I agree that they should be rare, in that I want effective birth control easily available for everyone (not just women and I also mean improved methods that reduce failure rates), and I desperately want no rapes that result in pregnancies. I don’t like the connotation of rare that suggests abortion is a bad thing,…

It’s so unprofessional. My expectation for a pharmacist is a total poker face. Ointment for that nasty poison ivy rash in an unmentionable place? Hemmoroid medication? Prescription prenatal vitamins? This shit is private for a reason.

My favorite description of birth control ever was Jezebel’s imagining what conservatives call them: “Hoo-ha whore pills for the down there”

Does Devon have any executive experience at all? Cabinet secretaries are powerful, but they also have to work really freaking hard! I can’t imagine she is really prepared to do this job.

I was on a funding panel for children’s charities and one of the other members would go on and on about building accountability for kids to help them succeed in life, this blog reminds me of him. This is rich baby boomer pearl clutching bullshit. The kids that need to have more respect for work aren’t the one that…

These are the kinds of advise and consent questions that the senate should be asking. All the agencies are important, and I don’t like seeing ideological purity (or wackiness) prioritized over competence. I mostly deal with EPA, it has been wrecked by being slingshot back and forth between political appointees and by…

I think for loved ones we also have a deep need for everything to BE OK, no one wants to admit that health has gotten bad enough to need treatment, and not just with mental health. There is a very real feeling that once you give in and seek treatment you have to start living in the aftermath. Before that, sure it is a…

I agree. To me, Trump’s approach to women and non-white people is often a matter of yelling what will make them the most upset, like a textbook troll. He uses it to distract people, make them defensive and force them to argue on his terms.Vox has a piece about the emotional abuse tactics Trump uses, it made me realize…

I imagine being a Trump wife is kind of terrible, and wanting to maintain a sphere of privacy is something every president sith young or youngish kids try to do. It is striking in this case, to me at least, given the prominent role his children seem to be playing in the administration (horrifyingly so). Also, that…

Ugh. I hadn’t heard that yet. This is another way to isolate himself from scrutiny and the press. The White House and OeOB are very public buildings, with hundred of staffers and visitors every day. The press knows the ins and outs of it better than anyone. He is avoiding living in the White House to avoid the…

It is an American thing. We love elections, and we particularly love and congratulate ourselves on the peaceful transition of power (I know y’all are quite good at it too). The thing is, we’re always surprised we’re good at it. Part of respecting the office is recognizing that the office of president is supposed to…

You can respect the office without respecting the person. To me, that is referring to him as “Mr Vice-President” when in office, allowing him to speak at official functions, and booing the shit out of him when he shows up a public events. Seriously, this guys deserves to hear at every possible point that his opinions…

My brother married this week, he is gay. We had a giant wedding with a bunch seventy year old Catholics crying, hugging, thrilled to see their union. It was heartwarming and made me so damn happy. Then I found out that some of my Mom’s former co-workers had made a point to let her know they disapproved. I mean, why…

I think there are a lot of republican senators who hate his fucking guts,and are staking out positions to make demands on Trump’s administration. Ammunition like working with an organized crime figure with ties to North Korea gives them leverage in those negotiations? So maybe they will give up on something this big.…

Ugh. I find this so completely offensive and indefensible. I understand that Trump trusts his children, and relies on Ivanka, at least, to not be a total moron, but mixing personal wealth and massive political power is absolutely wrong. I worried about it with Romney, and with Trump, who has far more exposure to…

I think I get your point. Election forecasts are a bit like forecasting the weather. We know it is complex, we have a basic understanding of the physics that drives it, and the most important variables, but we are still dreadful at predicting weather more than two weeks out. So, we largely don’t. We have gotten very…

Agreed. Silver was the only mainstream media voice who was consistently forecasting possible paths for Trump, and writing about the weird aspects of state by state polling, and the challenge of identifying likely voters in such a topsy-turvy election map. I know he did, because reading 538 gave me nightmares for…

This is something I care deeply about and desperately want environmental activists to DO A BETTER JOB. Tbh, I haven’t really paid that much attention to the Dakota access pipeline, I don’t know if building it is an existential threat to the water supply of the Missouri River watershed, and have no understanding of the…

It’s hard to wrap your mind around, isn’t it? I’ve known a number of scientists who were quite good at what they did, and held utterly whackadoo views on other subjects. My acquaintances were not this illustrious, but think of Pauling and megvitamins, or Watson and really anything at all. I don’t think Ben Carson is…

How much vetting do you think they will do though? There is no confirmation, it’s kind of a made up position, and they have no shame.