In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today!

[Content Note: War on agency] Over the weekend, thousands of people rallied outside Spain's parliament "to protest a potential new law that would severely restrict women's right to have an abortion. The law, which was passed by Spain's cabinet in December 2013, would allow abortion only in cases of rape or if the physical or psychological health of the mother is threatened, effectively banning it in all other circumstances. It would toughen conditions for aborting a deformed fetus, and it would require girls under 18 to obtain parental consent to have the procedure. 'I would never have imagined we would find ourselves back here, fighting for something we thought we had won,' protestor Maria Pilar Sanchez told Agence France-Presse." I feel that.

Meanwhile, in the States: "15 Photos from the Massive Progressive Protest You Didn't Hear about This Weekend."

Andy and Matt have your Gay Marriage News Watch and all the goings-on in Virginia, Utah, Wisconsin, and Indiana.

[CN: Drones] Everything wrong with our drone policy, right here: "An American citizen who is a member of al-Qaida is actively planning attacks against Americans overseas, US officials say, and the Obama administration is wrestling with whether to kill him with a drone strike and how to do so legally under its new stricter targeting policy issued last year. The CIA drones watching him cannot strike, because he's a US citizen and the Justice Department must build a case against him, a task it hasn't completed."

[CN: Surveillance] Speaking of drones, since there are domestic laws against them, sort of, manned aircraft are being used in persistent aerial surveillance. Terrific!

Paul Krugman takes on, again, the bullshit idea that unemployment benefits discourage people from seeking work, and underlines, again, that Republican policy is based in aversion to reality.

New research seeks to begin teasing out the relationship between pet ownership and empathy.