Roe vs. Wade…vs. McCorvey?

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Prairie sent me a somewhat distressing link today — it seems that Norma McCorvey, the ‘Roe’ of Roe vs. Wade, has filed a motion to overturn the Roe vs. Wade decision.

The former plaintiff known as “Jane Roe” in the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court case that legalized abortion sought to have the case overturned in a motion filed Tuesday that asks the courts to consider new evidence that abortion hurts women.

Norma McCorvey, who joined the anti-abortion fight nearly 10 years ago and says she regrets her role in Roe v. Wade, said the Supreme Court’s decision is no longer valid because scientific and anecdotal evidence that has come to light in the last 30 years has shown the negative effects of abortion.

“We’re getting our babies back,” a jubilant McCorvey said at a news conference while flanked by about 60 women, some who sobbed and held signs that read “I regret my abortion.'”

Without meaning to belittle Ms. McCorvey in the slightest, I find it sad that such a landmark decision is being challenged by no less of a person than the original defendant. With all due respect, I really hope that this motion doesn’t carry through — I feel that the ability to have option to have safe abortions when necessary is far too important to too many women in too many different circumstances for it to become illegal again.

Congratulations Reed and Kerry!

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I just got e-mail that my friends Reed and Kerry just had their first child!

Tienna Vie Judd Dyer was born on June 16th at 11:45pm wieghing 6.5lbs. Kerry is in good health and I will E-mail pics of Tienna as soon as I get them.

Wonderful to hear — congratulations to all three of you!

No help at all

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I got this error message from MS Word today:

Word corrupted table error

Of course, the document has multiple tables embedded in it, and Word isn’t kind enough to tell me which table has become corrupted. I guess I’m just supposed to guess?

Jupiter

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(Background: this exchange came about in 1994, when a comet was breaking up as it passed by Jupiter and falling into the planet.)

Saturday, July 30, 1994 6:36:03 PM
From: Rtist
Subject: Jupiter gone?
To: Science

So, does anyone know how Jupiter is doing? Is it still under attack? Are there any new holes in it? How’s it goin’ up there?

Monday, August 1, 1994 4:32:49 AM
From: Woodstock
Subject: Re: Jupiter gone?
To: Science

It’s gone. The force of all the chunks hitting it disrupted the rotation and magnetic fields enough that all the gases surrounding it have been sloughing away into space…some merging with the rings that used to surround Jupiter, some of the heavier material being caught in the gravitational fields of the moons, but most just drifting off through the solar system. Scientists predict that when the Earth starts moving through the fields, those of us lucky enough to live up here in Alaska should see some absolutely phenominal displays of the Northern Lights, as the foreign gases start to interact with those that normally produce the displays.

Meanwhile, there’s been some excitement about a certain picture the Hubble took…something about a large black slab at the center of where Jupiter used to be, the edges appear to have a ratio to each other of 1x3x9…(grin)

In case you’re wondering, yes, this is a load of crap. But it was fun to write. So there. Bleah. Let someone else tell you what’s really going on, I’m shooting for a job at the Weekly World News…

(big grin)

Woodstock

MTV VJ Pvt. Jessica Lynch

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This is just disgusting — the New York Times has an article exposing CBS’ attempt to buy Pvt. Lynch through TV movies, books…and an MTV special event concert.

MTV Networks, the letter went on, was offering a news special, a chance for Private Lynch and her friends to be the co-hosts of an hourlong music video program on MTV2, and even a special edition of its hit program “Total Request Live” in her honor. “This special would include a concert performance in Palestine, West Va., by a current star act such as Ashanti, and perhaps Ja Rule,” the proposal said.

(via Bob Harris)

Fun with polls

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About the same number of people who think it’s an advantage to be a woman in America would eat a rat on live TV. Clearly, we’ve got some work to do on the whole gender-equality thing.

— Bob Harris, in this TMW post about recent poll results that, among other things, show that a third of Americans believe that WMDs were found in Iraq, and that 22% actually believe that Iraq used WMDs during the war.

Poems for Laila

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I wanted to do two things with this post — test a new feature for the site, and promote one of my favorite bands, Poems for Laila.

I discovered PfL when I was in Germany in the summer of 1991. I saw a display stand advertising the release of their second album, and gave it a listen. What I heard was enough to peak my interest, so I bought their first two albums — ‘Another Poem for the 20th Century’ and ‘La Fillete Triste’ — on the spot.

Unfortunately, I bought them on cassette tape, and over the next few years, I listened to them enough to wear them out. Thanks to the magic of the ‘net, though, a few months ago I was lucky enough to track down not just the two albums I used to own, but three more. Eventually I’ll order as many as their albums as I can, but as they’re not available here in the states, for now I’ll just have to live with the .mp3s I downloaded (one of the very few times I’ve actively searched music out on the file trading networks).

In the meantime, though, you can browse through my PfL catalog, and listen to just what has captured my interest for so long. It’s a little difficult to narrow down just a few ‘recommended tracks’, but here’s a few good ones from the two albums I know the best:

  • From ‘Another Poem for the 20th Century’:
    • Intro to the Morning After
    • The Morning After
    • Lewd
  • From ‘La Fillete Triste’:
    • Round Round Round (The Gentleman’s Fear)
    • Willy Poor Boy
    • I Hold A Prince

Enjoy!

Viagra gum?

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Here’s a bizarre little story that one of my co-workers just told me about: Wrigley patents anti-impotence gum:

Wm. Wrigley Jr., maker of Juicy Fruit, Big Red and Doublemint gums, is expanding its definition of “doubling your pleasure.” The Chicago gum company has been granted a U.S. government patent to develop a gum that contains a dose of the generic chemical in Viagra.

\Won’t this gum be hard to chew once your tongue swells up and stiffens inside your mouth? I’d guess it’ll sell quite well at lesbian bars, though….\</obligatory stupid jokes>

(via Tim)

Update: Comments have been closed for this entry, as I got tired of deleting constant spam comment links. This post is not an open invitation for Viagra or Phenteremine spam. Go the fuck away.