Banning books

 Utah Bans 13 books. (I need to go out and get these.)

Oklahoma revoked this teacher's license for standing up against book bans. She's not backing down. 

 

Changing or misquoting history damns you to repeat it

 

Gadgets, Gaza, and Good Grief, Oklahoma!

Masai rebel woman fighting for women's rights.

How bad it actually is in Gaza.

Gadgets that are listening to you, a little too well.

It's snowing on the east coast.  That's that white stuff you see in the pictures.  And an explanation on why it is so cold.

Women's reproductive rights the worst it has ever been since Roe v Wade.

Robert Reich: This Very Bad Deal Will Make Wall Street Richer and Bust the Rest of America The truth about the Trans Pacific Partnership.

Oklahoma decides it doesn't like history unless it lies.

What religious fanaticism will do to women's rights if carried to the logical end.  And Men's Rights activist isn't any better.  And what 50 shades of crap does to relationships. Update:  and more.

Jeb Bush is using the same people that Georgie did for foreign policy.  Remember, Jeb was an original signer of the PNAC.  I'd like to see him explain that away.

A star hit and run with our solar system 70,000 years ago.

Our presidents.

Save the babies!!

Until they are out of the womb...

“Pro-Life” GOP Will Now Starve Poor Babies Over Planned Parenthood Funding"

Stupid is as stupid does.

And this is a lot of stupid.

Oklahoma Is At It Again: State Legislature Passes Bill Stripping Abortion Coverage From Health Insurance.

And Arizona keeps digging deeper:

Arizona Governor signs law banning ethnic studies programs in public schools

And Tennessee is allowing guns in bars. What could possibly go wrong?

Louie Gohmert does his part for Texas:

[Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas)] was first to respond: "An absolute breakdown in morality," he said. "And when you lose morality, you get economic chaos. And when you have economic chaos, historically, people have always been willing to give up liberty. And that's what we're seeing."

Even California's Issa tried to get on the stupid before running away:

Rep. Issa Wants To Strip Provision Promoting Gender Parity In Academic Science And Technology

(He walked it back later.)

I have a two word response to this.

OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma Senate approved several bills Monday that opponents say would make it more difficult or uncomfortable for women to get abortions, including one that would require women seeking the procedures early in their pregnancies to undergo an invasive form of ultrasound.

The five bills, some of which will go to Gov. Brad Henry for consideration and others which will return to the House, were overwhelmingly approved by the Republican-controlled Senate. If given final approval, the bills would give Oklahoma some of the most restrictive laws of any state, an abortion rights group says.

One of the laws headed to the governor would require doctors to use a vaginal probe in cases where it would provide a clearer picture of the fetus than a regular ultrasound. Doctors have said this is usually the case early in pregnancies, when most abortions are done.

"You're going to force someone to undergo an invasive medical procedure," objected state Sen. Andrew Rice, D-Oklahoma City, who voted against the bill. "You have to invasively put an instrument inside the woman. This could be your 15-year-old daughter who was raped."

At least three states require ultrasounds before all abortions, but no other states require vaginal ultrasounds or that doctors to describe the image to women.
State Sen. Anthony Sykes, R-Moore, who sponsored the ultrasound bill, said the goal was to provide women seeking an abortion with as much information possible before they had the procedure.

Gerri Santoro.

And three more: Fuck you, Oklahoma.

Update 4/24: Oklahoma governor does the right thing:

OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry vetoed two abortion bills Friday that he said are an unconstitutional attempt by the Legislature to insert government into the private lives and decisions of citizens.

One measure would have required women to undergo an intrusive ultrasound and listen to a detailed description of the fetus before getting abortions. Henry said that legislation is flawed because it does not allow rape and incest victims to be exempted.

Lawmakers who supported the vetoed measures promised an override vote in the House and Senate as early as next week. A national abortion rights group has said the ultrasound bill would have been among the strictest anti-abortion measures in the country if it had been signed into law.

Henry said "it would be unconscionable to subject rape and incest victims to such treatment" because it would victimize a victim a second time.

Update 4/28/10 And the Oklahoma legislature overrode the governor's veto:

OKLA. MANDATES INVASIVE MEDICAL PROCEDURES.... It's fairly common for policymakers who want to ban all abortions, but can't get away with that legally, to make it as difficult as possible for women to exercise their reproductive rights. But Oklahoma is taking this approach to truly outrageous levels.

The Oklahoma Legislature voted Tuesday to override the governor's vetoes of two abortion measures, one of which requires women to undergo an ultrasound and listen to a detailed description of the fetus before getting an abortion.

Though other states have passed similar measures requiring women to have ultrasounds, Oklahoma's law goes further, mandating that a doctor or technician set up the monitor so the woman can see it and describe the heart, limbs and organs of the fetus. No exceptions are made for rape and incest victims.

