Tuesday Tonic

Some days, you just need a little Hitchens.  For all his flaws,  Christopher Hitchens' clarity of thought, command of the English language and passionate advocacy for the dignity of humankind was unrivaled.

Here is a short memorial video that was presented at the Reason Rally.

More "Pro-Life" Terrorism

Another Planned Parenthood clinic - this time in Wisconsin - was bombed last night in the continued campaign to deny reproductive rights to women through domestic terrorism.  And once again, the incident will probably* be blamed on a lone, crazy person as though actions like this occur in a vacuum and people who commit these acts are never influenced or affected by violent rhetoric or extreme ideology.


Perhaps it is a coincidence that the bombing came just two days before the Wisconsin primary.  Of course, it must be yet another "meaningless" coincidence that Rick Santorum's recent ad campaign in Wisconsin mentions $50 abortions. No doubt, there are no subliminal dog whistles in the infamous horror ad that Santorum's campaign has been airing. The smirking, pouty scarlet female mouth shushing the viewer is probably just a little creative license, not at all intended to stir up resentful, misogynistic feelings in target viewers.


Sure, anyone who sees a pattern in the domestic terrorism that is being employed by the anti-choice brigade must be a little paranoid, a little crazy. Left-wing conspiracy nuts, we must be!

Story on CBS

Planned Parenthood responds.

*Update: As expected:

State Rep. Michelle Litjens (R), who represents Grand Chute in the state legislature, is a member of Wisconsin Right To Life and a strong critic of Planned Parenthood. She cautioned against associating the bombing with her fellow anti-abortion advocates and complained that the bomber, whatever his or her motivation, may tar the opposition to Planned Parenthood with the crime.
“I don’t believe this is politically motivated, I think this is some crazy person doing something really stupid,” she said. “Bombing a Planned Parenthood is doing nothing about the abortion issue other than calling it to the center of attention and making people who oppose abortion look like they’re out to do something bad.”  (link)

Isn't That Just Ducky!

Look at my pretty wool ball! I like to play with it even when I am resting on the sofa.

I like to run after my ball on the floor.  I like to play with my ball in the car.

My ball matches the bow in my hair. I like my colorful wool ball!

Isn't that just Ducky!

Turnabout Is Fairplay In Defense Against Terrorism

The landlord of a women's reproductive health clinic in Maryland had endured years of harassment by forced-birth protesters. Todd Stave is a firm believer in the Constitutional right to freedom of speech, so over the years he has tolerated what to most people would be a level of harassment and personal abuse that would be intolerable.

Stave has a long history of standing up for women's reproductive rights in his own quiet way. He was only five years old when Roe v Wade was decided, but his family has upheld the right of women to choose what happens to their own bodies from the beginning.  Stave's father and sister were the landlords of the clinic before he was, and he carries on the proud family tradition of supporting the right of women to be treated as fully human - with all the rights that men enjoy over their bodily autonomy.

In late 2010, the forced-birth protesters crossed what even the patient and patriotic Stave considered to be a bridge too far.  They began to appear at his children's' school events, published the names, addresses and contact information of friends and family members, encouraging protesters to harass them, too, and made it clear that if he wasn't frightened by their stalking tactics for himself, then they would up the pressure and threaten his children and his extended family.

Stave asked a few friends to help him keep track of the phone numbers of the telephone stalkers and they began to phone the stalkers back.  In spite of the terrorist tactics that he had been subjected to,  Stave refused to stoop to the level of the forced-birthers.  Instead of uttering threats and calling the stalkers names,  Stave and his friends calmly acknowledged the harassing phone calls and thanked the phone stalkers for their "prayers".

At first, there was just a small circle of friends, but the group grew quickly as people heard about Stave's idea of flipping the forced-birthers tactics back on them - only without the terrorism, the threats and the vitriol.  Eventually, more information was gleaned about the phone and street stalkers, and so the friends of Stave began to drop names and places into their phone calls with pleasant wishes for a good day. This was a direct turnaround of the forced-birth stalkers tactic of threatening the family and friends of pro-choice front liners. Except without the threatening.

Stories like this restore one's faith in humanity, if only a little bit at a time. Well done, Voice of Choice. Bravo, Todd Stave!

Washington Post story.

Blogger Jezebel's post.

Protesters respond with more terrorism:  Washington Jewish Week

Another interesting perspective: It's a Beautiful Wreck's post, Daughter of an Abortion Protester.

Cool Cutting Edge Science On Wheels!

We've just got back from a long road trip, so my apologies for the dearth of posts!

But here is something which I hope will make up for that!  Driving up I-65 between Indianapolis and Chicago, we spotted this! :

I had a feeling this was something really cool -  I mean, just look at those bright colorful symbols all over the thing! - so, since I was driving, I had the nifty spouse look it up on his smartphone. 

Turns out this bus is a converted 70's era road cruiser, fitted out as a mobile DNA sequencing lab!  This is so cool!  The mobile lab travels around the country to conferences and to universities and other places by request, where they demonstrate their new ion semiconductor sequencing technology by sequencing the DNA of interesting things they find at each locale they visit.

The bus was on its way to Chicago when we spotted it.  If only I hadn't been behind the wheel, I would have whipped out my camera and taken a picture. But the stock photo above will just have to do.  

Here is an annoying (I hate visuals that spin and quick cut editing), but fun little video from their website: