US Politics Mega-thread - Page 216

On May 02 2013 12:52 Hitch-22 wrote:


That has never once happened at all... Do you think any business owner has confidence in a society cutting its social structure? Less structure, less money in consumers pockets, less sales.

Anyone who thinks cuts equal more jobs is foolish at best and anyone who thinks it increases market trust and job creators interest in the specific market is even worse. Perhaps, however, you can name a single time a federal cut in any country has resulted in business confidence : P, I can't think of one.

Cut's are designed to stabilize a market which eventually will encourage growth afterwards but during a federal cut your market trust is always going to be at an all time low and generally after it's a slow climb.

Cammie DeCastro, principal of the Pine Eagle Charter School in Halfway, Ore., admits that the plan she had to protect her school from an armed gunman is in tatters after two masked men stormed in and appeared to open fire on a meeting room full of teachers last Friday, The Oregonian reports.

Luckily, the bullets were rubber, the gunmen were school staffers, students were not in the building that day, and the whole thing was a drill. But the teachers were surprised.

If the exercise had been real, teacher Morgan Gover told the newspaper, only two of her colleagues would have survived. She said she was "shot" several times in the back and chest.
[snip]

While a national debate raged over gun control and whether teachers should arm themselves, a man stood in a hallway of Cary-Grove High School in Chicago on Jan. 30, firing blanks from a starter pistol as teachers scrambled to secure their rooms and students ducked under their desks, according to FOX 32. NPR member station KLCC reported that helicopters were going to land outside Elmira High School in Oregon to transport fake victims of an active-shooter drill scheduled for April 27.

In El Paso, Texas, screams and gunshots bounced through the hallways of Eastlake High School on May 22 of last year, as an act of terror was simulated without a warning to students, staff or parents.

KFOX 14 reported that students fired off text messages to their parents. Stephanie Belcher told the news station she received a message that read, “I'm not kidding. There's gunshots and people screaming and we were locked in a storage closet."

Parents' opinions are split on whether schools are wisely responding to the threat of real danger or overreacting to past tragedies with productions so realistic that an actual theater would have hidden that violence offstage.

On May 03 2013 00:50 aksfjh wrote:
Best way to drill, imo.

WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security is investigating a possible case of human trafficking at a Saudi Arabian diplomatic compound in McLean, Virginia, a DHS official confirmed to BuzzFeed on Wednesday.

"I can confirm that DHS did remove two potential trafficking victims this morning," said Brandon Montgomery, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "

The incident was first reported by the local NBC affiliate, which also reported that Fairfax County records show that the building is owned by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. NBC reports that "one woman reportedly tried to flee by squeezing through a gap in the front gate as it was closing."

"We don't know anything about that," said a spokesperson for the Saudi Embassy when reached by phone on Wednesday. "The report that we got is that the house belongs to the Saudi armed forces, like the military office."

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration's decision to appeal a court order lifting age limits on purchasers of the morning-after pill set off a storm of criticism from reproductive rights groups, who denounced it as politically motivated and a step backward for women's health.

"We are profoundly disappointed. This appeal takes away the promise of all women having timely access to emergency contraception," Susannah Baruch, Interim President & CEO of the Reproductive Health Technologies Project, said in a statement late Wednesday.

"It is especially troubling in light of the Food and Drug Administration's move yesterday to continue age restrictions and ID requirements, despite a court order to make emergency contraception accessible for women of all ages. Both announcements, particularly in tandem, highlight the administration's corner-cutting on women's health," Baruch said. "It's a sad day for women's health when politics prevails."

The FDA on Tuesday had lowered the age at which people can buy the Plan B One-Step morning-after pill without a prescription to 15 – younger than the current limit of 17 – and decided that the pill could be sold on drugstore shelves near the condoms, instead of locked behind pharmacy counters. It appeared to be a stab at compromise that just made both sides angrier.

After the appeal was announced late Wednesday, Terry O'Neill, president of the National Organization for Women, said, "The prevention of unwanted pregnancy, particularly in adolescents, should not be obstructed by politicians." She called it a "step backwards for women's health."

Last week, O'Neill noted, President Barack Obama was applauded when he addressed members of Planned Parenthood and spoke of the organization's "core principle" that women should be allowed to make their own decisions about their health.

"President Obama should practice what he preaches," O'Neill said.

On May 03 2013 02:42 farvacola wrote:
I'm ambivalent on the topic of the morning after pill's availability to underage girls. Is it really hypocritical for Obama to suggest that parents ought to be involved when a minor under their parentage seeks the morning after pill?

On May 03 2013 04:16 farvacola wrote:

Actually, at 16 you need for a judge to emancipate you from your parents before a full separation is recognized by law (in the US of course). Furthermore, if you get pregnant at 16, who do you think is going to care for that child come birth time?

On May 03 2013 02:42 farvacola wrote:
I'm ambivalent on the topic of the morning after pill's availability to underage girls. Is it really hypocritical for Obama to suggest that parents ought to be involved when a minor under their parentage seeks the morning after pill?

On May 03 2013 05:22 farvacola wrote:

I have no idea how one goes about equating any old bit of OTC medicine with the morning after pill. Abusing OTC meds is one thing, making the decision to prevent a pregnancy, an event that necessarily has legal implication for the parents, is another.

Edit: Just so I'm clear, I'm not decided on the topic, and I despise the manner with which social conservatives use topics such as this to further their agenda. I'm just not convinced that parents should have no say over something like this when they are responsible for practically any other decision a minor makes.

On May 03 2013 05:17 sunprince wrote:


We could easily make the argument that parents should be involved when their minor purchases any sort of drug. After all, what's to stop a 16-year-old boy from buying a bottle of cold medicine and committing suicide by OD?

Either there has to be a minimum age where we can sell medication of any sort to minors without parental involvement, or there doesn't. Singling out the morning after pill is simply a way for social conservatives to oppose and limit the availability of birth control.

On May 03 2013 05:37 farvacola wrote:

The difference maker is the possibility of another human being introduced into the equation and the relative impact of the medical treatment being spoken to. Did you know that it is illegal for a doctor to perform surgery on a minor without parental consent? Granted, exceptions are made in life-threatening cases or when the religious beliefs of a parent might conflict with a minor's desire to receive appropriate care, but in general, the law recognizes the parents as arbiters of medical consent for minors under their parentage. Also, it is illegal for schools to give children even OTC drugs without parental consent.

With that in mind, prove to me that a pregnancy is equitable with a cold.

On May 03 2013 05:37 farvacola wrote:

The difference maker is the possibility of another human being introduced into the equation and the relative impact of the medical treatment being spoken to. Did you know that it is illegal for a doctor to perform surgery on a minor without parental consent? Granted, exceptions are made in life-threatening cases or when the religious beliefs of a parent might conflict with a minor's desire to receive appropriate care, but in general, the law recognizes the parents as arbiters of medical consent for minors under their parentage. Also, it is illegal for schools to give children even OTC drugs without parental consent.

On May 03 2013 05:37 farvacola wrote:
With that in mind, prove to me that a pregnancy is equitable with a cold.