Kate Sheppard

A new study released by the Guttmacher Institute and the World Health Organization this week finds that the number of induced abortions worldwide has declined from nearly 46 million in 1995 to less than 42 million in 2003. It’s fallen most sharply in places where abortion is safe and legal, and where contraceptive education and […]

So I’ve generally been into the idea behind the Fact Checker column over at the Washington Post. Until today, when they decided to take Al Gore‘s winning the Nobel Prize as an opportunity to do a “fact check” on An Inconvenient Truth, and … not actually check any facts. Instead, they publish portions of a […]

I mentioned Obama‘s energy plan earlier this week, specifically commending him for calling for 100 percent auction of carbon permits. Turns out Edwards has called for this sort of policy as well. This is a good idea, because it ensures that the big carbon-emitters aren’t given handouts. It also puts the onus on Clinton to […]

The state legislature in Illinois approved a measure yesterday that requires all public schools in the state to begin the day with a moment of silence, overriding Governor Rod Blagojevich‘s veto of the measure. Students are supposed to use the time for whatever religious observance they’d like, or to just sit there quietly. While teachers […]

… Al Gore is ahead of Barack Obama. –Kate Sheppard

Matt asks if he’s out of touch with mainstream sentiments because the Law of the Sea seems sensible. He’s not – not at all, actually – unless Dick Lugar, John Negroponte, several old Reagan appointees, and George W. Bush are, too. Certain portions of the right-wing are also concerned that Mitch McConnell, who has been […]

I mentioned the music copyright case out in Minnesota last week, but neglected to follow up when the news broke that the jury ruled against the file-sharer in question. They found Jammie Thompson, a single mother from Brainerd, Minn., guilty of illegally sharing music on Kazaa, and fined her $222,000. She says she’s going to […]

Ezra and Brian Beutler have already weighed in on Tom Friedman‘s column today, in which he takes my generation to task for being more into Facebook than we are traditional forms of activism: […] I’ve been calling them “Generation Q” — the Quiet Americans, in the best sense of that term, quietly pursuing their idealism, […]

Remember when Michelle Malkin was complaining about people posting her address and personal information about her family on the internet? How quickly a year and a half flies by. As most have heard by now, she’s now spending her time stalking 12-year-olds rather than actually debating policy and deriding “militant leftist bloggers” who “wouldn’t know […]