll take a lunch, bring plenty of bottled water, and don't forget the musical instruments because we'll dance. Oh you can bet your bippy we will dance!

On their fuckin graves, we will dance!

batten them hatches

Hello Darlings, it is I, BLANCHE, smiling and waving at all of you from my self imposed exile here on the most western of west coasts.

The sun is shining, the doors are open, the windows are open and Blanche is in her tee shirt, short sleeves, and, right now at least, wearing a ball cap because the sun pouring in the window of my hell room is too bright, it causes me to squint , and at my age, my dears, one tries hard not to crack the carapace.

This lovely day is unique, we're taking advantage of it, I've been out with my dogs on a therapeutic creep, and I've obviously gone insane in the heat because before I left I washed the kitchen and living room floors.

Maybe I should go to the clinic and see if they have a pill for Domestic-itis. They've got pills for everything else.

RIP-OUT ARTIST

It was intoxicating, addictive even, to stumble upon a completely unsanctioned creative activity that could be practised publicly, especially in an airport.

It all started when I was tempted by a glossy magazine, the April issue of Vanity Fair to be more precise. As I walked past the variety kiosk, its cover caught my attention – Three Female Comics done up as neo-classic contemporary (a)Muse(r)s – what’s not to like? I purchased the VF then lugged its heavy load to my boarding gate. I was suddenly inspired, by Tina et al, to lighten up.

I started flipping through the first pages of the publication. Advertisements for Ralph Lauren, Chanel, Estée Lauder, Prada, Clinique, Armani, Hugo Boss – those heavyweights of the luxe consumer food chain. More flipping. I’m looking for the content page. Flip. Flip. Flip, flipflipflipflip fer fucksake! At page number 51 I hit what I want and what I need: the table of content. I am furious.

Flipping through all this advertisement was a tedious and wasteful use of my time. Then a small thought wiggled its way into my consciousness. What if I ripped out every single non editorial content page? What if I only kept what I wanted to see, and read and tossed the rest in the recycling bin?

I started ripping. Rip, rip, rip. Some of those damn pages were quite thick. I discovered about midway that the editors snuck text that I wanted to read on the reverse side of adverts. I left those in.

Nonetheless, by the time that I had rigorously removed all the publicity, the magazine was surely 50% lighter. Less paper to travel with me across the country! Less stuff to look at!

I examined the pages that I ripped out. Heavy stock, dense with glossy colours. I wondered what the cost of each of these could be, if one factored in the photographer and her/his entourage, the model, the set and all other production expense including the print job.

No surprise that these baubles and various odds and sods of disposable trinkets, perfumes, accessories and such command a hefty price – and yet are manufactured in China, just like the low-rent consumer crap is.

Monday 17 November 2008

Back to the Barricades!

Remember this guy? Mr. Kicking Abortion's Ass Bill, in whose honour we nicknamed Ken Epp's private member's Bill C-484, the bill that was Totally Not About Abortion, until the Cons threw it under the bus because it 'might' reopen the abortion 'debate'.

Well, it seems the FFs at the recent Conservatard Convention may have learned something.

They passed a resolution verrrry much like the Kicking Abortion's Ass Bill but looky here:

Although the resolution does indicate a pro-life sentiment among Canadian Conservatives, in an interview with LifeSiteNews.com, John Hoff, President of Campaign Life Coalition B.C., reminded pro-life activists to take this resolution for what it really is – one seeking to protect pregnant women and not unborn babies.

"As the President of Campaign Life Coalition of B.C., P-207 is not a resolution I would propose to protect unborn children. As much as I stand up for the lives of pregnant women, this resolution doesn't do anything for unborn children," said Hoff.

Hoff said the resolution is one which he wholeheartedly supports and that it is a great step forward in protecting pregnant women. However, he indicated that pro-life supporters should keep their mouths shut about it being about recriminalizing abortion feet on the ground.

However, someone's whose feet were actually on the ground at ConCon, liveblogging as much as they'd let him, Dr. Dawg, put it like this:

It became pretty obvious that the "protecting pregnant women" resolution (P-207) was all fetuses all the time.

Yup. That's pretty much what we expected.

Bookmark this page again. *sigh* We're going back to the barricades.

ETA: Check out Danielle Takacs who was also there liveblogging. She has the down-and-dirty details.

