Ireland ready to concede women are living people and not just breeders

Ireland is getting ready to allow abortion in certain cases where the mother’s life is in danger. So they are really, really, sorry for killing a woman for the sake of a dying fetus, and would love if the rest of the world would forget about it already. Jezebel has a piece written by Katie J.M. Baker on the whole thing.

Dr. James Reilly, the Irish health minister told The Telegraph, “…we will clarify in legislation and regulation what is available by way of treatment to a woman when a pregnancy gives rise to a threat to a woman’s life. We also will clarify what is legal for the professionals who must provide that care while at all times taking full account of the equal rights to life of the unborn child.”

Apparently, the Supreme Court rule that abortions were ok when the woman’s life was at risk back in 1992, but the government never got around to creating a law to that effect. Digest that for a moment. So now they are repealing legislation that makes abortion a criminal act and instituting regulations for when a mother’s life is at risk. The new law will comply with the Supreme Court decision and the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights from two years ago. Yeah, so there were at least two court decisions Ireland never bothered to get behind.

Risk of suicide also counts as danger to the mother, which is mind blowing because a woman in Indiana was arrest for trying to kill herself when she was pregnant citing that she tried to kill her unborn child. Wrap your mind around that. In Ireland, the Supreme Court decisions 20 years ago overturned an injunction that prevented a 14 year old girl from having an abortion in Britain. The girl was suicidal after being raped and then prevented from obtaining an abortion. But this just confused everyone and no legislation was drafted.

The Catholics are in a tizzy that the government would legalize some abortions even though they were supposed to 20 years ago. Catholic Cardinal Sean Brady and the archbishops of Dublin, Cashel, and Tuam said: “The unavoidable choice that now faces all out public representatives is: will I choose to defend and vindicate the equal right to life of a mother and the child in her womb in all circumstances, or will I choose to license the direct and intentional killing of the innocent baby in the womb?”

So, politicians may make it ok for limited reproductive choice, but remember the women are second to their unborn children. Innocence prevails over the guilty. Ironically, the Catholics believe we are born into sin with Original Sin so I’m confused. If a pregnant woman receives reconciliation and then aborts the fetus wouldn’t she be without sin or of lesser sin than the fetus? Then she could be forgiven again. I think I’m onto something here. This is how sex abuse works in the church, right?

The bishop of Kilmore Leo O’Reilly was a bit more dramatic claiming the slippery slope argument, “to a culture of death.” When it is the woman it is ok though. Naturally, some politicians (the Fine Gael Party specifically) are worried about the suicide clause. Because you know, the women folk will threaten suicide to have abortions.

I don’t suppose we could treat women like people who are valuable as people instead of just breeders? In 2012, why are we just now allowing women to obtain abortions when their lives are at risk? How do they not have a rape exemption? It will be a cold day in hell before a pregnant me goes to Ireland.

Dems and austerity cuts

I think this covers it nicely...Clearly, we can never allow President Obama to be a hostage negotiator. This is obviously a screenshot from the Huffington Post.

Walmart unionbusting? You don't say...

So I’d kind of want Josh Eidelson to be my boyfriend. The Frisky has this sarcastic “be my boyfriend” column, but while I’m joking there is no sarcasm here. We could just talk about why Walmart blows for hours. Le sigh.

Eidelson wrote a piece Monday on a VP over at Walmart potentially admitting to union busting. Walmart Vice President of Communications David Tovar told reporter Susan Berfield, Bloomberg Businessweek, when asked about the labor campaign facing Walmart:

“We have human resources teams all over the country who are available to talk to associates, and we will get questions about joining a union. We would say, ‘Let us remind you of all that Walmart offers, and of what might go away. Quarterly bonuses might go away, vacation time might go away.’”

 So that is about all the article in Businessweek says. Walmart didn’t respond immediately to any of Eidelson’s requests for comment. However, they eventually responded. My favorite Walmart spokesman Dan Fogleman responded to Eidelson’s request for comments. He said that Tovar’s quotes “as published: lack “additional context.” Additionally, Fogleman said, “David’s comments were intended to illustrate that there are no guarantees in the collective bargaining process. Everything is on the table and subject to negotiation, up or down, by both sides. We believe that is an important fact for our associates to know, especially given that Walmart’s pay and benefits package typically meet or exceed those at a majority of our competitors, including those that are unionized.”

After I read that I heard Dwight Schrute say “FALSE.”

