America’s Heartlessland

“A Texas high school teacher has been placed on administrative leave following an incident where he allegedly told a 9th grade Muslim girl in his algebra class ‘I bet that you’re grieving’ on Monday following the death of Osama bin Laden.” [TPM] Bonus cross-cultural reference: Algebra?

We don’t know how she did it, but Oklahoma crazy lady firebrand Sally Kern actually crossed a line:

“I want to humbly apologize for my statements last night about African-Americans and women,” Kern, R-Oklahoma City, said in a statement. “I believe that our government should not provide preference based on race or gender. I misspoke while trying to convey this point last night during debate.”

Heavens! Whatever could Sally Kern say that would make Sally Kern apologize?

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“As Republicans, we promised in the pledge to America to cut $100 billion off of Obama’s plan. If we’re going to come back with less than that, we’ve got to come back with some policy riders to say look, I took less than $100 billion, but I’ve defunded Planned Parenthood or abortions in the District of Columbia.” [TPM]

Meanwhile, back in Indiana, a state representative has introduced a bill that “would put some of the tightest abortion restrictions in the nation into Indiana law” — making abortions illegal after twenty weeks, instead of twenty-four.

So another state representative proposes an amendment that would exempt “women who became pregnant due to rape or incest”, plus the other usual exceptions offered by civilized nations.

Of course, the first representative will have none of that:

I just want you to think about this, in my view, giant loophole that could be created where someone who could — now I want to be careful, I don’t want to disparage in any way someone who has gone through the experience of a rape or incest — but someone who is desirous of an abortion could simply say that they’ve been raped or there’s incest.

Yes, “someone” could say that — although a man seeking an abortion because he was raped would be news for other reasons.

But to the point, someone did say that — the quote, not the claim. Can you guess the gender of the speaker?

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