An article in the NY Times, popular on Blogdex today, says that a lot of today’s teens are anti-abortion. Interestingly, a quote toward the end of the article reveals a fairly profound misunderstanding on the part of at least one young person:

“There are better contraceptives—RU-486, the morning-after pill—along with an emphasis on sex ed, abstinence and slogans like, ‘Not me, Not now,'” said a sophomore at Hunter College High School in Manhattan whose father did not want her to be identified. “Abortion isn’t such an issue, because getting pregnant isn’t such a prevalent problem among my peers.”

If they think that the morning-after pill—to say nothing of RU-486, f’r Chrissakes—will continue to be available after a ban on abortion, they have a rude awakening in store. The anti-abortionists would outlaw most women’s hormonal contraceptives on the grounds that they can prevent a fertilized egg from implanting, so it’s hard to imagine they would overlook methods that are explicitly post-fertilization.
On the bright side, those arguments don’t apply to men’s hormonal contraception. On the down side, I’m not optimistic that men have any interest in managing their fertility. But I’m probably just cranky from my unmodulated hormones.

I have come to realize that pretty much any emotion I have shows on my face. Someone came by today and commented that I had seemed upset when he had complained to me yesterday (he assured me that he wouldn’t make a fuss about the problem he had complained about. Unfortunately, I’m supposed to listen to those sorts of things with calm and objectivity. I thought I was, but apparently I’m high.) It’s a good thing that I really do enjoy my job, or everyone would know that I didn’t.

I’ve decided that this is a good thing. I’m a straightforward (perhaps even simple) person, at least emotionally.

I Used to Believe is a site for all the goofy stuff you thought as a kid. It’s the kind of site to share with your mom.

Michael Moore is planning his new film, Fahrenheit 911. Apparently Bowling for Columbine made wads of cash, so he’s had no problem continuing his mission of complaining for a better America.

An extremely cool view of a camel, from Japan, in 1862. Turns out they just love daikon!

“Life is a matter of passing the time enjoyably. There may be other things in life, but I’ve been too busy passing my time enjoyably to think very deeply about them.”

Peter Cook, The Guardian, January 1994

Samuel Pepys’s (pronounced “Marshmallow Peeps”) diary is online now, a day at a time. American Memory has the life stories of ordinary people available, too, drawn from the Federal Writer’s Project. The only drawback is that an effort to present them as they really are makes some of them harder to read (every crossed out word is written out and bracketed with the information that it was crossed out.) Here’s one that is pretty illegible that I’ve streamlined. Original transcription is here. Keeping in mind that retaining dialect in transcription wasn’t always out of style.

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A helpful guy from one of my satellite TV mailing lists has compiled a list of possible new shows that might be hitting your screen soon.

The Economist gives a level-headed (as always) look at the effect the current war will probably have on international relations. Another article gives some history of the Kurdish people and the political ramifications for them of the conflict. Yes, it helps to know about the Ottoman empire.

In today’s cynical bastard department, we have the sadly unsurprising “news” that many pro-war rallies around the country have been organized by ClearChannel radio stations. Paul Krugman outlines the Bush-ClearChannel history.