In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: Guns; police brutality; racism. Video may autoplay at link.] In Ferguson, Missouri, protest leaders are trying to work with police to ensure peaceful protests after the grand jury decision, while a bunch of other people are buying guns. Swell.

[CN: Injury; death; class warfare; reproductive coercion; medical malfeasance] This is so awful: "Eight women have died in India and dozens more are in hospital, with 10 in a critical condition, after a state-run mass sterilisation campaign went tragically wrong. More than 80 women underwent surgery for laparoscopic tubectomies at a free government-run camp in the central state of Chhattisgarh on Saturday. Of these, about 60 fell ill shortly afterwards, officials in the state said. ...So-called 'sterilisation camps' are held in Chhattisgarh between October and February as part of a larger programme to control India's 1.26 billion population. Women who go through the surgery are given 1,400 rupees (£14) by the state. Local governments in India often offer incentives such as cars and electrical goods to women volunteering for sterilisation. ...Health advocates worry that paying women to undergo sterilisation at family planning camps is dangerous and, by default, limits their contraceptive choices. India's family planning programme has traditionally focused on women, and experts say that male sterilisation is still not accepted socially. 'The payment is a form of coercion, especially when you are dealing with marginalised communities,' said Kerry McBroom, director of the Reproductive Rights Initiative at the Human Rights Law Network in New Delhi." There are so many issued tied up in this story: Classism, misogyny, reproductive freedom and meaningful choice, access to contraception and healthcare. Fuck.

[CN: Illness] Dr. Craig Spencer has now recovered from Ebola and is free to go home. This brings the number of cases of Ebola in the United States to zero. Two weeks ago, Republicans were declaring Ebola "Obama's Katrina." My friend Mannion sums it up: "Now they're reporting there's no Ebola epidemic in the US. Election's over. We don't need it anymore." Yup.

[CN: War on agency] The Supreme Court has declined to review "a decision by the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upholding a New York City law that requires so-called crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) in New York City to inform patients that they do not have any medical professionals on staff. The Supreme Court's decision lets stand a portion of a New York City law that requires CPCs to post a 'status disclosure' in English and Spanish at the entrance to its facilities and in waiting rooms, informing patients whether or not a licensed medical professional works on-site at the facility." Good.

This is pretty cool: "Elana Meyers Taylor, a silver medalist in the women's two-person bobsleigh at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, qualified on Saturday to race alongside men for the U.S. national team. Meyers Taylor announced her intention to try to qualify in October, just a month after the FIBT, the sport's international federation, changed its rules to open four-[person] bobsledding competitions to women, who had previously only competed in their own separate two-person version." Right on!

[CN: Ageism] Republican Senator Rand Paul, who is fixing to run for president, says Hillary Clinton is too old to be president. Hahaha President Barack Obama is too young, and Hillary Clinton is too old! And the magic number that is the perfect age for the US presidency is whatever age whatever Republican asshole is who's saying this shit at whatever time.

Something something Rick Perry something something considering running for president. "He said he 'learned some hard lessons' in 2011 and 2012, when his campaign flailed and ended early in the process." One of those lessons was not that he is terrible and the country hates him. Apparently.

And finally! Big cats like boxes, too! LOL FOREVER.