Rachel Ford is a programmer, and since 8:00 to 5:00 doesn't provide enough opportunity to bask in screen glare, she writes in her spare time. She was raised a very fundamentalist Christian, but eventually "saw the light." Rachel's personal blog is Rachel's Hobbit Hole, where she discusses everything from Tolkien to state politics.
A Florida law designed to protect women from the pernicious idea that they’re adults capable of making their own medical choices without government imposed time-outs has just been green-lit by an appeals court. The law had been passed last year, requiring a 24-hour waiting period before an abortion. These laws are one of many tactics in the anti-abortion playbook — a set of rules targeting (and unique to) women’s healthcare. Such laws present women with added burdens and increased costs — as they mean a woman has to make multiple appointments, which requires additional travel to and from the clinic, multiple potential absences from work, etc. A previous court order had blocked enforcement of the restriction: Read more
There are many things to be said about Republican frontrunner Donald Trump — the man who is not sure he can disavow support from former KKK leader David Duke, who wants to solve immigration issues with a wall that keeps growing taller, who fears that immigrants are rapists and other criminals, who wants to defund Planned Parenthood, who is routinely harassed by the IRS for what he thinks is his strong faith, etc. With this many pitches right down the plate, you’d think his Republican rivals would hit these balls out of the park. Instead, people like Ted Cruz have said that the wall-building-immigrant-hating-anti-reproductive-rights champion is somehow not conservative enough. Cruz knows that Trump is flying off the deep end. Cruz knows Trump has a temperament worse than children. Cruz knows that a President Trump may nuke Denmark on a whim. Cruz says he has no idea what President Trump will do in office. Cruz also thinks Trump lacks a core set of beliefs and values. In short, Cruz thinks it would be grave mistake to elect him. But if Trump is the nominee, he’ll help make that grave mistake a reality. Read more
After decades of dog whistles and thinly veiled racist references, open bigotry is having its day in the Republican Party. And which candidates are the primary beneficiaries? Recent data from Public Policy Polling suggests Donald Trump is the most consistent choice, but Ted Cruz is a pretty reliable second, with Marco Rubio popping up every now and again to wrestle away the second spot from him. (This is sounding familiar…) But first, let’s talk about the one statistic that has been bandied about recently — that 20 percent of Trump’s supporters purportedly support slavery. In fact, that seems to have been made up or based on extremely misleading interpretations of the actual polling data. However, the PPP poll as well as exit poll data from South Carolina provides an interesting look at the biases of Republican voters — including those who self-identify as having “very liberal” views. PPP — which the New York Times notes is a “company aligned with the Democratic Party” — polled South Carolina supporters on a number of questions and found some very interesting breakdowns. Read more
It seems these days that even the Good Lord is sick of Ted Cruz. After all, just the other week God was willing to kill Justice Scalia to further Ted’s political ambitions. These days? Not even Glenn Beck’s fasting could convince him to work on the hearts and minds of Nevada Republicans. After Cruz’s defeat in South Carolina, Beck, who has endorsed and been campaigning for Cruz, declared he’d be fasting before the Nevada Caucus. Read more
