Is free birth control coming soon?

Possibly, and hopefully:

The Institute of Medicine recommended on Tuesday that health care insurers cover the cost of birth control under the new federal health care law. This was just one of the findings on preventive health care services for women from the Institute, the branch of the National Academies of Science tasked with providing research and information on medical topics. But like pretty much everything dealing with women’s health these days, this has turned into a debate about abortion.

The Department of Health and Human Services will get to make the ultimate decision about whether insurers will be required to provide birth control free of charge, but this is a good indication that it will. The new health care law requires insurers to cover preventative health care, and the administration directed the Institute to determine what that should include.


This isn’t just a matter of saving women some money (though I will personally cheer for that). From a purely practical standpoint, it costs much less money to provide birth control than it does to raise a child. The government should be happy to support this. Not to mention providing birth control also decreases abortions and teen pregnancies. I’m sure the religious right will be the first to promote free birth control, right?


If coming up with funding is an issue, maybe they can use this super cheap and highly effective birth control method:

As someone with two 4 year old nephews, I can attest to its effectiveness.

Ghana orders all gays arrested

This is definitely one of those moments where I’m very thankful for the random chance of being born where I was born:

Ghana’s Western Region Minister, Paul Evans Aidoo MP has ordered the immediate arrest of all homosexuals in the country’s west.

Aidooo has tasked Ghana’s Bureau of National Investigations and security forces to round up the country’s gay population and has called on landlords and tenants to inform on people they suspect of being homosexuals.

“All efforts are being made to get rid of these people in the society,” he said.

The move by the Minister follows months of campaigning by the Christian Council of Ghana which last week called on Ghanaians not to vote for any politician who believes in the rights of homosexuals.

Muslims and Christians in the Western Region have been staging protests ever since a local media report claimed there were around 8000 homosexuals and lesbians in the district.


Finally, something Muslims and Christians can come together about… *twitch*

Last minute bid time!

Blogathon is going fabulously so far thanks to you guys. We’ve already raised $1010.10 for the Secular Student Alliance! And if you convert that binary (101010) to base 10, it turns out to be 42. It’s a sign. Tempted to quit now.

But like I promised, the top ten Blogathon donors will get to request a topic for me to blog about. You’ll only be considered if you get your donation in by 12:01am PST on Friday (aka midnight tonight). Wondering what it’ll take to sneak into the top ten? Here are the rankings of the donation amounts so far:
EDIT: Updated at 4:45pm PST:

  1. $207
  2. $150
  3. $101
  4. $101
  5. $100
  6. $100
  7. $50
  8. $50
  9. $50
  10. $50
  11. $50

I suspect I’ll get a lot of oddly numbered donations coming in soon. If you want to add to your previous donation, that’s fine – I’ll take it into account.

Remember though – you have to leave a comment after you donate or email me with the same email you use for PayPal for me to know what to write about!

Thanks for all of the support so far! I can’t wait for 7am Saturday to roll around. And I think that’s the first time I’ve ever said that.

Dawkins announces funding for childcare at conferences

If you were following my mountains of tweets from TAM9, you would have gotten a sneak peek of this. But in case you missed it… at the end of Richard Dawkins’ speech on Saturday, he made a special announcement that the Richard Dawkins Foundation would be providing funding for child care at skeptical and atheist conference.
This was received to much applause, including my own. Having available child care at conferences has been one of the practical solutions I and other atheists have suggested repeatedly as a way to get more women to attend conferences. Yes, it certainly benefits both parents – but even amongst skeptics, mothers often end up (for whatever reason) in more traditional roles and are likely to be the ones stuck at home watching the kids.

Now, the motivation behind it? I can only speculate, since I can’t read minds. I suspect this is a very clever way of saying “Look how much I support women, now can we shush about this stupid elevator thing?” I know some people were upset that he didn’t give a direct apology, but for purely Machiavellian reasons, I don’t really care at this point. I’m glad something is actually getting done, instead of potentially throwing gasoline on the fire again.

Of course some are already seeing this as a victory against those Evil True Feminists who apparently crucified Dawkins. Apparently I didn’t blog about it quickly enough, because obviously writing a long post is my first priority, over catching up with sleep, work, and SSA business. Of course, I can’t take those arguments seriously when their only ammo is immature name bending like “Twatson.”

But can we please not use this positive development to shun feminists or those who disagree with us about what Dawkins said? Because Dawkins surely isn’t. When he appeared at the speaker’s reception, we happily waved at each other and proceeded to have an incredibly friendly chat about his upcoming book, and I thanked him for the childcare announcement (which was apparently Liz Cornwell’s idea, so I went over and thanked her too).

That was it. We both acted like mature human beings who happen to (strongly) disagree on one issue. As I and others joked, I’m going to stop buying Dawkin’s feminist books – but I still respect him for all the other wonderful things he does.

Anyway, I’ve totally derailed my own post – but hurray for a step in the right direction in making conferences a more accessible place for women, regardless of any political drama behind it.

Michael Shermer supports Blogathon!

Great news! Author and famous skeptic Michael Shermer has donated 10 signed copies of his new book The Believing Brain for me to use however I want to promote Blogathon or give to SSA students. After discussing it with SSA staff, two books will be used as prizes during our game day and icebreakers at next week’s SSA conference.
The other eight copies will be raffled away for Blogathon. Anyone who donates $5 or more through the ChipIn widget will have their email entered into the raffle, and I will use a random number generator to select eight winners. I will then email you to ask for a shipping address, and I’ll mail you the book. Unfortunately I can only ship books to people in the US and Canada – sorry international readers…

And remember! The ten largest donations will get to select a topic of their choice for me to write about. And all of the donations – big or small – will make me and the students of the SSA incredibly happy. Think of all the speakers and pizza parties you’re supporting!

Thanks again to Michael Shermer for his support!

Ricky Gervais to make atheism themed TV show

From Entertainment Weekly:

Ricky Gervais, the creator of The Office and Extras is teaming up with former Dexter showrunner, Clyde Phillips, for a new show called Afterlife, about an atheist who dies and goes to heaven. They are writing the pilot episode now and plan to film in early 2012. Gervais will take a cameo role.


I’m excited about this. I like Gervais’s work, and it’s great to get stuff like atheism portrayed in the popular media. Well, positive portrayals, at least. And knowing Gervais is running the show makes me pretty confident I’ll be happy with the show.