Of course, we already know that Walmart and companies like it threaten their employees to prevent unionization. It is a large concern of labor leaders because US law doesn’t restrain companies from threatening workers who aim to unionize. This is because minor threats to punish workers for organizing yield minor penalties and employers can intimidate workers though threats as predictions without breaking any laws. It looks like usually the employers threatened wage cuts or plant closures according to Cornell Director of Labor Education and Research Kate Bronfenbrenner.

Former NLRB attorney Jeff Hirsch was asked about Tovar’s Businessweek’s comments and said: “These types of comments (and worse) are extremely common and effective.” Hirsch pointed out this isn’t a far cry from the mandatory on-the-clock “captive audience” meetings, and the implicit threats.

Now, back to the legality of this. So can employers threaten actions like these? No, but they can predict them. So you can’t say if you want a union we’re going to cut your wages, but you can say if you get a union then we might have to cut your wages.

Lance Compa, a labor law professor at Cornell, believes the comments described by Tovar might be a violation of labor law, but depending on the context. Compa said, “To be safe management normally has to couch the possible loss of benefits in a discussion about collective bargaining, saying that bargaining is a two way street, wages and benefits are negotiable, management has to right to bargain hard, you might lose some benefits, you might gain some benefits, maybe nothing will change except you’ll be paying dues, and so on.”

Last month OUR Walmart filed an NLRB charge that noted a different statement Tovar made to the media as a threat, specifically if workers didn’t show on Black Friday, “depending on the circumstances, there could be consequences.”

Someone finally put in words what it means to love Cleveland sports

Mike Polk Jr. provides depiction of what it means to love Cleveland sports.



This link to the local station that had it: http://fox8.com/2012/11/04/mike-polk-cleveland-fan-song/.

Dear Ohio, We're better than this

So Ohio is becoming a creepier and creepier place. By now, most everyone has heard about the Steubenville, Ohio rape case if not because of the rape of a minor, allegations against several members of the local football team, potential cover-up by the school and other authority figures, but because of the use of social media to generate public outrage at the little being done about it.

There is a seriously long piece in the New York Times about the case, well about the case and the case against the blogger and commentators, and a notable quote about “a sexual assault accusation in the age of social media, when teenagers are capturing much of their lives on their camera phones…and then posting it on the Web, like a graphic, public diary.” Jezebel’s Katie J.M. Baker asserts that is the case lacked the social media angle it may have gone unnoticed, and I agree with her. Otherwise it is just another rape of a minor allegedly by some hometown sports heroes (two have been charged with rape).

I’m sure I’ve talked about the teenager put under a gag order by the court after her rapists (guilty), Savannah Dietrich’s photo during the assault was spread all over the internet and her school. Dietrich refused to be silent and tweeted the names her attackers, and then told the courts to put her in jail. This woman is a boss. Seriously, the kind of bravery required to take on your rapists, community, and the courts. Mind blown.

The Steubenville case is similar, the boys sexually assaulted an unconscious girl, and the boys took pictures, because they are those kinds of scholars. The town turns on the girl accusing her of ruining the boys lives…because they totally didn’t do that to her by violating her while unconscious. Naturally, there is a lot of victim blaming: she was drunk, “asking for it”, etc. You know the drill, and it makes you sick, too. The boys, being football stars, are portrayed as the victims.

But what makes this case different is the support the young woman received from a blogger Alexandria Goddard, who covered the story on Prinniefied.com. She wrote about the story months ago. Goddard took screenshots of the videos and the photos before the partygoers could delete them. She called the case a slam dunk after the arrests of Mays and Richmond because they had videotaped and photographed their crime and then posted it online. Goddard questions the reasoning behind sharing the brutal rape of a peer with the internet. Obviously, people who have no respect or compassion for others.

Goddard named names and accused people of having a criminal role in the suspected assault by failing to stop it and sharing the images. She is being sued (as are the people who commented on her blog) by a Steubenville football player and his parents for defamation. The New York Times claims Goddard injected herself in the investigation and complicated the situation in the community…by letting people know what the documentation showed?

Jezebel then questions whether the New York Times would have covered the story without Goddard’s interest. I think we can all agree the answer is no. The chief of police had a hard time getting people to come forward, the girl took a shower and washed away evidence before a rape kit, the coaches are accused of turning a blind eye to the accusations, and the girl’s family has been receiving threats because she came forward.