Dammit Janet: The Lyrics

Hey Janet (Yes Brad?), I've got something to say.
I really loved the skillful way
You beat the other girls to the bride's bouquet!

The river was deep but I swam it, Janet
The future is ours so let's plan it, Janet
So please don't tell me to can it, Janet
I've one thing to say and that's

Dammit, Janet, I love you...

The road was long but I ran it, Janet
There's a fire in my heart and you fan it, Janet
If there's one fool for you then I am it, Janet
Now I've one thing to say and that's

Dammit, Janet, I love you...

Here's a ring to prove that I'm no joker
There's three ways that love can grow
That's good, bad or mediocre
Oh J-A-N-E-T I love you so

Oh it's nicer than Betty Munroe had, oh Brad
Now we're engaged and I'm so glad, oh Brad
That you've met Mum and you know Dad, oh Brad
I've one thing to say and that's

Brad I'm mad for you too...

Oh Brad, Oh... dammit!
I'm mad, Oh Janet!
For you, I love you too
There's one thing left to do, and that's

Go see the man who began it
When we met in his science exam-it
Made me give you the eye and then panic
There's one thing to say and that's

Dammit, Janet, I love you...

Dammit Janet; Oh Brad, I'm mad
Dammit Janet; I love you!



Wikipedia.

You know you're a bad mother when...

you take your 12 year old daughter to a screening of the Rocky Horror Picture Show under the guise that Michael J. Fox – her crush at the time – is one of the actors.

During the movie she kept whispering in my ear and asking me when would his character show up. I eventually completely lied and said that he was one of the guests at the Time Warp party – there was a midget who looked remotely like him – after all what’s one more tiny prevarication when you’ve already sold your child a bill of goods anyway?

A few years later, when the RHPS became fashionable with high school crowds she could nonchalantly and coolly observe : “Rocky Horror Picture Show? Saw that years ago,” though still being reproachful that I had lured her to see it under false pretence.

Just one more bad mother moment, right up there with taking her to see “Watership Down”, a cinematic event she claims to this day traumatized her and gave her nightmares for years thereafter about that bunny bully General WoundWorth.

I always thought that Fiver had a touch of tranny rabbit.

Saturday 15 November 2008

Advantages of Abortion: Part 3

Over at Birth Pangs where deBeauxOs and fern hill began their blogging careers, by far, the most common search string bringing visitors to the site was 'advantages of abortion'. They then found this little post hoc propter hoc piece and this more serious take on the matter.

Well, today there is news of another advantage to abortion:

Women who have had two or more induced abortions have a reduced risk of pre-eclampsia, researchers in Norway said.

Affecting at least 5 percent to 8 percent of all pregnancies, pre-eclampsia is a rapidly progressive condition characterized by high blood pressure, the presence of protein in the urine, swelling, sudden weight gain and headaches, although some women report few symptoms. Women who have previously given birth to a child have lower risk of pre-eclampsia, the researchers said.

The study, published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, shows that women who have had two or more induced abortions reduced their risk for pre-eclampsia by 60 percent.
Wow. Sciency stuff again. While only fetus fetishists claim that there are links between abortion and breast cancer, abortion and mental illness, abortion and going str8t to hell, here again is Evidence that abortion is a medical procedure with little down-side and some proven up-side.

When everything old is New™ again!

Transparency. Who would have imagined, in their wildest dreams, that Stevie and his Harpocrites would succeed in changing the meaning of that word to its complete opposite?

“The way we can protect our democracy is through openness and transparency, and when the important political debates take place in public. To close access completely to their debates on their policy issues, says that they are not proponents of democracy, and have no interest in being open and transparent, that their concern is controlling the message to the point of stifling democracy, even it is from within their party,” said Jennings.

Indeed, they have. After a day of in-camera workshops that excluded all accredited media (those were the ones allowed inside the Winnipeg Convention Centre and permitted to remain corralled inside one room) from access to the delegates, a number of resolutions have made it to the plenary for open debate and voting. No surprises there. Two propositions that betray their anti-feminist agenda will be debated; P207, and P213. From here:

Protecting Pregnant Women / The Conservative Party supports legislation to ensure that individuals who commit violence against a pregnant woman would face additional charges if her unborn child was killed or injured during the commission of a crime against the mother.

