{"id":4681,"date":"2012-03-05T23:24:02","date_gmt":"2012-03-06T04:24:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/?p=4681"},"modified":"2012-03-05T23:24:02","modified_gmt":"2012-03-06T04:24:02","slug":"the-daily-gouge-tuesday-march-6th-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/?p=4681","title":{"rendered":"The Daily Gouge, Tuesday, March 6th, 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s Tuesday, March 6th, 2012….and before we begin, two connected commentaries on the deliberately distorted contraceptive clash, both courtesy of the WSJ<\/em>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

First,….
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bishop Dolan’s Liberty Letter<\/span><\/h1>\n

The Catholic Cardinal describes a chilling visit to the White House.<\/span><\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

The debate over the Obama Administration’s birth control mandate has been ingloriously fact-free, even more than usual<\/em><\/span>.<\/span> So amid demonstrably false claims about a plot to relegate women to the era of “Mad Men,” if not Salem, Massachusetts circa 1692, Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s letter on religious freedom deserves more readers.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

“We have made it clear in no uncertain terms to the government that we are not at peace with its invasive attempt to curtail the religious freedom we cherish as Catholics and Americans,” the archbishop of New York wrote in a public epistle to Catholic bishops last Friday. It’s an eloquent and powerful document, though not one that received much of any media notice.<\/span> “We did not ask for this fight, but we will not run from it<\/em><\/span>,”\u00a0 he continues.\u00a0(Courtesy of Shakespeare and Henry V<\/em>, Act 3, Scene 6.)<\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Cardinal Dolan explains that “As pastors and shepherds, each of us would prefer to spend our energy engaged in and promoting the works of mercy to which the Church is dedicated: healing the sick, teaching our youth and helping the poor.” The problem, and the genesis of this Catholic confrontation with Washington, is the government’s “bureaucratic intrusion into the internal life of the church” and its bid “to define what constitutes church ministry and how it can be exercised.”<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The test of pluralism in a democracy is the protection afforded to minority views, especially of religious faith and practice<\/em><\/span>. Nine of 10 health plans already cover contraceptive and sterilization methods, and they present no ethical or moral qualms in a majority of the others.<\/span><\/strong><\/span> (The economics are another matter.)<\/p>\n

But the Administration is using raw political force to compel a small subset of schools, hospitals, charities and other religious institutions “to maintain in our policies practices which our Church has consistently taught are grave wrongs in which we cannot participate<\/em><\/span>,” as Cardinal Dolan puts it.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

He also relates a remarkable meeting that he says the White House convened with the bishops to “work out the wrinkles” of the mandate. Having accepted the invitation, the bishops asked if concrete policy changes like broadening the mandate’s exemptions were “all off the table. They were informed that they are.”<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In other words, the White House’s solution is merely for the bishops to shut up about the wrinkles. Cardinal Dolan writes that “there was not even a nod to the deeper concerns about trespassing upon religious freedom.”<\/span> White House staffers also cited some writings by vicars of the Catholic left in support of the mandate, in effect telling the bishops that they know less about church teachings than your average Washington Post columnist.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

As a study in ideology and power, the anecdote is chilling, compounded by all the recent claims by Democrats and liberals that Catholics who actually abide by their faith are opposed to modernity. Such prejudice is supposedly defunct in contemporary America, except when it’s practiced against religion. (Christianity, Judaism and Mormonism that is!)<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Cardinal Dolan touches on the way the mandate’s supporters are having a false debate about “access” to health care, which everyone supports, <\/span>but he doesn’t say\u2014though we can say\u2014how cheap contraception is in most cases<\/em><\/span>.<\/span> (See below.) <\/span><\/strong>Prescription birth control pills generally cost between $15 and $50 a month, and Wal-Mart and Target sell generic versions for as little as $9. The idea that college coeds are going broke from this small and predictable expense is ludicrous.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