Thus far there have been no new arrests since October, and three boys testified under oath that they took photos and were allowed to walk away. These three were suspended from extracurricular activities (which the Times reminds us because Steubenville’s seasons was hurt because of it. Liberal media my ass). Although, they weren’t suspended until October 15, months after the investigation began.

Now, for those of you unfamiliar with Ohio and football culture…imagine any sports movie where the hero is the captain, so think Varsity Blues. There isn’t a doubt in my mind that is what it is like those these kids on the team. Football is your one chance to get out of the most depressing place on the planet as far as you're concerned, but at the same time, you’re so insulated that you think you’re gods. I can’t remember if Varsity Blues has a rape in it. I wouldn’t be surprised.

Goddard told the Cleveland Plain Dealer back in September that she doubted the authorities would be able to handle the case. I’m not sure she’s wrong.

So what does this mean? I think it is spectacular that the voiceless can now make themselves heard via internet. Dietrich and the young woman here are potentially able to use the images taken to violate them over and over again in an empowering way…i.e. a police investigation. I also think we have an obligation to hold others accountable for their actions, which is exactly what Dietrich and Goddard did even when that means litigation. This is rape culture, a culture that says it is ok for some people to do whatever they want and others not. I can’t imagine how different this story would be if the boys were football stars. No one should get  a pass for rape, and if no one else will do anything about it, at least we know one person in Ohio will.

Publisher's First Amendment Rights Supersede Reporters

I stalk labor journalists on twitter, and I’m not ashamed. I’m harmless really, but following them usually incites rage so there is that…

According to Sam Hananel of the Associated Press a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday with the publisher of the Santa Barbara News-Press in a labor dispute between the newspaper and reporters who were fired after they complained over editorial practices.

The US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled the publisher of the newspaper was protected by the First Amendment after it dismissed eight reporters and disciplined others who claimed the owner was interfering with coverage. However, the reporters claim they were wrongfully terminated for union activity and legitimate complaints about their terms of employment. This began in 2006 between Ampersand Publishing LLC and employees. Almost all the top editors at the paper quit because of the owner Wendy McCaw’s perceived meddling. Afterward, the newsroom employees voted in a union, and they have been fighting the paper ever since over bargaining rights.

Eight of the reporters were fired, six of them had hung a sign from a freeway pedestrian bridge in 2006 to protest encouraging people to cancel their subscriptions. Employees held a series of rallies and demonstrations.

Judge Stephen Williams, on behalf of a three judge panel, said: “The First Amendment affords a publisher—not a reporter—absolute authority to shape a newspaper’s content.

"The First Amendment affords a publisher—not a reporter—absolute authority to shape a newspaper's content," Judge Stephen Williams wrote for a three-judge panel.

Shenanigans!

The court’s ruling overturns a decision by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which found the workers had been wrongfully terminated. However, the decision is consistent with a 2010 ruling from the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals, which felt that forcing Ampersand to rehire employees a violation of the publisher’s First Amendment rights.

This is kind of dangerous for reporters moving forward. Essentially, publishers can meddle in reporting and perhaps shift focus for or against a subject. Additionally, the fact the NLRB found in favor of the union also says volumes. Owners shouldn’t be able to meddle in the news; this is one of the many things wrong with media now. No one hold people, the government specifically, accountable because everyone has an agenda.

Sandy Hook

I’m not really sure what to say about the massacre on Friday except that no one should be shot and killed regardless of age, gender, sex, race, class, sexuality, etc. Yeah, the list can go on and on. A few things did strike me particularly the discussions around mental illness and disbelieve that something like this could happen. I don’t plan on diving into either topic at length.

We should have accessible mental health services for everyone. The End. But everyone with a mental illness doesn’t kill people. Actually the mentally ill are more likely to be the victims of violent crime; we see it all the time with the homeless.

Secondly, the idea that something like this shouldn’t have happened here implies that there are places where this is acceptable. I wonder where? Intimate partnerships where one partner plays for the NFL? Poor black communities? Pakistan? This shouldn’t happen anywhere. It shouldn’t be perpetrated by white teenage boys (who may be mentally ill), intimate partners, gangs, or the US military (or CIA).

This is unacceptable behavior. Personally, I think this is the time we address the lack of fire-arm regulations in this country. I think we should also make mental health services available, and take a good hard look at the culture where these acts of violence have become commonplace. That means dismantling masculinity that promotes violence, ceasing violent foreign policy, and perhaps even pulling back the unquestioned funding of military weaponry.

This link takes you to information about Sandy Hook heroes, those who were murdered protecting children.