This really is remarkable. For all the overheated talk from the right of late about government interfering with medicine, patients' decisions, and doctors' treatments, conservatives in Oklahoma have now made this the law in their state.

Because the Dark Ages were so much fun

Oklahoma and Texas fundamentalists are attempting to silence atheists, scientists, biologists, supporters of evolution, logical thinkers, and sane people.

How truly American.

The public humiliation and hanging of witches.



PZ Myers of Pharyngula:

The ACLU is suing Union Public School Independent District No. 9 of Oklahoma. The reason is bizarre: administrators at the school have harrassed and violated the civil rights of a young woman named Brandi Blackbear because — and I'm a bit ashamed to admit this can go on in my country — they accused her of witchcraft. They say she used a magic spell to make one of her teachers sick. In retaliation, she has been subjected to searches and public humiliation, and the school has banned the wearing of non-Christian paraphernalia.

From the ACLU site:

In its legal complaint filed today in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma, the ACLU said that school officials not only suspended Blackbear for 15 days in December 1999 for allegedly casting spells, but also violated her religious freedom when they told her that she could not wear or draw in school any symbols related to the Wicca religion.

The ACLU lawsuit also accuses school officials of violating the young woman's due process rights when, in the spring of 1999, they suspended her for 19 days over the content of private writings taken from her book bag. Officials had searched her possessions based on a rumor that Blackbear was carrying a gun, although no weapon of any sort was ever found. To date, school officials have not returned Blackbear's writings to her.

Before these incidents, the ACLU complaint said, Brandi Blackbear had no discipline problems and had a perfect attendance record. Since being accused, she has "suffered continuous ridicule and humiliation," and "become an outcast among her fellow students," according to the complaint. She has also fallen behind in her school work because of the suspensions.

"It's hard for me to believe that in the year 2000 I am walking into court to defend my daughter against charges of witchcraft brought by her own school," said Timothy Blackbear. "But if that's what it takes to clear her record and get her life back to normal, that's what we'll do."

The ACLU is seeking an undisclosed amount of punitive and financial damages on the Blackbear family's behalf, a declaration that the school violated the student's rights, an injunction preventing the school from banning the wearing of any non-Christian religious paraphernalia and an order expunging her school record.

"The actions of the school have inflicted severe emotional damage on a very sensitive young woman. This lawsuit will allow her to reclaim some of her self-esteem by vindicating the violation of her rights in a court of law," said John M. Butler, an ACLU cooperating attorney.

The case is Blackbear v. Union Public School Independent District No. 9, et al. Defendants named in the lawsuit are Union Eighth Grade Center Principal Jack Ojala, Speech Therapist/Counselor Catherine Miller, Union High School Assistant Principal Charlie Bushyhead and Counselor Sandy Franklin.

Truly a tradition to be proud of...

crossposted at SteveAudio

A sign of the end of days!

Or the revenge of the sea creatures over the Dead Zone. Or a biblical prophecy of being swamped with tentacled blobby things in the middle of the continent because of being wingnuts....

Tulsa, OK (AHN) - Surges of jellyfish were reported to have suddenly appeared in local water bodies of Oklahoma. The sea creatures have been found in more than 20 counties within the state.

The sudden appearance of the jellyfish was not seen as a threat, as explained by Barry Bolten, the head of the fisheries department of the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife. He explained that the species found all over the state was not as hazardous as its other cousins.

Or maybe.... (/crashing organ chords...) it's spawn of the ... BLOB!

Oklahoma at its worst

Luckily the courts said no.

Should the legal ties between parents and their adopted child unravel if the family leaves the state where the adoption decree was handed down?

Of course not. The very idea is outrageous.

But that's what Oklahoma lawmakers were striving for in 2004 with their chillingly titled "Adoption Invalidation Law," which targeted adopted children with gay parents.

That wrongheaded statute declared that Oklahoma would refuse to recognize "an adoption by more than one individual of the same sex from any other state or foreign jurisdiction." In other words, if a gay couple and the child they adopted in, say, California or Maryland moved to Oklahoma or simply drove through Oklahoma on vacation, they would not be treated as a legally recognized family by any Oklahoma official -- whether a police officer, public school teacher or judge.

Sounds un-American, doesn't it? It's also unconstitutional. That's what a federal court of appeals told Oklahoma on Aug. 3 in striking down the law. A panel of three judges -- all of them Republican appointees -- of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a lower court ruling that Oklahoma's anti-family law violated the U.S. Constitution's Full Faith and Credit Clause, which requires states to honor one another's judicial judgments, including adoptions.

The appeals court also ordered Oklahoma to issue a revised birth certificate for an Oklahoma-born girl so that she is listed as the daughter of the women who legally adopted her in California.