An Ohio Republican is trying to limit women’s access to long-term birth control. Elizabeth Nolan Brown ridicules his reasoning: The first hearing for House Bill 351, sponsored by Cincinnati Republican Rep. John Becker, was held yesterday. At the hearing, Becker said insurance plans should be barred from covering IUDs because preventing the implantation of a fertilized egg—which IUDs could theoretically do, though … Continue reading Even IUDs Are “Abortion” Now
A brief round-up: two new batches of Book Club emails – one lacerating me for clinging to faith, the other providing some back-up. I’ll do my best to respond tomorrow. Four more: the voguers of Baltimore; two poems by Nina Cassian; C.S. Lewis on the need for old books; and a peak into the actual … Continue reading The Best Of The Dish This Weekend
A reader sent me the above Youtube today. It made me miss Hitch a little more acutely than usual. To see why, go to 48:00 and stay for a few minutes. Watching Hitch stick up for gay love in front of an arch-Catholic audience while debating Bill Donohue all those years ago brought a lump … Continue reading The Best Of The Dish Today
“For a journalist to write a book that says, in essence, that the struggle for marital equality “had largely languished in obscurity” until 2008 and the battle over Proposition 8 in California is tantamount to saying that the black-civil-rights struggle didn’t get going until President Obama was elected president that same year,” – Frank Rich … Continue reading Quote For The Day II
The head of the Human Rights Campaign doesn’t take on the distortions and exaggerations in the Becker book, but he does necessary damage control by saluting just a few of the countless individuals who, far from allowing marriage equality to “languish in obscurity” for years, actually made everything we are tackling now possible. The statement … Continue reading Chad Griffin Responds
For #NationalPoetryMonth and general delight, 3 lovely poems about dogs by E.B. White http://t.co/1nxaAMxmgZ pic.twitter.com/BAu8QrsBpT — Maria Popova (@brainpicker) April 22, 2014 Never forget E.B. White! Today, I argued that Obama was on the verge of another meep meep in foreign policy with Syria and Iran; that Rand Paul’s criticism of Reagan’s spending and deficits … Continue reading The Best Of The Dish Today
A timely reminder of how old the struggle for marriage equality really is in the US: And this is how revolutions begin: But, of course, as I noted in my 1998 anthology on the subject, the issue of gay marriage goes back much, much further in time. We even have martyrs executed for the cause. … Continue reading The Ones Who Really Forced The Spring
HRC is the world’s most masterful marketer in turning their logo into the symbol for something they fought against for so long — Jon Berry (@jonberrydesign) April 19, 2014 I spent the day monitoring the latest p.r. push by the Human Rights Campaign (i.e. the Becker book on the marriage equality movement), and absorbing the … Continue reading The Best Of The Dish Today
Now there’s a Boston physique for you! Meanwhile, the slams on the dreadful Becker book continue to pile up. When Michelangelo Signorile is compelled to agree with me, you have some idea of how bad it is. He notes how the book grotesquely distorts the legal work of Robbie Kaplan, who argued the much-more-significant Windsor case, … Continue reading The Best Of The Dish Today
A beagle takes playing catch to a whole new level: I took the girls out myself to the park today, which was jammed with picnickers, weekenders and stoners. Drum circle at one end, young Washingtonians sprawled out on the lawn at the other; some Latino soccer players kicking up dust in between; an occasional giant crown … Continue reading The Best Of The Dish This Weekend
