Why Abortions Are Down

The Article: Why Abortions Are Down by William Saletan in Slate.

The Text: The abortion rate has fallen again. It’s at its lowest level since 1973, the year Roe v. Wade was handed down. What’s causing the decline? Should we be happy about it? Can we learn anything from it?

The answer to the first question isn’t entirely clear. But the answers to the next two are yes and yes. Pro-lifers are right that the decline is a good thing. And pro-choicers are right that what’s causing the decline—and will keep it going, if we’re smart—is women making these decisions on their own.

The numbers were reported Monday by two researchers from the Guttmacher Institute. They show a 13 percent drop in the abortion rate from 2008 to 2011, continuing a long-term decline that seemed to have stalled. Some pro-lifers don’t believe the numbers. But the National Right to Life Committee does, and is happy to take credit for them.

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The Internet’s Gilded Age

Thanks to the recent US Federal Appeals Court’s decision to prevent the FCC from monitoring the actions of Internet providers, you can say sayonara to internet neutrality. Another Mark Fiore gem on the subject matter awaits you.

If It Were Terrorism…

Fear of “terror” got us into two wars within the last 15 years; let’s use its galvanizing potential in a more rights-driven way.

Why Do The Super-Rich Keep Comparing Obama To Hitler?

The Article: Why Do the Super-Rich Keep Comparing Obama to Hitler? by Matthew O’Brien in The Atlantic.

The Text: First, they came for the bailed-out bankers’ bonuses, and I did not speak out, because I wasn’t a banker.

This is the Ballad of Tom Joad Perkins, Silicon Valley’s legendary venture capitalist. He had to speak out after he saw the appalling way the San Francisco Chronicle disparaged his ex-wife Ms. Steel’s plots, prose, and shrubbery.

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Rich Business Man: 3.5 Billion People Living In Poverty Is “Great”

When confronted by the fact that the world’s richest 85 people have the combined wealth of the 3.5 billion poorest people, the word “great” is probably one of the last descriptors you might choose. That is, of course, unless you’re Canadian venture capitalist Kevin O’Leary.