Women of the Net

Celebrating your geekness.

Fighting misogynistic trolls who hate women.

Refusing to break down and cry when in court.

Twitter is attempting to deal with online threats to women.

Who actually has power?

Plan B should be available now to everyone.

Because the wimmen folk are stupid and need help.

Blog sprinkles

Keep Sarah Palin off of Discovery Channel:

"I am appalled that Discovery Communications -- home of numerous eco-conscious offerings -- has picked up "Sarah Palin's Alaska." Sarah Palin's anti-nature crusade as governor makes her extremely unsuitable to host a show in your lineup. I urge you to cancel the show before it airs."

Plan B has more options: Understanding Ella, the Latest Controversy in 'Morning After Pills' And a clever response to an anti-abortion ad.

One more reason we really don't want Chinese food products....

According to a 2008 State Oceanic Administration report, raw sewage and pollution from agricultural run-off has polluted 83 percent of China's coastal waters, leading to algae and other problems.

The Council of Dads has advice.

Seventh graders prove science isn't dead.

It's dangerous to ask for help in a forum.

The 7.2 Mexicali, Mexico, earthquake was so powerful that it shifted the Earth's crust 31 inches near Calexico, Calif., according to radar images and data released by NASA on Wednesday.

Irony. And more BP jokes.

We're number one!1! ... uh... We're number seven!!

Despite having the most costly health system in the world, the United States consistently underperforms on most dimensions of performance, relative to other countries. This report—an update to three earlier editions—includes data from seven countries and incorporates patients' and physicians' survey results on care experiences and ratings on dimensions of care. Compared with six other nations—Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom—the U.S. health care system ranks last or next-to-last on five dimensions of a high performance health system: quality, access, efficiency, equity, and healthy lives.

Strange what happens when you run out of money, isn't it?

A growing number of centrist Democrats say they’re open to trimming Pentagon spending in the face of record budget deficits and mounting public debt.

Liberal Democrats for years have called for cuts to the massive defense budget to no avail. Even after Democrats regained control of Congress in 2007, their few attempts at reining in defense spending have proven futile, partly because of opposition from centrist Democrats hawkish on defense issues.

Obama and McChrystal.

Don't you dare call it a change of course!

Or flipflopping, going back on his word, changing his mind, or actually asking for directions!

He's just widening the field of options, opening up the discussion, uh... developing a new plan (#327)....

The Bush administration is retooling its Iraq war strategy. U.S. diplomats will soon sit across the table from their Iranian counterparts, as they did recently with the Syrians, to discuss ways Iraq’s neighbors can play a more positive role. Washington reportedly has also invited the United Nations (Guardian) to have a more direct presence in Iraq, including a larger role for its humanitarian missions and even the potential creation of a UN command. Finally, once the surge of troops into Baghdad tapers down, the U.S. military will increasingly look to shift its role in Iraq away from combat operations and into training and advisory missions (WashPost).

If any of these steps sound familiar, it’s because many of them were recommendations from the Iraq Study Group report, the blue-ribbon panel commissioned by Congress to find an alternative strategy on Iraq. Coolly received by the White House after its publication last December, the report has been dusted off and given a second look by Bush administration officials.

Soon it will have been Georgie's idea all along cuz he meant to do that. He's the Deciderer, remember. The Commander Guy does not change his squinty steely vision of the world. The world changes for him.

How dare you trample on his religious feelings by wanting Plan B

Even though he is a pharmacist and legally trained to handle drugs, he has feelings too, you know!

Via trifecta at New Pairodimes:

A bunch of fundamentalists are gathering together to fight Plan B being available for women. On the radio tonight, I heard one excuse. Pharmacists in Washington State are being religiously surpressed by being forced to dispense this medication.
[snip]

A coalition of American pro-life groups and doctors' associations has filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the approval of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for over-the-counter sales of the "Plan B" morning-after pill.

The lawsuit-- brought by the Family Research Council, American Association of Physicians and Surgeons, Concerned Women for America, and Safe Drugs for Women-- charges that the FDA improperly authorized sale of Plan B because of intense political pressure.

Specifically, the suit says that the manufacturers of Plan B failed to demonstrate that the drug is safe for all women, and that the directions provided on the label are adequately understood by the women who will take the drug.

In approving the sale of Plan B, the FDA too an inexplicable step, observed Wendy Wright, the president of Concerned Women for America; the federal overseer made "a high dose of a drug available without a prescription when a low dose of the same drug requires a prescription." Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, charged that the FDS "sacrificed women's health and committed unprecedented violations of the law" in approving the drug for over-the-counter use.

Kroger is the latest company having to explain why Plan B was refused.

How many of these religious pharmacists are lurking out there? Do they really think they are saving the world or making it a better place by refusing medicine to people or forcing women to become pregnant? Why on earth didn't they go into a different business?

ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- Kroger Co. said Friday it was reiterating its drug policies to all of its pharmacists after a Georgia woman claimed she was denied the "morning after" pill at one of the company's stores.

The Cincinnati-based grocery chain said if its pharmacists object to fulfilling a request, the store must "make accommodations to have that prescription filled for our customer."

"We believe that medication is a private patient matter," said Meghan Glynn, a Kroger spokeswoman. "Our role as a pharmacy operator is to furnish medication in accordance with the doctor's prescription or as requested by a patient."

When will one of these women who become pregnant after being denied Plan B decide to sue the pharmacy for child support or to pay for the abortion?