John Joseph Bachir

Ganxy launched

31 October 2012 - 1 comment

Forgot to mention that.

• Paid Content: Ganxy offers an easier way to sell and market ebooks
• Pando Daily: New York Times writer taps startups for all the news that doesn’t fit the print

Get out and vote for Obama! Even though he has a horrible civil liberties record.

31 October 2012 -

Hello Dear Reader. It’s me, John. You might remember me from elections past, where I supported a third-party candidate. I don’t do that any more. Why? Because the system is rigged for a two-party system. Maybe you already knew that. Maybe that’s the reason that you are voting third party, to raise awareness about the lack of candidate diversity. But I see you do that, and I think, I bet you are so frustrated, so angry at the lack of choice, that you don’t know what to do with your ideas and energy, and you feel the only outlet they have to express yourself is to vote for a third party.

So to rationalize this choice, you say that there isn’t a significant difference between the two candidates.

But remember the biggies in the Obama administration — can you imagine McCain or Romney doing any of these?

• health care reform
• ending discrimination against gays and lesbians in the military
• saving the US auto industry
• new fuel efficiency standards
• credit card reform
• getting OBL

There is a difference between Democrats and Republicans, and it is that list. We live in an imperfect world, but one in which you can chose to have the things in that list.

And it’s the Democratic party that supports those decisions too, so even if you aren’t in a swing state, you still need to vote for them in other offices.

(And then you need to pressure Democrats to be more progressive. An easy way to do that is to give money to progressive PACs like Howard Dean’s Democracy for America and Russ Feingold’s Progressives United)

(And if you are really ambitious and have the time, you can work to reform the voting system)

Further reading:

• Daniel Ellsberg, leaker of the Pentagon Papers and an extremely progressive civil liberties activist, says: Progressives: Defeat Romney/Ryan in Swing States
• Robert Reich, one of the most prominent liberal and pro-union thinkers and chairman of government reform org Common Cause, says: If You Succumb to Cynicism, The Regressives Win it All
• This person has a bunch of awesome videos explaining our voting system’s problems and possible solutions. Start with this one about why a plurality-wins system (what we have in the US) leads to a two-party system.

U.S. Representative Todd Akin teaches us some science about the female body

19 August 2012 -

from what I understand from doctors [pregnancy from rape] is really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.

- Todd Akin

This man is stupid. Donate to Planned Parenthood today!

However I take issue with how much reporters love to take out the cases-of-rape thing. It makes for great television because:

• You get to talk about two adult, taboo topics at the same time: abortion and rape.
• It has the appearance of an interesting edge case in an ethical conundrum. It’s a cheap way to add another dimension to an already contentious issue, so it forces very opinionated people to have and defend even more opinions.

Are there any actual arguments for abortion being more ethical in cases of rape? I have never heard one. The idea that abortion is more ethical in cases of rape implies and requires that it is less ethical in other cases. As such, it is an enormously anti-abortion idea. All reporters who entertain the question are supporting an anti-abortion agenda, because abortion makes for such great television and they don’t want the issue to go away. Furthermore, even pro-choice advocates who answer the question directly instead of challenging its premises are unintentionally reinforcing the idea.

(Donate to Planned Parenthood today!)

update:

Also, from an American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology study in 1996:

One of the worst things about this is learning that there are 32,000 rape pregnancies a year in the US.

— John Perry Barlow (@JPBarlow) August 20, 2012

update 2:

Akin is on the House Science Committee :-(

update 3:

Why am I not shocked that @toddakin invoked 9/11 in defending himself. No, seriously: wonkette.com/481563/todd-ak…

— Cristóbal Palmer (@coxn) August 20, 2012