March 2011

Alabama Republicans want to change Pi (H/T – AG)

And you thought HB 1217 was controversial?

Congresswoman Martha Roby (R-Ala.) is sponsoring HR 205, The Geometric Simplification Act, declaring the Euclidean mathematical constant of pi to be precisely 3. The bill comes in response to data and rankings from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, rating the United States’ 15 year-olds 25th in the world in mathematics.

Obama’s response is the best;

HR 205 is expected to pass the House of Representatives but even if it also passes in the Senate — unlikely with Democrats maintaining a slim majority — President Obama has pledged to veto.

“I badly want to refuse to dignify HR 205 with acknowledgment, but… my Republican friends are serious,” Obama said. “And I don’t care how strongly Geometric Simplification has been polling, I just can’t be responsible for that.” The president added, “Unless there’s something on the table. Barack Obama does love a good compromise. Maybe if Republicans will agree to let Planned Parenthood perform AIDS testing. Or just convince the Tea Party Caucus to at least publicly agree it is the Earth that revolves around the sun, and not the other way around.”

BTW, I was a straight ‘A’ student in geometry and found it one of the easiest categories of math.

If you told a state legislator that Jesus walked on water, would he believe you, wait . . .

“I believe anything the Unruhs tell me.”

Wow. Our governor is even dumber then I thought;

The Republican Governor of South Dakota signed a bill into law Tuesday, formally mandating that women in the state wait three days and visit with anti-abortion activists before undergoing a medical procedure to terminate a pregnancy.

With Gov. Dennis Daugaard’s signature, South Dakota claims the title of having the longest mandatory waiting period for an abortion out of any other state in the nation. About half of the states require patients to wait 24 hours.

There is only one abortion clinic in South Dakota: the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) in Sioux Falls.

South Dakota’s law was seen as part of a broader attack on Planned Parenthood by social conservatives acting at the state and federal levels.

The non-profit organization is perhaps best known for abortion services, thanks to media campaigns launched by its religious conservative critics. However, the vast majority of PPFA’s activities focus on education, womens’ health, disease screenings and pregnancy prevention.

To this effect, PPFA says that each year it plays a role in preventing over 600,000 unwanted pregnancies, and only three percent of their patients request abortion services. By contrast, figures show PPFA is ten times more likely to be helping prevent an abortion than carrying one out.

But in an exclusive interview with Raw Story, Republican state Sen. Al Novstrup, the South Dakota bill’s primary sponsor, did not seem to know that. He even suggested that Planned Parenthood is akin to an abortion factory, ushering women in and putting them on a doctor’s table without so much as a consultation.

He also suggested they have a financial incentive in carrying out as many abortions as possible, which is demonstrably false as similar procedures are astronomically more expensive when carried out at private hospitals. Most women pay between $500-$900 for abortion services through PPFA.

The 72-hour waiting period aside, the law will also require women to consult with one of the “crisis pregnancy centers” around the state, which are mainly run by anti-abortion activists.

I’ll say it again, the best way to end abortion is to prevent a pregnancy from happening to begin with. We should be encouraging PP to reach out and educate more people on birth control instead of continuing to tie their hands.

Events Center Public Meeting, tonight. Finally.

Tuesday, March 22

5 p.m. – 7 p.m. Events Center Public Open House

The Mayor will be hosting a public open house on the Events Center topic on Tuesday, March 22, 2011 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Morningside Community Center, located at 2400 South Bahnson Avenue.

Representatives from Sink Combs Dethlefs, Mortenson Construction, and AECOM—professional firms the City has hired—will be in attendance. They will provide updates on the progress of their respective studies and will answer any questions you may have.