Month: July 2014

BREAKING: The birth control case that is WORSE than Hobby Lobby

On Thursday, even as their horrible Hobby Lobby decision continued to send shockwaves around the nation, the Supreme Court actually made things worse. It issued a short, unsigned opinion that says Wheaton College, a small Christian college in Illinois, doesn’t have to provide birth control coverage to female students if they don’t want to – and they don’t even have to fill out a religious-exemption form so someone else could provide it. Because apparently filling out paperwork saying, “We’re not going to pay for this, but someone else can,” was for Wheaton College the same thing as committing an abortion themselves.

In a blistering dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that the ruling contradicts what the conservative majority said in the Hobby Lobby case just a few days ago – that a way to fix the religious opt-out would be to have the government pay for the contraceptives, and that the Hobby Lobby decision was narrow:

“Those who are bound by our decisions usually believe they can take us at our word. Not so today. After expressly relying on the availability of the religious-nonprofit accommodation to hold that the contraceptive coverage requirement violates [the Religious Freedom Restoration Act] as applied to closely held for-profit corporations, the Court now, as the dissent in Hobby Lobby feared it might, retreats from that position,” Justice Sotomayor said.

We here at BNR have spent most of the week telling you about why this ruling is bad, how it hurts women, how it makes a decision based on a belief and not science. We’ve told you about the companies now saying that want to be allowed to discriminate against LGBT workers because they don’t believe they should have to abide by equal protection. In the end, we as women must understand that this country’s institutions no longer prioritize our individual rights over the rights of a corporation. If you have not incorporated yourself, I urge you to do so quickly.

Sorry. Your beliefs do not trump science, reality, or personal liberty

To every church or religious person everywhere: Just because you believe something is true does not make it true. I’m sorry to break this to you, but your faith doesn’t trump facts. If you firmly believe that the Earth is flat, it doesn’t mean the Earth is flat and that NASA is part of a government conspiracy. Yet Hobby Lobby believes that certain kinds of birth control cause abortions, and the Supreme Court agreed, even though it’s not true. The Plan B pill, intrauterine devices (IUDs) and other forms of contraception Hobby Lobby can now ban, in fact, don’t cause abortions. The science is irrefutable. Doctors, pharmacists and other experts agree. And no religious belief can ever change it.

Here is the real science behind Plan B, IUDs, and similar types of birth controls that do not abort anything.

If a corporation wants to oppose birth control because it prevents pregnancy, that’s an entirely different issue. If that’s the case, then Hobby Lobby should not pay for male employees to have vasectomies – which they currently do. But again: it should never trump someone else’s personal liberty. Or the facts.

7 Awesome Photos Assembling The Statue of Liberty

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” the Statue of Liberty’s plaque reads. Nothing could be more American than that.

The tablet she holds is inscribed JULY IV MDCCLXXVI – Roman numerals for July 4, 1776, Independence Day, when our founding fathers signed paperwork declaring that the King of England could suck it. Nearly three centuries before anyone had heard of “freedom fries,” the colonist rebels and the French fought side-by-side against the King’s men; years after American independence had been won, a birthday present arrived from Paris. Sculpted by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, she stands 151 feet high. She’s survived terrorist threats and climate change as well as supernatural beings (Ghostbusters) floods and freeze (The Day After Tomorrow) on film. But 149 years ago we began what could be considered the Ikea project of all time. These are the photos:

1. What would Freud Say?: The face of Lady Liberty was modeled after the sculptor’s mother, Charlotte Beysser Bartholdi.

Liberty2

2. The crown was originally supposed to be a weird-looking cone modeled after the one given to emancipated slaves in ancient Rome. Instead, Jefferson Davis nixed it so as not to give American slaves the wild idea that the statue represented freedom and equality for everyone. So it was changed.

Liberty1

3. Many of the workers who helped build the base of the Statue of Liberty, and assemble her, were immigrants.

PedestalConstruction

4. On December 26, 1971, 15 anti-Vietnam war veterans staged a dramatic sit-in inside the statue, flying a US flag upside-down from her crown. They left two days later to comply with a federal court order.

statue-of-liberty-paris-2

5. At the feet of the Statue lie broken shackles, representing the destruction of oppression and tyranny. They convinced Jefferson Davis it was jewelry (ha – just kidding about that last part).

LibertyFeet

6. There was an old legend that the concept of the birthday present came from French law professor and politician Édouard René de Laboulaye, who, in mid-1865, said over dinner with friends: “If a monument should rise in the United States, as a memorial to their independence, I should think it only natural if it were built by united effort—a common work of both our nations.” But the sculptor later wrote the comment wasn’t meant as the idea, but as inspiration while Bartholdi was working on her. (Below is the initial sculpture construction in France)

FrenchConstruction

7. The Statue of Liberty is huge, and space was hard to come by during construction in France. A well-known French engineer and architect, Gustav Eiffel – yeah, that guy – was contacted for help. He had room in his Paris shop, and he had the talent to help. Just three years after the completion of the statue project, the Eiffel Tower went up.

French-statue-liberty

BONUS

Here’s the scene from Ghostbusters II, in which Dan Aykroyd and the late Harold Ramis originally had the idea of bringing the Statue of Liberty to life as a force of evil used by Vigo. Out of respect to her, it was decided Libby would be the one to rally the city of New York, bring them together, and help the Ghostbusters save the day. Bill Murray admitted in an issue of Cinefex magazine back in 1989 that he got a little nauseous when filming it.

The Best Use of a Drone is During the Forth of July

There are terrible ways in which our country has used drones to hurt people, but here’s a brilliant way to watch a fireworks show like you’ve never seen before:

You’ve got to see what Stephen Colbert said about the SCOTUS Hobby Lobby case

After Monday’s ruling by five white men who don’t like women’s access to birth control, one place we can turn to for solace is our comedians. Thankfully, we here at BNR have Lizz Winstead, who recalls a bygone era when people were people and corporations were corporations. And then there’s a prophetic Stephen Colbert, who in 2011 told us Obamacare must be repealed so the country can “go back to the way things were – when [health] insurance only had to cover boner pills.”

The Colbert Report
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John Oliver: Paying for things you don’t like is part of being a person

Once again, John Oliver nailed it on Sunday night. He had some choice words for Hobby Lobby before Monday’s Supreme Court ruling and the idea that a corporation can have religious beliefs. This is all you need to know:

“If you really want to be treated like a person, Corporations, then guess what? Paying for things you don’t like is what it feels like to be one. If corporations want to be people, they should have to take the rough with the smooth. Corporations should have the lifespan of a person. 79 years – 75 if they’re based in Mississippi. Oh and female companies, you only get to make 83 cents on the dollar. Sorry Wendy! I guess it’s just that Burger King must have worked harder!”

He’s making a great joke, of course, but he’s on to something. As Lizz Winstead points out “Remember when people used to be people? #Nostalgia.” Boy… those were the good old days, huh? When do you suppose we can become a corporation so we can have more rights?