“Religious freedom is our heritage, our legacy and our firm belief,” Cardinal Dolan concludes. The sad reality is that his letter will not persuade the dominant wing of America’s governing political party from insisting that religion kneel before its secular will.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

And in a closely related item, Cathy Ruse, senior fellow for legal studies at the Family Research Council, and the recipient of a J.D. from Georgetown Law in 1989, describes….\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Limbaugh and Our Phony Contraception Debate<\/span><\/h1>\n

A student demands that a Catholic school give up its religion to pay for her birth-control pills.<\/span><\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

Last week Sandra Fluke, a student at Georgetown University Law Center, went to Congress looking for a handout. She wants free birth-control pills, and she wants the federal government to make her Catholic school give them to her. I’m a graduate of Georgetown Law and former chief counsel of the House Subcommittee on the Constitution. Based on her testimony, I wonder how much Ms. Fluke really knows about the university or the Constitution. (About as much as Tick-Tock!)<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

As a law student 20 years ago, I wasn’t confronted by crucifixes in the classroom or, in truth, with any religious imagery anywhere. In that respect the law school has a different “feel” than the university. The law school chapel was an unadorned, multipurpose room in the basement used for Mass when it wasn’t used for Gilbert and Sullivan Society rehearsals and club meetings. Among the clubs while I was there, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance was particularly vigorous.<\/p>\n

I was not Catholic when I attended Georgetown Law, but I certainly knew the university was. So did Ms. Fluke.<\/span> She told the Washington Post that she chose Georgetown knowing specifically that the school did not cover drugs that run contrary to Catholic teaching in its student health plans<\/em><\/span>. During her law school years she was a president of “Students for Reproductive Justice” and made it her mission to get the school to give up one of the last remnants of its Catholicism.<\/span> Ms. Fluke is not the “everywoman” portrayed in the media<\/em><\/span>.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Georgetown Law School has flung wide its doors to the secular world. It will tolerate and accommodate all manner of clubs and activities that run contrary to fundamental Catholic beliefs. But it is not inclined to pay for or provide them. And it has the right to do so\u2014to say “this far and no further.”<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

When congressional committee counsels plan hearings, they look for two kinds of witnesses: “experts” and “victims.” The experts are typically lawyers or law professors who can explain the constitutional authority for the new law and its legal impact, and the victims illustrate why the law is needed.<\/p>\n

At the hearing of the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee chaired by Nancy Pelosi, Sandra Fluke testified as a victim.<\/strong><\/span> Having to buy your own contraception is a burden, she said. She testified that all around her at Georgetown she could see the faces of students who were suffering because of Georgetown’s refusal to abandon its Catholic principles.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Exactly what does the face of a law student who must buy her own birth-control pills look like? Did I see them all around me and just not know it?<\/span> Do male law students who must buy their own condoms have the same look? Perhaps Ms. Fluke should have brought photos to Congress to illustrate her point.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In her testimony, Ms. Fluke claimed that, “Without insurance coverage, contraception, as you know, can cost a woman over $3,000 during law school.” That’s $1,000 per year.<\/span><\/span><\/strong> But an employee at a Target pharmacy near the university told the Weekly Standard last week that one month’s worth of generic oral contraceptives is $9 per month. “That’s the price without insurance,” the employee said<\/em><\/span>. (It’s also $9 per month at Wal-Mart.)<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