Women / The Conservative Party supports gender equality through all policy and legislative considerations the full participation of women in the social, economic, and cultural life of Canada. i) The Canadian workforce has evolved to include more women than ever before. The Conservative Party believes all Canadians have the right to freedom from discrimination in the workplace and equality of opportunity.ii) Individuals should be judged on skills, qualifications and merits. Women must be entitled to equal pay for work of equal value equal work.

Note what has been removed and what has replaced it. We await news of the debate, via the conventional (Kady O’Malley and her colleagues) and the blogging media.
First posted at Birth Pangs.

Friday 14 November 2008

Don’t be lettin’ that door hit’cha on your way out.

Sarah Palin riffing on a theme:

“I’m like, OK, God, if there is an open door for me somewhere, this is what I always pray, I’m like, don’t let me miss the open door,” Palin said in an interview with Fox News on Monday. “And if there is an open door in ‘12 or four years…" 10 Nov 2008 The Associated Press

“If there is an open door in 2012 or four years later and it’s something that’s going to be good for my family, for my state, for my nation, an opportunity for me, I’ll plough through that door,” she told Fox News. 12 Nov 2008 Independent

“My life is in God’s hands,” Palin said. “If he’s got doors open for me, that I believe are in our state’s best interest, the nation’s best interest, I’m going to go through those doors.” 13 November 2008 The Associated Press

In a series of national television interviews, Palin did not rule out seeking the presidency, saying, “It’s crazy to close a door before you know what’s even open in front of you.” 14 November
2008 The Associated Press


Good grief. What is this: the Republican version of “Let’s Make A Deal”? As LuLu over at Canadian Cynic said: Bible Spice, your 15 minutes of fame are sooooo over!

First posted at Birth Pangs

Wednesday 12 November 2008

A tale of two grandmothers of note.

Matriarchs are not often mentioned in our posts because many of our blogs are inspired by current news items regarding women’s reproductive health and choices. So we are pleased to feature today two grandmothers who have made choices in support of their own daughters’ choices.
First up: Jaci Dalenberg of Ohio decided that she would be a surrogate mother and carry her daughter’s fetus to term. Kim already had two children was unable to become pregnant because of a hysterectomy.

A 56-year-old woman who gave birth to her triplet granddaughters a month ago is recovering from a Caesarean section and hopeful that one of the girls will be home from the hospital by Saturday. … Dalenberg said she wasn’t frightened to be pregnant at her age.

“I’ve always been really healthy. I did get medical clearance, including psychological testing,” Dalenberg told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “When we found out it was triplets, I did get really nervous for about four days, but that passed real soon.” …

Dalenberg, who has four daughters, ages 31 to 36, said she would have preferred to try natural
childbirth, but her doctor told her that was out of the question. “I’m fine. I feel great,” Dalenberg said. “Knowing the outcome, I would do it over again, but … I’m not going to do it again,” she said with a chuckle. “We wouldn’t do that to her again,” her daughter said, smiling.

And then, Marian Robinson who may become the most famous granny in the US.

When the Obamas do finally move into the White House in January, they will be determined to take their normal family life with them – and that includes Michelle Obama’s mother, who has reluctantly agreed to leave her home on Chicago’s South Side and move to Washington. The nation’s new First Granny is Marian Robinson, 71, who regularly looked after Malia, 10, and Sasha, seven, while their parents were campaigning. …

It is the first time in living memory that three generations of a presidential family have all moved to
Washington, although Mrs Robinson has not yet decided whether to take rooms in the White House or live nearby. Mrs Obama “begged” her mother to come with them. “The girls are going to need her, as part of their sense of stability,” she told Newsweek. “And what is true for my mom is that she does anything for us and her grandkids.

First posted at Birth Pangs.

Sunday 9 November 2008

Will Zygote Zealots Rule at the Con Con?

Back in July, Le Devoir disclosed that members of the Québec CPC were unanimously opposed to a resolution that was presented in the slate of policy resolutions for discussion and ratification at the November convention.
Some party members from the West have inserted a proposition to integrate Bill C-484 into the Conservative platform. C-484 is a law that would recognise the fetus in a case where a pregnant mother is murdered. In such a case, the murderer would be charged with two murders instead of one. This is, in fact and despite what the bill itself says, a backdoor way to outlaw abortion because it
recognises the fetus as a legal person. It isn’t a far step to go from that to claiming the termination of the fetus in an abortion to be murder as well. And this isn’t just an over-reaction, similar laws in the United States have led to the outlawing of abortion in certain jurisdictions.
From here.

