Governor Crist of Florida has vetoed legislation that would have made viewing of their sonograms mandatory for women contemplating first-trimester abortions: Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed a Republican-backed bill that would have required women seeking a first-trimester abortion to pay for … Continue reading →
I must say, this is pretty frickin impressive: Even his facial features look completely different, don’t they? He’s Michael Ventrella, champ at the TV weight-loss game, who had a lot to gain by losing a lot: “By the final show, … Continue reading →
Remember our friend the Lockerbie bomber, Al Megrahi? The one who got a “get out of jail free” card back in August of 2009 because he only had three months to live, max? Well, it’s nine months later and Al … Continue reading →
I like food, and I like foreign food especially. But I must confess (shhh!) that Japanese food is not one of my favorite cuisines. Don’t get me wrong: I eat it and enjoy it. But it’s way down on my … Continue reading →
According to Gail Collins, tomorrow—Mother’s Day, May 9—could be considered the 50th anniversary of the birth control pill, although there are several days contending for that honor. By the time I was growing up the Pill was already a fact … Continue reading →
Is it at all surprising that, given these odds, many women who are judged to have a higher risk of getting breast cancer are refusing to take tamoxifen as a preventative? The only surprising thing is that anyone would find … Continue reading →
And it looks pretty much like the Senate version, with a few minor tweaks. See this and this for some interesting analysis. In related news, the White House says that if Republicans try to filibuster health care reform, reconciliation is … Continue reading →
Fifty-nine-year-old Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams needs heart surgery—and he’s going to the US to have it. That’s his prerogative. He’s lucky to have the resources to do so. But it’s an especially glaring example of a fact most of us … Continue reading →
We now have some convincing evidence that abstinence-only sexual education programs for teens, long derided as a counterproductive waste of time, actually work. This is news. This particular study has drawn attention because it is especially well-designed and includes longer … Continue reading →
Abraham Lincoln was an unusual man in a number of ways, not the least of them his startling and haunting looks. In person, he must have been an imposing but somewhat daunting sight. Impossibly tall and very thin, in his … Continue reading →
By now you’ve probably all heard the remarkable case of Rom Houben, the young man trapped in a paralyzed body for 23 years, unable to communicate and thought to be in a vegetative state. Recent brain scans indicated much more … Continue reading →
It’s difficult to understand the new mammogram recommendations that suggest that women who are not in high risk groups because of genetic predispositions to breast cancer only begin screening at fifty, and then only every other year, and that doctors … Continue reading →