What about Rush Limbaugh? I won’t defend his use of epithets (for which he’s apologized), but I understand his larger point. At issue isn’t inhalers for asthmatics or insulin for diabetics. Contraception isn’t like other kinds of “health care.” Yes, birth-control pills can be prescribed to address medical problems, though that’s relatively rare and the Catholic Church has no quarrel with their use in this circumstance. And the university’s insurance covers prescriptions in these cases.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Still, Ms. Fluke is not mollified. Why?<\/span> Because at the end of the day this is not about coverage of a medical condition<\/em><\/span>. (Just as gay marriage has nothing to do with “equal rights” for homosexuals.)<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Ms. Fluke’s crusade for reproductive justice is simply a demand that a Catholic institution pay for drugs that make it possible for her to have sex without getting pregnant.<\/strong><\/span> It’s nothing grander or nobler than that.<\/span><\/strong> Georgetown’s refusal to do so does not mean she has to have less sex, only that she has to take financial responsibility for it herself.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Should Ms. Fluke give up a cup or two of coffee at Starbucks each month to pay for her birth control, or should Georgetown give up its religion?<\/span> Even a first-year law student should know where the Constitution comes down on that<\/em><\/span>.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Which says what about Fluke….or The Obamao for that matter?!?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bottom line?\u00a0 This has nothing to do with reproductive freedom, women’s health or really, contrary to what Cathy Ruse wrote, the ability to engage in indiscriminate premarital sex without fear of pregnancy.\u00a0 It’s all about the deliberate destruction of America’s morals, the systematic desensitization of our sense of right and wrong, a purposeful plunge into the morass of moral relativism.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now, without further ado, here’s The Gouge!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today, we both kick off and close the Tuesday edition with two bits of good news, the first brought to us by via the WSJ<\/em>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Wichita Shocker<\/span><\/h1>\n

You can beat city hall.<\/span><\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

Local politicians like to get in bed with local business, and taxpayers are usually the losers. So three cheers for a voter revolt in Wichita, Kansas last week that shows such sweetheart deals can be defeated.<\/p>\n

In late 2011 the Wichita city council passed (six votes to one) a bill exempting the new Ambassador Hotel, owned by real-estate developers, from 75% of the city hotel tax, on top of at least $10 million in other subsidies. The measure was sold in the name of jobs and urban redevelopment, and the local power brokers were all for it: the Chamber of Commerce, the political class, the city newspaper.<\/span> All the skids were greased and, truth be told, hotel taxes are too high in Wichita, while the money at stake, $2.25 million over 15 years, was small.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

But voters were so enraged by the insider dealing that they launched a petition drive for a voter referendum. Despite hundreds of thousands of dollars spent by hotel advocates, almost 10 times more than opponents spent, voters routed the subsidy 61% to 39%<\/em><\/span>.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The elites are stunned, but they shouldn’t be. The core issue is fairness\u2014and not of the soak-the-rich kind that President Obama practices. One of the leaders of the opposition, Derrick Sontag, director of Americans for Prosperity in Kansas, says that what infuriated voters was the veneer of “political cronyism.”<\/p>\n

What Americans seem to want most from government these days is equal treatment. They increasingly realize that powerful government nearly always helps the powerful, whether the beneficiaries are a union that can carve a sweet deal as part of an auto bailout or corporations that can hire lobbyists to write a tax loophole<\/em><\/span>.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

This is why Americans hate the Obama Administration’s Solyndra handouts, or rebel when city hall abuses eminent domain to bully people out of their homes for a big business the way New London, Connecticut did in the Kelo<\/em> case for Pfizer Corp. Let’s hope for more such popular uprisings.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

And since we’re on the subject of rampant, unrestrained corruption, we turn to the source, courtesy of the Economist<\/em> and the City of Chicago:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

On March 15th the former governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, will start to serve a 14-year sentence for corruption in a federal low-security prison. In this part of America, he is treading a well-worn path. Over four decades, four governors (out of seven) have been convicted of corruption.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

A new report, by Dick Simpson and his colleagues at the University of Chicago, documents the extent to which the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago have been hotbeds of corruption. Chicago, they conclude, has the dubious distinction of being the federal district with the most convictions since 1976.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Since then, 1,828 elected officials, appointees, government employees and a few private individuals have been convicted of corruption in Illinois, and 84% of these were in its Northern District\u2014a judicial zone which contains the entire Chicago metropolitan area. During this time around one-third of the city’s aldermen have been convicted of corruption. . . . All the corrupt governors and 26 of the aldermen had tried to extract bribes from builders, developers, business owners and those seeking to do business with the city or the state.<\/strong><\/span> Those who paid bribes either assumed, or were told, that payment was necessary for zoning changes, building permits or any other government action.<\/p>\n

