Degree of passion may motivate EU election results

The UK election to the European parliament on Thursday, May 23 is being viewed as a gauge to determine the current sentiment on Brexit. But interpreting the results is going to be problematic since the whole process is a shambles. The latest is that the talks between the Conservative and Labour parties in the hope of arriving at deal they can agree on have broken down. Not that there was much hope of success anyway. Given that neither party speaks with a unified voice on this highly divisive issue, a consensus solution emerging would have been nothing short of a miracle.
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Sex Ed for legislators

We have seen a spate of highly restrictive anti-choice laws passed by mostly male legislators who do not seem to understand basic facts about pregnancy. So Samantha Bee provides some lessons.

Of course, these legislators don’t give a damn about facts. They want to control women’s bodies (and by extension women in general) and hate the idea of people having sex at all.

On Twitter, everybody thinks they can be a comedian

Professional comedian Conan O’Brien was sued by someone who claimed that O’Brien had copied the jokes he had sent on Twitter. O’Brien settled the case but said that it did not mean his writers had used other people’s material without attribution. He said that pretty much everyone was sending out jokes on the same topics and it was inevitable that there would be coincidences.
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Liberals sign on to supporting regime change

The obsession of liberals and the Democratic party establishment with this idea that Russia influenced the last US elections sufficiently to deny Hillary Clinton the presidency has led them down a rabbit hole to old Cold War attitudes, in which they see Russia as an arch-enemy that must be combated everywhere. This has led them to supporting regime change in those countries such as Venezuela and Syria that have support from Russia, despite the disastrous effects of previous regime change efforts in Iraq and Libya.
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Drug price extortion

One of the worst aspects of the for-profit health care system in the US (it could more accurately be called the ‘health couldn’t-care-less’ system) is the price gouging on prescription drugs. This is heartless because drug companies are taking cruel advantage of the fact that people will do anything to save the lives of their loved ones, by jacking up the prices of essential drugs far above what people in other countries pay, enabling the companies to reap enormous profits and pay their executives obscene amounts of money.
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Do spoilers spoil the fun?

Recently I wrote about receiving an email that had a major spoiler for a recent film. The email was from someone I did not know who had sent it out as a mass mailing.to everyone at all connected with my university. In the discussion that followed my post, some readers said that knowing how things turn out actually increased their enjoyment. It turns out that there is some evidence in support of that position.
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US primarily responsible for rising tensions with Iran

It is a familiar story. When the US is preparing for war with some country that has been designated as an enemy, it follows a pretty standard method. It first applies all manner of non-military pressure using its clout to impose economic sanctions, boycotts, and diplomatic isolation on that nation. Then it creates military pressure by ostentatiously sending its troops into the region (even though it already has military bases pretty much everywhere) and even imposing blockades. And then it waits for the inevitable ‘provocation’, some act by that nation that can be interpreted as a hostile attack that justifies war.
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The mustache of war

Donald Trump’s national security advisor, the neoconservative John Bolton, desperately wants to start wars with Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, and who knows what other countries. Strangely enough, Donald Trump, after appointing this rabid warmonger to such an important post, now seems to be a restraining force on him. For now.

This cartoon captures Bolton perfectly.