In the interval between then and now, Stevie and his Harpocrites threw Ken Epp and his Bill C-484 under the bus in a miscalculated bid to placate Québec voters and remove any obstacle to their desired majority rule. Now it has been revealed that a modified version of C-484 is among the hundreds of resolutions up for approval next week at the Con Con.

Is anyone actually surprised? I hope that there are fireworks and MASSIVE confrontations between the fundamentalist religious Cons and the pro-choice Cons.

First posted at Birth Pangs.

Saturday 8 November 2008

Onward Christian Soldiers to the RepubliCon Convention

Among the pages and pages of policy resolutions that the Con rank-and-file members will be considering for approval at their convention in Winnipeg next week there’s this:

PROTECTING CANADA’S HEALTH AND SAFETY Policy Floor Resolutions - Conservative Convention 2008 RESOLUTION P-118 … Foreign Affairs Principles i) The Conservative Party supports a foreign policy that protects Canada’s sovereignty and independence, promotes our national interests (political, economic and strategic), contributes to collective security and defence, promotes democratic principles and human rights, and assists in international development. ii) A Conservative Government will recognize the importance of an ethical dimension in foreign policy and will advance the values broadly supported by Canadians. iii) A Conservative Government will coordinate Canada’s international relations, trade and foreign aid policies to advance the country’s economic interests while promoting human rights and individual freedom. iv) A Conservative Government will integrate our foreign policy with policies on trade and national defence. Foreign Policy Social Values Proposed by Ottawa-Vanier: iii) A Conservative Government will coordinate Canada’s international relations, trade and foreign aid policies to advance the country’s economic interests and social values, while promoting human rights and individual freedom.

Those who can hear the dog whistle know that from so-cons, the expression “social values” is RepubliCon-speak for no-choice, anti-contraception and anti-abortion. It is no accident that this resolution came from the Ottawa-Vanier riding Cons where a number of fundamentalist organizations and associations have established residency, including the
National House of Prayer.

First posted at Birth Pangs.

Thursday 6 November 2008

Not your run-of-the-mill liar: Behold Jill Stanek

Enough. Someone should check her medication.
"Barack Obama was elected president despite the fact he supports abortion into the fourth trimester.
Either the 63 million people voting for him didn’t know about his radical record, which includes abandoning abortion survivors to die, didn’t care, or didn’t believe it."
This is beyond willful and malicious fabrication. This is hallucination.

First posted at Birth Pangs.

Saturday 1 November 2008

US evangelicals and teen sex

Many people may have wondered why conservatives were so unruffled when Sarah Palin announced the pregnancy of her teenager daughter, Bristol, in September. This summary of a New Yorker article provides some clues.
In replying to a question about why it appeared that conservatives, Republicans and right-wing groups seemed relatively unperturbed when Sarah Palin announced the unintended pregnancy of her teenage daughter Bristol, hours after her appointment as the VP candidate in the US elections,
…Marlys Popma, head of evangelical outreach for John McCain’s presidential campaign, suggested in responding to Bristol Palin’s pregnancy [...] “There hasn’t been one evangelical family that hasn’t gone through some sort of situation.”
Other facts emerge:
…Mark Regnerus, a sociologist at the University of Texas at Austin, [...] has surveyed 3,400 teens ages 13 to 17 and analyzed the government’s Add Health study of adolescent health.

Regnerus uses evangelicalism as a proxy for conservativism — an imperfect method, to be sure — and finds that 74 percent of evangelical teens say they believe in abstaining from sex before marriage.
That compares to half of mainline Protestant teens and a quarter of Jewish teens.


At the same time, according to government data, “evangelical teenagers are more sexually active than Mormons, mainline Protestant and Jews,” and they make their “sexual debuts” earlier, just after turning sixteen, Talbot writes. Only black Protestants start having sex earlier, she notes….

It’s easy to guess the next piece of the puzzle. Evangelical teens also decline to use contraception more often, meaning that pregnancy becomes an immediate concern when they start having sex.