You can depend on one thing: the current crop of bad apples….<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

….most assuredly didn’t fall far from the tree!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Turning now to International News of Note, courtesy today of <\/strong>The New Media Journal<\/strong><\/em>, we learn the Iranians may well be one helluva lot closer to joining the Nuclear Club than anyone in the White House is willing to let on:<\/strong><\/p>\n

North Korea Tested Iranian Warhead or ‘Dirty Bomb’ in 2010<\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

German and Japanese intelligence sources on Monday, confirmed — and qualified — reports in the German Der Spiegel and Welt am Sonntag that Western intelligence had known for 11 months that at least one of North Korea\u2019s covert nuclear tests in 2010 was carried out on an Iranian radioactive bomb or nuclear warhead.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

North Korea carried out two covert underground nuclear explosions in mid-April and around May 11 of 2010 equivalent to 50- 200 tonnes of TNT. Two highly lethal heavy hydrogen isotopes, deuterium and tritium, typical of a nuclear fission explosion and producing long-term contamination of the atmosphere, were detected and analyzed by Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBOTO) monitoring stations in South Korea, Japan and Russia.<\/p>\n

The presence of tritium in one of the tests led several intelligence agencies watching North Korea\u2019s nuclear program and its longstanding links with Iran and Syria to examine the possibility that Pyongyang had tested the internal mechanism of a nuclear warhead on Iran\u2019s behalf. This strongly indicated to German and Japanese intelligence that Iran had already developed the nuclear warhead\u2019s outer shell and attained its weaponization.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Another possibility examined was that North Korea had tested an Iranian \u201cdirty bomb\u201d — i.e. a conventionally detonated device containing nuclear substances. Tritium would boost its range, force and lethality. This was one of the conclusions of atmospheric scientist Larsk-Erik De Geer of the Swedish Defense Research Agency in Stockholm, who spent a year studying the data collected by various CTBOTO stations tracking the North Korean explosions.<\/p>\n

The Japanese and German sources found confirmation of their suspicions that North Korea had abetted Iran\u2019s nuclear aspirations in three events:<\/p>\n

\u25aa Shortly after the April explosion, a large group of Iranian nuclear scientists and technicians arrived in Pyongyang. They apparently came to take part in setting up the second test in May.<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u25aa In late April, Tehran shipped to Pyongyang a large quantity of uranium enriched to 20+ percent — apparently for use in the May test.<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u25aa Straight after the May test, the Central Bank of Iran transferred $55 million to the account of the North Korean Atomic Energy Commission. The size of the sum suggests that it covered the fee to North Korea not just of one but the two tests — the first a pilot and the second, a full-stage test.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

It is not by chance that this incriminating disclosure about Iran\u2019s nuclear achievements sees the light Monday, just hours before US President Barack Obama receives Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in the White house for an argument over an expeditious military action to stop Iran going all the way to a nuclear weapon.<\/p>\n

The disclosure invalidates the main point the US President made in his speech Sunday to the pro-Israeli lobby AIPAC convention in Washington that there was still time for diplomatic pressure and sanctions to bring Iran\u2019s leaders to a decision to halt their nuclear momentum before military action was called for, whether by the US or Israel.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

It now appears that Western intelligence has known about the North Korean tests for Iran for eleven months.<\/span> Therefore, it is too late for him to try and persuade the Israeli prime minister that there is still time to spare for cutting short a nuclear Iran.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Which is why rumors continue to fly Israel is planning to take out Iran’s nuclear not with a conventional airstrike, but using its tactical nuclear arsenal.\u00a0 And who can blame them; after all, Israel’s fighting for its very existence….not reelection.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For additional details on the now-discredited Sandra Flake “testimony”, we turn to Noel Sheppard and Newsbusters.org<\/em>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Attention Media: Walmart and Target Have Been Offering $9 Birth Control Since 2007<\/span><\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

For over two months the Left and their media minions have been making a big stink about the need for mandatory health insurance coverage of contraceptives. In all this fuss and distraction from the real problems this nation is facing, nobody noticed that since 2007 Walmart has been offering a month’s worth of birth control pills for only $9 (emphasis added):<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

BENTONVILLE, Ark. \u2013 Sept. 27, 2007 \u2013 Walmart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) today announced phase two of its $4 prescription program with changes that will help even more Americans deal with the high-cost of healthcare. The program \u2013 which has already saved Americans more than $610 million in its first year \u2013 has been expanded in two key ways:<\/em><\/p>\n

More medicines covering more categories \u2013 Important prescription medicines have been added to the $4 program covering glaucoma, attention deficit disorder\/attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADD\/ADHD), fungal infections and acne. Fertility and prescription birth control will also be included at $9, compared to national average prices ranging from $24 to $30 per month and saving women an estimated $15 to $21 per month \u2013 $180 to $250 annually<\/strong>.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Two days later, Target matched Walmart’s offer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The updated Retail Prescription Drug List for Walmart (Target’s online pharmacy also lists 28-day supplies of Sprintec and Tri-Sprintec are available for $9) shows the following women’s health medications (birth control bolded):<\/p>\n

Women\u2019s Health\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 $4, 30-day $10, 90-day<\/em>
\n Estradiol 0.5mg tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . 30 . . . . . .90<\/em>
\n Estradiol 1mg tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . …….. . . .. 30 . . . . . .90<\/em>
\n Estradiol 2mg tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ……….30 . . . . . .90<\/em>
\n MedroxyprogesteroneAcetate 2.5mg tab . . . . . 30 . . . . . .90<\/em>
\n Medroxyprogesterone Acetate 5mg tab . . . . . . 30 . . . . . .90<\/em>
\n Medroxyprogesterone Acetate 10mg tab . . . . . 10 . . . . . .30<\/em>
\n Alendronate SOD 35mg tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 . . . . . .12<\/em>
\n Alendronate SOD 70mg tab . . . . . . . . . . . . ……. 4 . . . . . .12<\/em>
\n Clomiphene 50mg tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ………. 5 . . . . . .15<\/em>
\n Sprintec 28-day tab . . . . . . . . .. . .. . …….28 . . . . .N\/A<\/strong><\/em><\/span>
\n Tamoxifen 10mg tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ……..60 . . . . . 180<\/em>
\n Tamoxifen 20mg tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ……..30 . . . . . .90<\/em>
\n Tri-Sprintec 28-day tab . . . . . .. . . . . . ….28 . . . . .N\/A<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

A 28-day supply of Sprintec and Tri-Sprintec are still available for $9. The other medications are mostly for menopause and other women’s health issues. Add it all up, and women can get birth control at Walmart for the cost of two lattes at Starbucks.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Yet for the past two months, the Left and their media minions have been making contraceptives out as so expensive that women can’t possibly afford them if they’re not included in their health insurance plans.<\/span> What’s the next red herring the press are going to concoct to distract the public’s attention from soaring gas prices, staggering budget deficits, stubbornly high unemployment, and another war looming in the Middle East<\/em><\/span>?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in keeping with the love and forgiveness which has come to characterize the Left….<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fluke says Limbaugh apology means nothing<\/span><\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Georgetown University law student labeled a “slut” by conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh says his apology changes nothing and that Americans have to decide whether to support companies that continue to advertise on his program.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sandra Fluke told ABC’s “The View” on Monday that she hasn’t heard from Limbaugh since he issued a written apology late Saturday. But she says his comments about her testimony before members of Congress have been so personal, she’d rather not have him call. Fluke testified to Democratic members of Congress in support of a requirement that health care companies provide coverage for contraception.<\/span><\/p>\n

Seven companies have now pulled advertising from Limbaugh’s three-hour radio show. Fluke says his comments were an “attempt to silence me” and an attack on women’s health.<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

For your information, here’s a list of the companies who have pulled their ads: Sleep Number, Quicken Loans, Legal Zoom, Citrix, Carbonite, ProFlowers, Tax Resolution, AOL, Bonobos, Sears and Allstate.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We encourage every one of you to email each of these companies informing them you will not use their services until they reverse their craven capitulation.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Then there’s this from James Taranto and Best of the Web<\/em>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

….The kerfuffle was no fluke but a left-liberal set piece.<\/span><\/strong> It started 2\u00bd weeks ago, when the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held hearings on the ObamaCare contraception mandate and its implications for religious liberty. The Washington Examiner’s Byron York reports that Democrats originally chose Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State over Fluke to testify for the anti-religious-liberty side.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Then they sandbagged the Republicans.<\/strong><\/span> They asked, too late, for Fluke to be subbed in for Lynn, then told Lynn not to bother showing up. When the hearing took place, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (this columnist’s congressman, but don’t blame us) demanded: “Where are the women?” Although it was the Dems who chose Lynn over Fluke and the second panel of witnesses included two female members, liberal media dutifully propagated the “Republican sexism” charge. A week later, House Democrats held a mock hearing where Fluke testified.<\/p>\n

Like Cindy Sheehan, Fluke was a left-wing activist cast in the role of everywoman (or as much of an “everywoman” as a student at an elite law school can be).<\/strong><\/span> “Fluke has a long history of feminist advocacy,” reports the Daily Caller: “While [an undergraduate] at Cornell, Fluke’s organized activities centered on the far-left feminist and gender equity movements. Fluke participated in rallies supporting abortion, protests against war in Iraq and efforts to recruit other womens’ [sic] rights activists to campus.” She even got a bachelor’s degree in something called “Feminist, Gender, & Sexuality Studies.”<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

“Without insurance coverage, contraception, as you know, can cost a woman over $3,000 during law school,” Fluke said in her testimony. But last Tuesday The Weekly Standard’s John McCormack debunked the claim:<\/p>\n

Fluke’s testimony was very misleading. Birth control pills can be purchased for as low as $9 per month at a pharmacy near Georgetown’s campus. According to an employee at the pharmacy in Washington, D.C.’s Target store, the pharmacy sells birth control pills–the generic versions of Ortho Tri-Cyclen and Ortho-Cyclen–for $9 per month. “That’s the price without insurance,” the Target employee said.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nine dollars a month amounts to $324 over three years of law school.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Soooo….whatever else Fluke might be, she’s most certainly a liar.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And in the “Biting The Hand That Feeds You” segment, courtesy today of Doug Burr, the Illinois’ Rockford Register Star<\/em> informs us….<\/strong><\/p>\n

Downtown Rockford businesses wary of proposed Dollar Tree<\/span><\/h1>\n

\"\"<\/a>A proposal for a new shopping center downtown anchored by a Dollar Tree store is generating protest from some business owners and patrons who think the area deserves better. Several city leaders have come out in support of the project, from Mayor Larry Morrissey and City Administrator Jim Ryan to Ald. Doug Mark, R-3, and Ald. Frank Beach, R-10.<\/p>\n

The new building would be in Mark\u2019s ward. Beach chairs the Code and Regulation Committee, which meets Monday night to discuss the $2.5 million project that will feature a 15,000-square-foot, multitenant building and 60-space parking lot. The proposed site at Jefferson and Third streets is a vacant lot.<\/p>\n

….Crystal Douglas co-owns Wired Cafe, which is about two blocks away from the proposed development. Douglas isn\u2019t happy that she didn\u2019t know about the project until the last minute. \u201cI\u2019m disappointed that businesses were not informed of this or given an opportunity to state how we feel,\u201d she said.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Douglas runs her downtown cafe with her daughters. She thinks a dollar store would be a step in the wrong direction for downtown redevelopment. \u201cWe want something classier<\/em><\/span>,\u201d Douglas said.<\/span> \u201c([Developer] First Rockford Group President Sunil Puri) has the money.<\/span> He has the connections.<\/span> Why can\u2019t he bring in something classier? … Something like an Urban Outfitters would be more fitting with what downtown is trying to do<\/em><\/span>.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

City leaders say the land has been vacant for several years and now has weeds growing through the pavement. It\u2019s blighted, they said, and they want to get rid of it. And Puri\u2019s offer is the best they\u2019ve seen in years. \u201cI understand the concerns. This is not going to be the pariah or the savior of downtown,\u201d Ryan said. \u201cBut it is going to help us address blight, and it\u2019s going to benefit us in our long-term goal of making Third Street a two-way road. … I think people have this misconception of dollar stores. They\u2019re like the new Ben Franklin.\u201d<\/p>\n

New construction downtown is an anomaly in and of itself. If First Rockford builds this summer, it will make the first time in six years and only the seventh time since 1960 that there has been non-government-backed, private-sector construction downtown.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

….\u201cThere hasn\u2019t been much new investment downtown,\u201d Beach said. \u201cI think this might be a good opportunity for us. Dollar Tree has a good reputation for interior design. From what I\u2019ve seen of the exterior design, it looks like something that\u2019s consistent with other new developments and will be consistent with other nearby buildings.\u201d<\/p>\n

The headline said “Businesses”, as in “plural”, i.e., more than the one we could find quoted in the article.\u00a0 That inconvenient bit of misleading reporting aside, Crystal Douglas demanding an Urban Outfitters in Rockford, IL is akin to Cousin Eddie….<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

….holding out for a management position. <\/strong><\/p>\n

And in the Environmental Moment, the AEI<\/em>‘s Jon Entine reports a.<\/span><\/strong><\/span>…<\/strong><\/p>\n

New York Times reversal: Cornell University research undermines hysteria contention that shale gas is ‘dirty’<\/span><\/h1>\n

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There are new twists to in the ever-entertaining faux debate over the dangers of shale gas. The New York Times<\/em>, which turned obscure Cornell University marine ecologist Robert Howarth into an anti-fracking rock star in its questionable spring series on shale gas, and got hammered for it by its own public editor\u2014I\u2018ll take some of the credit\u2014is finally getting on the science bandwagon.<\/p>\n

Last April, the Times<\/em> ran two articles in a week heavily promoting Howarth\u2019s bizarre claim that shale gas generates more greenhouse gas emissions than the production and use of coal. It would be difficult to overstate the influence of this paper, which ricocheted through the media echo chamber and was even debated in the British parliament and the European Union.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

When the Times didn\u2019t report then, and until now has almost systematically ignored, is that almost every independent researcher \u2014 at the Environmental Defense Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Energy Department and numerous independent university teams, including a Carnegie Mellon study partly financed by the Sierra Club \u2014 has slammed Howarth\u2019s conclusions.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Within the field, Howarth is considered an activist, not an independent scientist. But you\u2019d never know that reading the Times\u2019 fracking coverage, with independent lefty columnist Joe Nocera as the notable, and refreshing, exception.<\/p>\n

Maybe a little fresh air is finally leaking into the Times<\/em> insular chambers.<\/strong><\/span> Calling Cathles\u2019 report a \u201cfresh rebuttal\u201d of Howarth\u2019s much-maligned study, Dot Earth\u2019s Andrew Revkin cites the latest researcher to diss Howarth\u2019s shaky science, a colleague at Cornell, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences professor Lawrence Cathles, who is an expert in this field, unlike Howarth.<\/p>\n

Cathles convincingly demolishes Howarth\u2019s four major claims, two of which we\u2019ll highlight here:<\/p>\n

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